Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19
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@kjayhawks It actually makes a lot of sense when you start looking at how it is spreading in FL and TX once they allowed bars and restaurants to fully open. If you have been in a crowded restaurant, you know people are sitting facing each other and breathing horizontally toward each other without moving, and the only air movement is whatever the ventilation system provides. Marchers are in open air. Even a 1 mph breeze will move at close to 1.5 ft/sec andthe marchers themselves are moving. As they do so, they also move the air around them, which can create air movement in 3 dimensions. There was a reason numbers stopped going down when indoor seating opened up.
I think the spread among Trump campaign staffers and Sec Service agents was likely caused by proximity in indoor meetings as well as being around each other in hallways, cars, etc. It is entirely possible that the low turnout will result in far fewer infections than anticipated if 3 times the crowd had been there. Pictures show the ones in the arena not doing much to show awareness of the virus or their risk, but perhaps the huge open space will have acted more like an outdoor space.
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Unfortunately, common sense doesn’t seem to be all that common.
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@mayjay right I am a 100% in agreement it can spread easier indoors, that seems like common sense. You bring up Florida, a ton people have gotten it there on beaches since they reopened. It’s just asinine to think that hundreds maybe even thousands walking some hand and hand doesn’t spread it. I’m moving on from this conversation my friends.
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These people in bars in Lawrence and high numbers in Riley and Sedgwick co are going to keep us from having fall sports. I know they closed two bars in aggieville.
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@Crimsonorblue22 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
These people in bars in Lawrence and high numbers in Riley and Sedgwick co are going to keep us from having fall sports. I know they closed two bars in aggieville.
your right , as they now have said THE HAWK in connection to several cases of the virus
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@jayballer73 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@Crimsonorblue22 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
These people in bars in Lawrence and high numbers in Riley and Sedgwick co are going to keep us from having fall sports. I know they closed two bars in aggieville.
your right , as they now have said THE HAWK in connection to several cases of the virus
Huh, I figured if people had been exposed to all the pathogens at The Hawk, they’d be immune to mostly everything.
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@FarmerJayhawk said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@jayballer73 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@Crimsonorblue22 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
These people in bars in Lawrence and high numbers in Riley and Sedgwick co are going to keep us from having fall sports. I know they closed two bars in aggieville.
your right , as they now have said THE HAWK in connection to several cases of the virus
Huh, I figured if people had been exposed to all the pathogens at The Hawk, they’d be immune to mostly everything.
Lmao , guess not
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My personal belief , or thinking on this virus is to me , we have people pointing fingers on People saying it is their fault - this person - - that person , for me NOW I don’t care anymore - - -it’s done , that is not going to help anything now. That part is over. NOW we have to concentrate on the virus not who’s fault it might be.
A lot of the problems going on now is pretty simple , it comes down to where the States just re-opened to soon , to many people showing no regard to restrictions/ Hell what good did the face mask restriction do when 1/2 the population just blew it off and didn’t wear them when they had restrictions on them ? You have those with that , then you have the one’s that plain and simple don’t give a dam. If it’s an incovience to them- - they are not doing it , acting like they are above getting or /spreading the virus.
Now as a Nation we have 40,000 new cases for ONE day and spiking. - we are seeing Hospitalizations on the increase again some close to reaching capacity. - -Hell we are seeing states starting to re-enforce restrictions on like number of people in public places , some business shutting back down. States such as Utah , North Carolina , South Carolina , Texas , West Virginia , Florida , California , Arizona , Nevada , Oklahoma all either doing on re-opening restrictions and NOW California has finally ordered once again - - Stay at Home orders
Here in Kansa examples : Lyon County - - -where several have quite possibly been exposed with a girls 5th & 6th Basketball tourney from Parkville Missouri. – You have 4 outbreaks in Riley Co they say , 30 new cases since Wensday that’s tied to the Aggieville business district , 2 other Aggieville Business 's & the K-State football team. You have the Hawk here in Lawrence that has been connected to new positive cases , You have the Wild Horse that they have positive cases and quite possible exposures to the virus , you have 3 cases from a Basketball MAYB tourney in Wichita , with many exposures.
Then you have THIS : you have this idiot who was the co-founder of Re-Open Maryland who organized rallies to pressure Governor Hogan to life the stay at home in Maryland - - he is a 53 year old diabetic and he says " Here I am months not wearing a mask at rallies , and church’s and it’s SO FUNNY ( Really ? - this Virus is Funny to you ? ) how capricious this thing is.
