The Swine Flu has hit your classroom. Out of 23 students only 10 are in attendance due to the flu. As a classroom teacher what will you do? With over 1/2 of your classroom absent you have been told not to proceed in each subject area as usual because so many children will be behind when they return. Write 1 alternative plan for any subject area that you could do with the 10 students who are in attendance. In addition, write what precautions you would take to protect yourself and your students from contracting the H1N1 flu.
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I would focus on helping the kids develop critical thinking skills and creative thought processes. As teachers, we try to cover all the subject matter and often forget to teach these very important skills. They could be added on to whatever material you are covering. You could do a creative writing assignment for English. The students could create and illustrate a book on a certain topic. You could also do some fun experiments in science or math that develop what you have already talked about in class. To keep others and myself from getting sick, I would sanitize all surfaces in the room at least daily. I would tell anyone who had flu-like symptoms to stay home. I would make sure kids were washing their hands before meals and after restroom breaks. I would also have hand sanitizer available in the room at all times in case someone coughed or sneezed. I would also continue to take vitamins, get enough sleep, and eat well to keep myself healthy and energetic.
I would try to prevent the spread of the flu to the rest of the students and myself. I will santize my all round my room. I will have hand santizer in my room at all times and I would make sure the students wash their hand before lunch and at bathroom breaks. As a teacher I would just do a review day with my students. One area we would review is math. I would have a fun worksheet that they could get some extra practice on. Then I would have the write thier own story on a book that I just read.
I would not move on to a new set of skills at the time. I would simply focus more in depth on the current material so no one got left behind. I would also try to take this time to review skills learned up to this point in the year. For example, you could have your class make a phonics rules book or inspire their creative side by having them write stories and then post them on your classroom website fot all their parents and classmates to see. You could even have them write about ways to prevent the swine flu. As far as preventing the swine flu in my classroom I would first go over ways to stay healthy with the students, such as covering your mouth when you sneeze of cough and proper hand washing techniques. I would also try to make sure the classroom was kept extra clean by sanitizing all the desks and shelves two to three times throughout the day. Finally, I would make sure I was kept up to date on information regarding the swine flu. I would in addition send home information to parent to help them support my healthy goals in the classroom and reasure them that their child will not fall behind if they become ill.
I would most definitely make it my business to keep plenty of hand sanitizer and disinfectant in my class, so every day and afternoon I would be wiping desks and doorknobs! Also, with only 10 students, we could really do some fun activities that would reinforce what we've already been over in class. We would play some games (I LOVE doing fun activities!) The smaller number of students would lend itself to probably fewer behavior issues and more learning time. We'd do more reading of fun books and related activities, such as games, book reports, scavenger hunts, maybe a small field trip too. Definitely some one on one or small group tutoring to go over problem areas in math and reading with students who are in attendance.
Since I only had 10 students, I would do a review day with them. We would go over the stuff we had been learning but have more fun with it. One exaple would be a review game like Jeopardy so the students don't get bored listening to the things that they have already learned. Also, I would make sure to bring in a lot of hand sanitizer and sanitize my classroom. I will also remind my students to be washing their hands throughout the day.
I would have activites to do with the children of prior knowledge. Things they have learned thoughout the year. Instead of them leraning new things and the other children will get behind I will have the students refresh their minds with things they have leraned. In preventing the H1N1 would be to santize my entire room and have a bottle of germ X in my classroom so when we walk in and out of the classroom the studetns will get some and we will wash our hands frequently.
The first thing that I would do as a teacher and a mother, would be to sanitize my room to help prevent the spread of the Swine Flu any further. Academically, we would focus on reading and writing skills. It is so hard to give each of your students one on one on a dailey basis. I will also lead a health unit on keeping yourself healthy and prevent the spread of germs and sickness. We would also make "Get Well Soon" cards for our friends that are out sick and make special gifts for them and thier families such as food baskets and teddy bears.
With having so many students out of class I agree that it's really important not to move on with new material. To stay healthy I would make sure I am getting enough sleep, eating right and taking vitamins. In addition, If there was a swine flu outbreak, and most of my students were sick, I would wear a mask. The kind they wear at the Dr. office. To keep my classroom clean, I would sanitize daily with bleach wipes, Lysol spray, or disinfectant. Cleanliness is key in avoiding the spread of contagious germs. In addition to having hand sanitizer I would allow any student who felt the need to wash their hands in the restroom, especially after a sneeze or cough.
