A Start to the Covid School Year

 

12 weeks ago, on August 18^th, my school opened doors to students learning in person. Over the summer there was a lot of debate as to how the school would open to in person learning or if it would select a more online option. Many schools in the US and some internationally had chosen to stay virtual. Others had plans that were hybrid or staggered how many kids in a room, how many days together and lots of other imaginative protocols. However, in Poland there was not thought to be a plan to do so. Polish schools would open three weeks after our start and each district would decide how that would happen. Some were planning to open 100% as normal, others were thinking to go completely online and lots in between.
For my school the initial plan included lot of new measures around the school to keep things cleaned. There were plans for distancing in some area. Testing would take place at least once a week for all staff and students with an antigen test. Masks would be worn at all times unless eating or outdoors for physical education or break times. Windows and doors would remain open and fans were encouraged to keep air fresh. All people entering the building would have to fill out a survey each day asking temperature and other variables that would determine if you were ok4school, if not a student or staff you would not be allowed in at all. If not ok according to the app you had to exclude for 72 hours then come back for a test before entry. At the gates the there was a check to see the survey was completed and there was an automatic temperature check, another layer of security. Those with high temps or incomplete apps would be stopped. The school had multiple defenses in place and though we knew some would get sick from outside activity the chance of getting sick inside the school seemed low.

Meetings among staff, such as this one at the beginning of the year, took place in larger well ventilated venues with everyone wearing masks. 

Plenty of measures were quite effective at what they were intended to do such as this temperature scanning device at all entrances. 

And all around the school as well as at every entrance there are spray disinfectant hand dispensersaries that everyone uses with frequency.  

                        One of the items that we probably shoud have had a long time ago and are effective are these hands free water bottle filling stations. No more fountains were people can put their mouth, and their spit, all over. 

and of course lots and lots of cleaning by the janitorial crew

Some measures that we started with were not effective. You can see some of these below and most have to do with distancing, something teenagers and younger children have little concept or control of. 

This is my classroom. Those upright mini-whiteboard can seperate students who would otherwise literally be touching elbows. Those lasted about a day before I gave up on having students removing them all the time to chat with the person next to them. 

Here you can see I put a shield around my desk, but I only had enough for one side. Naturally people just walked around it so it was useless. I've now gotten creative with the furniture so even if they walk around they can't get within 2 meters of me at my desk. Of course I still get up to teach and that means being within a meter or close to students much of the time, but always with a mask on. My lovely wife has also helped me to buy about a dozen masks so I can switch them in and out for comfort or use throughout the day and her mom has just sent me some intended for wearers of glasses as when talking I get quite fogged up. 

Signs telling students to keep apart on the stairway. The signs look nice, but the results do not. 

I'm not sure if people even read this one. 

This was a good idea, have people queue a few meters apart. But, when it's your friend and your chatting face to face why distance? Not effective. 

Distancing at lunch tables, while enforced, is kind of a moot point since the kids are still sitting well within a meter of one another with masks off eating and talking. 

Yeah right. Even if the best of intentions were there the hallways of a highschool as classes transition does not allow for distancing. 

There are other measures that have been partially effective at distancing. Routes around the building are outlined and in just about every instance cohorts between elementary, middle, and high school are kept to seperate areas. Teachers are encouraged, though not forced, to stick to your own cohort. For the most part this has worked, but as a side note it has also meant social isolation for many like families that have kids in multiple grades and teaching couples in different cohorts. Of course they can still mingle at home, but in the building they are not supposed to see each other. 

This way to the pool, not the most direct route as it goes through the elementary school. 

Areas have signage and are closed, usually, to people moving between. 

 

In August the weekly infection rate in our district of about 5.5 million people was around 600. This was not very high and Poland was coming off of the summer months when there were not many cases reported. Upon entering school everyone was tested and not one case was detected. Coming back from break, we were ready to go. While we all knew there would be infections we were surprised to have our first positive just a week after classes began, on August 24^th. This led to the closing of an entire grade level shortly after as other cases were detected, a spread among a few students of a grade but thought to have occurred outside of the school. This lasted a few days, testing was ramped up, and then all were brought back for in person instruction.

The school had protocols in place for when a positive was detected to contain the person in these nifty shipping containers and to have the nurse do their work there as well, one container for normal business and one for quarantine. Each division has two, so there are 6 of these mini-containers around the school grounds. 

