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You got some of those virusesses?


Ms. Spam
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On 3/14/2020 at 4:58 PM, Guest said:

We all knew that if it was happening to someone here it was going to be me.

And if anyone was going to get it twice it was going to be me.

Fever’s going up and oxygen is going down. It’s been over a month. At this point I wish it would either go away or be bad enough for hospitalization where I could at least get treatment. But at the same time I really don’t want to be in the hospital because it’s complete isolation there.

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43 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

1CFCC9AE-1F28-4C96-BAE1-60711278BF44.jpegThose are my oxygen stats and heart rate, taken roughly 15 minutes apart. Having a nebulizer is proving to be a life saver.

In high school I had an in-home nebulizer for my asthma and it was awesome.

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Who has two thumbs and is such a pain in the ass that I successfully lobbied the school district to move my son's group one phase ahead? This gal!

Seriously, though, it was unconsciable that general education 1st graders would get to go back ahead of him. Especially since his teacher is starting to think he may not need to be in the behavioral program for much longer. (Fingers crossed.)

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On 1/25/2021 at 10:09 PM, Destiny Skywalker said:

Who has two thumbs and is such a pain in the ass that I successfully lobbied the school district to move my son's group one phase ahead? This gal!

Seriously, though, it was unconsciable that general education 1st graders would get to go back ahead of him. Especially since his teacher is starting to think he may not need to be in the behavioral program for much longer. (Fingers crossed.)

Great job.

 

My lungs are hosed. I’m going to see a pulmonologist to try to find out if it’s forever or not.

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9 hours ago, Destiny Skywalker said:

Is your SpO2 more stable now at least?

No. I’m no longer running a fever and my cough isn’t as bad, but still having all the same breathing issues. 
 

I’m actually lucky as far as a lot of long haulers seem to be, in that I have objective symptoms instead of just subjective. Meaning that a lot of people online are complaining that their doctors don’t understand and say they seem fine and don’t have any recordable breathing issues. I still have very noticeable wheezing that goes beyond the amount I should have with the small amount of pneumonia showing on the x-ray, and my oxygen levels are dropping. So there are actual symptoms to take seriously.

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Re-opening schools is a shitshow. Like, I knew it would be, but I'm still astonished at how bad it is. Last night on a back to school Zoom call, they went over arrival procedures. Drop off car line, no parents. Got it. All students will then go to the gym to wait to be escorted to their classrooms. Wait WHAT. What is the point of a hybrid schedule if you are going to have a mini super-spreader event every morning? They are also deferring screening to parents.

Part of me thinks they are trying to get shut down, but that's pretty dark to put all of these kids at risk to accomplish that. We have a phone call with the principal in 30 minutes because we let her know we will drop our son off 20 minutes late every morning to avoid the superspreader event.

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You guys know how I feel about the school system, but I do have to say that I admire the shit out of all our school parents this year willing to go through this level of abject fuckery to get your kiddos their education. I'm not sure I would have it in me to deal with this. I would have pulled out all of my hair or developed a legit drinking problem by now. 

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Who says I haven't developed a drinking problem? (OK, so really its more like 1 glass a night, but that's more than I should be having if I ever want to wear jeans again. Honest philosophical debate right there.)

Apparently the "capacity" of the gym is 75 and there will be 40 kids. They are giving me and another parent in his class a special drop off spot in the staff lot so that our kids can be escorted to class and avoid the gym. I told them I was still concerned for those 40 kids, but they claim their HVAC guys said it was OK. I also threw down my PE license in HVAC and my husband was literally rolling on the floor trying to laugh silently. Good thing we did this on the phone and not Zoom, we wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face.

Advocacy is exhausting. Its a fine line between being a pain in the ass and not letting people get away with stupid.

Also thinking of asking the PTA if I can cut them a $300 check to buy 10 temporal thermometers. I don't trust people whatsoever. We need weekly testing now.

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Do it. So many problems can actually be solved if people who were able were willing to throw money at it. Not that I think it's your responsibility or anything like that, and my views on your willingness to finance someone else's carelessness would be vastly different outside of a global public health crisis. 

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We used to tithe and it was really rewarding. We stopped attending church when we had kids because... well... baby/mom rooms were full of sick people and then Ethan had so many problems with reflux, contact lens, etc. I agree that if people with the capability would be willing to give money, it would solve a lot of problems. Since we don't tithe, I enjoy throwing money at problems I can solve, like grants for the SpEd teachers to buy fidgets for all their students in distance learning. That was a fun one. I'm no Bill Gates but I know that helped a few families.

That said, I would have to attend a PTA meeting and they are hot for new blood because all their kids are 5th graders. Eek. It's already hard enough dodging responsibility on the SpEd PTSA.

