12 Questions To Think About Before Starting School in the Fall
By: Mikey Sackman
Tags: Covid 19, Culture, Health, Family, Education

Even though it’s the middle of summer, it’s not unusual for me to begin thinking about the first day of school and wondering what my year will be like. I question what lessons I will start with, what books we will read, and special projects we will take on.

This year is different. Yes, I am still wondering and questioning, but the focus is not on the specifics of the curriculum and lesson plans. My thoughts are centered on how we are ever going to make it work as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on.

Just a month ago, after receiving guidelines from our state’s Office of Public Instruction, our district made the decision to open up as “normal.” But the situation has changed and they are reconsidering.

A One-sided Poll

Our superintendent recently sent out a poll to district staff and parents asking about their preferences: all-day in-school classes, all virtual learning classes, or a hybrid with some days at school and some at home.

Although teachers were included in the poll, the questions were definitely geared to the parents.

The district office wanted to know if they felt safe sending their children to school, questions about childcare, class/school schedules, and concerns about children’s mental and physical health.

There were many other questions. Too many to list here. It is obvious the school district cares deeply about the families they serve.

Teachers have many questions.

But what about the teachers and other staff members who may be putting themselves at risk by returning to the classroom?

As a high school teacher of students with learning disabilities, I have many questions. My questions delve a little deeper. In the trenches, how is this going to work? kind of deeper.

To some, these questions might seem trivial compared to the big problem of how to best educate our students. But if you have ever been responsible for instructing a large group of children, you will understand how much impact the seemingly minor things have.

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1. How will I ensure all students will wear masks while at school?

This question has been discussed. A lot. But there are several more questions attached to it that also need to be answered.

For instance, who provides the masks?

I know from experience, you cannot count on the parents or the student to bring their own masks. Not on a daily basis. They forget. It gets too costly. Or they assume the face masks will be provided by the school.

I’m not trying to disparage parents. I am one. But it’s the reality.

If the district supplies the face coverings, which they should if they want to guarantee students have access to them, it’s going to be expensive. An additional hit to the budget many schools didn’t plan on. So, more than likely, some other line item is going to have to be cut.

It’s not unusual for teachers to purchase supplies for their classrooms and students. I spend hundreds of dollars a year on paper, pencils, markers, rulers, art supplies, and food for my kids. I can’t imagine the additional cost of supplying face masks to those students showing up without their masks or losing their face coverings throughout the day.

Which brings my next related question. What do we do about students that continually misplace or remove their masks in class? What about the students that just flat out refuse to wear one?

Do we interrupt our teaching to deal with the student? Send him to the office? Send him home?

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2. Who monitors the handwashing?

Frequent and thorough handwashing is one of the requirements of returning to the classroom whether it is full-time or part-time.

Not every classroom has a sink. Mine doesn’t.

How do I guarantee the handwashing is getting done? Do I need to take classroom time to send students out one by one to wash up? I think this may be one of the most difficult requirements to monitor.

3. How do I know if a student has taken his temperature?

If a student must take his/her temperature before coming to school, how will I know if it has actually been done?

If the student takes his temperature at school, who is responsible for overseeing that? Will it be done by the teacher as the child enters the classroom, or will their temperature be taken as they come in the front door?

Will I be required to keep a record of student names and temperatures? And what do I do if a student does have a fever?

4. What happens if a student displays symptoms while at school?

Imagine that a student arrives at school with a cough and a fever of 100 degrees. Do you send him home? Or does he just go to the sick room? Will he be required to be tested for COVID-19? What happens if you are unable to contact a parent?

If a student (or a staff member, for that matter) does test positive for COVID-19, does the school close? Or do you just quarantine his classmates, the bus driver, the kids on the bus, and his teacher?

5. How does this affect my sick leave?

This may seem like a selfish question, but it has been on my mind. If one of my students or colleagues comes down with the virus and I am asked to quarantine for two weeks, will it be taken out of my sick leave?

Would it be possible for me to teach from home if I am not ill? Or will I have a substitute teacher? Just how will that work?

6. Who does all the cleaning in my classroom?

For years, I have been buying my own disinfectant wipes. My school doesn’t supply them and the custodians do not generally wipe down desks and tables and cabinets.

