Back To School. Yikes!

[Wehrkraftzersetzer]

Corona toll of Bavarian schools one week after reopening

135 kids, 66 teachers, 3500 quarantined

Bavarian population: 13.124.737
(31.12.2019)

 

[Matt McKeon]

Meet remotely with my classes today. Still have a couple to go. Anxiety(around handling the technology) high.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Went OK. First inperson tomorrow

 

[Matt McKeon]

Well the week is nearly over. I'm meeting remotely with students this afternoon after a morning of in person. Great to see the students again, and our new students seem very likable. We are careful to mask and follow procedures generally, but inevitably there is some congregating. I was personally anxious yesterday, the new technology, the new situation, new year. But it went fine, and today was better in a lot of ways.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Well the week is nearly over. I'm meeting remotely with students this afternoon after a morning of in person. Great to see the students again, and our new students seem very likable. We are careful to mask and follow procedures generally, but inevitably there is some congregating. I was personally anxious yesterday, the new technology, the new situation, new year. But it went fine, and today was better in a lot of ways.

You and your fellows are saints. I would never have the patience, even in "normal" times.

 

[Matt McKeon]

You and your fellows are saints. I would never have the patience, even in "normal" times.

Well, I get paid money to do this.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Well, I get paid money to do this.

Still would not be enough for me, and I worshiped a selected few of my teachers in grade and H.S.

I takes a special skill to have the ability and the patience to inspire young minds rather than just going through the motions--like a football coach -- and I suspect that you are one of that breed.

 

[Matt McKeon]

End of two weeks.

Its going OK so far. No reported cases. For our students who typically chafe at the structure of school, the shorter day and independent section of the work has some positives.

 

[Matt McKeon]

OK. One reported covid case in the school system as a whole, but not in the group I have contact with.

Our program has a little more flexibility in the remote/inperson mix. I'm cautiously optimistic that we are meeting the needs of our students right now.

In Algebra II we're doing linear and exponential functions, really review work.
In US History I, we're finishing up the Puritans. I'm going to assign a video by an "apush" teacher(that's Advanced Placement, United States History), about the Puritans that's pretty lively.

The Puritan's get a bad rap, but they are responsible for New England's traditionally high literacy rate. For all the gloom and doom about American education, Massachusetts and other NE states tend to perform well.

US History II, we just finished woman's suffrage. I contrasted Carrie Chapman Catt's more incremental state by state strategy, and normalization of women's political activity, with Alice Paul's drive for a constitutional amendment, and her willingness to provoke violent reaction to get it. Her experience had been in England, where the suffrage movement was considerably more confrontational than the USA.

 

[Wehrkraftzersetzer]

 

[O' Be Joyful]

My parents always told me that was what they did every day to go to school. But, by their telling it was always uphill... both ways, and of course there was always at least 3 inches of snow.

 

[Wehrkraftzersetzer]

My parents always told me that was what they did every day to go to school. But, by their telling it was always uphill... both ways, and of course there was always at least 3 inches of snow.

at 130°F?

 

[O' Be Joyful]

at 130°F?

You have never been in o-HI-o.

I trekked over a drift and then onto an airport to fly to D.C.

From The Vault: Back-to-back winters of 1976-77 and 1977-78 were coldest, snowiest
River froze in '77, blizzard struck in '78

45 years later: The most brutal winter we faced

Record cold in 1977. Record snow in 1978. Winters here have never been harsher.

www.wcpo.com

Then there was next year, we/I made snow tunnels to take care of the sheep and other ani-mules.

1978 Ohio Statewide Blizzard - Ohio History Central

ohiohistorycentral.org

But, I did learn how to do donuts and spin-out in the snow.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Class acts: three lockdown teaching stars discuss being back in school

Staff who made headlines for their dedication during closures talk about the joy of reuniting with pupils and the impact of more restrictions

www.theguardian.com

 

[Matt McKeon]

One of the students in my classes home, possible exposed to Covid, through his membership in a sports team. The school is cancelling most after school sports because of a burst of cases. Some more people are getting sick, people I know and have met recently. It feels like its circling us(my family), a little closer. One local HS went full remote, but we're sticking to hybrid right now.

Starting the Declaration of Independence this week, on the Treaty of Versailles(the peace to end all peace), reviewing linear equations. The kids are being pretty good, a godsend.

 

[Matt McKeon]

My school is zoned red now. We're sticking to hybrid for at least three weeks, as per the Governor and DESE's protocols.

 

[Matt McKeon]

A person in my classroom has tested positive. My supervisor texted me one word: "shit."

 

[O' Be Joyful]

My supervisor texted me one word: "shit."

I would consider that an understatement.

 

[Wehrkraftzersetzer]

A person in my classroom has tested positive. My supervisor texted me one word: "shit."

I would consider that an understatement.

euphemism of the year

 

[Matt McKeon]

Some folks are being quarantined, but not me. On my own, I'm getting a covid test. They'll do it at a local hospital for free if I wait in line for three hours.