Through the end of August and September new cases would pop up among students. Usually this did not trigger a closure, but rather an exclusion of the student and close contacts followed by much testing and then business as usual. At the end of September, the rates in the district for new infections had more than doubled from the summer and staff were concerned as more positives were popping up in the school. Still, we went on testing and teaching. Rates seemed to be ticking up in the district just a bit each day. By now Polish schools had been open for a couple of weeks and while I think many expected higher rates due to all the kids mingling the rate did not rocket up, initially. The government took cautious steps at closure, first closing just some key districts and only to some degree in "yellow zones" then moving others to "red" as cases and closures became more serious. Yet, other parts of the country were doing ok, so for a couple of months it was a bit of whack-a-mole. 

In the beginning of October, we had our first case among staff, then a teacher, and more students. The rates in Poland were picking up. The rates the first week of October were double the previous week. This trend continued in the month going from 1404 the last week of September to 3037 to 5652 to 8610 by the middle of the month. It was now becoming noticeable in the community. Ambulance sirens could often be heard or the ambulances seen racing about. At first it didn’t click for me, but talking to another colleague they said they heard ambulances all day long from their classroom window. That morning on my run I saw one outside a neighboring building and in the silence and dark of the morning the sight was impactful. I too started to see and hear them more. Approaching the final week before our autumn holiday the tension in the community was high. The Polish government had just the week before ordered that high schools go virtual, but we are a private school so we went on. The government also made the city a “red zone” meaning that activity would be curtailed in some places and masks would be mandatory even outside.

In the last week of school cases among staff, teachers, and students continued each day and rounds of testing increased to find and stop the spread. The government made a new proclamation that grades 4-8 would also go virtual. All of Poland was declared a “red zone” and all restaurants and some other businesses would have to close their doors. In this final week of school, we learned that some of the week’s cases might have been from an internal spread. Everyone knew it would happen at some point, but it still cast a pall on what would normally be an upbeat day before a vacation. Then, the next day, there came an announcement that the president had also gotten the virus. A week later all schools went virtual, but being a private school we kept on. 

 

At the moment things don’t look good. Cases at the school are at 55 in a population of about 1200. If we keep on this pace about 1 in 5 will have gotten the virus by the end of year. Look left, right, front and back. One of the five of you will get it.
We are heading into a dark and cold period for the next 4 months or so. Poland’s government and the people have been fairly good about mandating protections and following those mandates. Not perfect, but good. The school has also worked extremely hard to put protections in place and the community has largely followed the protocols. Not perfectly, but well. There is a lot to see as positive. Still, the virus is spreading fast and given the outlook for winter months the forecast is likely to be bad.

 

 It doesn’t look like we’ll get a vaccine for at least another 6 months or so and even then it will take some time to get to everyone. Just a few days ago Pfizer announced what seems like a successful vaccine, but still it takes time. Aya and I are ok. We rarely go out anywhere but the forest for a walk, run, or bike ride. We order groceries to come to us. We don’t socialize much at all and if we do it is on Zoom or outdoors with fresh air. A few weekends ago Aya had her birthday and we did a scavenger hunt outside then Zoomed with family and friends. I think we’ll have to be more creative like this in the coming year. For now it is getting colder though so our picnics and walks in the woods will be fewer and the Zoom calls will increase.  

The prospect of a long dark winter staying at home is not so bad, but I do know that we will be disappointed not to travel in Europe or to our home countries. The US is still facing border restrictions with Europe. Japan has not yet lifted the border to foreigners, though there are exceptions. Within Europe some borders are tightened, others not, yet no matter what the rules it isn’t a good time to travel. In light of this we’ve added Kuma and Shiro to our home. They are a good distraction and reminder to stretch out and take a nap sometimes.

Teaching has been very hard. Maybe even the hardest year I've ever had, including student teaching. Like many people I've been jolted into thinking about what my priorities are and I've daydreamed of just taking time off and smelling the roses. Still, I am teaching everyday in person with the occassional not in person teaching. It has been emotionally hard as each day I enter a school that, while defenses are high, is having a few cases pop up each day. I've even had a student in my class turn up positive, and then you wonder, am I at risk? For privacy reasons though you aren't told much, just get the swab up the nose and go right back to the classroom like nothing is amiss.
In addition to that we are have a virtual school running alongside the in person school. This means that kids can attend virtually if they like. So, sometimes I have students in class and out communicating with each other and myself and with me trying to teach to the two different groups. Sometimes I pull it off. Other times I am just glad to get through the day. Then there are days where I am not in school because the app has flagged me and I'm not allowed in. I can still teach, virtually, but it is hard. A sub enters the room in my place and then I direct the class via Zoom. The students and I do the best we can and in some ways it is better than in person teaching. It is much easier to monitor their work on a google doc for example, but it is much harder to not have them distracting themselves or others. All in person is best, all online is next best, then mixed is at the bottom of the barrel. 