But I do. At the end of every day.

The new guidelines suggest teachers clean the classroom several times a day. I’m assuming this responsibility will fall on the teacher. It makes sense.

But who supplies the wipes? Will this be done during instructional time? During breaks? How often is “several times a day?”

7. How will we monitor social distancing?

Most students are very social creatures. They want to be together. Keeping kids six feet apart all day is going to be one enormous task.

Even if you have desks and tables set apart, students have a way of getting too close to each other. And they like to share: books, pencils, food, and ideas.

I find students like to work together, collaborate on projects, help each other out on assignments. They benefit in so many ways when working in small groups. Is there a way to still allow that and social distance?

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8. Will we eat lunch in the classrooms?

One suggestion to help with the social distancing issue is to have students eat their lunches in the classroom.

This would eliminate the crowd in the cafeteria. But, oh boy, what a mess in the classroom.

It also makes me wonder if the students will be sent one at a time to the cafeteria to get their lunch or will the lunch ladies be bringing it to our door?

Our district has an open campus policy during lunchtime. Students can go downtown to get lunch rather than eat in the cafeteria. Will that end?

Will students be required to take their temperature again if they leave and come back? How will we know if they maintained social distancing and wore their mask while they were off-campus?

9. When will teachers take breaks and have lunch?

With all the monitoring of temperatures, handwashing, and social distancing, I wonder when I will be allowed a break.

Will we hire extra staff to monitor the halls? Or will we have rotating breaks?

If students are eating lunch in my classroom, I will need to be there to supervise. When will I get my lunch break?

I realize I can eat with my students, but like most teachers, I use my thirty minutes for making copies, correcting student work, contacting parents, or collaborating with other teachers.

10. What do we do about “non-academic” classes?

Think about a PE class of thirty hot, sweaty kids. It doesn’t sound very safe. Perhaps there are ways around that with smaller groups of kids and split PE activities.

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It may not be so easy to figure out how to make art, shop, band, and music class work when students are sharing tools and materials or taking off their masks to play an instrument and sing.

I am sure assemblies, field trips, clubs, and sports will continue to be on hold until the pandemic is over or a vaccine is created. And neither one is likely to happen before school is scheduled to begin.

11. How do I provide one on one instruction?

There are times when a student needs a little private coaching. How will I maintain social distancing and still provide the necessary support the student needs?

I can imagine many of my high school students getting upset if I stand six feet away to give them the extra explanation they need on an assignment that everyone else seems to get.

12. What about the relationship between emotional well-being and learning?

Research shows and teachers are well aware, children do not learn well under stress. It is going to be a mighty big task for teachers to make students feel safe and comfortable while also taking their temperatures, reminding them to leave their masks on, wash their hands, and keep away from their friends.

I’m not saying we cannot create a stable environment for learning, but it is going to take time and work. When we first return to school, the priority may not be book work, but heart and mind work.

My Same, but Different, Role

I understand my role as a teacher will look different. I will be a nurse, counselor, custodian, data collector, and lunchroom monitor. They are responsibilities already incorporated, but unwritten, into my job description. I’ll just be doing it to a much larger degree.

That is not so much what I am worried about. The questions I have are related to the day to day workings of the classroom and my job, in particular. Questions that seem to raise more questions.

They may seem like minor things. But they need to be addressed before school begins. If the proper protocols are not in place when school starts, it will be hard to enforce them later.

Then the health and safety of students and staff will be at an even higher risk.

My Personal Suggestions

The more structure and clear routines we have in place in the beginning, the faster our students, our families, and our staff will get used to them. The practices will become just a part of our school day.

Personally, I am very worried about school starting “as normal” in the fall. It is going to look and feel very different from previous years. We won’t be jumping right back into our textbooks.

I think as teachers we will need to focus on three areas: teaching students to follow the health and safety protocols, develop relationships and work on students’ mental and emotional well-being, and provide instruction on how to successfully use and manage distant learning tools/systems.

Because chances are high that we will be returning to some form of virtual learning before the pandemic ends. We need to address the possibility.

We need to be prepared, to lessen the confusion and establish some kind of normalcy around either situation, class at school or class at home. This must happen before any learning can take place.