Sunday, May 03, 2020

PLANNING FOR WHEN SCHOOL DOES REOPEN SHOULD BE A CITYWIDE PROJECT WITH A LOCAL ROLE

The hot topic on the internet is to propose what school buildings should look like before they reopen in the fall, summer, or whenever. Bloggers have some interesting thoughts.

Let's go to Jonathan and Peter. Jonathan says students' social distancing six feet apart won't be easy and will require major modifications in schools.

I don’t think there is a way to maintain 6 feet all day, but 6 as a guideline with momentary lapses might be possible.

But I didn’t discuss teaching. How do I check a kid’s work?  How does a teacher hand out a test?  How do we do a million little things that teachers do with students every day?

My answer to that is everything is going to be handed in and handed out electronically it seems.

Peter Greene over at Curmudgucation explains real problems with social distancing for kids:

What elementary students will comply with not running over to hug their best friends? What kind of play or social development occurs when children are required to play by themselves? When someone is sad and crying (an event that, I am told, occurs roughly every 22 minutes in the primary grades), which teacher is going to say, "I'm not going to hug you, and nobody else in here is allowed to, either."

On the high school level, where students take a certain delight in bucking the system, what is going to happen when all you have to do to be a rebel is get close enough to someone to touch them? And just how far will some schools go to put their foot down and discipline their way to compliance ("I'm sorry, Mrs. Wiggleworth, but Pat is suspended for repeatedly standing four feet away from other students").

And what kind of dreadful school culture grows in an environment where you are never supposed to get close enough people to look them in the eye or touch them?

I could go on and on; I'll bet those of you who are teachers have already thought of a million issues. The main point is this-- when folks like the CDC say, "Well, just space classroom desks six feet apart and have them eat lunch in the classrooms," they don't seem to understand that they have addressed roughly 6% of the issues that will come up in coronavirus school. It's going to take a huge amount of thinking through, and it would be useful (once again) if the Big Cheeses In Charge actually consulted the people who will be the boots on the ground for any such venture.

P.S. I have skipped over the part where a team of forty-seven maintenance people wipes down the entire school with bleach every half hour. Extra staff, extra people to distance around, and oh, the fumes.

All valid points by Peter and Jonathan.  Let's move onto our union leader: UFT President Michael Mulgrew. Mulgrew would not pull us out of unsafe buildings in March, but he will have a say in when and how we return to schools. We learned about his thinking in a Daily News op-ed the other day. Mulgrew states in part:

New York State already requires that incoming students have a certificate of vaccination against more than a dozen diseases, including polio, measles, mumps, hepatitis and other serious infections. The state could expand this requirement by insisting that all students and staff who are planning on attending school be tested in August for active or prior exposure to the coronavirus.

In September, medical personnel need to be available at every schoolhouse door to perform rapid temperature tests for all students and staff. Anyone with a temperature above 100.3 degrees Fahrenheit should be sent straight home, or directly to medical treatment.

Despite these precautions, since children carrying the virus may not show symptoms, it is possible that cases of the coronavirus may still emerge in the schools, where the concentration of students and staff makes it difficult if not impossible to practice effective social distance.

In such cases, the city needs to dramatically ramp up both its cleaning and disinfection protocols and the public notification procedures that are already mandated for other communicable diseases. The state will need the resources to aggressively trace those who came in contact with those who show symptoms.


Even these precautions may not be enough. Because schools have so many children in limited space, we may need to experiment with other options to adhere to social distancing, such as split schedules where students come in morning and afternoon shifts, or on alternate days.

We did this during the asbestos crisis for about a week after a delayed opening in 1993. It didn't work very well but we functioned until we were given the all-clear. But seriously, does anyone trust that the DOE will follow any protocols? Then we have the most important question that nobody that I know of in NYC has yet addressed:

What should we do if we don't believe it is safe?

The NEA suggests strikes. The AFT says to use our megaphone. Both are very reasonable suggestions.

