Revised/Expanded Survey
Survey – Revised
Mid-May, 2020
This survey is voluntary. The responses will be shared with HSAS UFT members only.
For each question, choose the best answer, or answers, or think of your own. Feel free to ignore questions that are not relevant or interesting.
I would prefer not to return to work in the building until:
There is a vaccine
Medical experts say it safe
One particular person says it is safe – who? ___________________
I get the sense that there are many fewer people getting sick
I’m ok going back as soon as it is opened
Necessary safety measures include:
Everyone is tested
Masks
Shields for adults
Shields for kids
Gloves
Temperature testing
When it comes to cleaning I am most concerned with
How thorough the cleaning will be before we return
How thorough the regular cleaning will be once we return
Specific training for the cleaners
I would prefer not to return to work in the building until social distancing (six feet):
is possible at all times
is possible at most times, including the classroom, but not all times
is possible at all times, but less than 6 feet is ok
social distancing is not important to me
If we could see our students, in our classrooms, once a week, but remote teach at other times, and maintain social distancing (a hybrid model)
I would not want this – too complicated
I would not want this – sounds rushed/don’t trust the distancing
I would not want this – wait until we could open properly
I would want this
There has been talk about other hybrid models. Which of these might make sense:
Separate AM/PM groups of kids
Alternating A and B days
More face to face time with younger students (9th, maybe 10th)
While we are remote, which live methods do you use?
Live lessons – mandatory
Live lessons – recorded for viewing later
Live Discussions
Live Tutoring/Review sessions/Extra Help
Live Office Hours
None of the Above
Which live methods would you choose for your classes, if we teach remotely next year?
Live lessons – mandatory
Live lessons – recorded for viewing later
Live Discussions
Live Tutoring/Review sessions/Extra Help
Live Office Hours
None of the Above
Uncertainty
The DoE should plan as if we are going to go back to school in September
The DoE should plan as if we are teaching remotely in September
The DoE should make plans for either contingency
The DoE should make a decision (presumably remote) now, to take away the uncertainty
Live Teaching approaches
It is good if each teacher / class has its own best approach to live teaching
It is good if the school has a schoolwide policy on live teaching
I am okay with what others do, as long as I can do what is best for my classes
I would like time to be set aside for each teacher to use for live teaching, and then let them choose how to use it
Remote scheduling
If we are remote, I would like a set daily time for each of my classes
If we are remote, I would like a set daily time, but don’t expect kids in regular class groups
If we are remote, I would like a set weekly time for each of my classes
If we are remote, I would like a set weekly time, but don’t expect kids in regular classes
The way we are now is fine.
Where do you fall on the question of remote tests?
No multiple choice
Has to be essays
Not worth doing them
They should be timed
They should be untimed
How have you modified deadlines?
Late the same day is ok
Usually give a few more days
Give about double the normal time
Barely maintain any deadlines
How important is it to get students back into the building? Are there compromises we would make to achieve that?
I have no editorial comment except to show this graph that truly reveals how deadly this has been in NY. I read in Newsday we are still getting hundreds of new COVID-19 cases a day in NYC. I think we have to prepare for a second wave of COVID-19 although I pray we are spared.
44 comments:
Serious question, not advising people to opt out or stay in...However, shouldn't people be commended if they opt out because they are really sticking their neck out. If they were to get a serious charge against them, they lose the union lawyer, which could cost the job/career and/or cost a great deal of money to hire a private lawyer. Seems to me they are really making a statement that they are willing to fight the battle on their own, without union support.
Maybe if DeBozo-the dope from park slope would really close the schools and not keep them open under the guise of " enrichment centers" we could seriously reduce the numbers. This guy and his whole cop hating administration should be thrown in jail. Especially his wife who absconded with $800 million meant for mental health via Thrive NYC.
Concerns-
Temperture tests-will not be effective. Parents of elementary children give sick kids motrin and sent them to school. Raised temperature won't show up for 5 hours or so. Happens all the time. Some parents don't answer the phone or pick up kids when they are sick.
