Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1449741
It's unsettling. We've done so much work to try to avoid COVID for so long, and now it's everywhere. When I came back from winter break, half my class was out. For me, it's a balancing act between teaching in- person students and making sure those who are quarantining at home are getting their online independent work done so they don't fall behind. You feel like you're never doing enough. The burnout is real for everyone, the parents and kids included. The rules for what counts as exposure are ever-changing. I can't even keep up with all the changes. Who knew I was going to become a contact tracer? In the beginning, to qualify as being exposed, the student had to be closer than 6 feet for 15 minutes to the infected student — which, really, who can Amy Eytchison F O U RT H G RA D E T E AC H E R, Temecula Elementary School Temecula Valley Educators Association secretary Things were challenging before winter break. Kids were dealing with a lot of grief, anxiety and stress. On top of that, staff were leaving. On the Wednesday before the winter break, three math teachers — half the math department — left. Another math teacher had left in October. Some retired. Some needed medical accommodations. Others wanted to get out of the classroom because they didn't feel safe. Our principal and vice principal sub every day in the classroom, or they 're sending kids to the library because there are not enough teachers to teach them. Sometimes half the kids are at home quarantining. I try to help them keep up and reconfigure lessons for them on Google Classroom. Nobody is calling it hybrid instruction, but that's what it is. The district told all the teachers to get tested before school started in January, but there were no rapid tests available, and the lines to get tested were out of control. Meanwhile, our COVID sick days expired on Dec. 31. Teachers in SF classrooms have daily "close contacts" with their students and must be tested if one of their stu- dents is positive. The district contracted with Color COVID Testing to test teachers who were considered a close contact. We had to go to different testing sites all over town, and most SFUSD testing locations closed before our contractual day ended. The district said we had to wear KN95 masks but didn't give us any. Lots of teachers were getting COVID. On Jan. 9, the testing company ran out of tests. On Jan. 10, the system crashed, and tests couldn't be pro- cessed. So, people who had been tested for being close contacts were just sitting at home waiting for results for days, using their own sick leave. Teachers and staff organized a sickout on Jan. 6. That's because on Jan. 3 we had 400 educators out. On Jan. 4 it was 600 educators, and on Jan. 5, 700. The sickout received national attention. UESF bar- gained with the district and got an MOU for all teachers to get weekly rapid tests, KN95 masks, and 10 days of sick leave retroactive to Dec. 21. I don't believe that this would have happened without the sickout. We felt like no one was listening and all hell was breaking loose. We had to do something. Rori Abernethy MAT H T E AC H E R, James Denman Middle School United Educators of San Francisco "We felt like no one was listening and all hell was breaking loose. We had to do something." 20 cta.org Feature