However, at the union local level in NYC, the UFT is "strikeophobic." They would rather let us be sent into infected buildings than tell us to leave them because the Taylor Law would fine the Union if we were to strike. Dues first, Always!

Keeping that in mind, let's try to play this out. Suppose schools reopen in September but many teachers are still understandably worried. The media then reports on a second wave of Covid-19 spreading in NYC and there are cases in certain school buildings. Calling the Union if a school is deemed unsafe by teachers/parents and waiting for UFT help may take forever. Filing a safety grievance or a Public Employees Health and Safety complaint when there is coronavirus in the air may get your own kids some more inheritance as it might be the basis of a lawsuit someday but it won't help you in the immediate situation.  The New York State Nurses Association just found out how lawsuits are not the way to remedy immediate safety concerns.  Walking out of the building by yourself might be a sensible action but then one would be fighting alone. See the nurses for where that will probably lead in court.

But how about if we collectively demand that decisions on reopening be made at the school level instead of just having meaningless citywide protocols that won't be enforced?  Like so much else, this might not always be a one size fits all scenario.

When UFT Chapters or at least significant groups within Chapters, unite to exert their power, they can still have a positive influence. It may just work here but it will require an activist mindset of unionism which many do not currently possess, unfortunately. 

I believe individual Chapters should be involved in the planning for how schools will reopen. There are going to be a million issues as others have said. Leaving the protocols entirely up to the central DOE and UFT will invariably overlook a plethora of local building concerns. The parents need to be involved in planning for the reopening too. I suggest the School Leadership Teams or building Safety Committees are appropriate forums. Schools can't make up their own reopening rules but there should be a checklist of citywide protocols that have to be followed and enforcement should be left to the building level.

In the event that the building isn't operating safely or is not ready to safely reopen to the satisfaction of administration or teachers and other staff, or parents, then individual schools should be able to switch back to remote learning immediately, if only temporarily. I would suggest a huge DOE-UFT rapid response team to immediately investigate any safety claim within a couple of hours. The UFT part of the team should be made up of trusted, respected, knowledgeable (not all Unity Caucus) people.

If a Chapter can show a building is unsafe, which should not be that difficult to do, then that Chapter has to be able to walk out or not walk into that unhealthy building and go back to remote teaching and learning for the time being. The parents, in my opinion, will be supportive in most cases even if it creates a hardship for working families. At the secondary school level, I'm 99.9% sure the students will be with those teachers who say the building is not safe.

I'm trying to see how the UFT can again take on its traditional role as a check on the city and DOE. Okay, do all of you have some better ideas? This is just one suggestion. I'm sure there might be others that are better and/or more easily accomplished. I'm looking ahead but acknowledging what we are up against, including our own union's priorities. I still have no answer to Peter's hug problem in kindergarten in the end. Some of this doesn't seem to have a good response. Any thoughts?

Please no comments on how COVID-19 is overblown. Yesterday CNBC reported that Friday was the deadliest day in the USA with 2,909 deaths.  Read the story of the Queens funeral home overwhelmed by COVID-19 caskets. We can go out and pretend nothing's wrong but this is likely not going away for good for a while although I hope and pray it will.

62 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another thing - Don't forget in high school, they have 10 school days to equalize classes, so you could have a class with 40+ students for two or more weeks and I love how they say let the teachers change during periods and let the students remain in the room. That might work for Middle school, but how do you do that in high school when each kid has a different program. Also, kids are never going to wear those masks and the temperature checks are a complete joke. Also which teachers work late shift and which work early shift?

Anonymous said...

Not sure the argument. Schools must remain closed indefinitely.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I guess they are gonna throw kids into the street with a temperature or if they cough. Never gonna happen.

James Eterno said...

In 1993, kids went for half day. GRADES 11-12 from 7:30 - 11. Grades 9 and 10 from 11-2:30. That would be theory now. 6 hours fifty cut in half with a half hour in between to keep social distancing upon entrance and exit.

Anonymous said...

What about the gym classes?

James Eterno said...

