Rob Murphy

Not to mention how to address things as a teacher yourself as well.

I can certainly empathize. My district has stopped the language of social distancing because that is no longer a reality. I am being asked to create cohorts within my classroom. This is supposed to allow for better contact tracing. It sounds plausible, but very little is being done to keep students in one room all day. I know that is not possible with your age group.

Here’s my landscape:

Little Rock, AR: I teach at a middle school in Little Rock, Arkansas that is providing three options (5-day traditional, 2-day blended, and all virtual), and 58% of our students (over 300) have selected either 5-day or 2-day.

Alpharetta, GA: My two oldest children attend middle and elementary school in one of the biggest districts in the state, and after initially being offered options, school board has reversed course and opted for all virtual.

Royal Oak, Michigan: My youngest son attends elementary school in Royal Oak, who is offering either 2-day blended or all virtual.

Tuscaloosa, Alabama (University): My brother, Luke, is a philosophy professor and recently learned his Tuesday/Thursday classes would be divided in half with students attending only one day each week (either Tuesday or Thursday)...so blended.

Education is local has an entirely new meaning.

And to be clear, I’m not complaining. We all have to do the best we can to stay positive and help our own and other families (students) work through this cluster.

Thinking of you, Rob, and all the other parents out there.

Here's the deal. We live in the Salt Lake district which is presenting parents with one option - 100% online schooling. I teach 15 miles away in the suburban Canyons School District which is returning to 100% in-person schooling as if COVID weren't happening. Masks required though. So, since my wife works, Andy would be home alone most days attempting to do his freshman year of high school online. He didn't particularly thrive in that situation last spring when I was home every day to help him and crack the whip.

So, I enrolled him at my school for the first quarter. Hopefully Salt Lake will return to in-person school by mid October and Andy can then go to Highland High which is walking distance from our house. In the meantime, he will comute with me.

A big issue to untangle was the problem of athletic transfer rules for his baseball. I think we have that figured out.

I'm feeling your pain Wesley! What subjects are you teaching?

As far as my daughter goes, she just finished her freshman year at the University of Montana and loved it there. Problem is, she was planning to move into an apartment this year and at least 4 of her classes next semester are entirely online. We have to decide whether it makes sense to move to Missoula to sit in an apartment and take online classes.

She has filled out the transfer application to the University of Utah and is still waiting to hear. Classes there would be mostly online but much cheaper in-state tuition and she could live at home.

Very interesting that SL is all online, while Canyons is all in person. Makes it very hard for single or working parents, like you.

Rob, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the current releases coming from teachers unions around the country, such as in LA where they are putting in demands for defunding police, etc as part of school restarting. Or some districts where teachers don't even want to do online. Do you support these, or have other feelings?

In early July, we had to make our decision about virtual learning vs. brick buildings school, before Sarasota County let their return to school plans be known. I hate being in a position where I have to chose between a "known" and an "unknown." Well, because our kids are involved in things like band, we chose the brick buildings school. Now the return plan shows that most of those programs will be cancelled. But it is too late to go back to virtual learning. We already committed. There was a deadline.

So, we are plenty unhappy over here.

Thanks for asking, Rob. I’m teaching Geography and EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technology), which is an elective where kids work with local communities to identify and solve problems. I hope to have an opportunity to teach Arkansas History in the second semester or next year as well. Our middle school has nearly 600 students...

Tom- my sister started this week in Phoenix. She signed up 2 kids for online in July as they were told the classes would be small with 3+ hours a day of live instruction. Now, there are 50 kids per teacher for online, only 1 hour a day live, and there's not enough teachers so they are using librarians and other people as teachers. My sister also signed up her oldest kid for all in-person, but the board decided last night (after school already started) that everyone will be online till at least end of October. But the in-person option classes only have 15-20 students, so now there's a mix of 15 person online classes and 50 person online classes.

What a cluster...