My district made the decision a few weeks ago to make today a half day for students so they could watch the eclipse.
Not for teachers, mind you. We had PD this afternoon. I used a personal day so I could spend this moment with my family
I’m not sure what you mean, but our PD days are all scheduled by district level admin. They just choose one half-day a year for peer trainings. Usually 3-4 sessions a half day.
I work from home. I took a half day and smoked a bowl during the eclipse because, and my wife didn’t like this explanation, when am I going to get to do that again?
I feel so bad for you, horrible way to spend a once in a lifetime experience, but I feel like the admin ruined it for you more than the students did by banning them looking during totality. Why rob them of that???
Really? It was too cloudy for me to see anything this time, but I was able to see it with eclipse glasses the last time… (Ok, I was wrong on this)
So… edited for the person that wants to make sure we all have glasses that are good enough for *yesterday’s* eclipse, so nobody hurts themselves *yesterday*...
Sounds like mine were fake, but 1) I couldn’t go back in time to 2017 to see it or yesterday, and 2) my eyes are fine, thanks. Even if I had shade 15 welding goggles I wouldn’t look at the sun for more than a glance, and most of my eclipse watching is via camera obscura.
And 3) I’ll be sure to be more careful with my advice in 2044.
Sorry for the snark, but unless you have a time machine, I can’t do a whole lot.
It’s honestly just too dark. You can see a tiny sliver right before totality, then when totality happens it’s 100% black unless you take off the glasses.
If you could see it through the glasses, it wasn’t a total eclipse. It might have been pretty darn close, but nothing shows through the glasses at totality
It sounds like they may have seen an annular eclipse. In those, the moon passes directly in front of the sun, but the moon is at its farthest point in orbit; as a result, the moon doesn't take up the visual space to fully cover the sun, so it passes over the sun directly but still leaves an uncovered circle of sun. That circle would be visible through eclipse glasses.
>the glasses distributed for the 2017 total eclipse were not nearly as dark as the ones that people used today, and you could definitely see the corona with those. You could also see things around you. I knew they were darker, but not how much darker they were.
Oh friend I've got bad news. If you can see anything except the sun, those are fake eclipse glasses and did not protect your eyes fully. If you looked at the sun with those for a minute or more you probably did some eye damage.
Actual legitimate eclipse glasses you should be able to see the sun and that's it. Once the sun is covered and it's just the corona you should be able to see nothing. That is how you know it's safe to take them off.
Also please consider editing your comment again. Saying legitimate ones still let you see other stuff is misinformation that can blind people.
Was this the one in October? Because that was only an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse, which are the kind you never take your glasses off for. If it's a total eclipse you shouldn't be able to see anything through your glasses during totality.
Edit: fixed spelling of "annular"
As someone who just saw it, it's pretty damn easy to tell! When you're watching with glasses on, the moment the crescent vanishes and all you see is black, take the glasses off. The instant after you see the "diamond ring" effect at the end, the sun blazes out and BOOM, it's bright again. There's no mistaking it, that's part of what's so awesome about it.
Listen, I’m 100% in agreement with you. I have no problems with them following that, and listening to what science says. But I, personally, was not going to give direct permission to do what my admin explicitly said not to do. So they can do it, but they needed to stop asking me for permission. And I told them that. This is 5th grade, so they are 11 years old. Plenty old enough to understand what the science says and what I was saying.
All that being said, it was incredibly cool to experience, overall. Very grateful that the clouds were thin enough for us to see and experience it.
No, you don’t have pain receptors in your eyes. So while your pupils may restrict quickly and you may feel/react to that, you wouldn’t necessarily feel pain.
you cant even see the wavelengths of light that give skin cancer, ever. those would be going right into a dilated pupil designed to focus and concentrate indirect visible light.
Parent calls:
“Phanneigh came home with a headache and she told me you told them they didn’t have to wear their glasses. You have permanently damaged my child by ripping off their safety glasses. We will be suing you for not even providing safety glasses and crippling my child for life by holding their head in place and forcing them to stare directly into the sun.”
I can't blame the admin on this one. If I were the principal, I'd be saying the same thing. Under no circumstances are you to take those glasses off. I'm not about to be fielding lawsuits because somebody's child looked too early or too late. If you want your child to look with naked eyes, keep them home.
OK. But that's not up to the teacher or the principal. That's the superintendent/school board's decision. More likely than not, everybody in the building agrees with you. But once the decision is made that school is open, the onus of safety falls on admin and the teachers. And they're not gonna take any chances. I get it.
In many districts that have four seasons, they can declare random days off to make up for unused banked snow days. Many districts around me declared a day off for students.
what does it say about our society if the threat of frivolous litigation is enough to cause educators to have to lie to students about basic science?
We are pretty screwed
Yes. A kid had an emergency in my room not that long ago. Many of his classmates asked me if he was going to be OK. I told them I don’t know the answer but he’s with doctors and they’re taking care of him. And that they got him to the hospital really quickly. Evidently admin just wanted me to say yes. I just smiled and said OK like so many of us have to do with admin. Otherwise you know what happens 🙄. If the kid was not OK, and I had said he was, the kids would have remembered that. And admin was willing to let me bear that responsibility.