Are you making the argument to keep schools closed indefinitely? School buildings are closed. Teachers are still working. Many students still learning.

Anonymous said...

What are you doing when a kid just gets up and walks out of the class?

Anonymous said...

Let him go.

Anonymous said...

Cafe? Bathroom? Boyfriend and girlfriend kissing? Hugging? Travel on public transport? Gym? What about how sneeze and cough droplets carry and last in air?

Anonymous said...

What about when day ends and all are in hallway?

Mike said...

540,

School is in session. Whether or not kids are doing any work is debatable.

I do like James’s and the ideas of others for split sessions, staggered programs, half days. Whatever you want to call it.

Scheduling must change. Smaller classes. Maybe groups of kids stay in the same room for a 3 hour session and teachers rotate.

Go back to rows(for learning, rows is better to begin with).

It will be challenging.

Anonymous said...

Lol. Then I have a file letter for poor classroom management. And, now there are students, not socially distancing, in the halls.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Charlotte Danielson never made a plan for a pandemic and social distancing when she made that rubric. Have fun trying to do group work.

Jeff said...

Students, most of them, do not learn with regular school open and arent learning now. That is well known and very rarely admitted. This is more to set up babysitting hours. Why not open K-8, leave HS closed, used the HS buildings to spread out k-8...

Anonymous said...

Shocking data confirms grave consequences of
@BilldeBlasio
singling out the Jewish comm for condemnation which unleashed avalanche of antisemitism.

311 data shows clearly social-distancing is citywide problem. Making the mayors dangerous tweet absolutely incomprehensible.

Anonymous said...

Yes, buildings closed indefinitely.
For example, how many are traveling with this? Two dead homeless men were found on Big Apple subway trains in less than 12 hours over the weekend — alarming workers as the MTA continues to struggle with vagrants in the system amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“The homeless situation is out of control,” said a train operator who only identified himself as Eddie, who came upon the body on the C Train Friday. “You don’t even know if the man died of coronavirus.”

Anonymous said...

There are some administrators, teachers students, and parents who will not feel comfortable at school without either a widely available vaccine or a widely available cure. There is no chance we will see one of those by September. Prepare for chaos.

Anonymous said...

@6:01 PM - You tell the student's parent/guardian to get him or her instead of the dean. Write a report to the parent and cc the dean.

Anonymous said...

Parents dont even answer the phone. You know damn well there is no discipline code.

TJL said...

5:40 Good point with the programming. Students will have to be programmed by class like in the junior high schools. When I worked in Catholic HS this is how it worked. There was no need for program changes left and right like we have. Better all around not just for C Virus. Random credits a student needs can be covered by remote learning.

As for what if a student is positive; the building, unless it lacks soap (which we know happens) is not the problem. It's the students and teachers who were in the classroom breathing the sick student's air for 3 hours. The "24 hour cleaning" is irrelevant. The students and teachers who share that classroom must have a 2-week quarantine at home. This is the same standard as anywhere else for any other service. My stepdad is a plumber and all customers are prescreened and if they are "high-risk" they don't get service. (Of course, the customer could lie, so masks are worn, etc.) In fact I can't even get my dishwasher fixed by the appliance repairman until next Wednesday as that will be 8 weeks since I last stepped foot in NYC.
Also, masks are important. Sure you can't force a student to wear one but you can't force someone at the pizzeria, supermarket, Church, Chinese food, Lowe's, etc. but we're at those places every week already. We can take care of ourselves if others won't. The other service providers I've had in my home and my priest in the confessional all wore them and I complied as well.
Lastly people seem to be making the assumption that schools, trains, etc. will be crowded. What I'm reading is that businesses (office and retail like restaurants) expect a significant amount of remote work to continue and for continued "demand destruction" for anything requiring gatherings. I wouldn't expect more than 50% attendance, maybe 2/3, at the most when we open in the Fall.

Anonymous said...

If a student comes on a building and then tests positive, his droplet could be all over. Close that school right away

Anonymous said...