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HAHAHAHAA. The opening in 100 day thing by the Biden administration is bad. Honestly this year and a half has actually put kids behind in learning by two years or more depending on how devoted parents are to the education at home. I mean there's a lot of self taught kids that can get into college and universities without the benefit of structured environments and social activities like school provides. Look at homeschoolers. But after being home for a year where things are whenever and however you can do them and you get them in a school environment where lines and doing things in a certain way are required and all the parents that believe or not believe about the virus are preaching it's just some kind of crazy. 

I really respect teachers who've been doing mixed hybrid for half a year or more now where they teach online while still having 6 to 8 kids present in the classroom. I took a paycut to stay home and virtually teach and I pick up all kinds of extra things for instance I'm office available to zoom a quick Algebra two algorithm class or throw out a quick lesson on finding the angle of a triangle for geometry or doing a proof on top of my regular teaching 4th and 5th grade classes. 

I think they should have kept the school kids that can easily do stuff from home like high school kids at home. Then take that high school that is not being used now daily and move all the kids that were in the lower grades or have learning issues to that school. There's multiple entrances were kids in a designated wing can just enter in a staggered schedule into the classrooms they will stay in. You can then spread the kids out and manage it more easily so there's the right amount of kids to an area and teachers are not exposed. 

And pfffft on letting parents screen. Are you crazy? Like these people are the same ones that probably never read notes from the school until after something is supposed to happen  concerning behavior issues until it comes to a head and now they're facing their kid getting expelled from the school because he acted out and beat up another kid or threw something in the classroom. 

PTA is hilarious. It's always the same group of people and rarely grows in size because that's like work or something. It takes a certain personality. Like band parents. 

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Kids are only "behind" because of arbitrary standards and markers. Those standards and markers could easily be ignored or shifted. It's always been a ridiculous idea to assume that just because kids were born within the same "year" that they should all be achieving at the same level at the same time. This pandemic has done a hell of a job highlighting education inequities that already existed but were ignored.

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2 hours ago, Cerina said:

Kids are only "behind" because of arbitrary standards and markers. Those standards and markers could easily be ignored or shifted. It's always been a ridiculous idea to assume that just because kids were born within the same "year" that they should all be achieving at the same level at the same time. This pandemic has done a hell of a job highlighting education inequities that already existed but were ignored.

Yeah, I always thought that was weird.  Kids who are higher than average get to go into AP classes and are celebrated, and kids who are lower performers are flunked and shamed for it.  Even adults learn at different rates, and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with IQ.  THat is wrong-headed.  I think grades should be done by subject, not age.  For example, if a kid is great in math, why not have that kid learning at 6th grade math  when they are traditionally at a 4th grade age, but if they aren't good at writing, let them be at say a 3rd grade level for writing?

But, I also think it is weird that modern society puts education all on the teacher.  It's rare that parents are as engaged as you are, or a lot of others who post here.  Probably because you love your kids so much to do that.  My brother has done the best he can as a teacher, and he can't get most of his parents to bother to do anything.  

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Education is largely undervalued in this country. Period. So naturally there are parents who don't view it, or their involvement, as something of importance. There's no quick and easy fix for that. It would literally need a cultural revolution. I, honestly, have no ideas about what, if anything, could "fix" our education system. I just consider myself awfully lucky that we have the option and ability to opt out.

Though, honestly again, we've made HUGE sacrifices to make this a reality. We live with income just barely above the poverty level most years. A second full income would change our lives dramatically. Instead, we get by on side-gigs and my absolutely fantastical money management and planning abilities (#shamelessbrag). So I know that while it's perfectly possible for many people who may not feel they have the opportunity to do what we do to actually make similar sacrifices if they wanted it enough, I also know our lives are an extreme commitment in this way. 

I don't remember where I was going with this...but I swear I had another point I wanted to make...

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I was talking about mostly like with Destiny's kiddo. that's hard on special needs kids that need that one on one. Those kids are slipping through the cracks and getting behind. 

I am hoping all this underlines how bad education is perceived in the US. Basically we're just giant feeders for colleges who are big business as well. I am okay with a kid who wants to be a repairman and go to a trade school. But starting in the fifties we were fed that line that we want our kids to get better things and do better and you can only do that if you go on to college and then college became about the experience. So football teams and pledging and getting in debt. Slowly we've become corporate over the years in schools and everything is grades and benchmarking.

Oddly if you think about it, we're going back to the old days like Laura Ingles Wilder where it's one teacher and they're doing all the grades at one time but in this case it's a parent at home. 

That said there is good things about schools. Testing for hearing and vision. Lunches and breakfast. HAHAHA.

