Burnout [Teaching in the time of the coronavirus]

[rebeccmeister]

Really, all I want to do right now is lounge around, sipping coffee or bourbon, and read books.

Our college has taken the strategy for the fall of compressing the semester, after a summer that was overbooked with extra planning meetings. The compressed semester eliminated every single break.

We only had a couple of break days last spring after we had to switch to emergency remote teaching, and all I can say is that I NEEDED those days, desperately.

Our spring semester is going to be similar. The start date has been pushed back as far as possible, so as to avoid as much of indoor/flu season as we can. No spring break, so students aren't tempted to trot down to Florida. There will be several days off around Easter, but that's it.

I guess at least we've managed to remain in person for the first four weeks of the semester. There are still cases popping up on campus, but at a low frequency. But that's most likely because we're limited in our testing options.

Comments

[annikusrex]

Oh man, that sounds brutal. Do you get a longer winter break at all?

[rebeccmeister]

Mercifully, yes. Almost 3 months!! Thanksgiving until Feb. 22. And I am going to USE IT WELL. There will be a West Coast trip in there.

[mallorys_camera]

You have been working really hard. Glad to read that you're getting three months off. 😀

[rainswolf]

Yeah, we have no breaks either, though winter break will be really long. But no fall or spring break anymore.... it's kind of ridiculous. Somehow we only have 1 known covid cases to which I'm still "Hmmmm." Buy maybe something is working...

[rebeccmeister]

Thankfully we have someone in Environmental Sciences and Studies who knew enough to set up a wastewater testing system for our campus. It has gotten phased in gradually, and for better or worse is now indicating that we DO have cases on campus. I really hope our other mitigation efforts do prevent outbreaks, but it sure feels like a major gamble.

We currently only have the capability to do a limited amount of surveillance testing, but I guess that's better than nothing. Barely. I really hope that spit testing methods become more widely available because the spit testing methods are much faster.