I refuse to listen to Coronavirus advice from someone who went to school on March 17,18 and 19 like TJL did. You may be an excellent teacher but your epidemiological credentials are a bit lacking.

Anonymous said...

Cafe? Bathroom? Boyfriend and girlfriend kissing? Hugging? Travel on public transport? Gym? What about how sneeze and cough droplets carry and last in air?

Jonathan said...

James,

let me pose this question (I am not saying that it is the way to go, I am asking) - what if we did everything EXCEPT 6'. What's in that "everything" - and at what point would that be an ok condition for going back to school?

I'm having trouble with "remote until vaccine" but I can't see past the six feet.

Whatever the answer, I do agree that empowering chapters will be crucial.

I worry about planning. We have a whole lot of smart people around. Unfortunately they are usually outnumbered by people in charge.

Jonathan

Anonymous said...

Reopen school buildings when the vaccine is discovered and administered period. Until then remote on!

Anonymous said...

What about, for staff, sharing of computer desktops, mice, common eating space for staff, touching paper from out mailbox, doorknobs, water filter jugs, using copy machine, staff meetings, dept meetings...

Anonymous said...

Lots of purell and Clorox wipes.

Bronx ATR said...

A lot of this is misinformation. A lockdown was warranted in March. However, we are being distracted. Statistics are being manipulated. The same crap Bloomberg and deBlasio pulled on us as educators is being pulled on the entire country. Anyone who dies from anything is now automatically added to COVID-19 death statistics. This is because the true stats cannot justify these lockdowns. Society is being reformatted. Privacy and free speech is under attack. After this is over the USA could look and feel a lot like China. Pandemics will be used as the excuse. Power hungry leaders, such as Cuomo, are reveling and relishing their new found power. (Who the hell wants to look and listen to that jackass daily?!) They want to be in control forever. Tech companies are censoring everything that questions this extreme response to what is a 0.03% chance of contacting COVID-19.
Look at all of this objectively. There is no way NYC and the schools should continue to be shut down. This will precipitate untold changes and more governmental interference into our every day lives (and what’s left of teaching profession).What’s coming next? Microchips, physical monitoring, cameras and mics in the classroom and invasive laws for those that say enough is enough.

James Eterno said...

Wow, and you are not coming from the far right Bronx ATR. What are your sources please? I listen to you seriously but need the evidence of the screwing with numbers. If it is there, I have an open mind but not some right wing bullshit or left wing bullshit propaganda please.

Something from a hospital or somewhere. My brother surveyed NYPD retired captains en masse to help prove many of the crime numbers going down were a fraud. I saw it with my own eyes in the schools that numbers were messed with all over the place. Where is the evidence now on COVID-19 frauds?

Jonathan, Without any social distancing, we may as well just open and wait for the second wave which I hope and pray does not come. Droplets from people in close contact is mainly how this virus spreads from what I know.

Bronx ATR said...

What woke me up was watching Cuomo, a couple of weeks ago, say that all deaths would be now considered a result of the coronavirus. At first, I could see his point - that if so many people are dying and there’s no cause of death, it was probably be from the virus. Fear and panic allowed me to be momentarily blinded. I’ve just read doctors are being persuaded to change the certificates at certain hospitals outside NY - no need for that here, it’s already a Cuomo decree. It got me to thinking why? The statistics are going down, but the lockdowns and the severity of the lockdown are going up. There was also a recent Stanford study that called into question the statistical relevance of a 0.03 virus potentiality in comparison to the lockdowns. Their study was summarily attacked. I’ve read some of it on the Internet, but these doctors interviews have been taken off YouTube. I’m not a fan of censorship, especially when others are making decisions for us. Let us make the decision if these doctors are legit or full of crap. I know rudimentary statistics, enough to know when and if they are being manipulated. Most people don’t and don’t understand how it’s possible to change the results based on population, demographics or inherent bias. Statistical populations can be broken down by age, sex, race, educational background, economic background, location, ethnicity, and these populations can be isolated or linked, and can be continually changed to garnish the results the writer is looking for. We are letting panic motivate our decisions, rather that rational thought. I’d personally be happy if people start looking at this more critically and start questioning everything that has a profound impact on our lives, and will continue to do so.

