covid & school/college

Discussion in 'General Discussion / Real life stuff' started by dinoceros, Aug 28, 2020.

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are you doing school/college online or in person?

  1. online

    42.9%
  2. in person

    25.0%
  3. some classes online, some in person

    32.1%
  1. dinoceros

    dinoceros Donator

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    i'd like to have a discussion on here about back to school

    personally, i'm in a very touchy situation for covid. my mom is asthmatic, my dad is cardiac and i live with my 85-year old grandpa. my whole family could die if covid entered my household.

    i'm going into my final year of high school and i am doing it in person.
    it is not, by any means, a personal choice and it is just a shitty decision made by officials in quebec. i live in montreal, which is essentially the biggest hot-spot for covid in canada, and i am forced to take school in person (unless I personally have a life-threatening medical condition that puts me at risk). that's only in elementary and high school too.

    the measures they took to 'protect' us are as follow: you have one group and you sit in one class. you can remove your mask in class and get close to people in your class. you must do social distancing with people outside of your class. you must eat with people of your class in lunch, but otherwise keep your mask all the time unless you see school personnel, etc

    there are 30 people in my class. we are very hardly at 1m of distance when sitting down. they all remove their masks and practice no social distancing whatsoever. they obviously do shit with people outside of their class. even if i wash my hands and keep my mask, i am at a massive risk of getting covid just by being in class.

    my girlfriend is a college student and she has all her classes online. in college, the only stuff that is in person is whatever absolutely can't be done with zoom.

    i am safer at work and in the buses & subway than i am at school. i feel absolutely abandoned by my government who does not even give me an option to protect my family who is massively at risk. the government of quebec banned the canadian app that gives you an alert if you're near someone who has covid. i feel helpless and i find it so fucking dumb that i have to go put my family's lives in danger to have a fucking geography or math class in person (every single class i have is absolutely possible to do with zoom). i don't know what to do and i feel like the citizen of a third world country where the government puts my family and i's lives in danger with arbitrary "protection" measures just so they can have a normal back to school in person. these rules are not even seen as protection measures, they're literally spoken about by the administration and teachers as rules. just some rules u have to follow. obviously, most of my classmates won't give a fuck about them and because of this it has the possibility to kill my whole family. i just don't know what to do.

    how's your school/college/government doing it? are you doing school online or in person?
     
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  2. hamnah

    hamnah Hannah Donator

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    I am a sophomore in hs this year, I'm attending in-person (though currently I am in quarantine as my grandma was recently hospitalized and she had to take a mandatory covid test before she was released, and she tested positive).

    We went back to school on August 13. My school has about 1,500 people, including staff. Masks are required, and for the most part there have been pretty much no problems with kids not wearing them (although some kids wear them UNDER their nostrils -.-). They made it so that you can only walk in certain directions down certain halls, and 2 of the 4 staircases are up while the other 2 are down. My school is based around a square shape with the library in the middle, and we have to walk counter-clockwise around the square (which can be inconvenient). My school also split lunch up into 3 periods, and half the kids have it in the cafe while half now have it in the extra gym we have (I got the gym). It's weird, and I'm only in one class where we're 6 feet apart.

    There has already been one confirmed case, and the kid who got it was the mayor's son. He's popular, so who knows how many people he gave it to. We'll probably go into online schooling soon lol.

    I'm also taking driver's ed right now, masks are required and we aren't spaced out and obviously the car situation isn't great (you can't social distance in a Chevy Malibu).
     
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  3. Yupac

    Yupac Moderator Lite Staff Member Helper

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    In Norway we are currently having normal school, teachers are saying we have to wash our hands, keep 1 meter distance and follow the corona rules, but no one except me and a few people cares about them they're thinking that nothing will happen, I'm trying to keep distance with people and wash my hands, because I don't want to get the virus and infect other people. Apparently someone in my class got the virus, so they sent us home earlier, I hope they will be more careful by now on.
     
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  4. Kaylyn

    Kaylyn resigned Donator

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    i just started my freshman year of college on the 17th, and all of my classes are online for the first semester. i have two classes over zoom and my other professor just gives us homework and discussion questions. i'm not very excited for this semester because this is not how i pictured my first year of college going and i don't learn as effectively when it's online compared to an actual classroom setting, but i completely get why we can't have in-person classes. i'd much rather be stuck at home than go to school and possibly contract covid, and then spread it to my family, friends and co workers.
     
