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It& #39;s 1 AM where I& #39;m at. I can& #39;t sleep. I just had my first day of teaching junior high in AR during the COVID crisis. I haven& #39;t had the mental energy to talk about it until now. I can& #39;t give specifics for privacy and safety reasons, but I won& #39;t be silenced either. Here we go.
I got to school early in the hopes of being better prepared. The school provided us with the most up to date rosters, but they will be changing as parents pull kids in and out to do virtual/quarantine. Out of 130 students about 40 have chosen virtual. I have 28 desks in my class.
The best distance I can get for these desks is about 1.5 feet apart on all sides. Social distancing is not possible. I am enforcing mask wearing at all times in my classroom, but I know that this is not the case in all classes. Several students were wearing the masks incorrectly.
In the halls, no social distancing was present, or feasible. Traffic flow signs were posted, but not frequently and didn& #39;t seem to be followed. Teachers were still hugging and hand shaking with students. When kids were not present, teachers had masks off, not nearly 6ft away.
I was given a bottle of 80% alcohol for cleaning. The spray didn& #39;t mist the desks as shown in the training video, so I was forced to use one of my white board cleaning towels to wipe down the desks. I didn& #39;t have time to do more than the tops of the desks, chairs didn& #39;t get done.
I did my best to distance from the students, but as several are learning how to use the new iPads, I had to get close to them to assist. I also had to walk between them to sanitize, as I& #39;m not given time between classes to do so, since teachers must monitor the hallways.
As I was leaving for the day, several teachers had abandoned mask wearing in the halls and while speaking to each other inside classrooms. The volleyball team was in the lunchroom eating, all closer than 6ft together, some facing one another. Coaches were also close together.
We are required to keep seating charts to identify students who are within 6ft of one another. This will be used for contact tracing. If a student tests positive (testing not required) I will not be informed unless I was close to them. I don& #39;t know how this can be effective.
I expect mask wearing to grow lax if we don& #39;t have an outbreak immediately, given that adults in the building were not taking it seriously. Sports are continuing, coaches are not enforcing masks or distancing. I& #39;m tired. I& #39;m scared. I don& #39;t believe in prayer, I believe in action.
@ARCOVIdiots @ArkansasCovid @ArkansasBlog I realize this may not be useful to those of you who need confirmed information, but I wanted to share my story with you anways.