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They are bringing back K-1 only (and grades 1-5 in my son's program) so far and having them on an AA/X/BB schedule. If you are in group A, you go to school Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, you have a quick 45 minute check in and independent work the rest of the day. Then Thursday and Friday are completely independent. They split the class in half to reduce the amount of kids. (The district is giving all families a choice to remain virtual or go to hybrid. I know many families decided to remain virtual because they felt it was more consistent and they thought it would equate to more teacher-led time.) However, my son's class only has 6 kids that decided to return in-person, so they are all on A schedule. The older group (grades 3-5), though, is on B schedule and now my son's teacher is the teacher for both of those groups. The 3-5 teacher is remaining virtual and they are giving him 2 of the 2nd graders from my son's class. (I think that's a pretty wide age gap and I was very uncomfortable any time they combined groups because the older kids definitely have some behavior issues around language. I'm thankful that we don't have that issue and while I swore like a sailor for years, I cleaned up my act so that my kids didn't pick up on it.) So basically my son's already overworked teacher got screwed and has to manage 2 whole hybrid classes.

We've had 2 independent days this week and its been fabulous. My son is done in 30-45 minutes and I can sit with him on my time and not the predetermined school schedule (which was basically 8:35 to 11:20 every day). He is fine academically,  its all the behavioral and social-emotional stuff that he needs help with, as well as his fine-motor skills. With everything on the computer, he was struggling with click and drag and not working on his handwriting whatsoever. This is why I pushed so hard for in-person. I am not worried about academics. But I saw how my daughter struggled this spring. She needed in-person and I'm thankful we had that option. She's had all As except for 1 B both quarters, and I know her school is academically challenging.

The pandemic has really made us reprioritize some things. Before, being a working parent made it so hard to get him the help he needed. The parent training we needed so badly was 2x per week in the middle of Seattle during rush hour traffic and no childcare for our daughter or in the middle of the school day (we are talking literally 4 hours of driving and being in class 2 days a week). We did it virtually in 13 weeks and got in earlier than expected because some families didn't want to do virtual and we got bumped up on the list. Its much easier now to tell people at work, hey I need to take my kid to therapy, but I'll be sitting in the car with my work phone so email me or yes I can join that conference call. Before, a weekly therapy appointment ruined the whole day. And he has come so far this year because we've been able to focus on him instead of dodging micromanager bosses. I think he will still need to be in the SpEd classroom for another year because he won't have had enough "practice", but if its with his current teacher I'm good with it. I think we are the rare exception, though. This has been a year of growth for us and I doubt many families can say that. It has been freaking hard, and I know I’ve had my share of bad days and had to switch jobs to get out from under a terrible boss who made my life hell for the first part of that year.

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9 hours ago, Zathras said:

Kids who are higher than average get to go into AP classes and are celebrated, and kids who are lower performers are flunked and shamed for it.  Even adults learn at different rates, and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with IQ.  THat is wrong-headed.  I think grades should be done by subject, not age.  For example, if a kid is great in math, why not have that kid learning at 6th grade math  when they are traditionally at a 4th grade age, but if they aren't good at writing, let them be at say a 3rd grade level for writing?

So my childhood school district had a really interesting way they handled this. Each major academic subject had at least 3 "tracks": basic (below average), average, and honors/AP. They met the kids where they were in each subject. We actually had 5 tracks in math and even those were pretty customizable. (There were 2 tracks for below average, including what I called "hairdresser math", because all of the girls I knew in it became hairdressers lol.) Not saying it was perfect, because I had a friend in all "basic" classes and she was so embarrassed by it, so obviously there was a stigma there. She was a very nice girl but just struggled like crazy with academics. But she could get As and Bs in those classes (you did take 0.5 hit on GPA for it, but a 4.5 A was better than a 3.0 C or 2.0 D). I was in all the honors/AP classes, but should've dropped to slightly less advanced math (would've still taken the AP Calculus AB exam instead of BC and probably would've done better on the AB sub-section), but my pride wouldn't let me do it. But I had a few friends who were in a combination of those, like advanced math but general English, or they liked history so they took the advanced social studies track. The couple of times I had to take a gen ed class were rough, though. A lot of class clowning, holy heck were my classmates disruptive and disrespectful.

My daughter's school sorted kids the last 2 years (starting in 2nd grade) by math ability. 2 out of 5 classes are actually 1 grade ahead in math but on grade level elsewhere. Unfortunately for my daughter, her good friends are all in advanced math so she never has class with her friends. My elementary school actually did something similar but they aligned it to reading groups starting in 1st grade. This helped the kids who were behind get extra focus and catch up. Like, they even used different textbooks in each class. By 3rd grade I'm pretty sure most of us were at grade level. I don't think we ever had anyone who was functionally illiterate or anything.

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Its good to hear so much of your family has gotten vaccinated.  My parents get their second shot on Friday.  My sister-in-law got her second shot today, too, and my brother got his first shot a week or two ago.  I can't wait until my wife is eligible to get one of the vaccines.

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