SL 813

~ Laura

Bought a bunch of books this weekend. Paid $300. I can make $1,500 for them. I’m annoyed that I didn’t bargain hard enough.

I’ve been chatting about student loan forgiveness on twitter for the past couple of days. I’ll write everything up tomorrow morning. Tonight, I just have some links.

We’re not celebrating Thanksgiving in the traditional way this year. I’ll do a turkey dinner and stuffing and all that for the four of us in the evening. But in the morning, we’re all going to my sister’s backyard for a brunch. I’m making a couple of quiches. Someone else will bring bagels and lox. And please don’t let your guard down! I would rather keep my folks alive and keep the schools open than have a party for 20 in my house.

I’m excited to read Simon Baron-Cohen’s new book, The Pattern Seekers. He makes an argument that the autistic brain was essential in early human development. Temple Grandin already made that argument, but I assume that Baron-Cohen fleshes out that theory. I’m curious. And, yes, my kid tests in the 99.9 percentile for pattern recognition.

I’m hiding a bunch of the less popular root vegetables — parsnips and turnips — in tonight’s chicken stew. Shhhh.

Recipe — Dredge chicken in flour, salt, pepper mixture. Then brown the meat in batches in olive oil in a dutch oven. Then add a little more olive oil and a mixture of vegetables. This stew has onion, parsnip, turnip, celery, various misfit potatoes, garlic. Cook for a while. Add some wine or beer. Stir. Add some fresh herbs – tarragon and thyme here. Put the meat back in. Add a lot of chicken broth. Cook for an hour or so at 350.

Published by Laura

55 thoughts on “SL 813”

  1. I was just watching a video from our head of our private school. Some news:

    –She says that this fall, we’ve had one COVID kid in the lower school and one COVID kid in the upper school. (The combined student population in the two buildings is about 400, plus staff, and classes started August 19, and we’ve had nearly 3 months of full-time in-person school.)
    –The head of school says that parents have been scrupulous in obeying the COVID rules and checking in when there are suspicious situations. They ask us to be careful about holidays and groups.
    –School is sending textbooks home before Thanksgiving break and Christmas break, just in case there’s some kind of closure.
    –Our Thanksgiving and Advent services will be done in recorded form, with each class doing a recorded segment, instead of the normal mass events.
    –School is creating a sort of COVID email “hotline” for the holidays, when the office won’t be open to field questions.
    –School expects to get rapid tests soon. (I believe that the big suburban high school already uses them.)
    –School is still waiting for some stuff that the State of Texas promised in August.

    We are pulling our 10th grader out of school for at least the week after Thanksgiving. We’re otherwise playing it by ear. Today was kind of a nasty COVID day in the county, although it looks like the big suburban high school is doing better–it’s down from last week, when they had 39 active cases.

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  2. 2/400 is really good especially given how high the levels have been in Texas ( though Texas is big), Any info on staff?

    Also interesting to hear of a high level of compliance.

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    1. bj said, “2/400 is really good especially given how high the levels have been in Texas ( though Texas is big), Any info on staff? Also interesting to hear of a high level of compliance.”

      No staff cases that I know of during the fall 2020 term. A bunch of school families got sick while school was closed this spring and summer, especially in May and June. Not all of the kids been in-person the whole fall, though. I think school started with probably about 70% of kids in person. They slowly returned, but the pendulum is probably swinging the other way right now.

      Since June, it’s been very “hot” in our county, which is on I-35, a major transportation route. Doing some quick and dirty math, I think at least 1 person in 15 in the county has had COVID already. (I’m calculating based on the assumption that every fatality implies 100 cases in the community, which might be too low.)

      School has a lot of healthcare families and the head of school is married to a doctor, so I think they’re going to make good choices. We pulled the 10th grader out of PE earlier this fall, due to some cavalier behavior on the part of PE teachers/coaches, but we’ve been on the whole pretty happy.