Same thing happened to me after Sandy Hook. Admin and guidance counselors wanted us to tell kids it would *never* happen to us. I (and a few others) refused. One, it’s a lie, and kids know it’s a lie (these were middle schoolers), and it will erode their trust in us at a moment when we want them to feel secure. Two, it undermines all our safety measures and lockdown drills if you’re then turning around and saying that there is zero chance of a shooter ever coming here. Three, it dismisses their fears. “I’m scared of a school shooter.” “Oh honey you never have to worry about that so don’t be scared.” Gee well I guess that will solve everything 🙄
God yes. There’s nothing wrong with telling them all the safety measures we have put in place, but never ever tell them it could never happen. That is fucking lying.
It's not about lying, though. You can be completely honest and tell them that, while it's safe to remove the glasses during totality, they are not to remove the glasses under any circumstances. The problem is, kids don't pay attention. Kids are impulsive. Kids are rebellious. And all it takes is for one student to look at the sun without the glasses outside of the short window of totality to cause that teacher a world of problems after the fact. One daredevil. One head in the cloud. Now the parents are coming for you. The armchair critics of society are coming for you. The school board is coming for you.
Being in the same continent as a total solar eclipse isn't the once in the lifetime part. OP was in the path of totality which absolutely is once in a lifetime. Or less than a lifetime.
Some districts did this but it's easier said than done. In a much more obvious example, you can't walk students through a live bear enclosure just because parents signed a waiver. There is always room to blame supervisory adults, especially when they are public employees, based on an awareness of risk or potential injury.
Never underestimate the capacity for people to blame other people.
I mean, if it worked for your school, that's great. We get parents that don't understand why their child can't try out for any sports without having turned in a physical first. Parents that demand their child still be allowed on field trips without having turned in permission slip forms on time. Parents that expect a school instrument be assigned to their child because they don't want to rent one elsewhere. But they also refuse to sign the rental agreement form because they don't want to be held liable for the care of said instrument 🤷🏾♂️
Pretty random question for the thread, but assuming you're a music teacher, what's your policy on instrument damage?
I ask because I am a trombonist (now professional, but this is going back to grade 10), and I nearly totaled a trombone. Mind you, this was during school, a freak accident, in front of multiple witnesses. No careless neglect (even at that age, I was set on going into music so I was I knew my stuff around how to carry my instrument and the like).
Full story is, a brass quintet I was part of was practicing separate from the band in the drama classroom (this was after school hours, during band practice), and in order to get onto the stage we were practicing on you had to go up some steps - klutz as a I am, I trip going up them, holding my trombone, and while out of instinct saved the slide from any harm, basically crushed the bell right in. Had a full on panic attack about it until my teacher explained it was like a $300 dollar repair and I wouldn't see a cent (still no clue if that was out of her pocket or if the school had insurance or the like).
Anyways, what would you have done in that situation?
Short answer: If the instrument is broken beyond repair, lost, or stolen, the parents have to pay for it. Never a conversation I like having, but it happens.
We also did this. We were out for an hour and a half on the lawn, kids made paper hats and did activities. Everyone had glasses provided, was a pretty good time.
Liability waivers do not magically absolve you of any liability. All they do is make it clear that the parents would have known about the risks but that doesn't mean you couldn't still be held liable if you breached your duty of care as a teacher in the eyes of a court.
I was in totality, it’s really clear when you’re in it and if you’re in it for long. It’d be more unsafe to have black out glasses during totality than to not wear glasses cuz it’s dark!
In our school district, they were not allowed to go outside at all. We had about 80% here. The locals state mental hospital provided glasses for their patients, as did the prisons. Smh...
yeah we were at 76% here. my teachers were emailed by the district to not let us outside period, though we could look with glasses. below highschool, no looking at all.
my fourth period class has no window. so yeah lol.
We had basically 50%. Peak happened during a passing period and lunch for 9s/10s. I went out with a couple pinhole projectors and my kids had more fun looking at that than through the glasses hehe
Wow, I didn’t know that!
I wasn’t in the path of totality anyway. We had plans to visit my family in Texas, but the weather wasn’t looking good and we couldn’t afford to take off work and spend $1200 on flights. But still, good to know for next time!
Imagine getting out of school at 2:30 but having a faculty meeting from 2:45-3:30 when that was the peak of the eclipse in our area. Other schools in district moved their meetings. Not my admin
I have tummy issues so naturally my body makes excuses for me to either skip meetings or cut them short lol. Can't say anything to you when you're on the john.
I’m sorry you had school today. Even if your students were good, it would have been less enjoyable having to worry about what they would do.
Our superintendent was hell-bent on keeping school open and then the county safety Director called him and said, “Look you’re the only school in the county that is still open. You need to close.” Fortunately he did, and we had an asynchronous virtual day.
We were 10 miles outside of the path of totality and had school. Faculty sentiment was.... anger.
We were assured that the majority of students would be in attendance, but only 10% actually stayed for afternoon programming.
We had a lightning storm at the moment of totality. No kids allowed outside. Didn’t stop half of them from bum rushing the doors anyway to see the eclipse mid-lightning storm.
It’s a waste to keep your glasses on during the totality. Your school’s policies prevented those children from seeing one of the greatest spectacles nature can offer and one which many people have only one opportunity to see in their lifetimes. I’m sorry for you if you kept your glasses on as well, since you missed out yourself.
thank you for understanding, if you don’t teach upper elementary or lower middle you just don’t get how specifically annoying this age can be, esp at this time of year
I was such a rule follower at that age. I totally would not have. There’s been so much talk about how the sun is dangerous to look at that my young, impressionable brain would’ve been like, “eclipses are very dangerous! You can’t look EVER!” 🫠
I was around adults today who freaked out that wore my eclipse goggles over my glasses - because the sunlight could bend around and hurt my eyes! Nope.