Fire drills- 6 feet apart-impossible
soft/hard/ lockdown- even with 12 students impossible to not be seen staying 6 feet apart.
Alternating A and B days- would be the only one we should consider if we have to go back. The custodians would need time to attempt to clean. No time to clean during a morning/afternoon shift.
Real consequences will be needed for those not wearing masks otherwise what is the point.
Ventilation, Ventilation, Ventilation
Viral Dilution with high speed fresh ventilated air flow.
Also, bathroom ventilation to immediately remove the aerosal of fecal particles
loaded with COVID 19 viral particles.
Go ahead and re-imagine that! Just go ahead and keep hoping that Bill Gates will fund the building renovations. ha ha! Not sure he has the $$$ to fix the problem.
You mean de blasio, our friend, who beats us in every negotiation?
From Alan Singer
The Chronicle of Higher Education asked Dr. Fauci, “If you were a professor, would you be worried about going back to your campus?” He responded, “There’s always a level of anxiety when you’re dealing with an outbreak that is still alive. It isn’t as if we’ve completely suppressed the virus throughout the country, which always leads to vulnerability, particularly when you’re dealing with a situation where you have a lot of people grouped together as you have on a college campus. The best you can do is try to mitigate that by common sense, not hanging out in groups of many people — try to keep it less than 10. Wear a mask, keep physical distancing, and do the best you can.” Dr. Fauci, who is 79 years old, did not address accommodations for older faculty or faculty and students with other high-risk conditions that make them especially vulnerable.
No 11:04, you are abandoning fellow workers by quitting the union. That is not a courageous move. The odds on you needing a lawyer are very low. Fixing the union or starting a new union are the answers.
de Blasio is not our friend and has never been our friend. Can we now please get back to the survey if possible and what it would take to open up buildings. These discussions should be taking place at the school level.
Q: I would prefer not to return to work in the building until:
A: I get the sense that there are many fewer people getting sick (not just a sense, the hospitalizations are already very far down, so therefore)
A: I’m ok going back as soon as it is opened (but this assumes upon opening the following conditions apply...)
Q: Necessary safety measures include:
A: Masks
A: Temperature Testing (I don't think this is a cure-all but it's low hanging fruit that's easy to pick)
Q: When it comes to cleaning I am most concerned with
A: None of these. As a fellow math teacher I think class sets of calculators and group work are the bigger issues (just in terms of basic hygiene not necessarily the Coronavirus)
Q: I would prefer not to return to work in the building until social distancing (six feet):
A: is possible at most times, including the classroom, but not all times
Q: If we could see our students, in our classrooms, once a week, but remote teach at other times, and maintain social distancing (a hybrid model)
A: I would want this (but it should be daily not weekly, see next answer)
There has been talk about other hybrid models. Which of these might make sense:
A: Separate AM/PM groups of kids (This is already done elsewhere in the state and country for Kindergarten, and seniors here on track for 44 credits have half days now at many schools)
Q: While we are remote, which live methods do you use?
A: Live Office Hours (I offered live lessons the first couple weeks, but Admin said we couldn't mandate attendance, and once it was optional students stopped showing. Plus, if I was being told to provide "packet" type assignments, that was already a great deal of work so I wasn't doing extra by doing live lessons.)
Q: Which live methods would you choose for your classes, if we teach remotely next year?
A: Live lessons – mandatory (only if mandatory for students: DOE needs to reject the "we're not replicating a school schedule" idea. Obviously students won't participate if they aren't being "given credit" for showing up to a virtual class. Additionally I would only do this with a MOA banning the use of Danielson with this arrangement. This would go hand-in-hand with not having to make packets. Number of class meetings per week and length of lessons can be reduced (let's say, 2-3x a week for a half hour) to accomodate families with multiple kids, not enough space, etc.)
A: Live lessons – recorded for viewing later (but only provided the DOE purchases BlackBoard, SeeSaw, or a similar application where a teacher does it directly through the app, it is not provided for free to the general public, and does not have to deal with Youtube and the like.)
