We had our first sped subcommittee meeting this week. Part of the district gen ed plan is that each class will be a "cohort" and those cohorts won't mix for any reason. Obviously this presents an issue for service time, as well all work with multiple grade levels (most people have K-6). We were asked to consider the idea of doing sped services in a "telehealth" model, at least for some groups. So instead of pulling my group in person, the kids would log onto zoom and I would be alone in my office teaching them via zoom.
This sounds very safe (and selfishly, I'm thinking if I'm alone in my office I'll be able to take off my mask much of the day!) but obviously there are logistical concerns. One idea was to have "stations" set up, like desks with plexiglass around them, that students would go to for a quieter space to log on to zoom. These would be in places that are now not being used, such as the gym or library.
A sped teacher from another building said his kids could set a timer and go there unsupervised. I'm really not sure about that. I guess they're technically being supervised by me via zoom, but all they have to do is close the computer or walk away, or even move slightly off screen, and I have no idea what happens in that room. This may work for really well behaved kids who will just do the right thing, but we all know sped is never comprised completely of well behaved kids.
Another idea is to have paras monitor the stations. That doesn't make sense to me because how can I say it's not safe for me to be there in person, but I'm going to send my para in there to be a sacrificial lamb?
I thought about possibly putting the stations in the hallway. We have wide hallways/it was previously typical for some students or small groups to work in the hallway. We previously had paras assigned to each hallway (like K hallway, 1st/2nd grade hallway) etc. Possibly the paras could sort of keep an eye on the stations and maybe even help spray them down between uses. This would be safer than having locations K-6 uses, but it would still expose the paras to multiple cohorts. It would also pull paras away from classrooms, and I'm betting they'll be needed due to the increased behaviors I'm sure we'll see this year. My thought was they could frequently go in and out of the classrooms/hallways, but that may not be feasible if they're really tied up in classrooms.
I worry that it is a lose-lose situation for all of us--staff and students--GenEd and SpEd--alike.
I am concerned that all of the speeches from Fauci are focus on concerns about the kids, safety for the students, and so on. Nothing is mentioned about the adults/staff.
The thing I worry about most in those plans is confidentiality. If anyone walks by in the hallway while you're working with a student then they could hear everything. It would also be very distracting to work in the hall for anyone. The same goes for the gym or library. The easiest thing I see if you don't have to be able to touch the student or supplies would be for you to have the students each separated by plexiglass and you separated from them as well. It's an awful analogy, but think the way prison visitation/phones are set up on TV.
I've been working in the hallway for 2 years now because of a very mentally ill child that is self contained half days in my classroom...I cannot teach anyone in there...so I set up learning areas in hall. That way...students are still taught...as far as confidentiality...my classroom is kinda off the beaten path
Confidentiality wouldn't be an issue. I wouldn't be with the kids in the hallway (although for various reasons, some service providers have had to work with kids in the hallway previously). They would be on their computers with headphones in and I would be alone in my office teaching them via zoom.
I'm wondering if we could get higher quality headphones that block out surrounding noise better. Our governor directed a ton of CARES act money to schools, which was great, but not as helpful as everyone originally thought because it can ONLY be used on covid related expenses. So all of the cleaning supplies, masks, plexiglass, etc. will be covered. IDK if they could prove something like the headphones are "covid related" enough or not.
I'm also going to ask what the plan is for intervention and EL services. IDK about EL, but our reading interventionists would totally be okay with risking death for better DIBELS scores. I wish I were kidding. I'm afraid they'll just want to pull their groups as normal and it will be harder for me to do something like this.
I'm also wondering if this just isn't feasible and it would be better to set up better protections in my room- like getting individual desks rather than having a small group table and maybe getting plexiglass around those. I was talking to my dad (also a sped teacher) and he said he thinks the "telehealth" thing will last for about 4 days and then they'll just say it doesn't work and want me to teach regular groups. He doesn't want me to bank on them actually carrying out that idea and then have no protections in my room to fall back on.
It certainly eliminates the problem of transitioning and keeping schedules in tact. Yes, the only problem is that they would need to connect within their quarantined classrooms. The aspect of not disturbing their class is the hard part.
Resource teachers definitely have a harder time teaching around this than others.
You know though, this is the kind of logistics problem that we face in many areas returning without a vaccine. Ugh.
Last edited by Speced9; 07-16-2020 at 12:44 PM..
Reason: Extra thought
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07-09-2020, 02:49 PM
