The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
Although nothing is official, state lawmakers have mentioned when students go back to school in the fall, there is a possibility they could split the day in half between students by having some students go early, and some students go late, in an effort to force social distancing. The plan would also call for the cancellation of the lunch period and changes to physical education.
QUESTION: What’s your opinion on this possible plan? Do you think it would work, and do you think the parents/teachers/students would be happy with this plan?
Talk about it….
38 comments
It is possible but questionable. I have taught this way, but my class was (approximately) 12-4. It was difficult to focus students as the day got longee… and longer.
I remember in the 60’s, we were split into such groups…. Didn’t last, but was a kid, so I don’t know why or at least I don’t remember. Could have been valid reasons or a naysayers party.
While an alternating schedule makes sense (every other day), this one doesn’t. Each classroom would have to be disinfected twice a day. Once when the first group leaves and again when the second one does. Who will be doing this? The custodial service in my classroom consists of the trashing being emptied (usually) and the floor being swept every other day or so. Disinfecting twice a day? Don’t see it happening.
Wear masks, 6 feet between desks, split the day in half literally – some go afternoon, some go morning. Use the gym, auditorium, student centers as larger classrooms. Some classes will still need to be done through distance learning. Some PE could be done safely. Await the vaccine -perhaps early 2021? Everything could slowly go back to normal after that.
What about parents schedules especially with more than 1 child in different grades/schools? What about teachers who have kids of their own? What about after school sports? What about the high school kids who work a part time job? I think we need to protect people in nursing homes and with compromised immune systems & maybe offer a distance learning option for those who don’t feel safe for a short time, but I’m skeptical of major changes to the school day.
JP
I am with you. With the multiple kids, how are schools and parents going to manage?
I can see the politicians in office saying no after school sports, or kids sports of any kind. So no PE, no organized sports, how is this generation of kid supposed to develop physically?
I think a vaccine being ready in 2021 is a pipe dream. The studies and work involved is going to be massive and you know that not every pharmaceutical company is going to work on developing it, nor will they collaborate together. And then each country/union has their own version of the FDA, so approval world-wide will not happen at the same time, and our FDA is so much stricter than Europe or Asia …
Let those kids who want to go back, go back. Distance learning is only so effective. How do we teach the 4,5, 6 year olds how to read, do basic math, … we cannot expect parents to do all of that , and work.
My kids are older, they act like they are independent, but not quite there yet.
PRIOR TO A VACCINE.. What about teachers and all other school staff who may be exposed by all those students? A classroom setting (even with half the amount of students) and everything in it being touched by students is a dangerous, daily health hazard to All.
@ Pat
So you want us to SIP until a vaccine is developed …in 2021, 2022 or whenever they get a vaccine that works against a mutating coronavirus?
No. That is a big fat no from me, my family and my kids. Kids are very resilient if we let them be. My kid comes home with a scratch, I may not even comment on it. Forget about me putting neosporin (feel good, not proven to do anything) cream. Get the germs, teach your body to fight against them and move on. I grew up outside, playing in dirt, getting scratches, stitches and much more.
Yes, SARS2 is more potent than dirt, but the studies that are coming out for CA, WA, FL, NY, Germany now all same the same thing, we have more people infected than we originally thought … and guess what, they did not need hospitals!
Get the kids in school again.
No . It is not a good idea. Like all of CA’s ideas.
If it gets my kid out of the house and back in the classroom, I’m all for it!!
They will be getting 1/2 the teaching time, 6 hours down to 3 hours per day. (Talk about dumbing down.)
How are parents going to work that out if they both work?
Driving back and forth all day for parents with different grade level kids or different times of the day?
The school day would have to be extended to clean the rooms after each session. (Do you think teachers will go for that?)
No, not going to work.
Go back to school!
Provide masks for students that don’t have one. Don’t allow them in unless they are wearing a mask.
Refill the hand sanitizers that were installed in each classroom a few years ago. Have each student use before going into the classroom.
Give lessons often on how to properly wash your hands, cover you face when sneezing or coughing.
Teach kids often about the importance of nutrition, exercise and rest for a great immune system.
Just for conversation: Do they actually get 6 or even 3 hours of teaching time? I’ve heard with common core and various teaching models that students get about 5 to 10 minutes of “teaching” an hour then do work in groups and by themselves?????
Okay Teachers; not being a wise A$$ here. How do direct, group, and independent concepts work? Could be a condensed, focused school day is actually beneficial????
Your response makes to much sense and nothing in CA makes sense! Nothing within the government makes sense though. But I do agree. I still go into work and when the new school year starts I will have 3 kids in 3 different schools and I am unable to drive back and forth. It will be interesting with what they come up with though.
(In old man voice)
Back in the day, when I was in Elementary school we had Early Birds and Late Birds.
