Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

Biked around this evening and found a pub under a railway arch with outside tables, and it was the chillest, best time. Tucked away in an extremely residential neighbourhood near Wansted Flats. The landlord took our details for track and trace, wiped our table and gave us a menu. A host of caterpillars on a nearby tree provoked an all-table discussion that led to lots of good-natured arguing, Googling and invective against the government. A+ would recommend.

ah sounds lovely! Pub over the road has added to the kids' outside play area and I'm tempted to take them over there...

xxxpost, i'm not opposed to outdoor dining in principle but the way these places are set up forces you to walk a gauntlet barely wide enough for two people to pass comfortably between two rows of tables (not spaced 6' apart) full of unmasked diners.

it's like that on Columbus Ave in SF for sure but if I'm just walking by I'm not too worried about that kind of momentary outdoor proximity. happy that these restaurants can find a way to stay open

So, in this thread's spirit of venting irrationally:

IMO, we should be under full shelter in place for the next month (and not that namby pamby shit we were under in the spring) but since the federal gov't hates its citizens the local gov't has no choice but to let businesses go on as (sort of) usual and any consumer who's deciding to dine at a sidewalk table on Valencia or Columbus is no better than those fucks marching around the Indiana State House protesting the mask mandate.

IMO, we should be under full shelter in place for the next month year (and not that namby pamby shit we were under in the sprin

Our K-8 school board suddenly shifted mid meeting tonight from hybrid learning to remote, joining our high school and, seemingly, most of the other public schools in the area. I'm honestly relieved. It's a burden for many, if not most, but I'd gladly take 6 more months of this over serious illness or worse. I'm hoping whatever resources (which must be significant) saved will go to helping those for whom school-at-home is most untenable.

Desantis is doubling down and insisting teachers want to return to work, despite a recent survey that suggests the opposite.

most parents want distance learning too.

Yeah, as I understand it it was the teachers here that swayed the board from hybrid to remote.

The parents in my town are mobilizing for us to teach “synchronously” online and remote, which means that we should teach into a camera and also a classroom of kids simultaneously.

The pedagogy is awful, the workflow is awful, the materials management is awful, the student experience is passive, and .... parents can achieve the goal of parking their kid in front of the computer and letting us essentially babysit.

A not insignificant concern is that students with disabilities will be forced to attend school to revive IEP services and out themselves before other parents or students who are attending from home and will DEFINITELY be talking about what they see in the classroom.

I am straight up terrified of my school reopening in the fall. We're still waiting on Cuomo to give the final say but every option is bad, whether it's the distance learning, partial roster rotations or complete reopening.

partner just informed that all music classes will be distance learning, even when student are on premises

Discovered last night that students received an email telling them they would have a choice of being in class, watching remotely synchronously or watching a video. (Same as soda describes above)
Not only did faculty not receive this email, afaict we are being given no choice but to teach in a mask to a camera with no real idea who is paying attention ever. How to teach language or writing this way?? Nightmare!! Also admin decided NOW the best time to switch to 8 week semesters (it’s summer all year round!) and that’s going to create even worse logistical issues. The shit show must go on!

is this a pre-recorded video, I assume? if so, good lord - hope nobody has any questions!

jeez LL that sounds like about the worst teaching environment possible

God doesn’t it?? My students thought it sounded awful too. If/when we are officially informed, I’m going to advocate for 100% online for myself/my courses with the important parts recorded, as I’ve been doing all summer.

Ostensibly the videos will be recorded while we are teaching in our masks to a room with masked students. So if you want to learn about how to improve your writing, watch this video of a woman in a mask trying to communicate to invisible people!

Oh yeah and the video is 3 hours long

2x a week

i should stop talking about this here
sorry

nah, get it out!

That sounds legitimately terrible, LL.