JOEL said...

We are largely ill-equip to handle this virus. Schools are still set up in the factory model. Why do we think that the government will ever help the factory workers. Case in point, The Defense Production Act was used to send the workers back to the meat processing plants. The Danielson rubric is all out the window now that you cannot effective group students. We will either change the face of education as we know it or we too will be forced into unsafe environments. Remember in large part this virus does not make the kids sick. There is no amount of changes we can make to make school buildings safe enough for actual learning to happen without a trusted vaccine. Will this be the issue that gets the UFT to final say enough is enough... Doubtfully.

Anonymous said...

Is NJ just making up the rising death toll? This isn't fake news.

In those two months, 9,106 more people died this year than was typical in years past, according to provisional figures released by New Jersey’s Center for Health Statistics and Informatics.

And April’s stats speak to just how brutal of a month it was: 14,420 people died of all causes across New Jersey, far more than double the 6,090 deaths that 2015 to 2019 averaged.

Shelley said...

The AFT is out with a plan. Looks good unless you are a teacher.
Everything in the plan hinges on two things that we won't have in September: adequate testing and funding. What is adequate testing? 20 million/day. The Federal Government has failed the testing test. They can't get it done. So the States and the unions are trying to solve the problem but the plan they have is missing two essential elements: testing and money. Without adequate testing we will have, the AFT plan anticipates, clusters of outbreaks, deaths, and, if these are large enough, another surge on our healthcare system, with nurses, doctors, healthcare professionals, essential workers enduring most of the pain, and and another shelter in order.
The AFT is willing to take the calculated risk. What they propose, testing, tracing and isolation, in conjunction with other public health tools and interventions like physical distancing, proper hand-washing, the use of personal protective equipment like masks, and other supports and services is a compromise we should not accept. All the talk about what a safe building looks like is stupid. You can't see the virus. Young people carry it with no symptoms and pass it to older people who die. Taking temperatures is not testing and washing hands is not going to keep you alive. Short of a vaccine, we need to test 20 million a day. Until we can do that, no combination of protective measures will make schools safe for teachers.

Shelley said...

So we are back to distance learning and technology. We must insist that technology used will not use monies that would pay teachers. In prior economic downturns, not of this size of course, teacher retention, instructional budget lines were protected (somewhat). We need an ironclad protection. We will use certain tech, but not tech that replaces teachers or hands our responsibilities over to administrators, other staff, tech companies, consultants, tweed, software. This is being done now and we need to stop it. The money that the federal government sent to states and the budgeted monies that schools have, even with a freeze in place, may be allocated and spent to deal with "Covid-19" issues and these issue, like failing students, students in need of credit recovery, lower graduation rates and so on are being addressed with tech solutions. We need to stop this. One of the reasons we never recovered the lost jobs of the last economic crisis is that tech replaced those jobs. More and more edutech is automated. Automation is the number one job killer in America. Not China. Not WTO. Not NAFTA. Not globalization. Automation. All the talk of re-shoring jobs to manufacturing is BS. The jobs, that moved, first to the non-union south, then to Mexico, then to China, even with broken supply lines, are never coming back. Even in China, manufacturing is being automated. Jobs that return to America go to robots. To protect our jobs, our wages and benefits we need to navigate the crisis response with this in mind. Some tech solutions must be band. Teachers must be allowed to use or not use tech and this must be treated like the lesson plan. No strict format, no mandated tech. But some tech mus be band because it will cost jobs. This is a difficult thing to pull off. It's akin to what we see with books and other materials. There is a ton of materials used in schools, at PD sessions, that is anti-teacher, put out by people like DeVos, by charter school gurus, donated by Gates and other "philanthropists" like Bloomberg that is anti-teacher. This has not been addressed by the AFT or the UFT. Tech is million times more anti-teacher than the packaged curricula used in most schools in NYC and big tech and the hedge fund philanthropists are a greater threat to us than the virus and they are thriving in the malaise of this virus, taking advantage of it. Again, we have the parents and kids on our side. They don't love this distance learning. It's not working well. So a return to brick and mortar is what we all want, but in the transition, a longer one if we want testing and safety, we need a technology plan that protects jobs and is pro-teacher, pro-teaching, one that emphasizes the desire, the need to return to the best instructional environment, the classroom.

