Pivot #1 – We started this 2020-2021 school year with a hybrid schedule seeing a different small cohort of kids one full day per week. That schedule allowed for some decent outdoor education experiences.
Pivot #2 – By December we switched to having all our kids learning remotely.
Pivot #3 – By the end of January we brought students back for a hybrid schedule seeing kids five days a week, half in the AM and half in the PM.
Pivot #4 – Now we are stepping it up and switching to a fourth schedule with students coming to school five days a week in larger groups for a full day! CDC guidelines state that kids can work 3 feet apart instead of 6 feet apart as long as they are all facing forward and not facing each other.
Currently, I have 11 kids in Cohort A1 and A2 who come in during the morning time blocks. I have 10 kids in Cohorts B1 and B2 who come in during the afternoon time blocks. Both groups 1 (A1B1) and 2 (A2B2) are going to be combined and start coming to school for a full day, 8:45 am to 2:20 pm, five days a week starting May 3.
I was hoping to keep my current table arrangement (pictured below). The tables are six feet long and three feet wide so I could keep kids three feet apart but some would be facing each other. We are not supposed to have kids three feet apart if they are facing each other requiring us to arrange tables to have kids all facing the same direction.
Six Tables
One to Two Kids Per Table
Moving to Rows
This is the schedule we are going to use for this 4th pivot:
May Schedule
With this schedule the kids who are working remotely, and want to finish the year remotely, can continue to do so (our Cohort C or Group C students). We will work together this way for the last seven weeks of school. We’ll see how it goes but I’m hoping it works better for more kids. I’m excited that they will finally get to experience 6th grade the way kids have been experiencing the 6th grade for years. And for our remote kids, I’m hoping that getting to see all three of their teachers every day will be a better experience for them as well.