      There is generally very good compliance in public in the community, and has been for the past 4.5 months. (I notice, though, that some college students act like COVID doesn’t spread after dark.)

      One thing I notice is that there really aren’t COVID PSAs on the radio. I feel like there ought to be more communication than there is, especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming.

      Texas bars got opened (again) a month ago to 50% capacity, which I’m not thrilled about. I don’t know how well that is going…There were issues previously with bars being bad about allowing crowding, which led to bars getting closed this summer.

      The county rules for bars are:

      –50% capacity
      –only serving customers seated at tables
      –6 feet between tables
      –limited number of people per table (not sure how many)
      –masks except when seated
      –reduced serving hours.

      So, it’s not totally crazy, but a lot depends on the bars operating in good faith.

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      1. I don’t want to speak too soon, but even though our November new cases in the county are extremely nasty (about 50% higher than the summer peak), the ICUs aren’t filling up, at least not yet.

        Hometown U. has about 5% positivity right now, which is not great. Up until Halloween, it was consistently more like 1.3-1.5%. The county positivity is back up to 13% again, having been 6-8% between Labor Day and Halloween.

        The level of testing happening in our county right now is 2.5X higher than during the summer surge. On the one hand, that explains some of the increased case counts, but on the other hand, the positivity is also going up, so increased testing doesn’t explain everything.

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    2. I forget if I posted this, but we heard over the weekend that one 3rd grade class, all of 7th grade and some 8th graders at our school are going to be quarantining after Thanksgiving.

      The school does a full week off for Thanksgiving and then there are 3 weeks of school after before Christmas break. We had planned to keep our 10th grader home for the first week anyway. I wouldn’t mind if the upper school went remote until winter break, but I really, really want to keep our 2nd grader in school as long as possible, as she bounces off the walls at home, even just over the weekend.

      I hear that some Hometown U. professors are skipping their remote classes after Thanksgiving break and are skipping the remote exams. I don’t really blame them, especially about the remote exams, which seemed kind of pointless.

      I was at the grocery store yesterday. It was the Monday before Thanksgiving at around 1 PM, and you wouldn’t think that it would be packed, but it was. Just about everybody was wearing a mask (easily high 90s), but it was a pretty uncomfortable situation to be indoors with so many people. I need to go back to the store, too, to get Thanksgiving stuff…For at least the last several months, I’ve felt that the grocery store is really busy almost all the time.

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      2. Our grocery stores are now at 25% occupancy. So, not uncomfortably crowded, but lines. Spouse did a run this morning, at 8:45 and said it was manageable, but there was a long line when he left.

        The private school my kids went to opened briefly for K-5, but has now shut down until January.

        College student gets released from quarantine tomorrow, on the grounds that some quarantine is better than none. I think we will try to mostly quarantine as a family for another 5 days. Student has a test scheduled, but now I’m worried that she shouldn’t use it, because there seems to be more need for others.

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  3. Here in the midwest, our K-12 was just shut down today (announced just yesterday) until January after a pretty successful 3 months on a hybrid schedule (a MTh group and a TF group). There have been positive cases (county hovering at 3-4% until recently) and many, many students quarantined, but almost all exposures were outside of school, with the exception of a cluster of faculty that did not maintain distancing during a meeting. We are now much higher, mid-teens I think, and like everywhere are very nervous about a higher spike.

    Myself, I am debating whether a daytrip to my parents for T-day, and sitting outside in their garage, is a good idea. But am leaning against.

    Also – trying to identify some good family games for Zoom. We have done bingo and categories, and this new one, Poetry for Neanderthals, looks promising. My friends did a trivia one a while back that was kind of fun.

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  4. Hey, are we getting a pandemic-era 11D Gift Guide? Might want to start early this year. Surely Steve has had more time to read and can recommend some good history books, and I could use recs for categories like Outdoor Clothing and Activities and Zoom Accessories for Work and Fun.

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    1. Cool. I can do that. I was about to do some research on warm running clothes, because I froze my thighs off this morning. I am determined to keep getting outdoor exercise throughout the winter, so I can still drink wine and eat cheese.