Here is the kicker though for me with this moron : this guys name is Tim Waters and I Quote " He DOESN’T PLAN TO PROVIDE Health officials with the people he has had close contact with for the contact tracing program "
Really ? so this shit isn’t going to provide who he was in close contact with ? - -So curious , couldn’t this idiot if one or more of these people that he was in close contact with - - what if they contract the virus get really sick , hospitalized and eventually die from this , seeing as how he refused to provide the names and then they die couldn’t he possible be charged with Murder or involuntary manslaughter for knowing know he has the Corona but refused to provide information so the tracing program so those individuals could be notified so they could isolate - -this guy right here is ONE of the MAIN reasons we are now why we are that we are - -they just don’t give a dam
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“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
A nitwit on my cruising forum assured us all that the virus will go away by fall because of herd immunity, just as SARS and MERS did.
Has anybody been tracking the clear outbreak of some type of brain-eating pathogen striking our country???
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@mayjay I do NOT want to be on a cruise ship right now!!
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Well Governor Kelly has ordered a mandatory wearing face masks in public effective July 3rd. She is still leaving it to the counties if they make less restrictive , as she waits approval. Yet with several other counties already implanting mandatory face masks they feel this will be approved.
People WEAR THE DAM MASK - -sure it’s not comfortable , kind of a pain in the ass But it’s either wear the mask now for the little bit when your in public OR worse things coming later. We HAVE JUST GOT to do wha twe can to try to keep from spreading this stuff
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@benshawks08 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
A funny thread:
https://twitter.com/libbyjones715/status/1277245399795982337?s=21
Of course difference being if you don’t like that place you can go to another one since they don’t have a monopoly on violence and coercion. Pet peeve of mine.
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Interesting things I’ve been seeing on the Covid makes me wonder if they are figuring out how to treat it. Mcpherson which is the county over from where I live has seen huge jumps but not any hospitalization and people are recovering considerably faster. NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson rested positive but was cleared 3 days later with 2 negative tests. I’m not sure if they are prescribing something or what but people are getting over it faster so that’s a good sign.
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Hospitals are nearly at capacity in Texas, Arizona, and Florida @kjayhawks. Still deadly.
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@approxinfinity said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
Hospitals are nearly at capacity in Texas, Arizona, and Florida @kjayhawks. Still deadly.
And Arizona - my Cousin lives in Phoenix , pretty bad spike there
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@approxinfinity right I’m just wondering if they are treating it differently or something because so many people are recovering lightening fast right now.
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@kjayhawks Proning and steroids have been effective low tech low cost treatments. They don’t get the press because no one makes money off having folks lie on their stomachs. Scientists are constantly learning more and more. We need to make sure we adopt what is being learned instead of complaining about why we didn’t know that from the start. It’s how science works. (Not saying you aren’t doing that just see it so much online)
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Here’s an interesting thread about schools opening (yes it is very critical of trump so ignore it if that triggers you):
https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1281360198091911169?s=21
Parents, what are you thinking right now? I know for me as a teacher I don’t have a solution but all the plans I’ve seen seem destined to end badly with outbreaks inevitable.
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@benshawks08 Trump triggers me. Is it January yet?
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@benshawks08 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
Here’s an interesting thread about schools opening (yes it is very critical of trump so ignore it if that triggers you):
https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1281360198091911169?s=21
Parents, what are you thinking right now? I know for me as a teacher I don’t have a solution but all the plans I’ve seen seem destined to end badly with outbreaks inevitable.
Parents HAVE to work , makes it really bad , catch 22. Yet Trump saying he possibly cut federal funding if schools DON’T re-open - -that has diaster writen all over it
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The Trump aura is shattered.
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@approxinfinity said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
The Trump aura is shattered.
That Biden is within the MoE of Trump among seniors tells you all you need to know about the state of the race right now.
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@benshawks08 I’m not sure what to think as a parent. My son needs the structure badly with his autism and we all continue to work. It would be impossible for his daycare to have dozens of computers and try to online stuff much. He hates doing it to boot. I keep hearing about having every other day between grades. I’m lucky because our district may have 500 kids in it from pre-K to 12th grade total. Not sure what the right answer is but it has negatively effected him and he is losing progress because of this. The first 6-8 years are huge for autism kids and what he is losing at this point, he may never recover from. Small children won’t wear mask or social distance, you’d have better luck training a monkey to mow your yard. That being said it needs to be safe. It is a lose lose for us at this point.