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  5. OfficerDeadly

    OfficerDeadly Donator

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    I go to a private school (last year in high school also) and due to a rather important exam at the end of this year we have, online classes can be very insufficient. Despite the growing shitstorm that is the situation in Turkey, to ''learn'' properly I need to go to school else I risk having to muck up in this important exam.

    I have been going to school for the past two weeks and no COVID incident has arisen ''yet'' and I hope that one doesn't arise in our school. My school does a pretty good job of being careful on school grounds with disinfectants running rampant around the school as well as very strict mask-wearing policy where the only place you can take your mask off is during breaks beside windows. Much of the school is empty with only us 12th graders and a group of 8th graders actually attending school due to the aforementioned exam situation. All being said, we number around two hundred or three hundred at most.

    My school has a rather busy agenda with an overwhelming amount of practice testing done to keep us on our toes and they allow us to take off our masks during exams as it's mentally and psychologically challenging to actually do a hundred and sixty question test with a mask on the whole time.

    We don't eat at school and all the gym classes were cancelled. Normally having to do eight to nine lessons a day in the pre-COVID era, we now do five lessons of shorter durations.

    We sit sorely separated in classes with a meter or two in between students and frankly I find the precautions to be at a satisfying degree. To add, I trust my classmates to not be dumb retards so it all works out in the end. Our classes are separated into classes of twelve students to lower the possibility of spread.

    We do have the choices of attending our schools through online means but I believe that is only because I attend a private school. Government schools in my country lack the proper resources to do proper online teaching with the necessary amount of lessons a day.

    Though the government is doing some stuff and seemingly from their statistics and despite our rather large population we seem do be doing ''well-enough'' that I don't worry about every other person I see possibly having corona. The fact that my family does not have any health issues might be among the reasons why I am not so alert and anxious.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2020
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  6. Pugnata

    Pugnata Pug the Pug Donator

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    I'm going to college/university (in the Netherlands its called HBO). In our building, the different studies got assigned different days to teach or do stuff that can't be done online (like labwork or exams). This rule is for now untill january. If you do want to go to school to study, you have to check in with a card so the school knows how many people are in the building. If there are too many, you aren't allowed in.

    These strict rules of course suck, but I understand that it is necessary. I have some friends who decided to quit, because they really didn't want to sit through another half a year of online studying. For me, it really helps that I make a strict schedule and stick to it. I feel like if I slip a little from my schedule, I will fail a course. So this gives me alot of anxiety, but thus far I've been able to manage. I have the luck that I'm going on an internship for a few weeks (still partially at home, but a few days at the office is better than nothing).

    What I am worried about is that in the Netherlands, the high schools have been opened completely again. The crowded hallways and the too small lunchrooms are just asking for trouble. I know they're trying to enforce a safe distance to avoid the spread, but seriously, people that age and in those amount of numbers just can't keep their distance. Heck, even adults at the supermarket don't understand they need to clean their cart before grabbing one and half of them don't even keep a safe distance.

    Reminder if you've read thus far: wash your hands and drink some water and stay safe <3.
     
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  7. sebastiann

    sebastiann Donator

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    i would go to school if i could afford it. and if i was going to school i probably would do all online due to being very susceptible to COVID(and living with my grandparents) and i want to be as safe as i possibly can. so right now i am doing absolutely nothing. college is too expensive and i cant get financial aid. i personally think the united states/its leadership has done a shit job at combating the virus.
     
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  8. Trevor

    Trevor Donator

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    just got news that we're doing school all in person, yet I bet it will be online once covid cases pop up.
     
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  9. Starixty

    Starixty Donator

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    i live in nyc, so naturally it'd make sense that classes weren't in person seeing as new york had the most covid cases in the us a few months ago (i think florida took the number one spot?)

    i'm a freshman in college, and all my classes are online. i heard that it was just for the fall term, so after christmas break i might be going back to school. my family members are at high risk, my mom and my stepdad both have their own health conditions already so i'm kind of relieved that i don't have to go to school for now (because of the fear that i might give covid to my family members). however, whenever school starts up again i plan on being really careful. my school is a good two hours away from the house and i can't drive yet so i'll have to take public transportation (a bus and two trains).

    i know that they're treating high school differently though. high school kids are following a hybrid schedule, where kids go in two or three times a week and stay home the rest of the week.
     