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    2. If Steve has any book recommendations, I will take them. Also, for those interested in history, let me recommend a blog, acoup.blog. (I have no involvement in this blog except as a reader.) I bought a book recommended there, Shattered Sword, about the Battle of Midway, but I haven’t read it yet.

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  5. My firm has had two cases this week. Happily, they were on a different floor from mine, but it’s still a concern. I have returned to working from home. And Fire Island, where we have our summer house, has five or six cases this month, after zero during the summer. Five or six is a lot, considering that there aren’t more than a few hundred people on the island at this time of year.

    I think Thanksgiving will be just the two of us. (Our daughter is going to her boyfriend’s house, which I think is mistake, but it’s her life.) My wife will have to buy a turkey breast and maybe I can make a small pie.

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  6. I love root veg – parsnips are a particular favorite.

    Today my county enters a 4-week shutdown that eliminates both indoor and outdoor dine-in (restaurants are take-out and delivery only), limits numbers in grocery stores, and closes almost everything else. But since I’ve been working from home since March, it won’t make a huge difference to me. I have literally only gotten out of my car at 3 places in 10 months: took my car in for repair, got a flu shot at the pharmacy, and got some blood drawn for lab tests. Still the numbers keep getting worse here.

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  7. What country are you in, galasticjew?

    I have to admit that we’ve been pretty active out there for the past few months, though we are vigilant about mask-wearing and have done zero indoor socializing with family. Steve’s working from home. But we got to restaurants, bars, supermarkets, stores. We’ve stayed in hotels. We’re walking all that back right now though, because the rates are going up around here again.

    I’m hearing stories about hoarding at the supermarket, so we’ll have to stock up on essentials later today.

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  8. From those who talk about developing “herd immunity” while protecting the vulnerable, shouldn’t Chuck Grassley, R, Iowa be one of the ones we are protecting?

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    1. bj said, “From those who talk about developing “herd immunity” while protecting the vulnerable, shouldn’t Chuck Grassley, R, Iowa be one of the ones we are protecting?”

      We can’t lock them up if they don’t wish to be locked up, and therein lies the difficulty with the strategy of “protecting the vulnerable” and everybody else just going about their business.

      As I’ve said before, another problem is that a LOT of people don’t seem to realize how old they are or connect the dots with regard to their medical issues.

      On the other hand, I can’t help but notice that the profile of cases in my county is disproportionately under 60. Only 17% of cases in my county are 60+–, and a lot of the older ones have to be nursing home cases where the patient is not out and about. On average, the independent over-60s seem to have gotten the message pretty well. I don’t think I ever see any older people at the store who are not wearing a mask and doing it pretty well. The median age for the occasional maskless person or is probably about 35-40, and probably about 30 for the more common people with their noses sticking out.

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  9. Some people are mad that a non-autistic actress was cast in a role as a non-verbal autistic woman:

    https://metro.co.uk/2020/11/20/sia-music-accused-of-ableism-as-maddie-ziegler-cast-as-autistic-teen-13628258/

    The trailer looks kind of terrible, but I don’t see that the casting should be an issue, and I think some people are being unrealistic about how feasible it would be to direct a non-verbal person.

    Claire Danes was fantastic as Temple Grandin in the HBO biopic.

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  10. Marc Porter McGee tweeted (and Laura retweeted):

    “60,000 public school students in NYC still don’t have devices eight months into this crisis.
    So their entire educational experience right now is homework packets.
    For $28,808 a year.”

    They should have devices so they can see their teachers and get instruction, but packets probably have their place.

    I’ve heard from school that (at least in the lower school) teachers prefer to have the kids do packets, versus turning work on online. We did all online turn-in this spring, and I guess it was a logistical nightmare for teachers to deal with assignments coming in in that format. So our school has moved from 100% online turn-in during the spring shutdown to packets for remote kids during the fall.

