Are we heading toward another “emergency” remote teaching term in Fall 2020?

Many schools and colleges shifted mid-term in March 2020 and complete 1/2 of Spring Term online, in what was termed, “emergency” remote teaching.

The stellar efforts of teachers, students, staff and parents to cope with the shift have been picked apart and villainized by many in the press and media, while teachers, professors, adjuncts, etc. were happy to merely figure out how to use Zoom, let alone apply their best professionalism toward Best Practice methods, etc.

I would say that much of the criticism was unfair, since myself and many colleagues shared stories of helping students cope with technical, social and mental issues related to learning form home, let alone meeting testing benchmarks and keeping current on grades and attendance.

Now 18 states are hurling toward excessive new cases and infection numbers that put reopening schools in August and September into question. My niece asked me about an article were 40 school principals became infected with Covid-19, at an in-person meeting where they were planning how to keep students safe from infection — the irony and jokes just about write themselves!

ozens of educators in Northern California were asked to quarantine after they were exposed to COVID-19 during an in-person school reopening meeting last month.

“A leadership team with the Santa Clara Unified School District met in person on June 19 to discuss strategies to help schools open safely in the fall, district superintendent Stella Kemp said during a virtual board meeting last week. Though many meetings held among school officials have been conducted online due to the continuing threat of the pandemic, Kemp said the complexity of the district’s path to reopening required in-person discussions.”

Meanwhile, about 1/4 of my colleagues and former colleagues have reported to me that they are using Professional Development monies to take courses, especially in curriculum and Instructional Design, as they claim that the writing on the wall about moving to permanent online instruction couldn’t be plainer. What do you think?

Please see: https://www.newsweek.com/dozens-educators-exposed-coronavirus-during-school-reopening-meeting-1515148?fbclid=IwAR3-bboeTYTe6IFPY-QIKCfcnQ6Ch6YBD6XTasur5PvJ65cw566GKv_WS9o