Back to School Modifications

For those of us in education, we have all started to wonder what school is going to look like in the fall when students return (we hope!) to our campuses.  There will certainly be modifications for social distancing, disinfection, and health standards.  There is so much unknown right now about how Covid-19 is going to progress and change our society that it is hard to plan for anything, much less how school will look in August.  For teachers though, planning is one of those things we must do and so it is a hot topic of conversation.  We are all wondering what to prepare for and not getting any answers.  I would like to theorize about some of the changes that we may be looking at.

1. Class Size Reduction-  People are saying that this is a must because we need to keep ourselves and our students 6 feet distant from one another.  If you know kids, you know that keeping their bodies to themselves is not a strong suit. Also, schools are looking at massive budget cuts which means that the possibility of teacher lay offs is high.  So... how do we make class sizes smaller with less staff?  The only way I can see this happening is if distance learning continues, at least in part.  Students may attend school on alternate days and do distance learning on other days.  Perhaps community programs can step up to provide childcare and a location for students to work on the days that they aren't at school.  In my community, I am thinking of the Boys and Girls Club or other tribal programs that may be able to support our youth at this time.  

We all need a tropical vacation after this!

2.  Planning Time-  Another thing to take into consideration if teachers are going to planning both in school and out of school lessons on a daily basis is planning time.  At least in my own school, I get 30 minutes of built in planning time during my paid work day with an additional hour one day per week for collaboration.  This is to plan for four different grade levels.  I couldn't even make my copies for the week in that amount of time, let alone plan engaging and interactive lessons.  When people talk about how teachers have it easy because they only work 8-3 every day, they don't understand how impossible that really is.  Teachers donate so much of their own time to planning, preparing, and after all of that to grading and filling out paperwork, their salaries and vacation schedules pale in comparison to others.  I know that if I am going to be expected to plan double the lessons, I am going to need more paid planning time.  Thank goodness for unions and strong union representatives for things like this!

I already feel like this most of the time...

3.  Teacher Reassignment-  Here is my idea for how districts can avoid paying for extra planning time and also keep class sizes smaller.  Reassign teachers who are digitally competent to create grade level lessons and activities that can be shared district-wide.  These teachers can do live lessons at times and also create online videos or assignments for students of certain grade levels.  They do not have to be specific to a single class, or even school.  This would especially work in a small district such as my own.  The online teachers will fully cover that aspect of teaching while the classroom teachers will continue on with their normal duties.  Online teachers must be proficient with Google Classroom or whatever platform the district chooses to use and be prepared to correlate their lessons with Common Core standards, district curriculum, and students' needs.  This would be an excellent opportunity for those teachers with health risks that make them more susceptible to the Covid-19 to continue working and supporting their students but at a distance that does not put anyone's lives in danger.  

It isn't going away so let's embrace it!