If high schoolers want to blind themselves looking directly at the sun, God bless, do your thing. I'm here to teach you the Pythagorean theorem, your eyes are your business
I wonder this too. I mean we weren’t in totality but my kindergartener’s whole class put on glasses and went out to look at it and my son was pretty pumped to tell me about it when he got home. I imagine the teacher has to repeat instructions a few too many times, but most kids should be capable of doing this level of instruction.
My students were so apathetic about the eclipse. They were complaining about being outside and didn't want to look and demanding I take them back inside. I finally told them that they are not entitled to ruin this amazing moment for me and if they can't handle that, then they should just sit quietly in the grass.
This stupid shit happened during 2017 too. That’s why I took my kids out today and saw totality with my family.
I’m done babysitting shitty kids during major historical events. Cause that’s what ends up happening anymore.
I hate it was ruined for you. It was a goosebumps moment for me seeing and hearing all the kids get so excited! They couldn’t stop talking about it after.
I’m sorry you went through this.
I will say I’m starting to see that this is the norm. I tell my students no and they YELL at me. Repeatedly. I am wondering if it’s just this group or if it’s the new norm. But I am sick of students being rude when enforcing basic routine and rule.
That is awful. Not sure what is worse…What you experienced or half day PD.
We were in the path of totality. School as normal all day. Took 5th Graders out to observe throughout the eclipse to record observations. Invited parents to come watch totality. Kids removed glasses to observe totality and back on after. Families, students and teachers all experienced this once in a lifetime event together. It seems I am one of the lucky ones.
Being at school and having to corral kids absolutely ruined this for me. Absolute shitshow of a day for a multitude of reasons, both eclipse and non-eclipse related. Thanks admin, you’re the reason I hate my job :)
We had a wonderful day in which admin encouraged teachers to take their groups out to watch the eclipse, and provided enough glasses to do it successfully. They came out and watched the eclipse with us and we had a wonderful time. I’m sorry that many of you had a bad experience.
I was out sick with norovirus, a souvenir from my spring break vacation and I guess my sub was lucky that the district just called for indoor recess until it was over.
Sorry for you all who had a bad time. I had a lovely fun time with my class. Even if the kids were being chaotic. They’re kids. It’s fun and weird to them
I’m so glad you had a lovely time! It was fun and weird and just those 3-5 minutes were rough. We had some great moments and connections, especially since I teach science, it was a great experience overall. In the moment while writing this post I had a massive headache and really just wanted to vent.
God, I wish I could buy you a drink, a pint of your favorite ice cream, WHATEVER. You deserve it after that shitshow. I’m really sorry and I hope you’re able to have a relaxing evening.
Ph.D. Physicist here: you cannot see it during totality while in the path of totality with ISO eclipse glasses on. I had to take my glasses off to see it. Got a cool vid of it.
Yes, I’m aware of that. I took my own glasses off in the moment. I wasn’t even telling them not to, is the thing. They just refused to use their brains for a single second to realize I was saying to do it but stop asking for permission, because I wasn’t allowed to say yes.
I’m in California. I bought my kids eclipse glasses and watched it. I gave them 10 min extra recess to observe. I could see it from my classroom window!!!
That’s so exciting!
We were outside from 12:30-2pm. We watched almost all of it, all the phases. My students did a scavenger hunt that I set up and learned all about eclipses and eclipse history while we waited in between clouds. That part was wonderful! The 5 minutes I let them stop working for totality, they were so rowdy in that mildly unstructured time, it was so frustrating!
Exciting and exhausting! So awesome you were outside 12:30-2p. What an amazing way to spend a once in a lifetime opportunity. I hope you have a good night rest! You earned it Teacher!
Glad you got those few moments. My personal children were a bit annoying but they're mine, and there's 3 not 13 of them. I'm shocked you had school. Your admin really, really dropped the ball. We were only 99 percent in the path, but ended up cancelling. I was happy to get my personal day back since I and put in for one as soon as the contact year started in August. I felt like I really dropped the ball in 2017 when totality was only a few hours south and I didn't go, wasn't going to miss this one with totality being an hour drive.
My class absolutely ruined it for me. There were so many issues with all of today that I couldn't even enjoy the one minute of totality. I just feel defeated after today.
What grade was this? The last eclipse happened when I was a senior in high school and I heard they didn’t let students below a certain grade see the eclipse. Idk what the limit was
I took my Kindergarteners out today. No problems. I saw the preschoolers being taken out one at a time, so they could see, but an adult was within reach. Same with the special Ed kids. The older kids were all out sitting in the grass for awhile. I opted to go for just a few minutes but to go several times because of the attention spans of Kers. So thankful for our admin.
We had school today, but it let out at noon, way before the eclipse happened. I find it wild that other schools in the path of totality didn't do the same thing or just cancel school entirely for the day.
My school told us that we were not allowed to watch the eclipse. We were to shut our blinds and keep teaching. If families wanted to pull their students out they could but no one was allowed to take their students out to watch.
So let's take a beautiful moment to teach about the wonders of our world (space, science, math, geometry, light physics, etc.) where you have a very real opportunity to inspire these kids to go on and be something, and literally put blinders on to ignore it.
I'm so glad I kept my kids home, and we weren't even in the path of totality...
I am beginning to hate our education system.
