Day 153

Tuesday August 11, 2020

Yesterday was an all day virtual training for professional development. I was on the computer from 8:00-5:00 with a few sporadic breaks here and there. It was exhausting.  We are preparing for the upcoming first quarter of teaching remotely.  Today was information on Neurosequential Model of Education. It is helpful information, but quite overwhelming today. Three modules each one hour long.  Then content guides and specific work with peers.  Lesson planning and collaboration.  When your career changes this drastically it really brings home the reality of the pandemic.  The other restrictions do not really effect me that much, but the training today was eye-opening.  It will surely be the an interesting first quarter of teaching.  Go slow to go fast is the current motto.  In order to create community, trust and a sense of belonging in your classroom, relationship building with students is a must and it begins with a slow pace of learning and practicing expectations while installing consistent and predictable routines. 

Gathering steam as you move into the content and building up both resilience and tolerance in children. 

In case you are wondering why the virus is called novel, here is an explanation from the NY Times, "It's called the novel coronavirus because we believed it was new to human experience, a brand-new pathogen totally alien to our immune systems, totally invulnerable to the defenses our bodies had built up against other diseases."

There is some mystery around this virus, most notably why around 40% of infected persons show no symptoms at all.  The theory (with very promising research) says some people are partially immune to the virus.  Although they are not sure why there is suggestion that old vaccines may be the reason.  This is good news, but in the bad news category, Americans continue to spread the virus profusely.  Our total has reached 5 million and a very unsettling 100,000 infections in children since late July.  All this with many school districts a mere weeks or even days away from classes starting.  Many are going the remote route, but others are in a hybrid or cohort model where kids and staff will be in the building.  New research has shown how children are affected in vastly different ways (depending on age)  than adults.  Much is still unknown about the transmission by children, but either way it will be both a most interesting and precarious fall semester.  In business news, the pandemic continues to crush certain companies.  Two such ride share companies Lyft and Uber are reporting a loss of 75% of their market due to COVID-19.