3rd grade teacher from SW PA. Just finished our first week of in person learning (we offer remote as well to families, but only hybrid to high school students).
It was so great to be back! We have taken every precaution....moved classrooms, rearranged buildings, stored furniture, etc. to make classrooms with desks 6 ft. apart. Kids eat lunch in the classroom, masks are required (we give frequent mask breaks) and kids have been awesome. There's lot of hand washing, sanitizing, one way traffic in the hallways. Kids are equally as thrilled to be back. They each love having their desks separated from each other and eating in the classroom!
We've had some bumps....folks sending sick kids to school (never would want to be a school nurse), some technology problems with our remote learners, but all in all, I think it went very well. It's exhausting as we try to keep kids socially distanced from each other (not really possible), but we're doing our best.
I'm proud of how hard our administrators have worked to get all of us back safely; these poor people haven't slept much since March 13th.
I'm sure it's not going to be smooth sailing all school year, but we're all really prepared if we have to go fully remote. The district's emphasis has been two fold (besides safely): get the kids up and running on Canvas (our remote learning platform that the entire district is using) and alleviate any stress and anxiety the kids may be having.
I do feel badly for the 5 and 6 year olds (and my friends who teach them); it's a real struggle to get them to understand the ideal of social distancing and their first school experience looks nothing like a normal school year.
It was so great to be back! We have taken every precaution....moved classrooms, rearranged buildings, stored furniture, etc. to make classrooms with desks 6 ft. apart. Kids eat lunch in the classroom, masks are required (we give frequent mask breaks) and kids have been awesome. There's lot of hand washing, sanitizing, one way traffic in the hallways. Kids are equally as thrilled to be back. They each love having their desks separated from each other and eating in the classroom!
We've had some bumps....folks sending sick kids to school (never would want to be a school nurse), some technology problems with our remote learners, but all in all, I think it went very well. It's exhausting as we try to keep kids socially distanced from each other (not really possible), but we're doing our best.
I'm proud of how hard our administrators have worked to get all of us back safely; these poor people haven't slept much since March 13th.
I'm sure it's not going to be smooth sailing all school year, but we're all really prepared if we have to go fully remote. The district's emphasis has been two fold (besides safely): get the kids up and running on Canvas (our remote learning platform that the entire district is using) and alleviate any stress and anxiety the kids may be having.
I do feel badly for the 5 and 6 year olds (and my friends who teach them); it's a real struggle to get them to understand the ideal of social distancing and their first school experience looks nothing like a normal school year.