They can try that. Half the school goes 7-11 half goes 12-4 that would bring the class sizes down.
… unfortunately, only one group got the worm …
Seriously…. we have 5 years left and are moving…. however I/ we may move to another state sooner that isn’t so paranoid. Open the freaking school’s. Let people get true Hurd immunity, like with the Spanish Flu. There was no vaccine for that.
The early bird gets the short end of the stick.
MovingOutOfCA
𖦹𖦹𖦹𖦹𖦹𖦹𖦹𖦹𖦹
Your comment is thee most ignorant or dumbest comment I’ve read.
So do you think by moving out of California (due to ‘paranoia’) you’ll find states WIDE OPEN??? Do you really think that California is the ONLY state that is locked down??
You’re not too smart if you think by going over a few states you’re going to find schools, Restaurants and movie theater’s WIDE open. Do you think by moving away you’re going to find large gatherings, Concerts,
and Huge BBQs in all of the public parks?
I don’t understand why people are against this Shelter In Place order here in California; the reason we’re looking better than some other states is because we started early. Apparently, as other states look at us, we’re doing something right.
When you look at our hospitals here in Contra Costa, they’re not as overloaded like they are in other BIG cities and that’s due to early on cancelling of elective surgeries.
If you think moving out of California is the answer to your NOT wanting kids around and if you think it’s NOT dangerous for 5-10 yr olds to spend hours touching EVERYTHING (including their running noses) then why wait for 5 years…. U-Haul is open, move to another state.
@e.bunners California has become very “crowded.” Other states don’t have that problem
I like the idea of splitting classes, maybe alternate days. Class size is too big. High school will need to make adjustments to PE. Too many students in the locker room. Some schools have athletes take conditioning classes. That should be done before or after school. It is just taking up space in the locker room. Besides why should a coach get a teacher’s salary to coach his team during school hours? Parents will also need to keep their children home when they are sick. Too many children come to school when they should be home.
Hopefully it is figured out before the start of school so everyone can make arrangements.
Politicians are now in complete control.
Yell all you want, they’ll tell you that they know better than you and that you must comply.
Once they get the power, they never give it back.
Yeah, they may seem like they are in complete control, but not yet. I will fight the complete control. I will not rollover and lose my rights as an American.
In each regular classroom there are 37 students and a teacher has contact with about 150 to 180 students daily. In what class of 37 can you seat students 2 meters apart?
How about split the class in half-half on Monday-Tuesday. Half on Thursday Friday. Whole class video on Wednesday. In MDUSD Wednesday is a half day waste of time anyway. Get every school1 to 1 with a chromebook.
Wed is not a half a day in Middle School or High School .. so that wont work.
And have you ever tried to hold a 4-5 hour video conference, it does not work for adults, so you forget it working for the kids.
Parent…
There is no reason to make Wednesday a 4 hour day, Short lessons would suffice. Trust me not much happens on Wednesday anyway. As far as high school and middle, there are many charters in the state that operate in the manner I described.
Very nice idea, annonmom. From your mouth to Thurmond’s ears.
Not going to work. If a teacher or student test positive will they close the school ?
How about taking a tip from the grocery stores with their lexan partitions:
For classes under age 12, hours and class size as usual. Since the teachers are the most at risk, they work behind an oversized lexan sneeze guard at the front of the class.
The idea is that half the students go one day the other half the next. On the day away from school students have distance learning. At school, students would social distance. No large groups, no lunchroom, no PE. They’re also talking about making it year round school.
what a horrible environment for children. I really pity them
The new germaphobe world without friends or fun experiences.
we did that in my high school in NM West Mesa High due to overcrowding in early 70’s seniors and juniors 700 am till 12 15 5 classes no lunch 5 minutes between classes 1 15 min break[smoke break]
freshman sophomores 1230 t0 545 wasn’t that big of a deal to us we had bussing so I don’t think it was a problem to the folks my graduating class of 75′ was 798 students
No,
Let’s just all go back to normal. We’ll all be fine.
It’s not a bad plan but what about working parents who rely on day care? What happens to those kids?
Coming from Mt. Diablo Unified to Brentwood Unified I can say my son has complained of the bathrooms running out of soap at both!!! He often says there’s no soap!!!! Disgusting, spreading bathroom germs around the playground etc. goodness so gross I should have homeschooled all along schools are just cesspools of germs. It took the coronavirus for schools to insist kids wash their hands before snack and lunch.
I hear that. I even brought it up with the principal and never heard a peep. No soap is the norm.
Testing is the answer, we need widespread testing or else we’ll need to rework everything about our society. You could literally never ride Bart safely again, go to a movie, eat in a restaurant, or go to a concert or sports.
Or we can just go back to normal and treat this like the flu it is. Death rate is like .00005%.
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