Here a student holds up their work to the camera so I can see it well (you can see me projected on the screen to the left). I am connected to the speakers so I can easily be heard by students and the camera captures most of the room so I can see most of what is going on. Still, it is hard. 

Here I am in class directing a debate. There are groups of students paired up for the activity. Some are both in class, some 1 in and 1 out, some both are out of class. Still, we use the cameras, the mics, and the chat to get the job done. It is extremely draining to have to manage it all smoothly, but it is the best we have at the moment. 

This year is getting emotionally hard too. Pretty soon I’ll have reached the longest stretch without seeing my mother or father. I think the last stretch was 1.5 years from summer of 09’ to my wedding at the end of 10’, a little longer for my dad. I've not seen many friends in months or more. Even the friends I have in Warsaw I've seen in person much less than normally I would. It feels surreal and isolating in many ways, but I’m sure I’m not alone in that feeling. 2020 has had a decade's worth of personal and civil strife just about everywhere on the planet. There is an old (I think) Chinese saying about wishing someone an interesting life. When you say, I hope you have an interesting life, the phrase sounds positive. However, that was not the intent as an interesting life in old times meant one of tumult. For now I count my blessings and hang out with Aya and the kitties hoping 2021 is a much less interesting year.  

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June, July, and August - A Summer Like No Other

 

As June began and my school was still out of session we had firmly made the decision to stay in Warsaw for the summer. The U.S. was open to us, but if we were to return we anticipated trouble as the border to US citizen coming to the EU was closed. Japan had similarly banned U.S. entrance so Aya could go without me if she wanted, a threat she’s still holding over me.

 

What we could do is hope that the EU countries opened their border with one another and that they did later in June. Even so, we were reluctant to go much of anywhere so over the entire summer we took two short trips. One to Gdansk on the northern coast of Poland along the Baltic. The other to Prague with a stopover in Wroclaw each way.

We also visited the Solidarity museum, arriving right at opening to avoid crowds. It was a well designed building with lots of great information about the struggle to gain independence from the Soviets and to establish the Solidarity movement. 

We also visited the World War II museum which I had heard there was some controversy around. Basically, the government wanted a more pro-nationalistic display while the director and staff wanted a more even handed display. From what I saw the exhibit was pretty even handed. There was one point when I was listening to the audio that it stated that as the Germans retreated in the East that many German civilians had terrible things done to them. In a pro-nationalist museum I would not have expected such a statement. Then, just at the end of the museum there was the pro-nationalist piece of a film showing the strength of the Polish people. While the Poles have suffered quite a lot in the past century the film was over the top, in my opinion. 

 

Gdansk was a quite nice city and we’d like to go back for a little while longer, perhaps exploring the coast further to the west. One thing we did notice, quite shocking at the time, was that almost no on the very crowded streets were wearing masks or attempting to distance. We planned our outdoor activities to avoid busy areas at peak times because of this. At the time we speculated as well that it would not take long for infections to start rising again and it did in fact turn out that was around the trough for infections in Poland with cases rising every week since.

 

Our second trip to Prague was a bit longer in the car so we decided to stop over in Wroclaw along the way. It is a quite pretty town and felt a lot like Warsaw with an old town square and fast flowing river. Prague was quite nice. The architecture was very beautiful in the old town area which covers a heck of a lot of ground. The city is also quite walkable and so we used our feet mostly but did ride the trams time to time. In some ways we were lucky to go there during the time of a pandemic when borders to the EU were largely closed. The usually packed streets were not very crowded, though there were still a fair amount of people. We mostly walked the old town, the Charles bridge, up to the castle area and around our Airbnb. We also met up with Aya’s coworker for beers at night, a pretty cool experience. 

On the final day before leaving I insisted we go to the Basilica of St. James to see the old mummified arm of a thief, and there it is! I love to find a weird or creepy tourist attraction.

