How are we all feeling about f2f teaching?

[Rumblebuffin]

Given that we're gearing up for a massive new wave, I'm nervous about teaching largely unvaccinated first years in poorly ventilated rooms without masks (still waiting on guidance about the masks).

@Aimee1987 the one reassurance I am drawing is that everyone seems to be in almost the same position as me this year, even though I'm coming back in after a few years out. Good to know I won't stand out from the mass panic but also want to ring fence my student feedback from the fact that I will be teaching modules I have had literally days to prepare from scratch amid the pandemic chaos

It was asked in a senior management meeting I was in today what was the plan if staff start to get sick.

It may be something that departments should say to students (re encouraging mask wearing & vaccination). I, for one, will not "soldier on" if I get ill this coming term. I'll take the sick leave I need to take. I don't usually - I dose up & soldier on. I even suffered with chronic pain longer than I needed to because I put off a scheduled operation for 3 months in order to have the operation I needed in vacation time. Because management told me there would be no-one to cover me for the 4 weeks I needed for recovery.

Never doing that sort of thing again, after the last 18 months.

First in person lecture today, ,70 odd students (space was full). None wearing a mask. Was alright about it til the coughing started! To get to campus in time for a 9 o'clock session I need to get on the school run buses, all these are packed with unvaccinated teenagers w/o masks. It's s bit scary tbh.

Yes, I don't feel safe either. Lots of coughing when I was teaching too. The so-called distancing of students in seminars is just that. Our rooms do not have staggered start times so we all congregate outside the rooms and then walk into a room that has not been aired, directly after another cohort. No windows open but we're told that despite that they are adequately ventilated. Doesn't feel like it. I feel it's inevitable that I will contract Covid during the spike that is clearly coming. The response is that if I catch it hopefully I'm well enough to teach online and if not I can reschedule teaching when I'm better.

I'm not teaching f2f until January but I expect it will be like this, I can't see a lot of students wearing masks and quite a few of my colleagues don't plan to either.

If classes are cancelled because staff are ill I imagine the universities will just blame the students, saying this is why we told you to mask up.

We were told if students are coughing a lot in class you can firmly suggest they leave and go get tested (we have a testing site on campus)

I've sent coughing students home this week to get tested. We have LFT on site but not PCR and it seems less easy to get one. Most are having to wait for the home kit ones because they don't drive. The walk in centre suggested by NHS was 9 miles away.

We work in partnership with a university on a vocational post-grad qualification - ITT.

Because there is no social distancing in schools, we have none either when teaching the trainees. We have hand sanitiser, wipes and open windows, but othrwise sitting closely round tables, working together as pre-pandemic.

From a teaching point of view it is great- it was really hard talking about anbd describing good classroom practice with trainees fixed on individual tables 2m apart. Now we have talk, sharing of materials and work, and a variety of activities. All good.

But we are waiting...

One was absent yesterday. Three had headaches. The rest are really tired. But that is all normal for a month in to an intensive course.

However, six of them are in classes currently with supply teachers as the class teacher has Covid. Two are off because their children have Covid. One has a class with four children off with Covid.

We would not want to return to socially distanced teaching, or - even worse - remote, but it can only be a matter of time before Covid begins to work its way through the students, surely.

...and the staff

We have to empty the classroom for 15 minutes every hour so the corridors end up full of students for that period. My first lecture, the exit goes directly outdoors and it was pouring rain. Not much enthusiasm for going out but in fairness to them, they did. Most wandered off to get coffee.

I spent the first 2 weeks policing masks. Students pulling them down below their nose or pulling them down for a drink before they even go to their bag to get the bottle so it's down for a couple of minutes, rather than a quick off, drink, on.

I started to take names in one class as it was ridiculous and got the course director to email them. They seem to have got the message now but I've told them next step is a report to student affairs for a disciplinary.

Windows are all open in rooms that have them and the door to the outside is open in one room. It was freezing this week as the door is just beside the podium.

Interaction is not great as it's hard to make out what they're saying with masks. I'm finding it particularly hard in one class as we have a lot of international students so you have accents thrown into the mix too.

I did have one cougher who left for a couple of minutes and then came back and started mopping the back of his neck. I spoke to him and he assured me it wasn't covid...