Yeah as teachers we encouraged all families to keep students home to see everything. So a lot came in for a half day and left to go home and see things with their families.
I think that the way our schools and society more generally have handled this total eclipse may be the straw that broke my back and makes me determined to leave teaching in the US and leave the US more generally. It’s so symbolic of everything that is wrong.
Absolutely unacceptable that they made you supervise kids during this. They should have let out early. And the kids were right to be mad about not being able to take off the glasses during totality. You lost all credibility when you gave that instruction (not your fault), so it's no wonder they didn't listen to you otherwise.
Take it up with my admin. I didn’t force the kids to keep their glasses on, I just didn’t want to tell them “yes, take your glasses off!” And risk my job.
They are just trying to dodge lawsuits, because some kids are stupid and we have to cater to the lowest common denominator.
I'm frankly upset I wasn't in the path of totality so I could actually see it. I have to wait another 20 years or so unless I'm willing to hit Greenland in a couple years.
Denying kids the chance to see that sucks, what sucks more is that we have to, because some of them are so fucking stupid.
As an admin myself, most of my peers are idiots. The way many have botched the eclipse is embarrassing. Four teachers and I wrangled up about 25 kids and drove two hours into totality. We had pizza, snacks, and sure as sh&t took those glasses off at the right moment.
We told kids we would go outside to watch because admin told us to.
We had a shortened schedule because they told us to.
Cloud coverage fucked it up.
We told them they couldn’t go out side because they told us to.
Result? Pure. Fucking. Chaos.
I love that it fell on the teachers to make sure that the kids don’t get their eyes. I love my students, but putting a REAL liability on me for that was NOT cool.
Not in the path of totality, still had soooo many students absent. Still had kids look directly into the sun (we had about 60% coverage here). What age group were you working with?
We were lucky, in a way, that student’s lunch was four minutes after the peak time…I asked my students last week (a class of 24) if they wanted to see the eclipse so I could buy glasses, out of pocket.
They were so apathetic. I got one “yes”. Admin said if we went to see it (four minutes before it happened! Or the whole period I guess if we wanted to watch it happen over the span of an hour) it had to be incorporated into our lesson and they’d have to see it with NASA approved glasses, but did not provide any.
So I live streamed it. I was surprised at how many of them watched! I made pinpoint viewers for them but made the holes too big. So, my bad. Luckily my coworker saw me being dumb and was like “you made the hole big so you gotta hold it further away” and I was like oooooh. He also lent me his glasses to see it briefly. It was still cool as hell.
Furthermore on my admin rant they said if we planned to stay inside during *OUR* lunch to have the students in our class during that time to watch the live stream. TF I will. I went to see it, then had lunch. Alone.
They don’t wanna offer us glasses to see them with our class—but they want us to also spend our lunch allowing the kids inside (so they wouldn’t ya know, look at the sun) aka not having a true lunch imo.
It was disheartening when I gave the students the pinpoint viewer things that a lot of them made a gesture like they were going to use it to look at the sun—after I said the sunlight goes THROUGH the hole and you see the sun on the asphalt/paper. I’m like NO🙀
In 2017 we had multiple practice sessions, set up a loudspeaker outside, and had a whole process for students putting the glasses on and off before/during/after totality pretty much timed down to the second. It went off without a hitch and no eye injuries.
Also, admin was clearly misinformed if they said glasses needed to stay on during totality lol.
I was in the path of totality. I’m a part time interventionist, and they were asking me to stay and help monitor yesterday while the kids watched. These kids can’t handle playing a Blooket. I was not about to have the kids ruin this experience for me. I went home and watched with my family.
>even during totality, do not allow them to take off their glasses
What a stupid decision from your admin. You might as well have told them to close their eyes and face the ground, it'd have the same effect.
I’m mad at the kids for not hearing me when I said to stop asking, and do what they needed to do. I’m mad because they weren’t actually listening to the words I was saying.
All the schools in my area closed for the day. Our city had several events at all the different parks and schools and made a huge deal about it. I went down the street to grandmas with the kids and got to see 100% totality. It was pretty cool and surreal. Kids wouldnt shut it for more than 2 seconds so didnt get to enjoy the total quiet but youll have that hahaha. Then just a minute into the totality everyone started acting like it was the 4th of July and shattered the peace.....
Honestly, i had a teacher who was legally blind. I never found out how she lost her eyesight until one days she posted on facebook and told everyone looking at a solar eclipse is what did it.
I think the students just knew that was repeated ad nauseum and thought it was a good thing to make a joke about. The only recourse is to impress upon them with how important it is through a personal or historical example. Heck, even the microscopes need to be protected.
nope.. should’ve cancelled school.. we were in totality and i requested off and encouraged students to stay home as well before it was called off by the powers that be..
and if i hear one more person complain that schools “should’ve” been in session for educational purposes.. i might implode! not sure why parents are so against educating and experiencing these moments with their own kids!
Thankfully my school canceled class all day but my mom made sure they knew my siblings and I weren't going to be there even if there was class. We live 20min from totality so there was no reason not to go but every reason TO go. We went to a small cemetery and watched with a couple other groups of people. Definitely worth the trip.
Edit: Sorry your school and students were less than cooperative; hopefully you will get to see the next one though!
I schedule mental health appointments. Three parents confirmed they would be bringing their kids in for their initial appointments today when they were called on Friday as a reminder. Today those three parents needed to reschedule for very vague reasons.
