What Does Fall 2022 Look Like? So much worse than anyone is prepared for

I spend a lot of time reflecting all semester on what is working, what isn't. At the end of the semester my students write reflection letters that TELL me what worked and didn't for them.

Teaching college is tricky in a lot of ways. Students are adults, we should not infantilize them. But we also need to consider that a lot of students are young, first generation, maybe need more help, more support. So we have to thread that needle. I always pay attention to what my students say at the end of each semester, as well as in their surveys I give every few weeks. But I also recognize that they are not teachers, they don't know content or pedagogy, so that too is a needle to thread. I am the content expert, I am the expert in pedagogy. That doesn't mean my students don't have knowledge that should be valued, or that they have nothing to teach me.

Covid has made all of this harder because there's both too much and not enough data about how it's affecting our students, us, our classrooms. My students' end of semester letters revealed that a lot of the things I thought I failed at did not fail with them. It's hard to know what to do, what to respond to. I have realized in my end of semester reflections that I have spent the majority of the last two years reacting to everything, trying every possible accommodation, hoping something sticks to the wall, and it's exhausting, and I'm not convinced that it was successful. Reading their reflections the last couple of years it wasn't any of the pivots that made a difference with my students it was the foundation of a pedagogy of care. It was my lack of attendance policies, lack of deadlines, that I reached out to check on them, posted announcements and said in class how hard I knew everything was, it was the note about letting me know if they needed accommodations for Ramadan.

I wrote a few weeks ago about needing everything to be a bit quieter, and paring down in the classroom is something I've built my summer and fall classes around.

So here are a few of the things I've done, or plan to do:

• I redesigned my Google Site in this vein. Because my course policies have gone back to my syllabuses, I've taken that off here, again, with idea of my syllabus being the only thing students need, lessening the amount of data. I've updated my home page with the syllabuses for summer and fall. I've separated helpful links and writing resources.
• I redesigned my syllabus template.  I had lots of reasons for this.
• First, I wanted my syllabus to be the one document they need.
• Second, I wanted to redo the language, course policies, resources, so that they were not jargon and were presented in a way that was accessible to students.
• I explain each section.
• I reframed a lot of policies into "Students who do well do this..."
• It helps with a "how to get help" section.
• I redesigned the top so all the vital information students needed was there.
• I've redesigned my classes to have two main assignments.
• One before midterms, one before final.
• There are lots of in class, skills based, practice, build up to assignments, but they are not graded.
• I did this because I wanted to think about what the bare minimum I needed students to do. AND so I and they could focus on doing this well. 
• I plan on doing a lot of revisiting. Write something, come back to it, revise, come back, remake it into something else
• I redid HOW we do assignments.
• They will present them to me, talk about process, so similar to grade conferencing. Except it's not. Because I'm not going to grade them. They will take notes on the feedback they receive. Then they will write a reflection memo, and that is what gets the grade.
• A-C, A= rockstar, B= evidence of revision, C= met minimum requirements. Everything else is a Resubmit= doesn't show learning yet.
• They can always revise, resubmit if they want.
• But the focus is on the process, the learning, the revision. 
• I've implemented this in my summer classes and it's proving to be a bit of a challenge cognitive dissonance wise
• I leaned into the things students liked, watching documentaries, the assignment guidelines, the detail.
• I am saving up and bit by bit, am buying books to start independent reading in the fall. I'm going to do it like I did in high school, once a week, dedicated time (20-30 minutes) to read in class. Books provided. They read for pleasure. Pick what they want. They will use their books in class, looking at style, how paragraphs are constructed, details, etc.
• I was inspired by this tweet by Dr. Kate Ozment and started doing this for my classes. So far it's a much more manageable way to save readings, links, resources as I encounter them. Then I'll create a bibliography right before the class(es) start and make it available to the students.
• I have more and more concerns about 

I continue to be concerned about what the fall semester looks like.

Today North Carolina has high community spread and 31.2% test positivity rate, which has been rising steadily since 20 March which had a 3.9% test positivity rate.  And that's with the "nice weather" that we were all told would mean fewer infections and community transmission.

People are rapid testing at home, but no one is tracking these results.

Almost no one I see out is masked.

In-person events are back, with the news and social media showng crowds at concerts, people vacationing at theme parks, flying, traveling.

People who are not using mitigation measures are reporting "Covid finally got me." Well yeah. You're not masking, going on vacation, eating indoors, actively engaging in crowds--you've essentially stopped doing everything that's kept you safe for 2 1/2 years OF COURSE you got Covid.

I have actually been pretty shocked at the people I see doing all these things. People I would have thought were smart.

Have the number of hospitalized and dying dropped? Yes. 

But Long Covid is still affecting roughly 40% of the people who are positive. It's a mass disabling event with horrific, terrifying, side effects.

Most states have moved the goalposts on data, encouraged by the CDC.