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@kjayhawks said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@benshawks08 I’m not sure what to think as a parent. My son needs the structure badly with his autism and we all continue to work. It would be impossible for his daycare to have dozens of computers and try to online stuff much. He hates doing it to boot. I keep hearing about having every other day between grades. I’m lucky because our district may have 500 kids in it from pre-K to 12th grade total. Not sure what the right answer is but it has negatively effected him and he is losing progress because of this. The first 6-8 years are huge for autism kids and what he is losing at this point, he may never recover from. Small children won’t wear mask or social distance, you’d have better luck training a monkey to mow your yard. That being said it needs to be safe. It is a lose lose for us at this point.
I’ve been following this for quite awhile now, in part as a education scholar and in part as an interested instructor. I think we’re down to the least bad option. I’ve come down to we basically have to run schools basically as I went to kindergarten; alternating MWF/TU weeks. Basically have to quarantine teachers during the year. I hate it with almost every fiber of my being but I can’t find a better option. Entirely open to suggestions.
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We are a home provider for an Autistic adult (he’s mid 20’s but really has the mentality of a 8 year old) and the change in structure was extremely challenging for both sides when the lockdowns took place. His entire routine was uprooted and we basically hit our breaking point with him and still even months later its day to day. It’s been a very difficult struggle so I can only imagine what your going through as well raising your own that relied on the structure of normal life.
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@FarmerJayhawk said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@kjayhawks said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@benshawks08 I’m not sure what to think as a parent. My son needs the structure badly with his autism and we all continue to work. It would be impossible for his daycare to have dozens of computers and try to online stuff much. He hates doing it to boot. I keep hearing about having every other day between grades. I’m lucky because our district may have 500 kids in it from pre-K to 12th grade total. Not sure what the right answer is but it has negatively effected him and he is losing progress because of this. The first 6-8 years are huge for autism kids and what he is losing at this point, he may never recover from. Small children won’t wear mask or social distance, you’d have better luck training a monkey to mow your yard. That being said it needs to be safe. It is a lose lose for us at this point.
I’ve been following this for quite awhile now, in part as a education scholar and in part as an interested instructor. I think we’re down to the least bad option. I’ve come down to we basically have to run schools basically as I went to kindergarten; alternating MWF/TU weeks. Basically have to quarantine teachers during the year. I hate it with almost every fiber of my being but I can’t find a better option. Entirely open to suggestions.
What do we do about teachers considered “at risk”? Or teachers I know who are primary care givers for their elderly parents?
I’ve already decided I will be in school for whatever schedule or plan they decide on. I’m not old. I’m healthy. I don’t have kids. I can limit my contact with others to pretty much just my partner and my dog. I would say most teachers aren’t in my same situation.
Another big concern for me are all my students who live with grandparents or caregivers with underlying conditions? How do we ask them to expose themselves and their loved ones?
I’m afraid we have to go back to online which has its own set of problems for learning, for parents, for students with special needs. I can’t even imagine what this has been like for those parents who are trying to work from home if they can or having to go into work as essential workers. Add in the necessary services many kids require from school… this whole thing is definitely lose lose.
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@kjayhawks I feel for ya. I was a special ed teacher for my first 5 years so I know a little about how necessary that structure is for a lot of students. I spin out about 2-3 times a week racking my brain to figure out how this can work in August and am yet to come to an acceptable solution.
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If we only didn’t open to early, and wore masks! Kansas was doing so good! Such a simple thing but no, can’t tell them what to do!
🦠. Now here we are.
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Wish there was a poll to help understand if the folks refusing to wear masks also refuse to wear seatbelts (which only endangers themselves), smoke wherever they want, drink and drive, smoke and drink while pregnant, ignore warning labels on products, think the earth is flat, etc.
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@bskeet I would bet on a strong correlation between the results of your proposed survey with surveys revealing which candidate those people plan to vote for this Nov.
