Posts by electricfalcon77

I remember hearing about this situation back in Pennsylvania. There was an elementary school there that actually stayed open for those final three days right before Christmas last year. Since the local municipality, rather than the county, is technically the one running the school, they managed to convince the town council—or whoever handles the emergency management there—to keep the doors open.

They didn't have any active cases among the staff or the kids, so they made the call to wrap up the semester in person.

jadetinker85 said:Fair enough... a teaching assistant. You’re working with students who actually need the help, which is a different ballgame.

That's not just some kid looking for a quick clarification or a little extra practice.
In my subject, nobody needed tutoring just to scrape by with a passing grade, though I have heard of a few people aiming for an A.

I wasn't just talking about the one student on an individualized education program and my role as their assistant—I meant several other kids in the class too! Some of them actually felt way more comfortable coming to me for help than they did approaching the actual teachers. Because of that, even the group work felt a bit clunky during the online sessions. Honestly, I think everything just flowed much more naturally when we were all physically back in the school building.

jadetinker85 said:If I had my way, I'd keep running everything according to Model C indefinitely. 🤷

I'm not quite sure which specific methods you're referring to, but there's a very good reason why nobody relied on online instructions before this pandemic hit. Traditionally, students and instructors have always sat down face-to-face for math, physics, and other subjects.

In my experience working as a teaching assistant, I've helped students remotely, and let me tell you—it is definitely not easy, even when you have a rock-solid internet connection.

Ronald Chavez2 said:In theory, there shouldn't be any gathering in the faculty lounge at all; teachers should ideally show up right before class starts, teach their lesson, and head straight home without lingering. I wonder how realistic that actually is, unless they genuinely enjoy coming home only to spend their evenings drowning in paperwork, grading, and lesson planning.

Actually, it's quite realistic! In the staff rooms where I've worked, we always made sure to limit the crowd (maybe 10 people max), and even those little get-togethers only lasted about 10 minutes during the big break. Plus, having folks catch up on paperwork in the lounge doesn't really cause a jam since there are usually only two or three teachers doing admin work while everyone else is busy teaching classes.