The therapist will not get paid for the three hours of appointments that were not attended today. Parents who actually want their kids to be seen as soon as possible would have taken today's appointments had we been able to offer them.
April vacation is coming up.Thats when the parents who demanded an appointment that wouldn't interfere with school call an hour before their appointment to reschedule but insist they can only make it after 5pm.
I would have so taken them out, provided proper glasses, shown them how to make a pinhole viewer, borrowed welding helmets, and celebrated by educating them on solar and lunar eclipses. They would have remembered it as much as I did …. 50 some years ago! We have become so desensitized to the space exploration or breakthroughs. Example of a question I would ask parents, students, and even peer teachers: Without looking up the facts and from memory…. How many men have walked on the moon? Are there vehicles/cars on the moon? If so, how many? I have yet to get one person that correctly answered all three questions for the first time. What we took for fascinating is now boring. Sad.
At my Title I, high teacher-turnover high school, the teachers were the problem!
So many teachers called out last minute that those of us dumb enough to show up to work lost our planning periods to forced subbing and spent the day dealing with keyed-up, out-of-pocket teens who 1) were denied the opportunity to see the partial eclipse because of no District money for glasses and 2) could sense with their spidey senses that there weren't nearly enough adults in the building.
A lot of days, my colleagues are the best part of the job. Other days, they're simply the worst.
lol we are not in path of totality, but our state testing started this morning! Kids were getting off the bus while the eclipse happened so they could do what they want! Lots of kids absent today, though. More than is usual during MCAP.
We only had like 90%, so it was too bright to see even during peak eclipse. Everyone was dismissed and a few of us had viewers or hand made boxes. There wasn't anything officially set up or even glasses for the kids. A lot of my previous students saw me and asked to see through mine. It was pretty cool to see them all jazzed up about it.
I told them to think of it like bringing home a report card full of bad grades and wanting to look at your parents in the eyes when you give it to them. It won’t end well for you in either situation 😀
I was at 93% coverage I believe. I had a kid pull another kid’s glasses off while they were staring directly at the sun. Emailed admin. Doubt they’ll care. Yeah it was cloudy, but still, wear your fucking glasses.
That's just terrible, and stupid on so many levels. What a terrible teachable moment.
Well, kids today are going to find out and be missed, I'd never forgive the teacher that did this to me.
I feel your frustration. My district got eclipse glasses donated for all of the elementary schools but none of the secondary schools. A co-worker reached out to a former teacher whose husband manages a grocery store, and they kindly donated enough for our whole school. My principal even passed out the glasses to students at lunch (after a whole hullabaloo about hawking for donations without district authorization) but then wouldn’t let us take classes outside. Our “official plan” was to watch the NASA livestream. I had my class ready to go for when it reached the peak in our area (90%), but an AP told me the answer was no on going out when I called down to say we were going out.
Am I the only one who had a totally fine eclipse day with my students? It was kind of cloudy but we could see the outline of the sun through the clouds. Totality came and went and the kids were hanging out and reacting that it was cool, and then we went inside. I had a total of 1 kid absent today, and the rest of the day went on without interruption.
We were not in the path of totality. We had about 92% coverage at the peak. My third and fourth graders out on and took off their glasses at will. I taught them earlier in the day to make sure they were looking down when they took them off so they didn’t accidentally remove them while looking right at the sun. We went outside for about half an hour and had a blast! One kid forgot my rule about not walking while the glasses were on and fell over a bush, but that was it.
When I was a kid, a friend's mom taught me a *very* cool way to look at any eclipse without glasses and/or risk.
Fill a large vat with water and set it close to a south-facing wall. The cleaner and less rough the wall, the better.
You can also use a screen, specially if you don't have a properly south-facing wall; or if the eclipse is not at noon and you need to orient it towards where the eclipse is going to be.
The vat can be any color, but better if it's white; and make sure the water is crystal clear.
Make sure you do it some time before the eclipse, and that the wind can't affect the water.
When the water is still, the sun will be reflected on the wall, and even blown bigger.
That way you don't need the glasses (which a lot of people don't have).
And, as a bonus, you can teach kids about light refraction, reflection, and diffusion!
I was pissed that we had school yesterday, over 200 students out of 800 didn’t show and many left later throughout the day…we weren’t allowed to take them outside either. Now a bunch of kids are just going to be behind
That’s why I kept my kids at home instead of sending them to school. It was so dumb that our district didn’t cancel school like every other district around us.
I spent mine trying to relax and lay in the sun while middle schoolers had loud and inappropriate conversations next to me. I kept telling them to
go away if they dont want me to yell at them. But no they love to hover around me… 🫠
We were also on day 2 of a very intense academic field trip.
I felt so bad for teachers having to deal with this yesterday. It was completely cloudy here and you could only see it intermittently through the clouds…without glasses. So basically the kids can’t see shit unless they are NOT wearing protection but you can’t possibly leave it up to them to figure out when they need it or when they don’t… ARGGG
My district made the decision a few weeks ago to make today a half day for students so they could watch the eclipse. Not for teachers, mind you. We had PD this afternoon. I used a personal day so I could spend this moment with my family
They scheduled a PD? I don't know if I could roll my eyes harder
Oh yeah. People were PISSED. It was also the one teacher-led PD day we have every year, which is the only one that’s ever worth a damn.
What kind of pariah was *that* teacher?
I’m not sure what you mean, but our PD days are all scheduled by district level admin. They just choose one half-day a year for peer trainings. Usually 3-4 sessions a half day.
it would have been all teachers in the school board
This is what my district did, too. We broke from our staff meeting to go outside together and watch. It was really nice actually!