While I am an adjunct and only teach 2 courses max per semester at any given school, I'm glad the institution where I currently work has not pressured profs for synchronous courses, or in-person courses, or long, pre-recorded lectures. In fact, in the case of online classes, we've been told that the *max* amount of time our pre-recorded videos should take is ~10 minutes. Anything more and absorption goes down dramatically, according to studies.

I held open Zoom office hours as well as sign-up Zoom office hours this spring, and while it sucked, students who had questions were more likely to show up to them than to my office hours when I was holding them in person. Weird, I know, but working on the 9th floor of a confusing building on a large urban campus dissuades many from seeking out the guy who rambles at them about Foucault three days a week.

My last word on the topic and then I will shut up: I am not going to let these rules make my teaching suck -- I will not compromise on my own quality of work. Don't worry -- I am not going to record 3 hour lectures in a mask and grade students on their ability to learn under these circumstances. I will find another path.

I was in six hours of meetings on reopening today. Headline: nobody knows anything and everybody's passing around the same articles as reference material but using it to advance their own competing agendas. Safely reopening a school mid-pandemic is the single most complicated thing I've ever been involved in. Is it possible? Who knows? How can kids eat lunch? Who knows? How do busses work? What happens when a teacher is absent? What happens when a kid sneezes? What happens to ELL student who needs to see a teacher's lips to language? It's overwhelming.

My wife got her teaching evaluations back from last semester this week (along with everyone else’s as she is also programme director for the masters in ever Department). She did really well because, unlike a fair proportion of her colleagues, actually did live and interactive lectures rather than pre-recordings. No surprise, students hate, and do less well with pre recorded lectures.

She also kept all the group discussion and project work in the classes, using the zoom breakout rooms function, and students appeared to respond really well to that. I came and did a guest speaker thing in a couple of classes and I was surprised how engaged the students were in a late evening class, and a high proportion of students stuck overseas.

Going hybrid would destroy all of that because at least if everyone is on zoom it’s a level playing field, and you can mute the ones who dominate the participation.

My Zoom lectures have helped my evals too. This aside, it's been cool to start with goofy shit. Yesterday I mocked myself for wearing a hat because my "hair is a travesty." I'll recommend movies, albums, and books too.

soda - sorry to hear it. can you smell the burnout or is the air so thick with the scent that you can't smell it anymore? :(

tbh i have no trouble teaching online, i am good at it. it would be nice to have zoom so we could use the mothershitting breakout room function but i still do a good job in spite of lacking that.

What happens to ELL student who needs to see a teacher's lips to language?

My son's speech therapists just started using a mask with a clear panel - plus a face shield, along with other precautions. Not sure how well it's going to work, but it's not like no one's been thinking about this stuff.

i found this rubric helpful when i had to move my classes online last year. (it’s a thread)

If you’re being asked to “move a class online,” models may be even more useful than “tips.”

Here’s a link to a course site for my fully online class last semester. It’s a simple approach with very little “tech.” Feel free to borrow any of the ideas here. https://t.co/mlRPb7ffI4

— Jesse Stommel (@Jessifer) March 10, 2020

my school meanwhile is planning on going full steam ahead, with move in starting less than a week before the first day of classes. we’re going to get more details on testing and other plans in “mid july” according to the update given on... july 21.

First trip to the supermarket since the government's change of policy on the compulsory wearing of facemask in shops. So, for the first time ever, the majority of people are wearing masks (though not necessarily on their faces) but not everyone and, still, not all of the staff are either.

not on their faces? are they wearing their masks on their ass?

Nothing should surprise me but the staff thing surprises me

I went into a (large, empty) charity shop today and asked what the mask situation was like and he said 100% of customers were wearing them, compared to like 40% earlier in the week. People here really will do things when they are told to, on the whole. Good thing we waited until July to ask people to wear masks!

Of the 10 people I saw in sainsbury's, all the customers were wearing masks but one of the assistants had his around his neck and another had hers under her nose.

My first time wearing a mask anywhere - not seen one for sale anywhere and not organised enough to order online. I had a bit of a practice on Friday night but forgot that my sunglasses were heavier and slide down more than the normal ones, especially when I'm not just sitting on the sofa.