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@FarmerJayhawk said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@kjayhawks said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@benshawks08 I’m not sure what to think as a parent. My son needs the structure badly with his autism and we all continue to work. It would be impossible for his daycare to have dozens of computers and try to online stuff much. He hates doing it to boot. I keep hearing about having every other day between grades. I’m lucky because our district may have 500 kids in it from pre-K to 12th grade total. Not sure what the right answer is but it has negatively effected him and he is losing progress because of this. The first 6-8 years are huge for autism kids and what he is losing at this point, he may never recover from. Small children won’t wear mask or social distance, you’d have better luck training a monkey to mow your yard. That being said it needs to be safe. It is a lose lose for us at this point.
I’ve been following this for quite awhile now, in part as a education scholar and in part as an interested instructor. I think we’re down to the least bad option. I’ve come down to we basically have to run schools basically as I went to kindergarten; alternating MWF/TU weeks. Basically have to quarantine teachers during the year. I hate it with almost every fiber of my being but I can’t find a better option. Entirely open to suggestions.
Alternating days doesn’t work either because those plans that have been proposed still call for teachers on campus every day so teachers can’t help kids on their days off campus. You also run into issues of childcare for younger kids in single parent households or where both parents have to work outside the home.
One district here in Houston has already announced they’re going to be online only this year, but I’m fully preparing to have about 9 months of no social life or be able to see my mom who’s in her early 70’s because exposure is going to happen and districts here have pretty much said unless you’re showing symptoms, show up and if catch Covid, tough luck because you aren’t getting any extra sick days if you need them.
This school year is going to be an absolute
show this year because there is no good option. They are all plans with significant issues that can’t realistically be solved.
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Here’s my K-12 plan: Go back to the old rural school model on a neighborhood scale. All grades taught in each location by one or two teachers with a bunch of online components. No more than 20 or 30 kids per “school.” Keep siblings together. No buses. That way if you get an outbreak, it’s limited to maybe a dozen households instead the entire town.
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Another thread with good questions to be thinking about right now with school reopening plans.
https://twitter.com/alrobertsontx03/status/1282822525119008768?s=21
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@benshawks08 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
Another thread with good questions to be thinking about right now with school reopening plans.
https://twitter.com/alrobertsontx03/status/1282822525119008768?s=21
Announced this morning that in San Diego & Los Angles kids will not be returning to School when it starts up. 40 States are now showing rapid increases the COVID-19. Think this is just the beginning of where in the end there will be a lot of States that once again put the halt of kids returning to School. People wanted to hurry up and re-open , now we are seeing the results from this. – -People wanting to act like nothing ever happened , ignoring the restrictions that were in place when re=opening, it’s great that you re-open , but was supposed to be opened in Stages.
You had Governors leave it up to the individual Counties how to approach how to handle this - - you see the results. Just like Sedgwick County here in Kansas they removed everything and BOY you talk about spike.
I had a Dr visit yesterday and was passing conversation and thought I’d ask - - - is it spiking as bad as they say it is? - -her response was for sure. I ask about my County Shawneee , she said it’s BAD, hospitals getting full again. thing is they said they are even more worried about having the staff to treat. Heard on the news like between the two hospitals here that between the self quarinteend and then positive staff cases they has 150employess who couldn’t come in.
I said ya , and I just love how the Govt is trying to down play saying - - - OH we good , look at the mortality rate - - the deaths are down. - - Dam that doesn’t mean we are in good shape , just because Deaths are down. - -Do people have to die to make this be a serious problem ? - - Thousands upon Thousands of people still sick - hospitalizations. My Dr said that just because Deaths are down is one reason is the targeted individual is now younger, she said doesn’t make it anybetter. She was talking not all getting reported talking about the time span it takes from reporting to testing positive and the the incubation period and then ventalization to Death or viciously sick - -time to wake up people this crap is going no where- -like they just said now on the radio - -you got to TAKE THIS VIRUS SERIOUSLY not just try and blow it off -MR PRESIDENT - - UMM - -HELLO
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@jayballer73 Meanwhile, the White House focuses on trying to smear and pin all blame on Dr Fauci for their crappy response to Covid at it’s outset instead of actually doing their job right now.
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@approxinfinity said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@jayballer73 Meanwhile, the White House focuses on trying to smear and pin all blame on Dr Fauci for their crappy response to Covid at it’s outset instead of actually doing their job right now.
