It was my second week back at my school. We’ve been training for virtual teaching. Sipping from a fire hose of instruction. We offer both and it’s overwhelming situation. Children start Monday and our numbers are 60% in school.
Thank you not only for current updates but educating me along the way! A colleague who gets her news from talk…
It was my second week back at my school. We’ve been training for virtual teaching. Sipping from a fire hose of instruction. We offer both and it’s overwhelming situation. Children start Monday and our numbers are 60% in school.
Thank you not only for current updates but educating me along the way! A colleague who gets her news from talk radio, started about how unfair the wealth tax would be. Well let me tell you about the wealth tax under Eisenhower! Then she moved on to why we shouldn’t give enough unemployment to make it more profitable to stay home. Tee hee hee! By the end of the argument, I suggested she become better informed about the issues. I recommend you and Robert Reich for starters!
Back to my measly research to figure out how in Texas the AG Paxton, and TEA’s Mike Morath, as well as Gov Abbott have forced schools open in a fatal pandemic. I hope I make it! I haven’t seen my daughter since Christmas, she’s in Queens. And my son is going with me to get my will and power of attorney notarized today. All to teach elementary art.
Keep it coming! I need to hear rational intelligent information! 💙
Thank you for "taking up oxygen", as Heather says, and educating your colleague on the subject of wealth tax and unemployment. You are an educator of all ages. Stay safe and be well💙
A lifelong friend I’ve known since I was 3! Posted a chart of all the things Democrats want to take away from Republicans. I said no that’s not true. This is just spreading fear and I don’t know one Democrat that has asked for any of these things. He said no one has ever been so rude to tell him he’s wrong. Well let me be the first and I’m a teacher it’s my job! 😆. I wish I could say more especially at work but it’s considered bad form to express political opinions in a school. Ridiculous! Time educate! 💙
I agree with your comments. After reading them, I thought perhaps I would share the experience of my own family. The following is from a letter I sent to a local candidate for office in our Texas House after she asked for my views on school reopening here in Texas.
One of my daughters is both head of the guidance department and an assistant director for a charter school in Orlando, FL. Her school is a K through 12 school for children with various learning and emotional challenges. She is also a class advisor for the high school students. When the virus first arose in China now almost a year ago, even before its spread to the U.S., her school began preparations for the potential eventuality of a need to go to remote learning. As you can imagine with many of the children in the school who are “one the spectrum” to one degree or another, remote learning can be particularly challenging for the students, teachers, and the parents as well. They developed and tested detailed plans, shared those early with the parents explaining carefully the procedures for the various contingencies, and getting buy-in from everyone well before the need to actually implement remote learning. Every child had access to broadband internet, even if it required scholarship funding to make certain it was available. Every child was provided an iPad and they practiced remote learning procedures in classrooms prior to actually needing to implement those procedures. They even provided evening classes to prepare the parents as well. Once it became obvious that they would need to switch from in-person classes to remote learning the transition was relatively smooth and successful. They actually became a case study for how to do remote learning for other schools and were featured on the local news for how they prepared and how parents, teachers, and students were doing with it all.
So, now with the approach of a new school year just starting and with Florida still in the throes of the Coronavirus and with significant outbreaks and hot spots, you would think her school would be well prepared. And they are. However, because Florida has the same type of weak Republican leadership and a Republican governor trying to please Trump, they now are mandated to return to in-person schooling with no ability to opt collectively as a school, or even individually for families preferring remote learning. Students, parents, and teachers are all very concerned and feel this is a failure on the part of the state's leaders. Most local school districts and schools were not given an option. A number of teachers have resigned or retired. Some families have opted for homeschooling out of fear. My daughter and the other administrators and teachers are doing their best for the kids and families. But no one, no one is happy or feels safe. They all feel as if they are walking through a live minefield. This did not have to happen. They were as well prepared for excellence in remote learning as they could possibly be in order to provide an excellent learning experience for the kids and safety for all. They were literally a case study in how to do remote learning well.
This is what Republican leadership brings to families in its efforts to please the narcissist in chief in the White House.
So, how do I feel about this issue? Yes, my family's most personal experience is with the same type of weak leadership but in our case, it is a Republican governor in a different state, Florida. But the story here is not much different. I do not have a close touch with how well prepared schools are here in Texas for remote learning or to provide a safe return experience. But, I sense they are not nearly well enough prepared. There simply has not been enough time or money available to do it well. It would appear from what I can see there has also not been enough thought and planning.
Our children’s education, health, and safety have to be among the most important responsibilities of the government and our leaders.
No way am I an expert on art, but since we've been on this roller-coaster ride, I have been thinking more than ever art and music are so important for these times. Good luck, Denise!