As far as lessons go, I would spend the day reviewing materials that have already been taught in each subject, focusing on core skills and skills that students have struggled with. I would also have the students do some reasearch on swine flu, and create a pamphlet on ways to stay healthy and prevent the spread of the flu.
First: to keep my student that are actually in school i would try and have alot of fun activities for them to be doing. in a subject such as math i might have a couple different stations in the room that are all reviewing different math they have learned. They will do a station they are having a harder time with to help reinforce it with a fun activity. If a student is have a hard time with addition we seriation i would have tons of boxes at a station and the student can practice ording the boxes, smallest to biggest, biggest to smallest and so on. To sanitize my classroom well it would be a daily activity for me. THe tops of all surfaces would be wiped down twice a day( while the kids are at recess and after school) i would disinfect everything daily and before lunch and after lunch we would use hand sanitizer and also after recess.
One thing I would do as a teacher in this situation is I would take advantage of the situation to teach the children about the flu and ways to prevent it. We could make a “fun” cleaning day by using dry erase makers and our desks as dry erase boards and have a fun spelling test, which would also help us review. When we were finished we would clean off the desks with disinfectant and it would kill the germs and prevent future illnesses. I would also have a review day with fun review sheets and games instead of the day being boring review. For other prevention I would lysol/sanitize anything that did not get done in during the day and purchase hand sanitizer for my room. I would also ensure that we stopped at the restroom on the way to lunch and before snack to make sure our hands were clean before eating.
I would do a thematic unit centered around a specific book so that I could stretch the lessons for as long or as short as necessary. Since it would be a book I picked out, it would be a suppliment to the curriculum and add to the students who were able to be in school, but not hinder the ones who were sick.
As far as keeping the remaining students healthy, I would constantly lysol all the surfaces that the students come into contact with as well as put germ-x in the classroom. I would teach my students the proper way to wash their hands, and talk about coughing and sneezing into tissues. Personal hygene, and being aware of sleep and eating habits would be a focus within the classroom.
I would review the things they have already learned but may still be having a hard time understanding. These students can possibly get the one on one attention they truly need. They will not be going further ahead of the rest of the students but they can work on the things that could eventually hold them back. Also to keep myself and the other children safe we would spend time learning the proper hand washing style and how to sneeze or cough so that germs do not spread so much. Also, I will be cleaning the room more thoroughly to ensure that I am protecting myself and my students.
For my second grade classroom, I would have my students focus on their reading skills. I would have more independent reading, one- on- one reading, and let students form groups to read stories. This would be more practice for them to improve their reading skills. Practicing reading skills would allow for the remaining students to keep motivated while still being able to progress without leaving the other students behind. Precautions that I would take in the classroom would involve educating the students about their health, keeping the classroom sanitary, and keeping communication with the parents of the sick students. I would have the students put shaving cream on their desks at the end of the day to keep their desks clean. Hand sanitizer would also be used to keep their hands clean. I would also caution my students to not share pencils during the day or snacks at lunch time. This way the students wouldn’t be passing germs to one another.
One plan I would use for a writing lesson in English would be a focus on health precautions. I think it would be good to make the students aware of what was going around, and have them do an activity relating to precautions they could take. I would first read them a picture book on health precautions to take when it comes to illnesses such as the flu. I would then talk with them about it, and have them make a mini book with precautions they and their classmates could take to avoid such an illness. They could use what they have learned, and things they may already know. I could grade them on comprehension and grammar since it would be an English lesson. I think this is a great activity to use when I cannot move on because of so many students being absent, and it educates those students there in how to try and avoid getting what their classmates have.
In order to help prevent the spreading of the illness in my classroom, I would encourage the students to cough or sneeze in their arm, wash their hands often, and have disinfectant spray and wipes in the classroom.
I would focus on the previous or current lessons that we have already taught in class and go more in depth with each lesson. Since most typical lessons are only about 30-45 minutes long, I feel like there is always a way to stretch out the lesson and focus on different areas. Children can always use more focus on math facts, or more time in reading groups. This also might give the teacher a fun opportunity to spend more time reading fun stories to his or her classroom. Maybe the children could bring in his or her favorite books and at the end of the day you could spend some time reading aloud to the class.
To help prevent the flu for myself it would definitely be beneficial to get the flu shot. I would also write up a letter to give to the children's parents to let them know the situation of our classroom and what they can do at home to prevent more cases. I would keep tissue and provide hand sanitizer to be available at all times.
