On Friday, the director of my school implemented mandatory daily temperature checks for all the students and teachers. In addition, any parents dropping their kids off must remain in the lobby.
I also had a couple of absentee students on Friday due to the current SARS scare. This inspired me to do a half hour question/answer period during review time. The students (6yr olds), had some great questions, and some genuine concerns.
I’m just curious what the situation is like at your schools? What measures, if any, are your schools taking? Is SARS being discussed in the classroom?
I’m supposed to host a workshop/seminar next weekend but am wondering if I should talk the the boss about cancelling. With new cases of SARS popping up, and the closer of the hospital, the government is urging people to avoid crowded places without good ventilation. 4o people in a medium sized room with only aircon for circulation strikes me as falling under the above category.
On the other hand I have to take the bus and MRT everyday though I am in contact with those around me for a short period of time and the doors are constantly opening and closing. What do people think?
I have a pharmacist friend in Hong Kong and he doesn’t put on a mask when he takes the subway. However, the Boss of the pharmacy will tell him to wear a mask when working at the pharmacy. <—to promote the hype I guess. Outside of work, he will take the mask off and before he eats anything he will wipe his hands with alcohol based swipes?<—you know the moist tissues. I was surprised because I thought he would be double layered in masks and gowns. He just tells me to go to the WHO website because the media cannot be trusted for info about SARS.
As long as you wash your hands and don’t touch your face with your hands AND don’t have people sneezing or coughing in your face it should be OK. That’s the feeling I get from him.
The school I work at has just started a policy that teachers must wear the surgical masks. The teachers are also required to wipe the top surface of the student’s desks with a 0.1% bleach solution. I suppose in the rare situation when you/a student sneezes or coughs and saliva droplets or other slimeys pass from one orifice to another, a mask might help.
I am curious. Are there any schools in Taiwan that are cleaned by professional cleaning staff? I don’t just mean sweeping the floors, but regular top to bottom cleaning of the whole school.
Does it mean teacher’s teach with the mask on? I hope every school should supply masks for teachers…It would be a shame for an English Bushiban to come down with SARS. It’s reputation would take a major hit.
[quote=“akev”]The school I work at has just started a policy that teachers must wear the surgical masks. The teachers are also required to wipe the top surface of the student’s desks with a 0.1% bleach solution. I suppose in the rare situation when you/a student sneezes or coughs and saliva droplets or other slimeys pass from one orifice to another, a mask might help.
I am curious. Are there any schools in Taiwan that are cleaned by professional cleaning staff? I don’t just mean sweeping the floors, but regular top to bottom cleaning of the whole school.[/quote]
Must be fun correcting pronunciation with those masks. “No, no, your tongue goes here. See?”
My school gets a daily cleaning from a pro…even before SARS. It’s by far the cleanest school I’ve seen in Taiwan.
Today the director requested that we wear masks…provided by the school. It’s optional.
The biggest blow thus far has been the cancellation of a Performance afternoon the school has been working on for months. My kids were pretty disappointed…they were ready to show off. I guess the reality of 300 parents, students, and teachers in a stuffy theatre was too much of a risk.
[quote=“Zen”]On Friday, the director of my school implemented mandatory daily temperature checks for all the students and teachers. In addition, any parents dropping their kids off must remain in the lobby.
I also had a couple of absentee students on Friday due to the current SARS scare. This inspired me to do a half hour question/answer period during review time. The students (6yr olds), had some great questions, and some genuine concerns.
I’m just curious what the situation is like at your schools? What measures, if any, are your schools taking? Is SARS being discussed in the classroom? Interested.[/quote]
Lucky you. My school claims to have their branches use more astringent cleaning materials and allow teachers to wear masks. I did this, in Hsinchu and my students (all adults) laughed at me (FOOLS) and I ended up having a row with (adult) students from other classes who had to come by and check out the “teacher with a mask.” They laugh now, but I’d rather be a fool who practices all he can (admitedly, not much) in prevention as the island of greed with “zero cases” slowly turns into Beijing part II.
Ironically, my child students have no problems with me wearing a mask and paid no attention to it: another reason to stop teaching adults in Taiwan.
All of this quarantining is making Taiwan a David Cronenberg (ala RABID and SHIVERS) wet dream.
We take the temperature of every single person who walks into the schools. We are also requiring students and teachers to wash their hands after each and every class. We disinfected the schools and postponed a speech competition and Mother’s Day stuff.
Joe thanks wrote: “They laugh now, but I’d rather be a fool who practices all he can (admitedly, not much) in prevention as the island of greed with “zero cases” slowly turns into Beijing part II.”
Why on earth would anyone even consider trying to lecture 6-year-olds on SARS or the flu or hepititis? Or is the point to scare the living daylights out of them by giving them information that they cannot process?
Come on, Wolf, kids are not that stupid. They hear enough on SARS to have intelligent and serious questions. So what’s wrong with giving them intelligent and serious answers?
Much better than leaving them alone with the hysteria that they certainly don’t know how to deal with and that scares them much more than serious information.
You don’t have kids, do you? (neither do I - yet )
You can tell a 6-year-old all it needs to know in quick order: “Don’t worry, it is not serious. Just wash your hands often.”
What more do you need to say?
By the way, I am not suggesting that 6-year-olds are not smart. My office is full of people with the intellegence of 6-year-olds…
*Don’t cough on other people.
*Cover your mouth when you cough.
(There was debate about the effectiveness of this on an other forum. Before SARS, I was regularly covered by the wet mist of a child who’d walk up to me, say “Hi, teacher”, cough and give me that cute innocent smile). Administration of the school would say… “kids will be kids” and “it’s bad business to yell at students”.
*For Goodness Sake! If you have a fever then stay home! Sleep, drink chicken soup, watch TV!
I’ve found that if I stay home with a fever, I can usually beat the bug within 24 to 48 hours. If I push myself, it stays with me for weeks. I thought that was common wisdom back home in the states.
Sometimes, I had students who were so zombied out with fever they couldn’t even lift their heads let alone learn anything.
Even if it’s not SARS, stay home, get rest and don’t drag the rest of us down with you. That
Hey Wolf, it wasn’t a lecture. I never lecture my class. They’ll get enough of that when they start ‘real’ school. It was a question and answer period. We tackled some tough questions, and had a fantastic discussion. Don’t sell these little souls short…they process information just fine.
)