How She Teaches during a pandemic: Safety measures for in-person learning

Your school and district may be having discussions about returning to in-person learning. There are a lot of unknowns about the virus and how and if we can return to some sense of normalcy safely. If you are a parent or student, you may feel a strong desire to resume in-person learning, as well as harbor concerns for the safety of yourselves and your family. If you are a teacher, you may feel fear and anxiety about returning to the classroom all day with students because of the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. I know I did, back in October 2020 when my school and district returned to a “hybrid” model of synchronous in-person and remote learning. That fear and anxiety has not gone away after months of in-person learning.

Since I returned to in-person learning, I have thought a lot about what we’re doing at my school and how this might compare to other schools and districts around the country (and even the world!). In this series of blog posts, I will outline the precautions I have followed since October 2020 when we returned to in-person learning, and the safety measures that enable us to do in-person learning. Frustratingly, myself and other teachers were not involved in the decision making around this huge shift, or the creation of these safety protocols. I will say however, that these precautions seem to be effective. I will explain class sizes and groupings, getting into the building, classroom logistics, moving around the school, as well as breakfast, lunch, and mask breaks, all from my perspective as a middle school science teacher. Thank you for reading, and let me know your thoughts and what else you are interested in reading about by adding a comment.

• Class Sizes and Cohorts
• Getting into the Building