A: Live Office Hours (by appointment; almost no one asks)
Q: Uncertainty
A: The DoE should plan as if we are going to go back to school in September (this should be the default)
A: The DoE should make plans for either contingency (remote learning has gone pretty well for my kids because my kids' school district ALREADY had a platform for this that it used on snow days and 1-1 devices. The DOE needs to have this ready not just in case there's another Virus flareup but should have it ready for Terrorism, Blizzards, Hurricanes,etc.)
Q: Live Teaching approaches
A: It is good if each teacher / class has its own best approach to live teaching (Good for teacher autonomy)
A: It is good if the school has a schoolwide policy on live teaching (need this too so there is a schedule, but not micromanaging of how it's done)
A: I am okay with what others do, as long as I can do what is best for my classes (again good for teacher autonomy)
A: I would like time to be set aside for each teacher to use for live teaching, and then let them choose how to use it
(Basically, the teacher should be able to pick the medium, teaching style, etc. However live doesn't work without a schedule. And if admin (or Carranza) says kids don't have to show up, then what the hell is the point?)
Q: Remote scheduling
A: If we are remote, I would like a set daily time for each of my classes.
A: If we are remote, I would like a set weekly time for each of my classes.
(I didn't know what to pick - I say 2-3x a week. Again from my kids' experience (and talking shop with the teacher) it works. It doesn't need to be daily. 2-3 half hour blocks a week is enough.)
A: The way we are now is fine. (If your students have access to a textbook or some other option you can assign work from. However while it's fine with us as most of us have figured out how to limit the workload, from the parent POV, I and the other parents in my suburban district would raise hell if there was no real instruction. The Post has highlighted this too. I also don't like the damage to our profession that could arise if a teacher delivering a lesson is seen as unnecessary.)
Q: Where do you fall on the question of remote tests?
A: Not worth doing them. (If it's work done at home it's homework, it's not a test. There are ways this could be done but the DOE is not going to pay for it.)
Q: How have you modified deadlines?
A: Give about double the normal time (for full credit)
A: Barely maintain any deadlines (until grades are due but with reduced credit.)
Q: How important is it to get students back into the building? Are there compromises we would make to achieve that?
A: I think it's absolutely imperative for the students, our own livelihoods and society in general to not imprison ourselves in our homes. With that said the 2-week quarantine for anyone who is sick or in close contact with a sick person has to be enforced to keep things under control. On a Citywide basis a situation where exponential growth of sicknesses happens, hospitals are in acute danger of being overwhelmed and/or people are in danger of not being able to be treated if they got sick, would necessitate closing all schools.
I am not interested in returning to the building while there is any threat.
I will not go live, with my image because it is documented that students will take the image of a teacher and add things to it such as inappropriate captions or taking that image and putting it on a dating site. Article was written in NY Post.
-Social distancing is impossible.
-Even with staggered student schedule, teacher must report and travel everyday. That is a no for me.
-I will do work from home, nothing live images.
-No public transportation, transfer teacher to local school.
-Work should be original, no copying, no cheating, must be creative. Nothing they can make-up.
-My school say there is no deadline, can hand in whenever they want.
-Students don't do work in building, makes no difference.
I will go live when they stop this...Some mischievous city kids are manipulating and posting clips of their teachers’ remote learning lessons on social media, leaving some educators wary of video classes, several sources told The Post.
“There are a lot of us who aren’t comfortable with it,” a Bronx middle school teacher said. “You never know where your face is going to end up right now.”
An eighth grade instructor at the Bronx school warned colleagues that kids – especially in older grades – were posting lesson footage on sites like Snapchat and sometimes adding profane captions or inappropriate filters.
“There are risks right now that most people aren’t even aware of,” the teacher said.
The scattered provision of live video teaching has been a source of intense controversy locally and nationally since schools closed due to the coronavirus crisis.