And a reminder that those of us who give our lives and souls to provide that art to the people who need it in these times (especially in my discipline of theatre/ music) are struggling mightily now because we cannot do what we live for: perform live. Performing organisations of every stripe, from professional down to local amateur groups, artists who provide what so many people yearn for now, many of these organisations the world over are in very dire financial straits. Not only have our sources of revenue been totally shut down--and I fear many many will not survive--but we can't do what we have spent our lives working for, starving for, training for, sacrificing for...what we LOVE most: being onstage in front of YOU giving our all. We can't do that, and it's killing us. We're trying our best to adapt and there are some creative ways some are managing to still get their art out there, but know how badly we R-E-A-L-L-Y want to be able to do this live. Theatre companies, opera companies, ballet companies the world over, all of us are desperately wanting to be able to get back to our livelihoods. People NEED art, in all its disciplines, right now more than ever and it pains us that we can't provide that LIVE. Let's just hope that we can survive all this intact and we as performing artists can get back to doing what we love and know best.
“Science will get us out of this, Art will get us through it!” Mo Willems.
I usually spend a big part of my summer in New York with my daughter going to art museums and we always go to Shakespeare in the Park. If you know of a charity to help fund the arts could you give the link? I can’t give big but I give what I can! 💙
There is a reason why we find paintings and artwork from the distant reaches of the past on cave walls and not accounting spreadsheets. We do need art. We always have.
And I would often ask my students, budding singers and/or actors: "Why art?" What is it? Why is it? Why do we need it? Think in the broadest, most basic ways. I like to play the 6-year-old asking imponderable questions to get people back to basics. (I think most parents can attest to children sometimes asking questions that defy easy answers, eh?) I would always tell them that part of becoming an artist is coming to a basic understanding of why it is we do what we do. It can help put a neophyte artist on a path to developing into a mature artist. You have to light that fire that will spur them onward. Again, I may have quoted this before, but my philosophy in teaching in my field was best summed up in this quote by Plutarch: "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."
Reminds me of seeing a piece about musicians performing in a European airport with strict public health limits—audience of one person at a time seated 20 feet away.
Art feeds the soul. As we figure out how to sustain it and do it safely, we also have the dilemma of our pre-pandemic notions about how too much screen time is unhealthy.
Thanks! Don’t see myself as an essential worker. I think we’re seen as managers of the child warehouse. I told my colleague the rich don’t make their money. If they did we wouldn’t need to be back at work!
It was my second week back at my school. We’ve been training for virtual teaching. Sipping from a fire hose of instruction. We offer both and it’s overwhelming situation. Children start Monday and our numbers are 60% in school.
Thank you not only for current updates but educating me along the way! A colleague who gets her news from talk radio, started about how unfair the wealth tax would be. Well let me tell you about the wealth tax under Eisenhower! Then she moved on to why we shouldn’t give enough unemployment to make it more profitable to stay home. Tee hee hee! By the end of the argument, I suggested she become better informed about the issues. I recommend you and Robert Reich for starters!
Back to my measly research to figure out how in Texas the AG Paxton, and TEA’s Mike Morath, as well as Gov Abbott have forced schools open in a fatal pandemic. I hope I make it! I haven’t seen my daughter since Christmas, she’s in Queens. And my son is going with me to get my will and power of attorney notarized today. All to teach elementary art.
Keep it coming! I need to hear rational intelligent information! 💙
Thank you for "taking up oxygen", as Heather says, and educating your colleague on the subject of wealth tax and unemployment. You are an educator of all ages. Stay safe and be well💙
A lifelong friend I’ve known since I was 3! Posted a chart of all the things Democrats want to take away from Republicans. I said no that’s not true. This is just spreading fear and I don’t know one Democrat that has asked for any of these things. He said no one has ever been so rude to tell him he’s wrong. Well let me be the first and I’m a teacher it’s my job! 😆. I wish I could say more especially at work but it’s considered bad form to express political opinions in a school. Ridiculous! Time educate! 💙
Amen to that!
I agree with your comments. After reading them, I thought perhaps I would share the experience of my own family. The following is from a letter I sent to a local candidate for office in our Texas House after she asked for my views on school reopening here in Texas.
_____________________________________________________________________
One of my daughters is both head of the guidance department and an assistant director for a charter school in Orlando, FL. Her school is a K through 12 school for children with various learning and emotional challenges. She is also a class advisor for the high school students. When the virus first arose in China now almost a year ago, even before its spread to the U.S., her school began preparations for the potential eventuality of a need to go to remote learning. As you can imagine with many of the children in the school who are “one the spectrum” to one degree or another, remote learning can be particularly challenging for the students, teachers, and the parents as well. They developed and tested detailed plans, shared those early with the parents explaining carefully the procedures for the various contingencies, and getting buy-in from everyone well before the need to actually implement remote learning. Every child had access to broadband internet, even if it required scholarship funding to make certain it was available. Every child was provided an iPad and they practiced remote learning procedures in classrooms prior to actually needing to implement those procedures. They even provided evening classes to prepare the parents as well. Once it became obvious that they would need to switch from in-person classes to remote learning the transition was relatively smooth and successful. They actually became a case study for how to do remote learning for other schools and were featured on the local news for how they prepared and how parents, teachers, and students were doing with it all.
