First day of hybrid

Ok, so I'll be up-front and say that I think this hybrid schooling idea is for the birds. IMHO it's a terrible compromise that gives us the worst of both worlds and puts students and teachers at risk for very minimal benefit.

In our town, hybrid learning is a two-and-a-half mornings per week sort of deal. The rest of the time the kids are either doing asynchronous stuff or synchronous remote learning. We had a choice of whether to send the kids to the hybrid model or to keep them fully remote - we chose the latter. What that means is that when the other kids are physically in school, our kids will be home on screens teleconferenced-in to class. It's going to be weird, and probably terrible, but it will be safer and they will be fine.

My son asked me why he can't go to school like the other kids in his class. I told him that this way is safer and that he would still see his friends remotely. He wasn't terribly convinced. Then I explained to him that if he went to the building he would have to wear a mask all day, he wouldn't be able to play on the playground, and he wouldn't be able to sit at a table with his friends. That was more convincing to him and I think he is going to make the best of it.

The new schedule started today. Remote kids were asynchronous this morning (and tomorrow) while the in-school kids learn about various safety measures, hand washing, mask wearing etc. It was sort-of ok. My kids were engaged with the various apps and videos that the school provided, and things mostly worked. One of my son's assignments wouldn't load for me, and my daughter hates one of the apps, but all in all it worked out as well as could be expected. The afternoon was just the same as remote learning has been so far, which was fine.

One nice thing about the new schedule is that my son is going to be able to get his IEP services during the asynchronous time, which means he'll miss very little of the classroom time. I had been concerned about this, so it's a relief that the schedule is going to work out.

Part of me feels like we'll be back to fully-remote school before long anyway. Despite all the rosy magical thinking from the state government, cases keep getting worse here. One of our neighboring towns is now in the 'red' high-risk designation. They have a very different population than we do, but it's still awfully nearby and I'm concerned that the comparative safety that we have here may not be here too much longer.

All the while there are nutcases out there in town agitating for a return to fully in-person schooling. I don't know how anyone could possibly think that's a good idea, but they are out there with their yard signs and banners. Even though they are a small part of the town, they are loud and it is hard not to get discouraged.

One really nice thing is that our letter for the teachers was published in both of the town's little papers. I keep hearing nice stories about it making a difference to people.

Anyway, for now we are going to carry on with this hybrid-not-hybrid plan, and we will make the best of it.