Actually got my count wrong on Hospital employees it’s right at 200 at Store Mt Vail & 30 at St Francis, out of these totals they are saying only about 30 have contacted this at the Hospitals - - others have contacted in the Community spread. - California now in a shut down - - Again
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@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@FarmerJayhawk said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@kjayhawks said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@benshawks08 I’m not sure what to think as a parent. My son needs the structure badly with his autism and we all continue to work. It would be impossible for his daycare to have dozens of computers and try to online stuff much. He hates doing it to boot. I keep hearing about having every other day between grades. I’m lucky because our district may have 500 kids in it from pre-K to 12th grade total. Not sure what the right answer is but it has negatively effected him and he is losing progress because of this. The first 6-8 years are huge for autism kids and what he is losing at this point, he may never recover from. Small children won’t wear mask or social distance, you’d have better luck training a monkey to mow your yard. That being said it needs to be safe. It is a lose lose for us at this point.
I’ve been following this for quite awhile now, in part as a education scholar and in part as an interested instructor. I think we’re down to the least bad option. I’ve come down to we basically have to run schools basically as I went to kindergarten; alternating MWF/TU weeks. Basically have to quarantine teachers during the year. I hate it with almost every fiber of my being but I can’t find a better option. Entirely open to suggestions.
Alternating days doesn’t work either because those plans that have been proposed still call for teachers on campus every day so teachers can’t help kids on their days off campus. You also run into issues of childcare for younger kids in single parent households or where both parents have to work outside the home.
One district here in Houston has already announced they’re going to be online only this year, but I’m fully preparing to have about 9 months of no social life or be able to see my mom who’s in her early 70’s because exposure is going to happen and districts here have pretty much said unless you’re showing symptoms, show up and if catch Covid, tough luck because you aren’t getting any extra sick days if you need them.
This school year is going to be an absolute
show this year because there is no good option. They are all plans with significant issues that can’t realistically be solved.I think it could work. I didn’t even have full time kindergarten in Kansas. Half the grade went MWF one week, TU the next. If you incorporated the online element, you could conceivably pull it off so long as you give folks some runway to plan. I don’t like it, but I think both the full bore everyone in person or nobody in person are unacceptable. It keeps buses less full, and classrooms more spaced out so you mitigate risk to the most people while still getting some in person instruction.
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@FarmerJayhawk I might be inclined to think this could work if you could get staff every other day as well. The biggest problem is the adults. We are more likely to get it, spread it, and suffer from it. And while adults can mostly be trusted to follow guidelines and take safety precautions, all the evidence right now shows if you put a bunch of adults in a building for extended periods of time, you will have community spread and this thing spreads too fast and for too long without being detected.
And then there’s sick leave and quarantine for those who inevitably get it. I’ve yet to see a plan the truly addresses this. Substitute teachers have been hard to come by before the pandemic and all the ones I know have said no way will they put themselves at that much risk for the $80-$100 a day.
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It will be tough to open schools a month from now if we don’t cut the spread dramatically in the next few weeks. That means masks, social distancing, the whole gamut.
Trying to open schools without taking precautions right now is a secondary disaster waiting to happen. Schools will act as a hot zone, with one case quickly turning into a few dozen. We do not have enough willing, qualified and capable teachers to deal with an outbreak ON ANY SCALE. I doubt you will find many substitutes willing to come in if there is a large COVID-19 outbreak in a school system.
And if teachers have to double up with students, that will make things worse rather than better.
The answer is not to just forge ahead, damn the consequences. We need a plan that will cut the spread now, and protect students and teachers later.
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@FarmerJayhawk said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@FarmerJayhawk said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@kjayhawks said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@benshawks08 I’m not sure what to think as a parent. My son needs the structure badly with his autism and we all continue to work. It would be impossible for his daycare to have dozens of computers and try to online stuff much. He hates doing it to boot. I keep hearing about having every other day between grades. I’m lucky because our district may have 500 kids in it from pre-K to 12th grade total. Not sure what the right answer is but it has negatively effected him and he is losing progress because of this. The first 6-8 years are huge for autism kids and what he is losing at this point, he may never recover from. Small children won’t wear mask or social distance, you’d have better luck training a monkey to mow your yard. That being said it needs to be safe. It is a lose lose for us at this point.
I’ve been following this for quite awhile now, in part as a education scholar and in part as an interested instructor. I think we’re down to the least bad option. I’ve come down to we basically have to run schools basically as I went to kindergarten; alternating MWF/TU weeks. Basically have to quarantine teachers during the year. I hate it with almost every fiber of my being but I can’t find a better option. Entirely open to suggestions.