    (I haven’t figured out if the upper school is doing packets too, and I need to find out, because we are keeping our 10th grader home the week after Thanksgiving.)

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    1. Not my taste. Do you think they had it staged like that to get clicks? The price history is very interesting, it looks like the property has gone up and down in price.

      I think they should have spent some money on exterior landscaping. At that price, you don’t expect the huge a/c unit to be front & center, rather than discreetly shielded by bushes.

      Still, much of the junk could be moved out. I would have changed the pink bath fixtures for something white.

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      1. Cranberry said, “I think they should have spent some money on exterior landscaping. At that price, you don’t expect the huge a/c unit to be front & center, rather than discreetly shielded by bushes.”

        Oh, I didn’t even notice that. The exterior is relatively nice.

        “Still, much of the junk could be moved out. I would have changed the pink bath fixtures for something white.”

        Yeah.

        I’m left wondering–did they decorate early for Christmas or is it like that year round? If the latter–EEK!

        My husband tells me that it’s not a tragedy not to be able to have been able to do any cosmetic work on our house, as trends change, so you just wind up with dated stuff. And goodness, if that house doesn’t prove that point.

        No wonder HGTV stays in business.

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  12. The shell? (or is it pebbles?)-encrusted bathroom suite is a stand out. How you would clean this – I shudder to think!
    Although if you’re buying a mansion, no doubt you have cleaners…..

    Can’t stand the fake antique furniture – but easy to ditch that. A little harder to get rid of the black and white streaked marble floors and bathrooms, which makes me nauseous every time I look at them.

    The rooms themselves look quite nicely proportioned – and I do like the outside pool area (though have no idea how practical it would be to use in terms of climate)

    But, all-in-all if I’m spending $2million I want something …. different.
    [Not that I’m likely to be! One of the blessings of my life is to be mortgage free, with no desire to move, in an insane property market]

    Interesting to speculate just who their target demographic is. There must be some group (with a fair amount of money) who’d appreciate this design concept.

    Do you think the Christmas decor comes with the property?

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    1. Also the outdoor Nativity in the grotto beside the pool. Looks pretty permanent to me.
      A bit of a culture clash going on there!

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    2. Ann said, “Interesting to speculate just who their target demographic is. There must be some group (with a fair amount of money) who’d appreciate this design concept.”

      I think the issue is that when you go all out in the style of a particular time (in this case late 90s?), it dates really fast and is really hard to renovate your way out of. Although, I’m scratching my head to remember when pebbly sinks and toilets were a thing…

      “Do you think the Christmas decor comes with the property?”

      That would not surprise me in the slightest.

      I believe it’s common for custom-built rich people houses to be extremely “specific” and to be hard to sell:

      https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-jordan-house-pics-2013-11

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      1. This property made the New York Post: https://nypost.com/2020/11/23/every-day-is-christmas-in-this-new-jersey-home/

        It reports the house belongs to a brother and sister, who enjoy Christmas year-round. The decorations could come with the house.

        There’s a method to not decluttering–the house has had more than 1.4 million views, with 6,964 saves on Zillow. Most of those will be people only in the market to gawk, but still, no publicity is bad publicity.

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  14. This is important:

    Dr. Scott Gottlieb (former FDA commissioner) urges the public that it’s time to upgrade their masks.

    He says that bandanas offer the wearer about 10% protection, cloth masks offer 30%, surgical masks are about 60% and N95s are 95% effective at protecting the wearer.

    Those are BIG differences.

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  15. One of the mask-wearing messages here – is that you wear a mask to protect others.

    [This is an ‘old’ discussion from April – and the science is even stronger with more real-world Covid research, now.]

