Teachers have been preparing their rooms and lessons to be ready to receive students! As the time draws near, my teacher friends with compromised health conditions grow more nervous. One of my friends is “getting her affairs in order”. My own parents are scared that I will unknowingly bring this virus home. All while one of our school nurses tells people that we all need to be around this virus so we can build up immunities. We really want to teach in person, but it is just not time. Our transmission rate is over 30 a day per 100,000 people….did I mention that our school system is one of the few that is not requiring mask wearing?
I have been working on making videos for my classes. I am starting to feel a little better about it. I think that all the time spent with my students, writing and acting out stories for recording, has helped me to feel better about being on camera. My granddaughter likes doing tik-Tok, and I don’t know that I am that confident. I must have trashed 5 videos today, trying to make just one. I have thought it would be fun to make some sock puppet friends to be with me in the videos. Then there is zoom, google meet, and Microsoft teams with the group meetings. I remember seeing things like this when I was a kid, and how wonderful it seemed to have the ability to see who was on the other end of a call!
Our governor spoke today with an update. One of the reporters asked a very important question. The reporter pointed out the guidelines and recommendations from the cdc, Dr. Birx, and studies that indicate that now is not the time for in person schools. The reporter asked the governor if there was some data that was being used to guide the decision for in person school. The governor had no studies regarding this. He said multiple times that child abuse reporting was down by 25%, and children receive mental health services at school. That was it….he said it repeatedly, every time he was asked about opening schools. This has prompted me to desire to go down a rabbit hole looking for any proactive or reactive actions he has taken to protect children from abuse, and make mental health services accessible. He didn’t say one word about teachers risking their health. The important thing to him seems to be that families got to choose whether to school in person or remotely. Well, teachers didn’t get that choice. We didn’t…..
To leave on a positive note, I learned today that there is a “free little library” at my church. How did I not know this? It is adorable!
~AoA
Army of Angels: Part 2 
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