In this situation I think it would be a perfect time to do the fun activities that are difficult to do with a full classroom. Many science experiments can get messy and unrealistic based on classroom management with so many students, but a group of 10 will allow closer monitoring. This would also be a good time to pull out all the learning centers that there isnt always time for throughout the day. I also like everyone's ideas about doing a health lesson on the flu and researching what causes it. It might be fun for the students to research H1N1 and do skits as doctors and patients on its causes and how to prevent it. I dont necessarily think it would be the best idea to simply review all day and bore the students that were there, but going more in depth on a topic would be more beneficial.
As far as protecting against the flu, I would sanitize and have students wash hands frequently. Taking vitamins and getting plently of sleep are a must also!
To prevent the swine flu from spreading, I would provide plenty of time to wash hands and there will be tons of hand sanitizer in the classroom. I would use the class time to teach my class the benefits of washing hands and how to best stay healthy. I would give worksheets on nutrition and read books to the class on different ways to keep themselves from being sick. After this lesson, I would try to incorporate worksheets that would give them extra help on the previous lesson or look back at my gradebook on things that each of the individual students need extra help on based on the grades they received on the subject matter.
With so many students out being sick, I really need to make sure that I stay healthy. I would make sure that if a child coughed or sneezed that I would show them the hand sanitizer or allow them to wash their hands-same goes for me! I would make sure to get enough sleep, drink enough fluids, and keep my immune system good and healthy.
With over half of my class missing, I would not move on to core subjects. Instead, I would take this time in creating and implementing a lesson focused on being healthy and aware of the sicknesses around us. I would do creative activities that centered around cooperative learning to teach how to wash hands, when to wash hands, ways germs come into contact with you, etc. Since half of my class is sick, I would try to take necessary educational precautions in ensuring the rest stay healthy. In addition to that, I would make sure my students and myself are taking the steps in making our classroom germ-free.
For my science time, with only ten students, I would definitely recap and review what we have already learned. i would make the reviews into fun games to play in the classroom so that the kids do not get bored. Not knowing how long my students with the swine flu would be out, after reviewing for a few days, we would pick fun subjects that have to do with science and we would talk about them just a little bit. This was the kids who are sick are not missing out on anything. As far as test, I would not give any more test or exams until all of the students are back and we are all caught up. This is not only hard for the students who are sick and who are not sick, but also difficult for the teacher. That is why I want to make it fun in the classroom since we cannot learn anything new at this time. As far as preventing the spread of the flu, I would be in my classroom as soon as I found out that some children had the swine flu and I would be dissinfecting everything. Hard toys would be bleached, desks would be bleached, lysol would be sprayed, etc. I would get their early every morning and stay late every ady after the class lets out to repeat this process. If this is something you can prevent then you should prevent it as best a possible. I would also go over with the class how important handwashing is at all times and then I would go over the rules of using hand sanitizer. This should be an effective method of helping to prevent the spread of the swine flu in my classroom.
Since half of my class is absent there would be no reason to move on with the core subjects. I would use the day as a review/activity day. We would go over each subject and review. I would also take time out of the day to go over handwashing practices. When, how, and why we wash our hands. To help keep myself and the students healthy I would make sure to sanitize our room often. I would have hand sanitizer handy as well as antibacterial soap for washing our hands.
Promoting activities like covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze and washing hands frequently would help students avoid getting sick. Hand sanitizer should also be available in the classroom. I don’t think it would be a bad idea to have a discussion about how sickness can be passed from one person to another. Lastly, I would cross my fingers and hope for the best. As far as an activity I would do with the 10 students, it would depend on if I knew how long the absent students would be out for. If it was going to be multiple days you could show a film and review information by using a different methods of teaching it. There is also a lot of fun and educational games that would be great for students to still exercise their brains, without moving forward in the curriculum. I think it would be interesting to have the students review information by finding ways to teach it back to you. You could have different groups work on and present information, which they have covered in the past, to the attending students and yourself.
I would reteach good health behaviors like covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze with their elbow not their hands, and I would have the students wash their hands frequently. For example,have them wash their hands whenever they enter the classroom, before they eat lunch this will help them and other students from getting sick. Hand sanitizer should also be available in the classroom for the times that they cannot get to the sink, but I would make sure they know that it is more important to wash their hands than using hand sanitizer. I would make sure that a letter was sent out to the parents asking them if their child is showing flu like symptoms to keep their child home for at least 24 hours or until the symptoms pass. I would also get their earlier and disinfectant everything. I would also stay later and disinfectant everything again. Do fun learning activities with the students who are there. You can still teach while doing fun learning activities this will help the other students from falling so far behind.
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