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/06-04-2020/siouxsie-wiles-toby-morris-should-we-all-be-wearing-face-masks-to-prevent-covid-19-spread/

    Most of the ‘ordinary’ masks people wear have a relatively small degree of protection for the wearer; they are, however, *much* more effective in trapping the micro-droplets that the user breathes out.
    That’s not to say the user gets *no* benefit – but that the benefits are greater for the rest of the community (if you happen to have Covid)

    Yes, the high-spec N95s are much more effective in protecting the wearer (though still a lot more so in the lab than in real life) – but they are expensive, and in limited supply – and reserved for the people who *really* need them (the ones whose job takes them directly into contact with infected people – doctors, nurses, cleaners, etc.)

    So, social distancing, hand-washing, staying away from crowds and groups – are all things you do to protect *you*. Mask-wearing is about protecting the rest of the community – in case you turn out to be am unwitting super-spreader.

    There’s been a bit of discussion recently, about why masks are much more effective at stopping the spread of Covid in the lab than in real life. And people are putting it down to the fact that mask-wearing protocol (how to correctly put one on, and adjust it and remove it) is not generally well known, and time consuming; and masks in general just aren’t really comfortable – people fiddle with them.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/123476960/face-masks-cut-coronavirus-spread-in-the-lab-but-have-less-impact-in-the-community–we-need-to-know-why

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    1. Ann said, “There’s been a bit of discussion recently, about why masks are much more effective at stopping the spread of Covid in the lab than in real life.”

      I’m afraid there’s been a lot of risk-compensating going on.

      For example, it’s clearly nuts to go out in a huge, dense crowd bare-faced and spend all day in it–but stick on a mask (no matter how flimsy or how poorly worn or how often you take it down to take a swig of water or whatever) and you’re being a responsible citizen!

      If masks reduce transmission by half, but people wearing masks are engaging in twice as much risky behavior–we’re exactly where we were to begin with.

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    2. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/123476960/face-masks-cut-coronavirus-spread-in-the-lab-but-have-less-impact-in-the-community–we-need-to-know-why

      This bit was interesting:

      “But we also have little research on how long a single mask is effective. Most guidelines suggest around four hours, but studies on bacteria show masks provide good protection for the first hour and by two hours are doing little. Unfortunately, we could not identify similar research examining viruses.”

      That means that a mask might offer ideal protection for your grocery store trip–but not for the store worker doing a full shift. Or good protection for an Uber ride, but not for the Uber driver. I believe that different masks have different levels of performance as time goes by, with some masks getting soggy and useless very quickly.

      At the minimum, there needs to be more effort getting high-quality masks on people who deal with the public all day, even if they’re not medical workers.

      (Our family has been very happy with the KN95s–a somewhat shady cousin of the medical N95. My husband teaches college classes in his and my teen wears his almost all day at school. The teen wears a different one every day, rotating, gets about 3 wears out of each one, and is reasonably comfortable. My husband modifies the straps so that they are fitted well and have a neck strap. My husband also periodically dissects one to check for 5 layers to see if the manufacturer is being shady. There’s also supposed to be a good Korean-made mask that isn’t the N95.)

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      1. I forgot to mention that my husband 3D-prints plastic nose clips to tighten up the fit on KN95s. There’s also some regluing of straps.

        They fit really well once he finishes overhauling them.

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  16. I’m swamped with interviews for an article this week, but I’ll be back later today. Because this article is pretty heavy, I’m just going to do some fun gift guides for a few days. I have ideas.

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    1. I have suggestions!

      We have one of these, and it works. It is fool-proof. It works even with my black thumb. The family has been making mari juana jokes, but we will have fresh herbs in winter: https://www.amazon.com/stores/AeroGarden/page/1C957391-DD17-4684-B4E7-94CFD437E4B2?ref_=ast_bln

      Cool gadget: https://remarkable.com/

      Another cool gadget: https://sisyphus-industries.com/

      Fancy spices are a great gift: https://www.thespicehouse.com/

      Very pretty, you can use it to serve and to bake:

      The key to successful roasting.

      For the knitter in your life:

      https://shop.hedgehogfibres.com/collections/all

      https://shop.thebluebrick.ca/

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    2. I left a comment with gift ideas. It is now in moderation, as I had many links. Feel free to let it post, or reuse stuff for later gift guides.