So, now with the approach of a new school year just starting and with Florida still in the throes of the Coronavirus and with significant outbreaks and hot spots, you would think her school would be well prepared. And they are. However, because Florida has the same type of weak Republican leadership and a Republican governor trying to please Trump, they now are mandated to return to in-person schooling with no ability to opt collectively as a school, or even individually for families preferring remote learning. Students, parents, and teachers are all very concerned and feel this is a failure on the part of the state's leaders. Most local school districts and schools were not given an option. A number of teachers have resigned or retired. Some families have opted for homeschooling out of fear. My daughter and the other administrators and teachers are doing their best for the kids and families. But no one, no one is happy or feels safe. They all feel as if they are walking through a live minefield. This did not have to happen. They were as well prepared for excellence in remote learning as they could possibly be in order to provide an excellent learning experience for the kids and safety for all. They were literally a case study in how to do remote learning well.
This is what Republican leadership brings to families in its efforts to please the narcissist in chief in the White House.
So, how do I feel about this issue? Yes, my family's most personal experience is with the same type of weak leadership but in our case, it is a Republican governor in a different state, Florida. But the story here is not much different. I do not have a close touch with how well prepared schools are here in Texas for remote learning or to provide a safe return experience. But, I sense they are not nearly well enough prepared. There simply has not been enough time or money available to do it well. It would appear from what I can see there has also not been enough thought and planning.
Our children’s education, health, and safety have to be among the most important responsibilities of the government and our leaders.
No way am I an expert on art, but since we've been on this roller-coaster ride, I have been thinking more than ever art and music are so important for these times. Good luck, Denise!
And a reminder that those of us who give our lives and souls to provide that art to the people who need it in these times (especially in my discipline of theatre/ music) are struggling mightily now because we cannot do what we live for: perform live. Performing organisations of every stripe, from professional down to local amateur groups, artists who provide what so many people yearn for now, many of these organisations the world over are in very dire financial straits. Not only have our sources of revenue been totally shut down--and I fear many many will not survive--but we can't do what we have spent our lives working for, starving for, training for, sacrificing for...what we LOVE most: being onstage in front of YOU giving our all. We can't do that, and it's killing us. We're trying our best to adapt and there are some creative ways some are managing to still get their art out there, but know how badly we R-E-A-L-L-Y want to be able to do this live. Theatre companies, opera companies, ballet companies the world over, all of us are desperately wanting to be able to get back to our livelihoods. People NEED art, in all its disciplines, right now more than ever and it pains us that we can't provide that LIVE. Let's just hope that we can survive all this intact and we as performing artists can get back to doing what we love and know best.
“Science will get us out of this, Art will get us through it!” Mo Willems.
I usually spend a big part of my summer in New York with my daughter going to art museums and we always go to Shakespeare in the Park. If you know of a charity to help fund the arts could you give the link? I can’t give big but I give what I can! 💙
There is a reason why we find paintings and artwork from the distant reaches of the past on cave walls and not accounting spreadsheets. We do need art. We always have.
And I would often ask my students, budding singers and/or actors: "Why art?" What is it? Why is it? Why do we need it? Think in the broadest, most basic ways. I like to play the 6-year-old asking imponderable questions to get people back to basics. (I think most parents can attest to children sometimes asking questions that defy easy answers, eh?) I would always tell them that part of becoming an artist is coming to a basic understanding of why it is we do what we do. It can help put a neophyte artist on a path to developing into a mature artist. You have to light that fire that will spur them onward. Again, I may have quoted this before, but my philosophy in teaching in my field was best summed up in this quote by Plutarch: "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."
If you have access to the NYT, this article from today illustrates my point. Live music IS better!
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/arts/music/classical-music-jack-quartet.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20200822
I gasped (in a good way) when I saw the photos...the audience, the artists!
Reminds me of seeing a piece about musicians performing in a European airport with strict public health limits—audience of one person at a time seated 20 feet away.
Art feeds the soul. As we figure out how to sustain it and do it safely, we also have the dilemma of our pre-pandemic notions about how too much screen time is unhealthy.
Of course live music is better - just not better enough to warrant killing the musicians and/or the audience.
Thanks! Teaching art is best job ever! This year is going to be so different. Especially since teachers just want to get out alive. Not kidding!
Wishing all teachers and As well as all essential workers all good health. Thank you.
Thanks! Don’t see myself as an essential worker. I think we’re seen as managers of the child warehouse. I told my colleague the rich don’t make their money. If they did we wouldn’t need to be back at work!