Adventures in Quarantine

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Day 730: 2 Years Later: Masks Off!

Almost exactly 2 years after we shuttered our schools ( and my first blog post) , my school district went mask optional! We made the change on Monday, March 14th 2022. Now, there a LOT of different and perfectly valid emotions around this change. Here is me, feeling pretty excited about it on Monday: And here I sit Saturday morning, writing from my couch with a nasty head cold! (Not covid!) The governor of Vermont hinted at this change in mid February, and made the change official starting in March. School districts in Vermont would have the choice when it came to masking. There were lots of feelings from teachers, parents, and community members. Our community positivity rate is still over 4%. There are still people dying of covid in Vermont. In addition, we have another new subvariant of Omicron making the rounds. Many parents feel like it isn't time, or that it isn't safe yet, and I want to be sensitive to those perspectives. Others feel like masks are an easy way to conti...

Day 724: First time out of the US!

AU CANADA!!!! How we've missed you!! As a French teacher living so close to the border, I was accustomed to taking students to Canada twice a year, plus usually at least 1 personal trip a year, sometimes more. Naturally as a French speaker I always loved going to Quebec and having a chance to speak some French (plus the delicious chocolatine, tarte au sucre, and an abundance of international foods that we can't get in Vermont. Oh and the SPAS! The spas!!!). Suddenly being cut off from our neighbor to the North felt like such a loss to me. And sure, a year ago I made it all the way to Maui, which is a lot farther away, and one could argue much more culturally different from Vermont than Quebec. But actually crossing an international border? This felt like a HUGE milestone. There was bureaucracy to deal with: PCR tests within 72 hours of arrival, downloading of apps, uploading of vaccine cards, planning a quarantine location, etc. But the whole family tested negative, we got i...

Day 683: What We Are Up Against: The Education Culture Wars

What is the mission of education in the United States? To create a more just and peaceful world? To create informed, democratic, global citizens? To create good little robots that recite the Pledge of Allegiance and don't question authority and believe everything they hear? I teach French. I teach about global competence, intercultural competence, and issues of global importance. Yes, that involves talking about race, talking about climate change, talking about imperialism, and talking about social justice. I've worked over the years (and am still working) to make my curriculum less "settler centered" (i.e. less white and European, I'm avoiding the word "decolonized" on purpose) and to tell the story of French from many different perspectives from many different places in the world. Teaching about the Haitian Revolution involves talking about race. It is hard to discuss immigration in France without addressing colonialism, slavery, and racial identitie...

Day 681: National Guard in Schools

Some interesting news today. First, a justice of the Supreme Court is stepping down, and Biden is vowing to appoint a Black woman! But the one that made me want to stop and write was the headline about New Mexico Schools calling in the National Guard to serve as substitute teachers amid crisis level staffing shortages. It is hard for me to explain what it is like, as a public school teacher, to suddenly have my profession and my colleagues in the spotlight so much. Before Covid-19, education would occasionally make headlines, but usually only when teachers were off striking for some crazy cause. And in those cases we were often villiafied for making ridiculous demands for pay and working conditions, and it seemed to me the general consensus was that we should just get back to work. But much like health care workers, teachers found themselves topping headlines pretty constantly throughout the pandemic. For me, teaching has always been somewhat of a public role, b...

Day 678: Back in Quarantine, Cranking out Sub Plans

Well, yesterday as Mike and the youngest two kids finished their quarantine and we ready to head back to work and school, my eldest child (11 years old) and I both got faint red lines on our rapid tests. I don't know what to say at this point. I'd accepted a long time ago that this day would come, and now that it is here I honestly feel a little indifferent about officially having the mischievous virus inside my body. I've built a big fire in the woodstove and made broth and tea...and M and I are watching Boba Fett and Mandalorian. But we are also doing work. One thing I am not indifferent about: This pandemic is still hard. And I don't want to get all "woe is me", but one of the frustrating parts about being a teacher is the expectation/necessity to work, even when you are out sick. We need to provide sub plans, learning materials, links, and keep our online plans updated, even while we are away. Sometimes making plans to be out sick is harder than just sho...

Day 676: Frustrations with Rapid Antigen Tests

Two years ago, who knew that we'd all know the ins and outs of different kinds of virus testing? Line 'em up! Here we are testing all 3 kiddos: Last week the schools in Vermont announced a big change in their testing strategy. The powers that be have decided to move away from the more accurate (but longer turn around time) PCR test, and instead rely more heavily on rapid antigen tests to identify covid in schools (among other changes, see more here) . The logic here (as I understand it) is that because the omicron variant spreads so rapidly, waiting 2-3 days for a pcr test no longer makes sense as an effective way to detect and contain the virus. Instead, students (and staff) are told to use an antigen test for two days in a row (on day 4 and 5 after exposure, and/or at some point after you're positive, that part is still confusing, more below). The rules are different if you are unvaccinated (or you've been vaccinated with a certain vaccine a certain number of months...

Day 675: This wine is...very subtle...

Conversations in Quarantine, one week in: Mike and kids have been home for almost a week now. For the record, no one has symptoms except for Mike, but 2 out of 3 kids are now positive (we think?1) Conversations at dinner tonight from our covid confined household: Me: How was your day kids? Kids: Oh good, we played outside in the snow this morning... E: Oh yeah, and I put a snowball in the fridge! Me: Fridge? Not the freezer? ... E: And S drew on me. Me: You drew on your sister? S: Oh yeah. I drew on her...by ACCIDENT. ... Me: Isn't this wine good? Husband: I don't know, it's very subtle. Me: Covid tastebuds! We are fine. This is fine.