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  17. Here’s an interesting thread from Hannah Natanson:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/hannah_natanson/status/1331229035863691264

    “BREAKING: Stunning data for Fairfax County, VA’s largest school system, shows HUGE academic cost of online learning — Fs up by 83% this year. Vulnerable children struggling most: Fs for students w/ disabilities up by 111%, for English learners up by 106%”

    “Some data worth teasing out:
    * Hispanic children are suffering more than any other racial group. F’s for them up by 92%. And they’re underperforming in English and math by large margins: 42% in Math, 47% in English.
    * 35% of all kids underperforming in math, 39% in English”

    “Also, younger kids are experiencing more serious effects. F’s for Fairfax high-schoolers are up by 50%.
    But among middle-schoolers, F’s are up by 300%:
    * up 400% for middle-schoolers w/ disabilites
    * up 400% for Hispanic middle-schoolers
    * up 383% for English learners”

    “Finally, the data confirms experts’ worst fears/predictions about online learning: That children who were already engaged, and in stable/supportive home situations, will do just fine. BUT that kids who were already struggling will take a deep, possibly irrecoverable nosedive —.”

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    1. Our system is solving the problems of F’s by not giving any.
      We have A to C- and incomplete, and now, a new designation “IE” (insufficient evidence), which applies to assignments. 50% of the points are conferred by an “IE” grade, even though nothing was submitted.

      I have a lot of opinions about grading and the goals which pretty much disagree with almost everyone, but I do not think that pretending that students are learning is the appropriate choice.

      Houston also released results saying that nearly 1/2 of their students were getting failing grades.

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  18. Also, I can’t really get on board with opening schools when our case rates are so high and still increasing. But, I do think that we are now accumulating evidence that a significant (more than half? three-quarters) students have not received education (legally required for children with special needs and in some states for others) and that we need to be talking about summer/summers and additional years for others (especially those with special needs).

    Maybe a bipartisan coalition can develop around that issue with Biden leadership.

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    1. bj said, “we need to be talking about summer/summers and additional years for others (especially those with special needs).”

      It’s going to be hard to get high schoolers (especially older high schoolers) to do that if they don’t want to, even if they need it. A lot of high school seniors turn 18 during the school year and even more kids get really antsy senior year. Some of them are going to want to move on to “the next thing,” even if they aren’t ready for it.

      “Maybe a bipartisan coalition can develop around that issue with Biden leadership.”

      I’m somewhat onboard, but I have concerns about who is going to wind up staffing this and what it would look like. It could easily wind up being a big waste of time and money.

      There’s also the question of whether a large group/traditional classroom setting is going to be the most appropriate method for remediating serious deficiencies. My suspicion is that early reading problems are going to require a lot of one-on-one work, or at least small group work.

      (My youngest had a lot of school issues in 1st grade, to the point that the spring school shutdown was a bit of a relief. We finished up the at-home school year in May, and then I decided to just keep on homeschooling 6 days a week during the summer, partly because she needed it, partly just as something to do. I had her doing handwriting, several pages of different Kumon math workbooks, and then a couple of short reading sessions almost every day during the summer. Her dad does a lot of read aloud with her. She also started Ritalin and went to ABA therapy 2-3 mornings a week all summer long. She went back to school in person in August, but we are continuing to do extra work on Saturdays and during breaks. She’s had a therapist at school this fall 3 mornings a week. Knock on wood, but she’s gone from being a struggling 1st grader to a very successful 2nd grader. Her reading is on grade level and both her spelling and math.)

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    2. I am first concerned with those students with IEPs, recognized learning disabilities, who have legal rights and, in some cases, the legal rights to education until they are 21. I want to see those students being offered an additional year. That extension might be combined with efforts to fully fund IDEA.

      I agree that children who didn’t learn how to read and older students who missed content also need to have their educational needs met and am less sure about the mechanism. I think summer school might help, especially for the younger ones . I’m also hearing positive results about one on one tutoring, even by people who are not specialists or even particularly well trained.

