Covid-19:  What Our Parents Need to Know

COVID-19 Response Outline

 

Reference

Los Angeles County Schools:

Rising to the Challenge of COVID-19

A Planning Framework for the 2020-21 School Year

https://www.lacoe.edu/Portals/0/LA CO Schools 2020-21 Planning Framework.pdf?ver=2020-05-26-161915-740

 

Introduction

The goal of Waterhouse Guild, at all times, is to protect and promote the complete health of students, parents, staff and visitors. This includes physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional health.

Communication

Overall guidelines and responsibilities for students, parents, and staff will be communicated by:

  • Hard copies given to parents and staff.
  • Email to parents and staff.
  • Posting on the school’s website, waterhouseguild.com.
  • Group teleconferencing as needed.
  • On-site posters and notices as appropriate at entrances and sinks.

Facility

  1. Consider using separate entrance and exit paths to avoid congestion at gate.
    Enter from parking area.
    Exit through garden area.
  2. Classrooms will be arranged as needed to maximize social distancing while taking into account educational needs.
  3. Hand sanitizing stations will be provided at each classroom entrance.
  4. Use of shared materials will be eliminated wherever possible.
  5. Common areas will be cleaned throughout the day as needed.
  6. In addition to our current daily cleaning procedures, a detailed cleaning list (TBD) will be followed at the end of each day.
  7. A visitor log will be kept at the door to track room use outside of Waterhouse hours.
  8. Cones will be provided at classroom entrances to define social distancing requirements in cases where a line forms.

 

Staff

  1. Staff members will be given an exposure questionnaire each morning before entering classrooms.
  2. Staff members will have temperature taken each morning before entering classrooms. If temperature exceeds health authority guidelines, they will be sent home and be required to get tested for Covid-19 before returning to class. If tested positive, staff member will be required to follow public health guidelines before returning.
  3. When feasible, masks will be worn.
  4. Staff will be required to use hand sanitizer when entering or leaving classrooms.

Parents

  1. Parents will follow all staff guidelines.
  2. Parents will be restricted from entering classrooms unless necessary.
  3. Parents will be restricted from congregating in classrooms or breezeway.

Students

Daily before entering class:

  1. Students will be given an exposure questionnaire (with a parent or guardian present).
  2. Student’s temperature will be taken with a non-contact thermometer.
  3. Reminders will be given throughout the day regarding distancing and hand washing.
  4. Waterhouse instruction currently takes place in small groups, this practice will continue.
  5. Inter-mixing of groups will be minimized.
  6. Outdoor activities will emphasize social distancing.

 

 

The Metaphorical Beast

Beast

Beast2
E. Nesbit, storyteller extraordinaire, weaves quite a yarn. The Book of Beasts is a favorite of my three sons. Why? Not because the protagonist is a small boy, but because that small boy becomes king! What boy doesn’t dream of being king at one point or another during childhood? But the adventure for Lionel does not begin at the coronation. No, the adventure begins in the library when Lionel dares to open a book.

And so the lesson begins.

And while the lesson can easily be accomplished without E. Nesbit’s book, it’s the spark for the lesson in the first place and highly recommended.

To begin, I asked my writing apprentices to consider the things that we struggle with as humans. While they were contemplating on paper, I wrote Latin on the whiteboard without explanation:

HC SVNT DRACONES

We generated our list below the Latin——greed, laziness, gossip, gluttony. After we were sufficiently steeped in considering the flaws of our flesh, we began a discussion of what shape these “fleshly foes” might take. We started with thumbnail metaphors. Each child began sketching his or her mythical beast, animating its beastly qualities.

From here we began to write the Beast Tale. They were to describe the character of their beast in detail, to create a situation in which the beast might feed, and, of course, they were instructed to concoct a way to slay the beast. All this in 500 words or less!

The writers eagerly worked to draft idea to paper. I was amazed by the depth of engagement I witnessed as they crafted minute details about beasts that they encounter in the real world.

As drafts were completed I saw pencils released and re-reading begin. I saw little hands making red marks—scritch, scratch—then more re-reading until the stage of polish began.

Sufficiently satisfied with the stories, each writer then moved back to the visual realm and began animating their thumbnail beasts to a form that was ready for canvas—light pencil traced with Sharpee was then hand painted with fabric ink. Beasts were hand-stitched to felt and felt was machine stitched to calico.

But there was one more piece of fabric to deal with once the visual project was accomplished a few weeks later. And so I asked the apprentices to read, once more, their polished Beast Tales. To their surprise, they stumbled on little errors, or bumps in the story. Everyone found a little something to refine, which proved to them without me lecturing, that writing needs to incubate, that writing is a process.

And so, after this final polish, the tales were written by hand on the remaining scrap of canvas. And the stories were machine stitched to felt and the back was stitched to the front and the pillows were stuffed. And that’s how the Beast Tales came to be.

When it comes to writing… show don’t tell.

So the next time any child grumbles or complains about engaging in the art of writing simply remind them that writing is an adventure, lift an imaginary sword and cry, “Beyond Here be Dragons,” and let the adventure begin.

—Kim

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