We were sold a bill of goods that said "we" (and man is that word doing a lot heavy lifting) would "ramp up" mitigation measures if needed, but no on-ramps were identified. 

You have to really look at the data to understand what is going on, the CDC reports 83% as a vaccinated number. But that's just people with one vaccination. Dig at the data and turns out only 46.9% are fully vaccinated AND boosted.

Yet the news is also full of reports that the last mass testing sites are closing. 

We KNOW what mitigates Covid- masking, social distancing, improvements to air filtration, limiting contact. Yes, vaccination is part of that, but vaccination means FULLY vaccinated, which means boosters and I know a surprising number of people who only ever got one dose of a two dose vaccine and never got a booster. 

2 1/2 years in we're doing none of what we know will help. 

• All schools and universities should have LAST summer required full vaccination for all students, all faculty, all staff
• Schools should have lowered class caps permanently to ensure social distancing
• Schools and workplaces should all have upgraded their air filtration systems
• Communities should have identified clear on-ramps for mitigation measures like masks inside, and then ENACTED THEM. And no, putting up a sign that says "The CDC recommends that you mask indoors with high community transmission" does not cover it. 
• Make it like fire danger signs- we get used to different levels: low, moderate, high, very high, extreme

I am horrified that no one seems to be paying attention, caring, doing anything.

The federal govenment seems to just be shrugging like Elmo. What can be done. No money. So sad.

Our local governments are doubling down on just ignoring it all.

It's mass gaslighting. 

Daycares are still having to close for weeks at a time for infections, upsetting child care, parents' work schedules.

Schools ended the year NEVER having solved bus driver shortages, teachers being out. Schools were STILL putting hundreds of kids in a gym with just one or two adults because there were no faculty/staff there. 

Rather than create a permanent online option, like a waiting room, where teachers (immuno-compromised, or ones with unvaccinateable children at home would be a good choice here) taught only online, NOT in an infected building, could adapt, kids in and out...as needed.

Schools should have dumped standardized testing, one because it serves no purpose, no really, and two, WE'RE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

Schools should have trimmed back, pared down, ALL the expectations while we're still in the middle of a global pandemic.

Schools should have leaned into being community hubs, for testing, vaccination, food pantry sites. 
Schools certainly should NOT have cancelled universal free lunch (breakfast) for everyone in a time where all the social supports are gone, everyone seems to think if they just don't believe in Covid we'll be fine.

Students are still missing school. They're still losing people.

Yet there are no solutions for when schools have to deal with mass outbreaks. They're not even testing to return, or doing anything to limit the mass outbreaks.

Schools have no rewarded anyone in their buildings for the work above and beyond they've done. Instead they're blamed for every apparent societal ill. 

Schools have no improved the physical conditions for anyone.

There have been no mass changes to curriculum, expectations.

There are no additional counselors, psychologists, social workers.

Schools are not safe and outsiders seem hell-bent on making them scarier, less safe, more like locked down prisons than anything else.

As a society we are completely and totally unprepared for the fallout of the collapse of seemingly every aspect of our society.

The United States treats their current disabled population horrificly. The limits on income, savings, let along the issues with access to help, support, treatment, doctors, needed mobility aids.

Our infrastructure- buildings, sidewalks, EVERYTHING, is not built for accessibility.

So what happens when almost 50% of our population requires all of this to function?

The grief, the trauma, the loss, which no one has had time to deal with, everyone is still so focused on getting through the next day.

And that's without the mass shootings every day.

Cities flooding now in "minor" storms.

More hurricanes, more tornadoes, more storms, all of which are more deadly, more frequent.

Wildfires that are bigger, more dangerous, out of season.

Institutional racism. Institutional misogyny.

So I worry what fall semester looks like for us, for our students, for our communities.

I worry that the burden of taking up the slack will again fall to mostly women, women of color, queer professors, and we will once again be doing it with no support.

I worry about how we expect our students to function, to learn, to do anything, when things keep getting worse and it's like we're all in the middle of a version of "The Emperor's New Clothes."

So I'm planning for a pared down approach. I've doubled-down on building a pedagogy of care into my classroom. 

But I'm also trying to make sure I'm taking care of myself, which I've not been doing very well honestly. Because if I don't make it to fall then I can't help my students.

So I'm continuing to not go out. I still only grocery shop once a week. I am masked every time I go out. I do not attend in person events. I am grateful my summer classes are online this summer. But I plan on continuing all this in the fall. I will mask in class. I will use my CO2 monitor. 

But I'm also placing limits on things, taking time away and off when I can. Trying to build in some quiet, some rest. Take the time when I can.

I continue to struggle with living in a world that does not care that people die, get sick, are permanently disabled. That, more than anything else, is the thing that weighs most on me. People I would have said are smart, or caring, are simply not as the months and years roll on. And that loss of humanity, of empathy, of basic human awareness, I fear is the fallout that will hurt us most in the end.