Some parents have complained about a lack of meaningful communication with teachers while others have lauded staffers for preserving some normalcy during remote learning.
The New York City teachers union has told members that they are under no obligation to conduct live teaching even if principals insist on it. While some have opted to do so, parents claim others are limiting their effort to posting assignments.
Some city teachers limit their online lessons to audio communication to avoid any involuntary appearances online, sources said.
Others said they were uneasy exposing their personal living spaces to students and that already blurred social demarcation lines are being erased altogether during the crisis.
“Teaching is a stressful job,” said a Bed-Stuy middle school staffer. “Before you could go home and separate yourself from it. But now even your apartment is a classroom.”
With teachers and students regularly texting and emailing each other, the source said informal communication is adjusting how kids view authority.
“They interact with us now the same way they do their friends,” said a Harlem middle school teacher.
The Bed-Stuy staffer said teachers are routinely monitored online by their students.
“They see us on Twitter, on Instagram,” she said. “The student/teacher relationship has totally changed, especially in the last five years or so.”
A Bronx staffer said her students routinely scroll through dating apps like Tinder to see if they can spot their instructors and their profiles.
Some city teachers are even balking at interacting with their students over their personal cell phone out of privacy concerns.
Many block their numbers or use encrypted messaging apps to correspond.
“There are things teachers have to worry about in 2020 that would have been pretty hard to imagine not too long ago,” the Bronx educator said.
They are pretty much, in my school, telling us that students can do whatever they want, hand in work whenever they want, if they tried it is good enough, no standards, everything is good enough. If it is too hard, they are excused. Why should i take this seriously? Why put myself at risk?
One student emailed me and said the guidance counselor said i would give the student a different assignment. Huh? Yeah, ok. Typical doe.
Bottom line whatever is done in school districts outside nyc is a million times harder for the doe, so going back is impossible in this environment. We need to wait until there is a vaccine. If there is a second outbreak, it will travel like wildfire in the schools social distancing or not.
If 5 students walk in infected, you will have 500 infections in a few days.
Students will never comply with rules or masking, not willing to jeopardize myself.
11:03 & 17 not arguing that that's a problem but want to point out that's been happening for a long time in regular school. No one should be doing or saying anything in class that you wouldn't want plastered all over the Internet because video is being taken of you on phones. If you worry about their group chats and Snapchat captions you'll drive yourself nuts.
Yeah, kill myself and my family for this...Brooklyn principal caught on tape: Pass students who don’t learn but ‘try’...The acting principal of a Brooklyn high school was secretly recorded saying that too many students — up to 71 percent — were failing remote classes, and that teachers should pass kids “just because they’re trying.”
“If a child is engaged, if the child is doing work, but somehow the child doesn’t get it, gives you the wrong answer, but the child is doing something, checking in with you, doing work … I would have passed the child,” said Costas Constantinidis, acting principal of Cobble Hill High School of American Studies in Carroll Gardens.
Why would we want standards in a school system? "It might be problematic for word to get out that the DOE is encouraging folks to make noise,” wrote anti-testing activist Miriam Nunberg. But word did get out, and “problematic” isn’t the half of it.
Nunberg, co-chair of the New York City Alliance for School Integration and Desegregation, had already blasted word that top Department of Education officials were actively pushing for opposition to PLACE, a parents’ group trying to maintain standards in the city school system — specifically, the screened admissions at some of the city’s best middle and high schools.
It isnt just that you are being recorded, which is wrong...They are taking your pic, putting it on dating sites and making profile, putting your face up and writing faggot or pedophile...Again, were is the uft and the discipline code?
Please don't ignore the survey. I really want to know a diversity of opinions on returning in September.
Did we have vaccine for SARS?
SARS was nearly not as widespread in the US or NYC in particular.
1:40 Yes, and the same was done in school. They can screenshot the video taken in class the same as ones on Zoom or Meet. Not arguing just want people to be aware. Some seem to think this is new.