 

Speaking of weird or creepy attractions, on the way home we also stopped off a “bone church” Kaplika Czazszek just over the border in Poland. It was a bit creepy to see all the bones there. A nun was giving tours to small groups every 30 minutes or so. We got the full story in Polish, so we looked it up later to confirm. Many of the bones were from battles or disease. It is hard to imagine though why someone would want to collect all these bones. Do you just show up to the battle with a cart and start stacking people to take home with you? Seems a bit odd but I guess those were different times. We were not allowed to take photos inside, but of course some people have so here is one from the internet.

Besides those two trips we did keep quite busy. There was plenty of work for me teaching two sections of microeconomics for GOA, working on a resubmission for my ISTE certification, writing a fall class on Personal Finance for GOA and taking some graduate credits. Just as all that was winding down in early August work at ASW was gearing up. After much deliberation the school decided to go back to face to face classes with precautions. Everyone would participate in weekly batched testing. Everyone would wear a mask. Divisions of the school would be separated from each other. Larger meetings like sports or faculty meetings were cancelled. All in all, about everything that could be done to start the school year safely. As our start date in August neared we all timidly took that first step back to normalcy. More on that in a future post. 

 

Of course a lot of other things were happening in the world and with my family. My grandmother died in June. This was in some ways surprising and some ways not. Her health was not great for some time but until the last couple months there wasn’t too much indication that the end was near. I kept going over in my mind if I should risk it and try to reach the U.S. to see her one last time and then just hope the border would open for me to come back. In the end I didn’t go. I really wish I could have seen her one last time just to thank her for everything she did for me. I think the one thing I will respect her for the most is that she never said a bad word about my mother and in fact did just the opposite. Seeing many other families whose parents divorced and the relationship between extended family degrade I feel very fortunate that my grandmother always kept my mother close in her heart. 

 

In the U.S. and the world a lot happened in these three months and like many people I feel like 2020 is decades long. We had a presidential election here in Poland with the more conservative anti-EU party just barely squeaking out a victory 51% to 49%. Interestingly the dynamic of politics is similar to that in the US with the progressive urban dwellers voting one way and the rural conservatives voting another, more or less. The divide may become more stark, but Duda has 6 years now to continue the Peace and Justice Party promises. 

The U.S. election is in the fall but of course things are heating up already and things are not looking good for the incumbent with a flagging economy and a raging pandemic. In much of the world infections rates have gone very far down and it is largely controlled with the occasional flare up. The U.S., Brazil, India, and Russia are by far leading the world in cases. India seems to have a problem mostly because of the size of the population and the relatively weak healthcare system while the U.S. and Brazil seem to have problems because of incoherent or anti-science strategies. As of the writing of this post the U.S. death toll has exceeded 185,000 and is predicted to reach at least 250,000 by the year's end in 3 months. Interestingly I just had my first conversation with a couple who contracted it. While the wife said she had a mild case she is now, nearly 3 months later, still feeling it hard to breath. The husband said he was very sick for almost a month and now also feels a bit out of sorts and short of breath. He said he'd rather die than go through it again. 

 

 

As I had mentioned in another post, my school was debating over the summer on how to open properly. While it took some action from the teachers’ union and much studying by the director it was decided that the school year would start with everyone wearing a mask at all times (of course as a teacher being alone in my room I do not have to wear one). The only times to take them off would be to eat or if playing sports outside. Aya was kind enough to get me a few different masks from Japan to make sure that I will be comfortable teaching while wearing them. I have been changing masks after each class and making sure to wash them all a couple times a week. So far, so good, but it is uncomfortable and while a small irritation there are many small irritations in the day with trying to be safe. 

 

I’ve also installed a plexiglass shield part of the way around my desk so when students would like to sit down to discuss something we can do so a little more safely. Generally it is a little safer for me too sitting behind the shield.

 

I’ve also put fans around the open windows so students get good airflow throughout the class and put up the dividers on each of the paired desks as well as putting them into old school rows that aren’t facing each other. This breaks every rule of good pedagogy but it has to be done. I’ll also have to adjust a lot of my lessons as they all involve discussions or games or something that has students touching things and talking to one another.

 

Speaking of touching things, the school did provide my classroom with some hand sanitizer and there are automatic dispensers all around the school as well as signs to encourage social distancing. Teachers are expected to monitor the hallways and tell students to distance just like in an America high school. That is not working well. More on that in a later post. 

 

Now, here at the start of the year, I’ll have my fingers crossed that all things turn out well. It all feels a bit odd, but like most things I’d rather spend an ounce of prevention than a pound of cure.