  10. rach

    rach 25082020 ✰ Donator

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    in my school, they're grouping year groups into "social bubbles", meaning that we don't socially distance within our year group, but we socially distance between teachers and other year groups apart from our own

    for years 7-9(11-14) they're able to keep classes in one room, and the teachers are the only ones who have to move around the school for lessons, but for years10-13, as we have less subjects, and need access to more specialist rooms we have to move around school as normal- they've also dedicated break areas for the different year groups and they're making facemasks mandatory in corridoors but they're insisting that we don't wear one when we're inside class(i dont know why ngl)

    in years 12-13(16-18) we're allowed to go into the town where my school is, but idk if that's gonna still happen because of corona- theyre also implementing different times for students to leave school in the afternoon because theres around 1.3k people who attend rn

    still gotta attend everyday which is kinda annoying because i'm a bit more vunerable if i get rona :/ its honestly really confusing this school shit lmao
     
  11. Apex_SkyShadow

    Apex_SkyShadow My Doggo & Pupper = Best Doggo & Pupper Combo Staff Member Mod+

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    I start my first class of the year in about 20 minutes of writing this post. I have a hybrid schedule of 4 classes (about half) each day where it is half online in the morning where each class is 40 minutes longer than normal, and then two classes again 40 minutes longer actually at the school separated by county for who goes when. So each class is an hour and a half long and I have each one every other day. And it's not the same schedule then either. Monday is 1-2 at home, 3-4 at school, Tuesday is 5-6 at home, 7-study hall at school, then Wednesday switches and it's 3-4 at home and 1-2 at school. Thursday does the same thing. Except on Fridays, where I have every class for 30 minutes and it's all online. Not confusing enough? We have two friday schedules. 1-7 period, then 5,6,7,1,2,3,4 on a rotation every other week. We then have a study hall period which is in person on tuesdays and at home on thursdays (the normal block is 8 periods). There was an option for all online, but not one for all in person. So hopefully this wacky schedule makes sense to at least someone lol.

    Every time you enter the building your temp gets scanned and you're required to wear a mask.

    I should also mention that while I am in a zoom meeting from home, students in the other county are actually in the class.
     
    Last edited: Aug 31, 2020
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  12. TheDiamondPicks

    TheDiamondPicks String.format("%d %s", 404, "Title not found") Donator

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    Up until about 2 weeks ago we were fully in person with no social distancing or masks or anything (since NZ had no covid cases). A few managed to get their way into the country, so they started doing social distancing during classes, and as there's not enough lecture theatres at my uni, most lectures moved online (but tutorials and stuff remained in person). Should be back in person in a couple of weeks, once we're certain that the new covid cases have been contained.
     
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  13. Apex_SkyShadow

    Apex_SkyShadow My Doggo & Pupper = Best Doggo & Pupper Combo Staff Member Mod+

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    I wish we were all in person. I can barely learn a damn thing with zoom or online shit. It takes like 15 of the 90 minute period to just do attendance because it's all lagging and people are still connecting, etc. Then most of the time there are so many people online at once that it near crashes and it lags the entire time. The only upside is that we have each class once every two days, thrice a week. In class once, fully online once, and all 30 minute online ones on friday. (So homework for each one isn't assigned and due each and every day)
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2020
  14. Davey

    Davey Staff Member Moderator

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    Our county gave the option for either in person or online. I chose online, but surprisingly, over half of students chose in person.

    What sucks is that most classes aren't offered online, so instead of taking classes that give me credits that benefit me like Programming, Web Development, etc, I'm stuck with fucking general music and creative writing.

    Already about 100 cases confirmed in schools and there's no sign of them shutting down.
     
  15. Yupac

    Yupac Moderator Lite Staff Member Helper

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    We came back to school this Monday, everyone didn’t get quarantined, but some of his closest friends got quarantined.

    Still nobody cares, they didn’t learn anything of this situation yet...
     
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  16. grotesque

    grotesque aw hell no Donator

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    when i still did uni, all of my classes were in person at first and we moved online since it was mandatory. from what i hear they still enforce social distancing and there is an online option for anyone who doesn't want to go to the face to face classes.

    me and my classmates had a discussion about how we did well with the in-person classes and how we were struggling with the online classes. if you're in a state where people aren't very big on masks, stay at home and keep yourself safe; if you're in a state where they're doing well and is big on enforcing the covid laws, practice social distancing as much as you can and keep yourself clean etc.

    i've deferred my course so i don't really have to do anymore work for now, but that's what happened.