Based on the state of the doe, the danger of the virus, the lack of control we have in the buildings, the lack of student accountability, the fact the students won't listen, and the lack of learning that goes on in the open building...No, I don't believe we should go back into buildings.
Cafeteria? Gym? Travel to and from the buildings? Students flat out doing whatever they want and walk in and out as they please? I vote no on returning on September.
TJL, that is my point, why wasn't the cell phone use stopped? IT IS IN THE DISCIPLINE CODE ALREADY.
More to the point unless you believe the President's happy talk there may very well never be a vaccine.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/22/why-we-might-not-get-a-coronavirus-vaccine
Even if one is developed, it's a year and a half until it is ready for mass distribution. I understand why someone would want to wait, but it's not feasible.
Here's one reason an extended school shutdown is bad for us:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/14/poll-40-of-families-more-likely-to-homeschool-when-pandemic-ends/
As it is significant percentages - notably Democrats and racial minorities, not just the stereotypical rural Christian homeschoolers - say they will homeschool in the Fall. I don't believe the proportion is that high. Still, if a parent isn't getting any instruction for their kids, why wouldn't he just withdraw the child from school and homeschool? Less enrolled students means less jobs. It would likely go beyond excessing of the untenured and into layoffs. Don't just assume you can sit at home and continue to get paid for months on end never mind into 2021 and beyond.
As certain as each one of is that we are right, there is something to be said for having had the chapter conversation, where we got to hear our colleagues share similar fears, frustrations, and hopes.
I think using this (or a similar) survey to generate that sort of discussion would be of value in most chapters.
James, thanks for sharing it.
Jonathan
de Blasio posted this about 45 minutes ago:
We’re looking ahead to the next phases. There’s a plan to reopen schools as normal this fall, with alternative plans depending on the situation. People are preparing for more scenarios than you can count. It is crucial to the economic restart to get the school equation right. We take nothing for granted. We have to earn our way to each bit of normalcy, and show we can open back up and continue to keep the virus in check.
And if they open schools and we disagree? Too bad for us i guess.
How about bathroom use?
This is 20% capacity.
UPDATE: Again, Doug Thornton tells Commission that runs
@MBSuperdome
that if the
@nfl
plays with fans in ‘20 and if they have to follow 6 feet social distancing guidelines, ONLY 13,000 fans would be allowed to attend in #Nola. Capacity is over 74,000. More
@wdsu
If we do not open up in September or if we are doing partial online learning the UFT must ensure that we are NOT FORCED TO DO LIVE TEACHING. I commend them for keeping the line on this right now but it must continue in September.
Don't expect that to continue. I Georgia, they have replicated the regular school day in live, remote learning. Coming soon here too.
If the DOE is going to make teachers teach "live" then they better give every single teacher a working lap top with a camera that works and a ton of training. I, and thousands of other NYC teachers are not well versed in using this type of technology. In fact, the DOE screwed us all over in March when they gave us no training at all in how to set up and use Google Classroom, Zoom, etc. Not every teacher in this city is a 25 year old tech whiz with the latest laptop at home. As mentioned above, the UFT should do everything in it's power to fight against mandatory live teaching.
They will train you. Good luck with it. It is coming.
They have me until the last retro payment, after that, i will stay as long as buildings are closed. Once we open, I'm out.
Newsday
Nassau reported 106 new cases Wednesday, for a total of 40,140 since the pandemic started. Suffolk had 101 new cases, for a total of 39,359. New York City reported 1,083 new cases, for a total of 201,051. New York State as a whole had 1,768 new cases, for a total of 366,733.
Yeah, they got it under control.
James, if you want I can create a Google Form for this survey so that the results are collected in a more organized manner. Let me know, I'll be happy to help. I can also use survey monkey or any other platform if that is helpful.
Math nerd and teacher here so more than happy to help out!
Really hope NYC gets it together in time for September. Sick of this last minute garbage they keep pulling on us.
Thanks Reno. Email me at iceuft@gmail.com please. I don't get many offers for help so oh I am grateful when we get one.
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