Call the waahmbulance (Monday)

[mae0111]

Our governor just officially canceled school for the rest of the year. I’m not surprised, but I’m still sad. Kids had mixed emotions.

[rere]

Apr 21, 2020 11:04:40 GMT -5 phdmomma said:

rere , Are other classes doing this as well? I teach at a university, but we've been told that we shouldn't do assignments like this. Like, we can give a timed assignment, but there needs to be a range of time to take it. Like a 20 minute quiz, that you get twenty minutes to complete, but the time range to complete it is several hours (I like to give 24). I think that it might be worth moving this up the food-chain, particularly if this is the only teacher doing these short windows.

If I cannot get a resolution, this is exactly what I am going to do.  She just emailed and wanted to know an exact time he can take a quiz that he missed.  No window an exact time.  This is ridiculous.  She says he's the only one having trouble, but DS is saying his classmates are having issues.  Maybe I am the only parent complaining.  

[twinmomma]

mae0111, Sorry, I saw the news. Welcome to the club. It sucks. But we're all here together?

rere, That seems totally unreasonable. There's no way your kid is the only one struggling with meeting a specific time like that given the circumstances of life right now. I can't believe the teacher doesn't see how insane that is!

[phdmomma]

mae0111, Welcome to the club...sorry that you are here.

[covergirl82]

mae0111, so sorry you are in the club too. It's brought me to tears a few times. We still had 8 weeks of school left after spring break ended (instruction resumed April 13). Online learning has not been great. DD needed help from her teacher on a lesson, and her teacher pushed her to the end of the help time (30 minutes total, although it took us 8 minutes to log on when DD's school laptop wouldn't work and we had to switch to our home laptop), and then she ran out of time, and didn't offer to do a phone call or video chat this afternoon. So oh well, we'll turn it in as is. DH and I don't have an hour to sit through the lesson and try and figure it out (since we've already spent time before we had DD ask her teacher for help). I feel kind of bad wishing away the rest of the school year, but I just feel like the end of the school year can't come soon enough now.

[waverly]

The only good thing for us is that we started really early for the school year so our last day is May 22. 4 more weeks. I can do it, right?

[186momx]

I'm also counting down until June 12th when school is over. During the tech meeting I attended this morning it was implied that we may be making up the past 4 weeks into the summer. I almost started to cry on video. It will depend on what the department of education wants and they haven't made that decision yet.

[polecat8]

rere, I know there are online platforms out there that will allow a test or quiz to be taken at anytime during the day. And a time limit can be set on them as well. I know because I had to do this for my grad school class. It's not difficult to set it up.

186momx, our governor set a limit on how long the kids can be in school. No school in our state is allowed to have classes after June 30th. He already waived the 180 day requirement so I'm not sure why any schools would need to have class later in the summer.

DD and DS1 are coasting along in their online studies. I can't complain too much.

[mellym]

mae0111, at least you are with good company! Really hope summer camps are on.

186momx, our Gov waived the education hours requirement so we won't have to make up anything.

I'm coming down with a sore throat. Let the paranoia begin.

[k3am]

DH has been on calls all freaking day. Finally gets a break, and what does he do? WELL.. he definitely doesn't help the heck out with either kid. Instead, he took a walk. Thanks, buddy. I APPRECIATE ALL THE HELP YOU'VE PROVIDED TODAY.

[186momx]

mellym, polecat8, high school seniors have until August 31st to get everything completed to graduate which has left the window for school all summer open. I doubt the teacher unions will go for it though. I just talked to my sister who had a meeting with some of her fellow teachers and her district admin are getting a lot of push back from dept of ed to be doing more and students should be on the computer doing classes and teachers engaged for the entire school day. Basically that e-school should look just like regular school. I can't imagine that school setup working.

[erbear]

Apr 21, 2020 17:03:59 GMT -5 186momx said:

mellym , polecat8 , high school seniors have until August 31st to get everything completed to graduate which has left the window for school all summer open. I doubt the teacher unions will go for it though.

No chance. No teacher will go for this. We are all working now (and most harder than we work during the school year - it's fucking hard to shift your whole curriculum online). Contracts don't include working through the summer. 

[mellym]

The WI Legislature is taking the SAH Order to the Supreme Court and asking them to suspend it. We are back in limbo. Why does it always come down to politics?

[phdmomma]

mellym, Because things are messed up here. So very messed up here.

[mustardseed2007]

We had our first summer camp cancel. It was zoo camp and they are canceling all summer programming.

[polecat8]

One of the local 4th of July parades was cancelled.
4th of July is one of my favorite holidays because it is around my birthday. This year I am turning 40 and DH was planning a big party for me.
My family has a vacation booked for mid-July to FL. My mom will be crushed if we have to cancel.
The thought of the corona virus reaching that far into summer is heartbreaking.

[sdlaura]

California governor just announced that the state is reinstating elective surgeries. I guess that's a positive first step?

Also announced more testing, including antibody testing, and hiring a lot of people to do contact tracing.

[k3am]

sdlaura , I'm hopeful!

CA hasn't had nearly as many hospitalizations and critical cases as other states have.

Also elective surgeries are basically the only way hospitals make money.. which is why states like NY, who have nurses and doctors working in the trenches around the clock are also forcing them to take pay cuts.

I do keep looking at the CA statistics and seeing we're having more and more confirmed cases per day than before.. but also we went from 2,000 tests a day to something like 15,000 tests per day.

Also today they announced that apparently the first Bay Area covid death was February 6. So it's been here for a veeeeeeeeeery long time.

ETA: I clearly have been reading the news too much.

