Rock Star Kindergarten Teacher- A great lesson in effective seating charts.

[Cattz, ADN]

Good morning-

I have to brag a bit on the kindergarten teacher in one of my schools, in hopes that this will help any one that may be getting started back to to in person classes or any one needing the teachers to tweak their system a bit.

We had a Kindergarten student test positive for COVID. I did the usual Contact Tracing. The seating charts worked wonderfully- The teacher had made the seating charts so that the same kids sat by each other in class, lunch, in the gym in the morning/and this is also where they sit to stretch for P.E.

This dramatically reduced the number of kids  that I had to quarantine. I wanted to hug that teacher!

Even more of a reason to hope for limited number of kids quarantined- This all unfolded early evening last week---THE NIGHT BEFORE THE VALENTINE"S DAY PROGRAM! (I felt like a heel calling to tell parents their kids have to miss their Valentine's Day Party.) This rock start kindergarten teacher- is having another party when the kids are back!! 

[Eleven011]

This has been one of our mitigation strategies all year so that we can have in person school.   Each class has to turn in a seating chart to the office, and they keep it the same unless absolutely necessary!   There are video cameras for lunch time.   It's made contact tracing much easier!  

[AdobeRN]

Our campus has done basically the same - although at K-2 level doesn't really matter since if one is positive in class they all will be quarantined, but with grades 3-5 this strategy has really helped with keeping the amount of Close Contacts down.  

[Cattz, ADN]

12 minutes ago, AdobeRN said:

Our campus has done basically the same - although at K-2 level doesn't really matter since if one is positive in class they all will be quarantined, but with grades 3-5 this strategy has really helped with keeping the amount of Close Contacts down.  

That is interesting. Is the K-2 level all quarantined with a positive, a school decision or was that from your heath department. I like that.

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

28 minutes ago, AdobeRN said:

Our campus has done basically the same - although at K-2 level doesn't really matter since if one is positive in class they all will be quarantined, but with grades 3-5 this strategy has really helped with keeping the amount of Close Contacts down.  

We do the same.  For the young ones it's really hard to tell if they've been within 6 ft for 15 minutes throughout the day because they're passing by each other in the classroom, standing in line for the toilets and need to be reminded to stay on their "dots."  We probably over-quarantine, but we haven't had an outbreak yet so we're just going to keep doing what we're doing.

[AdobeRN]

48 minutes ago, Cattz said:

That is interesting. Is the K-2 level all quarantined with a positive, a school decision or was that from your heath department. I like that.

I think it is based on guidelines by State of Texas (TEAS) though really not sure??? But it is our district policy - parents don't care for the policy but it's a rule they got to put up with if they want their kid in Face-to-Face school vs Virtual.  At K-2 level mask wearing is not required while in the classroom though we highly encourage it.