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Were there examples of schools trying to follow something similar during the peak of covid lockdowns? Such a simple solution if you think about it.

by asow92 3y ago

radicaldreamer 3y ago
There are open air preschools in the Bay Area. The weather being temperate year round helps a lot as well.
- asow92 3y ago
  If Scandinavian babies can sleep in the cold, I think our kids be lectured in it, no? https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988 As far as the hotter areas in the South, there's probably some solution for that too.
  - egypturnash 3y ago
    Fans. Possibly misters near the fans if you want to splurge. There's a lot of restaurants with open-air sections here in New Orleans that do this. You do need some sort of shielding from the sky, heatstroke is a thing, so's an absolute drenchpour that lasts about twenty minutes, usually in the afternoon.
    - selimthegrim 3y ago
      Tulane does have a sort of outdoor classroom with a chalkboard but I don’t really see it used for lecturing that often
    - alwayslikethis 3y ago
      If the temperature and humidity are high enough, no amount of fans and/or misters will cool you down.
      - klysm 3y ago
        I.e. wet bulb temperature
- blueyes 3y ago
  Fwiw, I send my pre-schooler to one. They often go by the lower-case name "forest school", although there is an official Forest School in the east bay, and frankly the outdoors that the kids spend time in is more of a cross of beach and park, less forest. When it rains, they wear galoshes and get suited up. Forest schools tend to have a "learning through play" philosophy, at least the ones I'm aware of. https://learningthroughplay.com/explore-the-research/the-scientific-case-for-learning-through-play https://learningthroughplay.com/explore-the-research/the-sci... I suspect they do well at socializing kids, and letting them figure things out for themselves. Definitely not doing some version of teaching to the test. Other advantage: it stayed open during COVID. Disadvantage: The smoke season in CA is a problem.
INTPenis 3y ago
The open air day cares in my hometown in Sweden never closed afaik. The ones in the pildammsparken park of Malmö, anyone noticed if they closed during covid? I just remember walking my dog there daily and seeing kids.
- robinwassen 3y ago
  Daycares did not close during covid in Sweden. On the topic there are a category of preschools in Sweden called "Ur och skur" which have most education outdoors. Back in the 90s I know some primary schools in Sweden also had education outside, but I think that have changed with schools becoming more competitive lately.
jetrink 3y ago
Yes, a school near my parents' house in Michigan did this! They built several large outdoor pavilions and also have a clearing in the adjoining woods that they hold classes in. I visited in the dead of winter and sure enough, there were about 100 kids out in the freezing cold all day long. Even from a distance, you could see that they were bundled up in multiple layers to keep warm. I was back recently and they still do outdoor classes, but I think it is only for a portion of the day now as I didn't see nearly as many students outside at a time. 1. https://wwmt.com/news/local/moving-forward-kazoo-school-offers-outdoor-learning-sees-increased-enrollment-in-2021 https://wwmt.com/news/local/moving-forward-kazoo-school-offe...
r00fus 3y ago
Not entirely but my kids' K-8 has pushed some of their classes outside (mostly science) to their local "woods" (a part of the land parcel of the school that's not developed and has trees, a pond and some work tables). Also a lot of effort was done during the pandemic to do events outside (like music) in the quad area. Also all meals have been outdoors (indoor not possibly during pandemic) - I remember this being the case even when I was in school in this area. Being in CA, that's easy year round due to milder weather. That said, the effort was nothing close to outdoors all the time, which has significant challenges.
sokoloff 3y ago
My older kid’s school was founded in the 1915 respiratory pandemic era and had a significant outdoor component for the intervening 100 years. They still closed for part of the time early in COVID, but quickly switched to partial in-person with significant outdoor time. I think it was effective, surely better educationally and socially than my younger’s elementary school that stayed closed for a far longer time.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
cik 3y ago
This is exactly what schools did in Israel. There were two different approaches that were juggled depending on the situation - but all schools did this. The culture already existed somewhat - since varying classes have always been outside. 1. Divide into "capsules" where people could learn indoors but with half of the cohort - spread apart, windows open, masked, etc. 2. Learn outside with forms of this. Youth groups, scouts, synagogues, etc all did the latter. I spent the better part of a year praying in a parking lot or a park with others. Entire communities were doing shared meals - just spread apart. The park across the street from my place had a lot of picnicking going on. As an example, the local Planetarium rejigged to do outdoor events. They were so popular that the planetarium continues to do ~40% of each season's lineup outside.
asow92 3y ago
Something I’ve noticed in this thread is that Californians think they’re the only people with nice weather.