The staff almost never have been or if they have then it's around their chin, as it's a very loud environment where they'll need to talk a lot (and the government messaging on this has been terrible)

I’ve seen shops already with a sign

no entry without a face covering
Don’t have one? Face coverings sold instore

🤔

Haven't seen anyone maskless in a store in a while but when I went to the Dollar General today the woman behind me just had her T-shirt collar pulled up over her face and mouth. She seemed embarrassed and aware that she'd fucked up, though, and she stood well more than six feet away from me (the fact that my own face mask has a giant pentagram in its center may have helped with that, I don't know).

every time I go to my 7/11 (which isn't often), this one employee behind the counter always has his mask under his nose. not like he took it down when there were no customers in store (which he still shouldn't do), but even when we were there.

finally complained to the store but idt they care. i've been having groceries delivered but I can't really deal with the markup and the delivery fees anymore, so i tend to go to the one grocery store where I know compliance is near 100%, and at early times of morning to avoid traffic.

I went to a pharmacy a few weeks ago & was annoyed that several people walked in without masks but it turned out they were all there buying masks

not on their faces? are they wearing their masks on their ass?

Round their necks usually.

Ahh, that'll completely reduce the neck-based transmissions

Nothing should surprise me but the staff thing surprises me

All through the pandemic, I have never seen the staff at the butchers section in Morrison's ever wear a mask... or gloves for that matter. Not that I use the butchers section in Morrison's.

It goes without saying that no-one is actually policing the wearing of masks either.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c2/Wutangclanprotectyaneck.jpg/220px-Wutangclanprotectyaneck.jpg

Haha!

The police are, I understand, trying to get the shops to police this themselves, and only actually call the police as a last resort - the shops are having none of this.

for anyone who has to teach or wait tables or do anything else potentially risky

1. https://www.fast.ai/2020/07/10/upgrade-your-mask/ for details on how to home-make/etsy a mask that protects you as well as others.

2. https://www.rollingstone.com/product-recommendations/lifestyle/where-to-buy-n95-masks-online-1024302/ will point you to https://n95maskco.com/ with this:

“N95 Mask Co. has and continues to prioritize frontline workers and institutions,” she tells Rolling Stone in an email. “By making our products available to consumers, we are able to maintain a consistent level of production at the factory level, evening out the ebbs and flows inherent to the institutional ordering process. In some rare instances, consumer orders may be delayed for short periods if inventory needs to be reallocated to our institutional customers quickly.”

While the technicalities of supply chain management can be complicated, the short answer is that the more production a company can implement at its factories, the more prepared it will be once hospitals and other government institutions come calling. As a rep for N95 Mask Co. explains: “[The company] needs to make a solid commitment to the factory and to UPS as to exactly how many units will be produced and shipped every day.”

In other words, even if an order doesn’t arrive from a hospital, product still needs to leave the factory and get on the plane with UPS. If not, the company loses scheduled time at the factory, and space on the plane the following day. “This is where the consumer orders come in to fill those gaps and keep the supply chain rolling,” the rep explains.

tonight my friend texted to say he's in the ER with a 104 degree fever, and i should get tested. he and i and a couple friends had a studio session yesterday for a couple hours, and he was without any symptoms then. but, bad news, his preliminary COVID screen says he's positive.

my partner and i want to get tested but AFAIK there's no testing available in Hawaii for asymptomatic people. she spent this afternoon on a photo shoot with a few of her friends, and on hearing the news (rightly) felt she'd be remiss not to tell them that they may have risked exposure. everyone in our circle is spooked. it's my first close brush with this virus. i guess maintaining even a limited number of social contacts was a mistake.

to top it off, hurricane charlie is incoming and we're going to get hit on Oahu tomorrow night. all a bit scary but i'm kinda resigned to it like *shrug emoji*

shit. stock up on tylenol/paracetemol and get tested if you can.