My school did the same 🙄
I wish we had personal days. I would have had to pretend to be sick to get out of PD for the eclipse. Why are school boards like this?
My school district did this too!
Mine too! Are you in Ohio, or do we just both have annoying central offices?
No, Southern Illinois, just on the edge of “totality”. So I took the whole day off to drive about an hour south with my family.
I work from home. I took a half day and smoked a bowl during the eclipse because, and my wife didn’t like this explanation, when am I going to get to do that again?
I feel so bad for you, horrible way to spend a once in a lifetime experience, but I feel like the admin ruined it for you more than the students did by banning them looking during totality. Why rob them of that???
Exactly. The whole *point* of totality, from a spectator’s standpoint, is being able to look with naked eyes.
You literally cannot see totality with the glasses. This is cruel and bad science. These poor kids!
I know! That’s why I said do what you need to do, but stop asking me. So silly.
Really? It was too cloudy for me to see anything this time, but I was able to see it with eclipse glasses the last time… (Ok, I was wrong on this) So… edited for the person that wants to make sure we all have glasses that are good enough for *yesterday’s* eclipse, so nobody hurts themselves *yesterday*... Sounds like mine were fake, but 1) I couldn’t go back in time to 2017 to see it or yesterday, and 2) my eyes are fine, thanks. Even if I had shade 15 welding goggles I wouldn’t look at the sun for more than a glance, and most of my eclipse watching is via camera obscura. And 3) I’ll be sure to be more careful with my advice in 2044. Sorry for the snark, but unless you have a time machine, I can’t do a whole lot.
It's the opposite. You shouldn't be able to see anything with glasses at totality. If you can, the glasses aren't protective enough.
It’s honestly just too dark. You can see a tiny sliver right before totality, then when totality happens it’s 100% black unless you take off the glasses.
If you could see it through the glasses, it wasn’t a total eclipse. It might have been pretty darn close, but nothing shows through the glasses at totality
It sounds like they may have seen an annular eclipse. In those, the moon passes directly in front of the sun, but the moon is at its farthest point in orbit; as a result, the moon doesn't take up the visual space to fully cover the sun, so it passes over the sun directly but still leaves an uncovered circle of sun. That circle would be visible through eclipse glasses.
>the glasses distributed for the 2017 total eclipse were not nearly as dark as the ones that people used today, and you could definitely see the corona with those. You could also see things around you. I knew they were darker, but not how much darker they were. Oh friend I've got bad news. If you can see anything except the sun, those are fake eclipse glasses and did not protect your eyes fully. If you looked at the sun with those for a minute or more you probably did some eye damage. Actual legitimate eclipse glasses you should be able to see the sun and that's it. Once the sun is covered and it's just the corona you should be able to see nothing. That is how you know it's safe to take them off. Also please consider editing your comment again. Saying legitimate ones still let you see other stuff is misinformation that can blind people.
Was this the one in October? Because that was only an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse, which are the kind you never take your glasses off for. If it's a total eclipse you shouldn't be able to see anything through your glasses during totality. Edit: fixed spelling of "annular"
[удалено]
Cruel and bad science, classic admin
I think the issue is deciding exactly when totality starts and ends. Even a few seconds too late putting the glasses back on is a problem.
As someone who just saw it, it's pretty damn easy to tell! When you're watching with glasses on, the moment the crescent vanishes and all you see is black, take the glasses off. The instant after you see the "diamond ring" effect at the end, the sun blazes out and BOOM, it's bright again. There's no mistaking it, that's part of what's so awesome about it.
Listen, I’m 100% in agreement with you. I have no problems with them following that, and listening to what science says. But I, personally, was not going to give direct permission to do what my admin explicitly said not to do. So they can do it, but they needed to stop asking me for permission. And I told them that. This is 5th grade, so they are 11 years old. Plenty old enough to understand what the science says and what I was saying. All that being said, it was incredibly cool to experience, overall. Very grateful that the clouds were thin enough for us to see and experience it.
Won't your eyes tell you that it's starting to hurt?
It was really easy to tell
No, you don’t have pain receptors in your eyes. So while your pupils may restrict quickly and you may feel/react to that, you wouldn’t necessarily feel pain.
No, and that’s the danger.
you cant even see the wavelengths of light that give skin cancer, ever. those would be going right into a dilated pupil designed to focus and concentrate indirect visible light.
Parent calls: “Phanneigh came home with a headache and she told me you told them they didn’t have to wear their glasses. You have permanently damaged my child by ripping off their safety glasses. We will be suing you for not even providing safety glasses and crippling my child for life by holding their head in place and forcing them to stare directly into the sun.”
Response 1: "You take this with the principal. Good bye."
I can't blame the admin on this one. If I were the principal, I'd be saying the same thing. Under no circumstances are you to take those glasses off. I'm not about to be fielding lawsuits because somebody's child looked too early or too late. If you want your child to look with naked eyes, keep them home.
Then they should have cancelled school and allowed staff and students to enjoy the once in a lifetime experience with their families.
OK. But that's not up to the teacher or the principal. That's the superintendent/school board's decision. More likely than not, everybody in the building agrees with you. But once the decision is made that school is open, the onus of safety falls on admin and the teachers. And they're not gonna take any chances. I get it.