Alternating days doesn’t work either because those plans that have been proposed still call for teachers on campus every day so teachers can’t help kids on their days off campus. You also run into issues of childcare for younger kids in single parent households or where both parents have to work outside the home.
One district here in Houston has already announced they’re going to be online only this year, but I’m fully preparing to have about 9 months of no social life or be able to see my mom who’s in her early 70’s because exposure is going to happen and districts here have pretty much said unless you’re showing symptoms, show up and if catch Covid, tough luck because you aren’t getting any extra sick days if you need them.
This school year is going to be an absolute
show this year because there is no good option. They are all plans with significant issues that can’t realistically be solved.I think it could work. I didn’t even have full time kindergarten in Kansas. Half the grade went MWF one week, TU the next. If you incorporated the online element, you could conceivably pull it off so long as you give folks some runway to plan. I don’t like it, but I think both the full bore everyone in person or nobody in person are unacceptable. It keeps buses less full, and classrooms more spaced out so you mitigate risk to the most people while still getting some in person instruction.
It’s still a
plan because you’re now asking teachers to do two jobs. If students go alternating days to reduce class sizes, who helps students with questions about their assignments when those kids are off campus? Is it the teacher of record who would presumably be in a classroom teaching the other half of students supposed to take even more of their own time to answer those questions? How do special education students receive their services online? How does a kid who can’t afford the technology to work from home acquire that technology when the school district doesn’t have enough devices to have a 1:1 ratio? What do you do for the kid that’s too young to stay home alone, but doesn’t have a parent or guardian that can accommodate their schedule or afford child care?Alternating days is not a viable solution for this issue because what’s going to happen with that plan is an insane amount of burnout among teachers from being overworked which will lead to much more reduced level of education than either of the other two options.
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https://www.hutchnews.com/news/20200714/marshall-tours-kansas-farms-agribusinesses
Read the end about school
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@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@FarmerJayhawk said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@FarmerJayhawk said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@kjayhawks said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@benshawks08 I’m not sure what to think as a parent. My son needs the structure badly with his autism and we all continue to work. It would be impossible for his daycare to have dozens of computers and try to online stuff much. He hates doing it to boot. I keep hearing about having every other day between grades. I’m lucky because our district may have 500 kids in it from pre-K to 12th grade total. Not sure what the right answer is but it has negatively effected him and he is losing progress because of this. The first 6-8 years are huge for autism kids and what he is losing at this point, he may never recover from. Small children won’t wear mask or social distance, you’d have better luck training a monkey to mow your yard. That being said it needs to be safe. It is a lose lose for us at this point.
I’ve been following this for quite awhile now, in part as a education scholar and in part as an interested instructor. I think we’re down to the least bad option. I’ve come down to we basically have to run schools basically as I went to kindergarten; alternating MWF/TU weeks. Basically have to quarantine teachers during the year. I hate it with almost every fiber of my being but I can’t find a better option. Entirely open to suggestions.
Alternating days doesn’t work either because those plans that have been proposed still call for teachers on campus every day so teachers can’t help kids on their days off campus. You also run into issues of childcare for younger kids in single parent households or where both parents have to work outside the home.
One district here in Houston has already announced they’re going to be online only this year, but I’m fully preparing to have about 9 months of no social life or be able to see my mom who’s in her early 70’s because exposure is going to happen and districts here have pretty much said unless you’re showing symptoms, show up and if catch Covid, tough luck because you aren’t getting any extra sick days if you need them.
This school year is going to be an absolute
show this year because there is no good option. They are all plans with significant issues that can’t realistically be solved.I think it could work. I didn’t even have full time kindergarten in Kansas. Half the grade went MWF one week, TU the next. If you incorporated the online element, you could conceivably pull it off so long as you give folks some runway to plan. I don’t like it, but I think both the full bore everyone in person or nobody in person are unacceptable. It keeps buses less full, and classrooms more spaced out so you mitigate risk to the most people while still getting some in person instruction.