Were there examples of schools trying to follow something similar during the peak of covid lockdowns? Such a simple solution if you think about it.

by asow92 3y ago

Were there examples of schools trying to follow something similar during the peak of covid lockdowns? Such a simple solution if you think about it.

radicaldreamer 3y ago

There are open air preschools in the Bay Area. The weather being temperate year round helps a lot as well.

asow92 3y ago
If Scandinavian babies can sleep in the cold, I think our kids be lectured in it, no? https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988 As far as the hotter areas in the South, there's probably some solution for that too.
- egypturnash 3y ago
  Fans. Possibly misters near the fans if you want to splurge. There's a lot of restaurants with open-air sections here in New Orleans that do this. You do need some sort of shielding from the sky, heatstroke is a thing, so's an absolute drenchpour that lasts about twenty minutes, usually in the afternoon.
  - selimthegrim 3y ago
    Tulane does have a sort of outdoor classroom with a chalkboard but I don’t really see it used for lecturing that often
  - alwayslikethis 3y ago
    If the temperature and humidity are high enough, no amount of fans and/or misters will cool you down.
    - klysm 3y ago
      I.e. wet bulb temperature
blueyes 3y ago
Fwiw, I send my pre-schooler to one. They often go by the lower-case name "forest school", although there is an official Forest School in the east bay, and frankly the outdoors that the kids spend time in is more of a cross of beach and park, less forest. When it rains, they wear galoshes and get suited up. Forest schools tend to have a "learning through play" philosophy, at least the ones I'm aware of. https://learningthroughplay.com/explore-the-research/the-scientific-case-for-learning-through-play https://learningthroughplay.com/explore-the-research/the-sci... I suspect they do well at socializing kids, and letting them figure things out for themselves. Definitely not doing some version of teaching to the test. Other advantage: it stayed open during COVID. Disadvantage: The smoke season in CA is a problem.

INTPenis 3y ago

The open air day cares in my hometown in Sweden never closed afaik. The ones in the pildammsparken park of Malmö, anyone noticed if they closed during covid? I just remember walking my dog there daily and seeing kids.

robinwassen 3y ago
Daycares did not close during covid in Sweden. On the topic there are a category of preschools in Sweden called "Ur och skur" which have most education outdoors. Back in the 90s I know some primary schools in Sweden also had education outside, but I think that have changed with schools becoming more competitive lately.

jetrink 3y ago

Yes, a school near my parents' house in Michigan did this! They built several large outdoor pavilions and also have a clearing in the adjoining woods that they hold classes in. I visited in the dead of winter and sure enough, there were about 100 kids out in the freezing cold all day long. Even from a distance, you could see that they were bundled up in multiple layers to keep warm. I was back recently and they still do outdoor classes, but I think it is only for a portion of the day now as I didn't see nearly as many students outside at a time. 1. https://wwmt.com/news/local/moving-forward-kazoo-school-offers-outdoor-learning-sees-increased-enrollment-in-2021 https://wwmt.com/news/local/moving-forward-kazoo-school-offe...

r00fus 3y ago

Not entirely but my kids' K-8 has pushed some of their classes outside (mostly science) to their local "woods" (a part of the land parcel of the school that's not developed and has trees, a pond and some work tables). Also a lot of effort was done during the pandemic to do events outside (like music) in the quad area. Also all meals have been outdoors (indoor not possibly during pandemic) - I remember this being the case even when I was in school in this area. Being in CA, that's easy year round due to milder weather. That said, the effort was nothing close to outdoors all the time, which has significant challenges.

sokoloff 3y ago

My older kid’s school was founded in the 1915 respiratory pandemic era and had a significant outdoor component for the intervening 100 years. They still closed for part of the time early in COVID, but quickly switched to partial in-person with significant outdoor time. I think it was effective, surely better educationally and socially than my younger’s elementary school that stayed closed for a far longer time.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

cik 3y ago

This is exactly what schools did in Israel. There were two different approaches that were juggled depending on the situation - but all schools did this. The culture already existed somewhat - since varying classes have always been outside. 1. Divide into "capsules" where people could learn indoors but with half of the cohort - spread apart, windows open, masked, etc. 2. Learn outside with forms of this. Youth groups, scouts, synagogues, etc all did the latter. I spent the better part of a year praying in a parking lot or a park with others. Entire communities were doing shared meals - just spread apart. The park across the street from my place had a lot of picnicking going on. As an example, the local Planetarium rejigged to do outdoor events. They were so popular that the planetarium continues to do ~40% of each season's lineup outside.

asow92 3y ago

Something I’ve noticed in this thread is that Californians think they’re the only people with nice weather.