Pogue said...

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes... for a start

Altered days

Altered schedules - 8:30 - 12, 1 - 4:30PM, 6 - 9PM (Night School.Credit Recovery)

Classroom Rows - no more face to face groups

Neighborhood Large Schools - Cut down on Mass Transit, Cut down on extra Admins ;)

Students Get their own piece of tech equipment

waitingforsupport said...

@bronx atr: wrote,"this is misinformation...we are being distracted...statistics are being manipulated." What are your thoughts about the current easing of the lockdown? Will you still have the same opinion? The stats in nyc--thankfully--are trending down. Parks are gradually being opened. Do you think reformatting is ALL wrong? Just curious. Stay safe.

Bronx ATR said...

@Waitingforsupport, The parks here in the Bronx (and all of NYC) never closed. During March and April, virtually no one in the Bronx was wearing masks or gloves. Everyone was hanging out. In a park I used for frequent , Crotona Park (which has a professional tennis stadium no one seems aware of), everyone was being given free masks yesterday and tons of cops were out. I’d say most of the folks in the Bronx have the anti-bodies based on the fact most did not self-quarantine. The hospitals in the surrounding area have very few cases, the huge tent hospital in White Plains had only ten people infected people two weeks ago. There should be an easing up, I haven’t seen any though. (I haven’t had a haircut in eight weeks and am starting to look like a retired heavy metal band member.) I think folks are making decisions on panic and worst case scenarios - not rational thought. It’s also going to cause economic devastation for many. Teachers are lucky enough to get a full salary during this, but many of the working class and those struggling just to get by are not. I don’t know how much longer the government is going to keep printing money, but it is a dangerous practice. I don’t trust Trump, Cuomo, deBlasio, and definitely not Mulgrew. The decisions we allow to be made for us now will remain with us forever. Stay well.

TJL said...

James as Bronx ATR mentioned, and is easily searchable, the City changed the criteria for the death certificates in April. Gov. Wolf did it here in PA too. "Suspected" cases now list COVID-19 as cause of death. The numbers are being manipulated. The federal government has also given hospitals and state/local governments an incentive to do this as they are paid more for COVID patients (similar to how the Special Ed numbers are inflated to increase funding).
Along with this, as was mentioned by the 4AM poster, is the "excess deaths". 9,000 in NJ, for instance. It would be foolish to suggest that all - or for that matter, none - of them are COVID cases. Few or many could be due to the shutdown itself. For instance, people are foregoing medical treatment (see https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/494034-the-data-are-in-stop-the-panic-and-end-the-total-isolation , authored by a Dr. in a left-of-center publication) because they think the hospitals are crowded, are dangerous, or because they're being denied care due to rules against "elective" treatments.
There is the counterargument that only counting the confirmed (tested) deaths is an undercount. The government can withhold testing (particularly of cadavers). IMO (and my brother a UFT ICU nurse in the City concurs, and we disagree on politics) there is an interesting situation where many of those left-of-center are perpetuating an incorrect idea that there are not enough tests for those who need it (key word "need") and it is possible that right-of-center politicians and/or Chamber of Commerce types are using that as cover to not test dead/dying people and DEflate the mortality numbers.
Regardless of all of this, though I agree with Dr. Atlas (https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/495833-how-to-open-society-using-medical-science-and-logic) and Bronx ATR that schools CAN be opened, there is little reward with less than 30 instructional days left (and only 2-3 weeks elsewhere in the country) to make it worthwhile. It's better to let teachers (not that our Union or the DOE will listen to us) take the time to come up with a way that we can adapt our practices to live with this virus and mitigate (not eliminate) the risks involved.