It’s still a
plan because you’re now asking teachers to do two jobs. If students go alternating days to reduce class sizes, who helps students with questions about their assignments when those kids are off campus? Is it the teacher of record who would presumably be in a classroom teaching the other half of students supposed to take even more of their own time to answer those questions? How do special education students receive their services online? How does a kid who can’t afford the technology to work from home acquire that technology when the school district doesn’t have enough devices to have a 1:1 ratio? What do you do for the kid that’s too young to stay home alone, but doesn’t have a parent or guardian that can accommodate their schedule or afford child care?Alternating days is not a viable solution for this issue because what’s going to happen with that plan is an insane amount of burnout among teachers from being overworked which will lead to much more reduced level of education than either of the other two options.
Again, we’ve done this before, so I’m not inventing things from whole cloth here. I never even said it was good, just the best of a lot of bad options. What you’re going to have to do is spend some time each day addressing questions about the material that come up for students who don’t have access to that technology. At least this way they’ll have an opportunity to get those questions answered, unlike an online only plan. And at least parents will have part time child care and not have to exit the labor force altogether and maybe come up with a device and reliable internet connection.
Based on the evidence around virtual charters, we can’t go all virtual because the loss of learning will absolutely be catastrophic, and those schools are build from the ground up to teach virtually! And students need the school environment to be around peers and develop non-cognitive skills. We can’t just pretend you can pause the clock for 15 months. Plus, it will really exacerbate already existing inequities in the system. So what do we do? Have to mitigate risk as best we can and balance health and education. If it requires the feds to provide additional resources, so be it. Whether that’s additional technology, PPE (NC is distributing masks and other things to all their schools), or whatever.
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@FarmerJayhawk Based on my personal experience, I straight up disagree with an alternating day schedule being the best option for the reasons I mentioned.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Differentiating fact from opinion on COVID-19:
@FarmerJayhawk Based on my personal experience, I straight up disagree with an alternating day schedule being the best option for the reasons I mentioned.
And that’s fine, I appreciate the dialog. So as a teacher, what do you suggest? Honestly curious because all I keep coming up with is shit, shittier, and shittiest depending on the day.
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We are officially going virtual only in Austin for the first 3 weeks starting Aug 18 according to our superintendent.
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@FarmerJayhawk
is about all there is in regards to options. There’s no one blanket option that’s going to work across-the-board. Since the TEA here in Texas at this point has no plans to work in their offices until January, but still expect teachers to show up everyday even if they’ve been exposed and only stay home if they have any symptoms until they get test results back. If a teacher tests positive and has to miss a bunch of time and go over however many sick days they have, then you don’t get paid for those days you miss after you’ve run out of days.The TEA is also planning on moving forward with their standardized testing this year even though most schools will likely have shutdowns at some point and will be playing catch up from last year since most teachers I know reported only about 1/3 of students actually did any work last spring because word got out quickly that they couldn’t be retained for not doing that work. A lot of teachers are pretty pissed off at the TEA because of their hypocrisy in handling the situation.
My personal thoughts are the TEA needs to invest in technology to get every district to a 1:1 ratio in regards to technology whether it’s through Chromebooks or tablets or something so kids have access to technology at least. Most politicians on both sides are only really focused of the needs of students, but not on the needs of teachers in regards to reopening plans and that’s going to bite people in the ass when schools have a Covid outbreak and have to shut back down. It doesn’t matter if it’s 5 days a week or alternating days, having in person learning at this point, at least here in Texas and probably most of the south, is just going to result in a cycle of outbreaks, shut downs, and returns and be far more disruptive than starting online.
My district specifically this week sent out emails to parents giving them the option of sending their kids to school for in person learning or staying home. What they didn’t do is provide any details on what protocols will be in place to attempt to minimize the risk of an outbreak. The district hasn’t even sent a plan to teachers about what on campus instruction will look like and I’m 2 weeks out from having to return to campus to start prepping for football, if it happens. Without an answer to that, I don’t know if I have 2 or 3 weeks of summer left and my campus athletic coordinator doesn’t know yet either. That’s an answer that needs to be made known as well because of how much money in stipends is involved.
My savings account prefers on campus with sports because no sports means about $7,000 in salary reduction for me which is a significant amount of money to have in limbo at this point.
If you’re going to ask me which one would be the least disruptive, I would go with online because then there’s at least consistency there and has the lowest risk of disruption in learning. That said, lower socio-economic school districts like mine that simply don’t have the resources to get 1:1 technology at this point make going online impractical and not feasible.
Realistically, the decision needs to be district by district and in the case of larger school districts, school by school in regards to what’s best for those populations.