[sdlaura]

Me too k3am. I had already read everything you mentioned As you know I go (well, went) to the Bay Area a lot and I remember that they knew an infected person passed through the San Jose airport in late January. So I’m not surprised there was community spread by early February!

[k3am]

sdlaura , i have a couple clients in the elective surgery space and... I selfishly want elective surgeries to open up so that I don't have to deal with their collapse. O:)

BTW, if you need spinal surgery, every doctor/practice that contracts with one of my clients has committed to doing surgeries 24/7 for several months after this to get through the backlog and to make money.

[mommyatty]

There are certain things I think make sense to open up. Elective surgery is one of those things. I don’t mean big surgeries like heart surgery. But cataract surgery at an eye center? Yeah. I’m good with that. (Assuming PPE isn’t a problem, which of course it is.) I’m even good with “retail takeout”. I have friends who own shops where they could easily and safely do pick up. So I guess I’m okay with some of this stuff that seems pretty low risk to me.

[sdlaura]

I think we should also add outpatient preventive screening for at risk individuals to the list of allowable health stuff. A friend of mine is an oncologist and she’s really worried about all the people who have had suspect results on some kind of cancer screening but haven’t been allowed to come in for further testing.

I had an ultrasound yesterday and felt really safe - it was easy to social distance from everyone but the tech, and we were both wearing masks. There were sanitizer and places to wash hands everywhere and most doors were propped open so I didn’t have to touch anything. It felt a lot safer than going grocery shopping.

[covergirl82]

In my state, a lot of necessary surgeries and tests have been classified as "non-essential", which could be putting people's lives at risk (I've heard of people who are waiting on cancer screenings, one lady needs a partial amputation and there is danger she could get sepsis the longer she waits, some people who need to see a therapist aren't able to). Hospitals are starting to do layoffs, so it shows there is a lot of capacity. The shutdowns were intended to make it so that hospitals weren't overwhelmed. Since they're not overwhelmed (where I am), it's time to start opening things back up. (Knowing that there may be a bit of a surge in cases, but again, as long as there is capacity at the hospital, then continue with opening up.)

I think a lot of places could safely open or at least partially open. Landscaping and construction can start back up. Outpatient surgeries and diagnostic testing could be done safely. Small businesses could easily limit patrons in the store or offer pick ups. Chiropractor offices could open. DD was supposed to get her braces off next week, but won't be able to. I don't see why orthodontists couldn't open up and take one or two patients at a time.

[cosmowife]

I don’t understand the notion of partially opening up small businesses. It often doesn’t make any sense to operate a business at reduced capacity. For example, DH could incur more potential expenses by opening up his shop partially, compared with just staying shut down. It doesn’t paper to open but only take in a reduced number of customers or client.

[waverly]

Yeah I agree on some medical procedures can open up and some outdoor type things. We've have landscapers open the whole time in our state. I thought they had too many people when they came, but overall they were able to social distance.

Dentists and Ortho's I just wonder because they spend their time literally in people's mouths. I wonder how they handle other infectious diseases in the industry. Maybe this is an industry org guideline type thing.

[sdlaura]

cosmowife I think it makes sense to allow the business owners to decide whether they're likely to be profitable or not at reduced capacity. Just because the government says businesses can re-open, it doesn't mean they have to, you know? My BIL has struggled with the decision as a food service business owner. Ultimately he decided to close one of his 3 businesses temporarily because it wasn't covering expenses under shelter-in-place (they're in Maryland), but he kept the other two open.

covergirl82 , in California, landscaping and construction is still allowed (well, I'm not sure about residential remodeling, but commercial construction/road work is still going on around me - the landscapers and construction workers are just wearing masks and distancing). I think Michigan went farther in their closures than a lot of states. Then again, California has a rate of 3 deaths per 100,000 people, while Michigan has a rate of 9x that (27 deaths per 100,000), so I guess I can maybe understand more restrictions.

[covergirl82]

sdlaura, really the restrictions should've been regionalized given that 90% of cases and fatalities are in the greater Detroit area (not where I live in MI). But Whitmer (IMO) is like a combo of Dolores Umbridge (from Harry Potter) and the principal in The Breakfast Club (specifically the scene where he gives Bender more detentions). And landscaping on government properties is considered "essential," but residential landscaping is banned, which makes no sense. (Same is true for construction.) I'm in favor of less restrictions, and allowing businesses more freedom to decide how to operate safely. This was all supposedly about "flattening the curve" (which was never a guarantee of less people getting sick or dying, it was supposed to not overwhelm hospitals), and there is so much capacity at hospitals that they are laying off staff, so it's time to start removing restrictions.

[k3am]

sdlaura, construction and (I think) landscaping are supposed to be shut down in our part of CA. All of our downtown major construction is lights out. Residential construction is still happening, and if they're caught, they get a warning and then a fine. Same (I think) with the landscapers, but police aren't enforcing stuff like that.

[twinmomma]

covergirl82, From what I've seen, working in healthcare staffing, is that lay offs are generally happening based on specialty. For example, the operating room nurses may be laid off because there are no elective surgeries happening. But they may be bringing in additional staff for things like ICU to deal with COVID cases. Not every healthcare employee is "created equal" just because they all have an RN and they can't all just shuffle between floors and specialties, so a lot of the lay offs are based on that. Some people can float between, but others don't have the skill set or experience to do that.

[k3am]

During math lessons, DD will fight us like crazy and pull the dumb card.. "Oh.. I don't know what 17-7 is... 12?" kind of BS.

She's currently doing the math fact fluency portion on mobymax (same types of questions) and just blew through 60 questions in 10 minutes, getting 95% correct in order to win two minutes of game time.