TJL said...

JOEL's comment is interesting. Danielson out the window is a GOOD thing. No "grouping", group seating, or group work is also all GOOD. Students will learn more seated in rows and actually working independently (as opposed to BSing with their group and copying the answers off the smart kid) in a half-day with 12-ish (with AM/PM half-days, and 70% attendance) students than they do with 30-ish all day.

Anonymous said...

How come there are no jobs posted yet in the open market? Is this normal or does most jobs get posted in May / June?

Anonymous said...

As for open market, I don't think any school knows their budget yet and excessing or layoffs may come. Also, they may not know how to interview or do demo lessons.

Anonymous said...

The doctor is from Hoover Institute. Hardly a left wing think tank.

Shelley said...

There is no place on Earth I love more than our City and the Bronx holds a very special place in my heart. So I'm venting now when I say we should be concerned about the kind of conspiracy and conjecture posited here because the conclusions drawn from anecdotal evidence and conspiracy and conjecture, if believed, are very dangerous to people, especially people in the Bronx.

NB During a recession or depression (we are in a depression), deaths decline. They increase during economic booms. I k now it sound wrong but its not. Moreover, death by car accidents and job related deaths have plummeted during the pandemic. So, while governments may be attributing too many or too few deaths to the virus, we need to be careful about jumping into conspiracy theories.

Here, in Bloomberg News, no Left Wing Rag, is a story about flattening the curve in the Bronx. Worth a look:

An Uneven Curve Flattening, With Manhattan Ahead of the Bronx
By Laura Bliss and Angelica LaVito
May 3, 2020,

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-03/an-uneven-curve-flattening-with-manhattan-ahead-of-the-bronx



Anonymous said...

Open Market Fraud...LOL.

Anonymous said...

We arent going back in September. Numbers are getting worse.

Anonymous said...

As states begin to reopen, #coronavirus continues to spread at a rate of 30,000 new infections and 2,000 deaths *daily* — levels that may become the cruel “new normal,” warns
@ScottGottliebMD
. What’s needed now: rapid antigen tests like the one for flu or strep.
Quote Tweet

Scott Gottlieb, MD
@ScottGottliebMD
· 20h
My Op Ed in @WSJ: Mitigation stopped exponential growth, saved lives, preserved healthcare system. But we may be faced with persistent level of spread near current levels. Under that scenario, we must innovate drugs and diagnostics, and protect vulnerable.

waitingforsupport said...

@joel: We are not equipped to handle this virus UNLESS/UNTIL a vaccine is created. IMO, as horrible and frustrating as this time is, it's temporary. I am just wondering if people are preparing for what's going to happen once the vaccine is found. If we kowtow to admin as many have done in the past, expect a lot of people to get sick/die. If we take it to the streets, yell from the rafters and put our COLLECTIVE feet down when stuff isn't right, we may all win: teachers, students, and families.

Anonymous said...

I can honestly say that danielsen is the most subjective form of an evaluation system ever.

If the observer likes you, it will be mostly 3’s and an occasional 4 sprinkled in. If it is a newer AP or principal trying to make his or her mark, expect mostly 2’s and an occasional 3.

It is all subjective.

I have done things that an AP has said to a T and still been critiqued.

Danielsen is a joke.

Bring back S and U

That’s what I miss about being ATR. They are rated S/U, however, if someone complains about the ATR, odds are they get aU.

waitingforsupport said...

@Shelly: In your opinion, how can teachers stop handing over their responsibilities to admin NOW? Does the current contract address it? In some online programs, when students complete work a subject area teacher must review and then grade all of the work and the student must take assessments with this teacher. Can teachers refuse? I hate to seem single visioned but I truly believe in the importance of holding all students accountable. Hear me out: When we build a stronger middle class and show that we cannot be pushed around, we can change the trajectory of what you are saying. Our city students are tough. Their parents are tough. We see a population that at first glance behaves as if they don't care or can't learn. The government (admin) are dictating the type of citizens we will have : service workers. However, these students can be part of the new strong middle class. We need as many as possible in order to stem the tide of technology. In my opinion, we can use this time to push back and take back our power. Technology won't build a strong middle class. Technology will create a wider divide.