      One thing I am not particularly concerned about? “waste”. I don’t want to see money going into the pockets of people who are straight out grifters (we saw some of that with the pandemic programs) and I consider some edtech to fall into that category. But, say, if we mobilize a large group of tutors, I am willing to take the risk that the intervention won’t do all we want it to.

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      1. bj said, “One thing I am not particularly concerned about? “waste”. I don’t want to see money going into the pockets of people who are straight out grifters (we saw some of that with the pandemic programs) and I consider some edtech to fall into that category. But, say, if we mobilize a large group of tutors, I am willing to take the risk that the intervention won’t do all we want it to.”

        I’m concerned about waste, insofar as it means that precious time is being wasted, kids aren’t getting what they need and aren’t making up the deficits that need to get made up. Heck, I’m not expecting intervention to do “all we want it to”–even half would be more than I expect to happen.

        I also have a lot of doubts that Sylvan is worth $50 an hour, especially for younger kids.

        The monitoring of progress is going to be a very important piece of the puzzle.

        I like summer school for younger kids, too, especially if it comes with an appropriate amount of breaks and recess, arts and crafts, etc. With my youngest, I give her a 5-minute break per workbook page. She can do ridiculous amounts of work as long as she gets enough breaks.

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      2. Yes. So this is my depressing article. I am interviewing teachers, therapists, parents of kids (and some adults) with disabilities. What has happened to disabled people during this pandemic is criminal. Just criminal. But in terms of schools, yes, there should absolutely be massive amounts of free in-person tutoring and supplemental therapy to make up for all this. And disabled people and their teachers should get vaccinated second, right after medical personnel and along with the old people.

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  19. We just went through/are going through the following last-day-of-in-person-college drama with the freshman:

    –The freshman thought her class at 9 was online.
    –When the Zoom link failed to appear, she decided that it must be in-person.
    –I drove her to campus, as she was 15+ minutes late at that point.
    –It turned out that the 9ish class was cancelled and the professor was just doing makeup quizzes.
    –The freshman thought her class at 10 was online.
    –She didn’t get a Zoom invite and is assuming that it was canceled, too. But was it?
    –She has one afternoon class still. Or not?

    Looking forward to repeating this with her exams, which she is also hazy about.

    The college freshman isn’t as ditzy as this story makes her sound. She’s been quite good at dealing with her normal class schedule, but there have been a lot of deviations today.

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    1. We get notifications when students enter the Zoom classroom before we do (I don’t use a waiting room for classes) and a colleague and I have been texting about students wandering in and out of the Zoom classrooms this morning (officially not a class day). Though now I am wondering if Buelr is signing them in automatically….
      https://beulr.com

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  20. Wendy said,

    “We get notifications when students enter the Zoom classroom before we do (I don’t use a waiting room for classes) and a colleague and I have been texting about students wandering in and out of the Zoom classrooms this morning (officially not a class day). Though now I am wondering if Buelr is signing them in automatically….”

    That’s hilarious and terrible.

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  21. Our PK-12 400+ kid school had 2 cases of COVID total for the first 3 months of in-person class.

    I just got an email saying that there had been additional positives since the weekend (Friday was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break): 4 elementary kids, 6 jr/sr high kids, one teacher.

    School will be closing several classrooms and keeping the 7th and 8th grade home for remote learning for the week after Thanksgiving. That’s a lot of kids who will be home.

    We had previously decided to keep our 10th grader home that week. I haven’t spoken yet to my husband about our plans for our 2nd grader, given the new developments. I’d be OK with our 10th grader going remote for the rest of the calendar year (as it’s just 3 weeks), but he’d be bummed out.

    My guess is that a lot of these cases were turned up because of pre-Thanksgiving testing.

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    1. This is a good example of what the BLM folks I’ve talked to have said about wanting protective vs predatory policing.

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