I had never used Zoom prior to the pandemic. I now use it every week to teach students traditional foundation drawings skills and animation for Elite Animation Academy. I like the platform because students can watch me draw live in an intimate online setting. I can take a drawing done by each student and then quickly add a few strokes to show them how their sketch might be improved. As students sketch away on assignments I like to sketch them from my end of the virtual classroom. I honestly feel that students get more from me than when I taught them in the classroom setting, pre-pandemic.
In a news conference Thursday June 18, 2020 Governor Ron DeSantis and Commissioner Richard Corcoran announced that they plan to reopen schools for in-person learning in the fall of 2020. DeSantis said, “We are not going to be instituting a lot of rules, or really any rules.”
- Step 1 – June – open up campuses for youth activities and summer camps.
- Step 2 – July – expand campus capacities further for summer recovery instruction.
- Step 3 – August – open up campuses at full capacity for traditional start of the academic year.
According Florida Today, Florida’s surgeon general has acknowledged that a syndrome that attacks children and is associated with Covid-19 has surfaced in Florida, adding yet another critical layer to diagnosing and treating the disease. Emergency Medicine Physician Rajiv Bahl, MD, said that it’s too soon for children to begin playing together and having play dates.
Starting tomorrow, June 21, 2020, I will be teaching summer camps and classes 7 days a week until August 7, 2020. Summer camps will begin Monday June 22, 2020 at Elite Animation Academy and I will be instructing 5 days a week. I don’t know how many students are in the summer camps, but maintaining 6 feet of distance between students might be a challenge.
Today Sunday June 21, 2020 I will begin teaching a course at Crealde. Last week was the first class but I did not have the course on my calendar since I wasn’t given the course schedule, so I missed it. Six students showed up. I felt bad when I got the call and I was still in bed.
One Crealde student received notice that someone that they had been exposed to on June 11th, 2020 just received a Positive Covid-19 result. Out of an abundance of caution, they were tested June 20, 2020, and will self isolate until results come back on Tuesday June 23, 2020 or Wednesday June 24, 2020. They withdrew from class. I was asked to let the other five students know why the student left. This student was with all of the other students for the entire 75 minutes that they waited on Sunday June 14, 2020 when I was at home. Most students were wearing masks. This student was wearing a mask.