Anonymous said...

Re-open to do a comparison of SAT score vs grad rate vs attendance rate vs class grades vs reading and writing level vs those who end up with BA vs those who get better than a minimum wage job...It doesn't matter, they aren't learning.

waitingforsupport said...

@bronx atr: Thanks for explaining. I live in Manhattan and my parks closed. Folks were and are wearing masks (for the most part) but many are not social distancing as they should. The stores and supermarkets have established senior shopping hours and physical markers that help with social distancing. I agree that the politicians you mentioned failed us. Imo, nyc and specifically Manhattan (the hub of entry for mamy workers in the tristate) screwed up royally. The poor, working and middle class took the brunt of epidemic in nyc and across the nation. I hope what you're saying doesn't come to fruition but if it does then we are in some real deep doop doop. This is not a test. Many folks already let big brother (DOE) send them into a pit. I hope they come up with a plan for the fall. If not, big brother will have a plan for them. Take it to the streets. I'm reading and learning so much from this blog. I do know this: everything will be alright. Stay safe.

Anonymous said...

Lol open market. For those who get it they will get it. For those who don’t, that’s ok.

Anonymous said...

Will they fire PE teachers? 1. It is dangerous in this environment if we go back. 2. It can not take place via remote learning.

Anonymous said...

They can keep remote learning going, make teachers work a 4 day week, and take 20% off our salaries.

Anonymous said...

330 million people in country. How many havent had it yet? That is a lot to get sick and die.

Anonymous said...

#BREAKING: Joint statement by the Israeli Ministery of Defense and the Israel Institute for Biological Research: A significant breakthrough has been achieved in finding an antidote to the Corona virus that attacks the virus and can neutralize it in the sick body

More: According to the Institute's researchers: "The antibody development phase is over. A goal for international companies to produce the antibody in commercial quantities "

Anonymous said...

IHME just updated their model, and showed a sharp increase in the number of projected deaths to 134,475. This is in addition to an earlier CDC model that was reported on by
@nytimes that showed cases (and deaths) continuing to increase through May.

Anonymous said...

So, james...Now that we are several months into this, what is the plan? Are you telling people to opt out? A strike isnt happening? What next? or nothing as usual? And keep paying dues? Did we already forget March? And the last 20 years?

Anonymous said...

Cover your face, stay home, lose your job, lose your home, lose your mind, lose your life, hang on here’s Cuomo : relief is just a moment away.

James Eterno said...

6:41, I am a retiree blogger. I wouldn't lose the ability to vote in chapter elections, SBO elections, Prose, and SLT elections. Me opting out is fairly meaningless. I am one person who pretty much derives no real benefit as a retiree whose wife still works in the system. The big question is what is your plan? More before June. We will lay it out. No, we have not forgotten March.

Anonymous said...

The NYS Education Department needs to be convinced to remove all versions of the Danielson Framework from its list of approved teacher practice rubrics.

http://usny.nysed.gov/rttt/teachers-leaders/practicerubrics

The following Google searches should be examined for articles about the insights of Ted Morrissey and Alan Singer regarding Charlotte Danielson:

www.google.com/search?q=“Ted+Morrissey”+”Charlotte+Danielson”

www.google.com/search?q=“Alan+Singer”+”Charlotte+Danielson”

A number of the articles highlight significant concerns regarding Charlotte Danielson’s credentials and the Danielson Framework.

Anon2323 said...

Social distancing in large PE classes should be great. Hey Javier you cant guard him to close, sorry guys we cant play 5 vs 5 too many on a court. Instead of students yellng "Kobe" they will be yelling "corona".

Billy you gotta be 6 feet apart not 3 feet! Probably going to tell PE teachers to do yoga in spots that are 6 feet apart haha.