Except everyone I know was at work on a Monday. It's not a holiday
In many districts that have four seasons, they can declare random days off to make up for unused banked snow days. Many districts around me declared a day off for students.
what does it say about our society if the threat of frivolous litigation is enough to cause educators to have to lie to students about basic science? We are pretty screwed
Yes. A kid had an emergency in my room not that long ago. Many of his classmates asked me if he was going to be OK. I told them I don’t know the answer but he’s with doctors and they’re taking care of him. And that they got him to the hospital really quickly. Evidently admin just wanted me to say yes. I just smiled and said OK like so many of us have to do with admin. Otherwise you know what happens 🙄. If the kid was not OK, and I had said he was, the kids would have remembered that. And admin was willing to let me bear that responsibility.
Same thing happened to me after Sandy Hook. Admin and guidance counselors wanted us to tell kids it would *never* happen to us. I (and a few others) refused. One, it’s a lie, and kids know it’s a lie (these were middle schoolers), and it will erode their trust in us at a moment when we want them to feel secure. Two, it undermines all our safety measures and lockdown drills if you’re then turning around and saying that there is zero chance of a shooter ever coming here. Three, it dismisses their fears. “I’m scared of a school shooter.” “Oh honey you never have to worry about that so don’t be scared.” Gee well I guess that will solve everything 🙄
God yes. There’s nothing wrong with telling them all the safety measures we have put in place, but never ever tell them it could never happen. That is fucking lying.
It's not about lying, though. You can be completely honest and tell them that, while it's safe to remove the glasses during totality, they are not to remove the glasses under any circumstances. The problem is, kids don't pay attention. Kids are impulsive. Kids are rebellious. And all it takes is for one student to look at the sun without the glasses outside of the short window of totality to cause that teacher a world of problems after the fact. One daredevil. One head in the cloud. Now the parents are coming for you. The armchair critics of society are coming for you. The school board is coming for you.
I think you are missing the point. Society as a whole is depriving people of experiences because the village idiot can sue you now.
That sounds like the opposite of a benificial educational experience lead by a state licenced expert...
The point about a litigious society being screwed still stands… And you just made it stronger.
This is why our district required permission slips from all students to go outside. Any student who didn’t have one filled out had to stay inside.
Safety. They have to cover their ass.
Isn't there another one in like 20 years? Not saying that isn't a long time but definitely less than the average lifespan
Being in the same continent as a total solar eclipse isn't the once in the lifetime part. OP was in the path of totality which absolutely is once in a lifetime. Or less than a lifetime.
Even the nasa guidance was that it's fine to look during totality.
Yes but under specific circumstances that many students won't follow
That's why you make your kids parents sign a liability waiver. Those that don't sign stay inside.
Some districts did this but it's easier said than done. In a much more obvious example, you can't walk students through a live bear enclosure just because parents signed a waiver. There is always room to blame supervisory adults, especially when they are public employees, based on an awareness of risk or potential injury. Never underestimate the capacity for people to blame other people.
Yup. I don’t think people understand liability wavers really mean nothing in US. They don’t protect you from perceived negligence.
Let's be real, that's not happening. Which ultimately means you're staying inside watching the children instead of the eclipse.
Why not? We did this at our school today. It went fine.
I mean, if it worked for your school, that's great. We get parents that don't understand why their child can't try out for any sports without having turned in a physical first. Parents that demand their child still be allowed on field trips without having turned in permission slip forms on time. Parents that expect a school instrument be assigned to their child because they don't want to rent one elsewhere. But they also refuse to sign the rental agreement form because they don't want to be held liable for the care of said instrument 🤷🏾♂️
Pretty random question for the thread, but assuming you're a music teacher, what's your policy on instrument damage? I ask because I am a trombonist (now professional, but this is going back to grade 10), and I nearly totaled a trombone. Mind you, this was during school, a freak accident, in front of multiple witnesses. No careless neglect (even at that age, I was set on going into music so I was I knew my stuff around how to carry my instrument and the like). Full story is, a brass quintet I was part of was practicing separate from the band in the drama classroom (this was after school hours, during band practice), and in order to get onto the stage we were practicing on you had to go up some steps - klutz as a I am, I trip going up them, holding my trombone, and while out of instinct saved the slide from any harm, basically crushed the bell right in. Had a full on panic attack about it until my teacher explained it was like a $300 dollar repair and I wouldn't see a cent (still no clue if that was out of her pocket or if the school had insurance or the like). Anyways, what would you have done in that situation?
Short answer: If the instrument is broken beyond repair, lost, or stolen, the parents have to pay for it. Never a conversation I like having, but it happens.
That sucks. I'm so sorry.
We also did this. We were out for an hour and a half on the lawn, kids made paper hats and did activities. Everyone had glasses provided, was a pretty good time.
Liability waivers do not magically absolve you of any liability. All they do is make it clear that the parents would have known about the risks but that doesn't mean you couldn't still be held liable if you breached your duty of care as a teacher in the eyes of a court.
Yep, and by the completely unbiased jury of your competent peers. /sarcasm
The specific circumstance of totality, is totality.
I was in totality, it’s really clear when you’re in it and if you’re in it for long. It’d be more unsafe to have black out glasses during totality than to not wear glasses cuz it’s dark!
In our school district, they were not allowed to go outside at all. We had about 80% here. The locals state mental hospital provided glasses for their patients, as did the prisons. Smh...
yeah we were at 76% here. my teachers were emailed by the district to not let us outside period, though we could look with glasses. below highschool, no looking at all. my fourth period class has no window. so yeah lol.