I advised him to get a test anyway but we have no advice on how to deal with that. I guess I could have asked him to leave but he wasn't coughing after he came back so I just left him.

@OchonAgusOchonOh are you in England? I don't think you can threaten students with a disciplinary for not wearing masks

@dreamingbohemian - are you in England

No. I'm in Ireland. We've been told to tell them to wear the mask. If they refuse, take names, cancel the lecture and refer them to a disciplinary. Students who are exempt have to go through disability services and get a letter of exemption that they must produce.

The ones I'm dealing with aren't refusing to wear a mask per se but just aren't wearing it correctly the whole time. I'd prefer not to go through the disciplinary process, if for no other reason than the hassle but I'm not willing to teach if they won't play their part by wearing a mask.

At my uni, the only thing we have in place is that we (and students) are advised to wear masks in public spaces. Hardly any are.
Other than that we’re back to normal - corridors heaving, crammed in the lifts. I think it’s only a matter of time before it starts to rip through the campus. I’m not happy.

@igivein

At my uni, the only thing we have in place is that we (and students) are advised to wear masks in public spaces. Hardly any are. Other than that we’re back to normal - corridors heaving, crammed in the lifts. I think it’s only a matter of time before it starts to rip through the campus. I’m not happy.

I really don't know how ye are coping with it. We have a one way system in place which works fine for teaching venues but would involve serious trekking around the place to get to offices so most of us ignore it on the staff floors. It's not an issue though as the traffic is minimal on them. Lifts are limited to 1 person but most people are using the stairs.

The only contraventions I have seen are not wearing masks properly and the restaurant in our building isn't asking for vaccination passes, which they should be doing. They are complying with that rule in other restaurants though.

Wow Ireland sounds pretty tough!

I think we are coping with it here because society as a whole is very unrestricted. Lots of people not wearing masks on the tube, in the shops, restaurants and bars back to normal, you can go to the football, etc.

@dreamingbohemian - Wow Ireland sounds pretty tough!

I think we have a reasonable balance here at the moment. Pubs and restaurants will no longer require covid passes or masks after 22nd October. Masks are still required everywhere and it would be unusual to see people not wearing them. From 22nd on, masks will only be required in shops, transport and medical settings. I assume they will still be required in universities and colleges as they are seperate. I don't know about schools.

But yeah, I can see why ye are more accepting of no masks etc if that's what is happening in society generally. It's hard to know what's the best approach really. I think there are pluses and minuses to both.

Masks plate voluntary in my Uni and almost no-one is wearing them. We are also back doing f2f with no online sessions. Classrooms are back to fully capacity as well. Are many others Unis like this or just my —fucking— workplace?

Oh, strikethrough fail! I never know how to do it!

@Poppitypop I've actually felt really bizarre all week because where at my uni it's basically just pre-Covid times. As if nothing has happened.

Very few students wearing masks - maybe 20% at most. No SD at all and the lecture halls are full. Most staff are wearing masks but it's likely worse than useless as no students are I have no idea about cases!

@LookdeepintotheParka
Perhaps we are at the same institution! We’ve had low Covid cases luckily but it really is business as usual now with no social distancing evident. I don’t teach much this term so I can avoid campus but I feel very sorry for those who are anxious and/or vulnerable.

We are ‘encouraging’ students to wear masks. I’ve taught 2 things so far. In a class of 25 1 student wore a mask. In a lecture of 250 maybe 5% wore one. It’s pissing me off.

At my uni mask wearing indoors is only advised. Over the last 2 weeks I have seen about 80 students in different small group sessions not a single one was wearing a mask. And also not heeding the line markings and keep to the left signs so no SD.

Fortunately no coughing in my classes yet and we have had no advice about that but I feel like I would need to say something

sooooo: day ONE of teaching and one of my students has been hospitalised with covid. I fear for her; I fear for her classmates; I fear for all of us.

That’s awful, Randomneim.

Day one here too. Masks “strongly encouraged” in class, and not a single student wearing one. And they’re coughing.

So sorry to hear this GC. Nightmare. We're finding it breaks down interestingly by age -- the MAs, bless them, are really on it. At the induction every single one wore masks. Impressive! Younger years, not so sure yet...

Oh that's terrible @Randomneim

I wonder if mask wearing will improve if there's a lot of cases and things start being cancelled. The 'do the right thing' messaging is clearly not working.