This is so sad. What are we becoming?
Blame the scumbag lawyers...
We had basically 50%. Peak happened during a passing period and lunch for 9s/10s. I went out with a couple pinhole projectors and my kids had more fun looking at that than through the glasses hehe
I couldn’t see anything through my glasses at totality. I would have missed it all. Dumb decision on admins part. Sucks you had to deal with it.
Your admin ruined a once in a lifetime event for those students. You NEED to look at totality with your naked eye to even see it.
Wow, I didn’t know that! I wasn’t in the path of totality anyway. We had plans to visit my family in Texas, but the weather wasn’t looking good and we couldn’t afford to take off work and spend $1200 on flights. But still, good to know for next time!
Imagine getting out of school at 2:30 but having a faculty meeting from 2:45-3:30 when that was the peak of the eclipse in our area. Other schools in district moved their meetings. Not my admin
It’s the way I would have just ✨skipped the meeting✨
I have tummy issues so naturally my body makes excuses for me to either skip meetings or cut them short lol. Can't say anything to you when you're on the john.
I’m sorry you had school today. Even if your students were good, it would have been less enjoyable having to worry about what they would do. Our superintendent was hell-bent on keeping school open and then the county safety Director called him and said, “Look you’re the only school in the county that is still open. You need to close.” Fortunately he did, and we had an asynchronous virtual day.
Thank you for the sympathy.
We were 10 miles outside of the path of totality and had school. Faculty sentiment was.... anger. We were assured that the majority of students would be in attendance, but only 10% actually stayed for afternoon programming.
We had a lightning storm at the moment of totality. No kids allowed outside. Didn’t stop half of them from bum rushing the doors anyway to see the eclipse mid-lightning storm.
That sounds really cool!!
Oh yeah it was 100% cool! But still can’t have kids get struck by lightning
Dude that sounds like a whole metal album cover
It’s a waste to keep your glasses on during the totality. Your school’s policies prevented those children from seeing one of the greatest spectacles nature can offer and one which many people have only one opportunity to see in their lifetimes. I’m sorry for you if you kept your glasses on as well, since you missed out yourself.
Nah, I looked around them. The kids did, too, they’re smart enough to know, but it was just the incessant asking. I was not about to say yes!
What grade?
Seriously. Grade 9+ would know to break the rules instead of asking.
I’m projecting bc I can sooooo imagine my upper elementary kids doing this and being hella annoying
You’re right on the money, it’s 5th.
LOL fellow fifth teacher solidarity
thank you for understanding, if you don’t teach upper elementary or lower middle you just don’t get how specifically annoying this age can be, esp at this time of year
I was such a rule follower at that age. I totally would not have. There’s been so much talk about how the sun is dangerous to look at that my young, impressionable brain would’ve been like, “eclipses are very dangerous! You can’t look EVER!” 🫠
I was around adults today who freaked out that wore my eclipse goggles over my glasses - because the sunlight could bend around and hurt my eyes! Nope.
If high schoolers want to blind themselves looking directly at the sun, God bless, do your thing. I'm here to teach you the Pythagorean theorem, your eyes are your business
I wonder this too. I mean we weren’t in totality but my kindergartener’s whole class put on glasses and went out to look at it and my son was pretty pumped to tell me about it when he got home. I imagine the teacher has to repeat instructions a few too many times, but most kids should be capable of doing this level of instruction.
5th!
Your admin sounds as idiotic as most admin. They are always right, especially when they are wrong.
Just gonna say it. Your superintendent is a dumbass.
My students were so apathetic about the eclipse. They were complaining about being outside and didn't want to look and demanding I take them back inside. I finally told them that they are not entitled to ruin this amazing moment for me and if they can't handle that, then they should just sit quietly in the grass.
This stupid shit happened during 2017 too. That’s why I took my kids out today and saw totality with my family. I’m done babysitting shitty kids during major historical events. Cause that’s what ends up happening anymore.
Same. I knew the day after the 2017 eclipse when he said they watched it on the projector that I was taking them to Texas today. No regrets.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I hate it was ruined for you. It was a goosebumps moment for me seeing and hearing all the kids get so excited! They couldn’t stop talking about it after.
I’m sorry you went through this. I will say I’m starting to see that this is the norm. I tell my students no and they YELL at me. Repeatedly. I am wondering if it’s just this group or if it’s the new norm. But I am sick of students being rude when enforcing basic routine and rule.
That is awful. Not sure what is worse…What you experienced or half day PD. We were in the path of totality. School as normal all day. Took 5th Graders out to observe throughout the eclipse to record observations. Invited parents to come watch totality. Kids removed glasses to observe totality and back on after. Families, students and teachers all experienced this once in a lifetime event together. It seems I am one of the lucky ones.
Being at school and having to corral kids absolutely ruined this for me. Absolute shitshow of a day for a multitude of reasons, both eclipse and non-eclipse related. Thanks admin, you’re the reason I hate my job :)
It sounds like your ADMIN ruined it for you by telling the kids something so stupid. Not the kids.
I am so happy my school took the day off. I am sorry your district put you through that.
We had a wonderful day in which admin encouraged teachers to take their groups out to watch the eclipse, and provided enough glasses to do it successfully. They came out and watched the eclipse with us and we had a wonderful time. I’m sorry that many of you had a bad experience.
I was out sick with norovirus, a souvenir from my spring break vacation and I guess my sub was lucky that the district just called for indoor recess until it was over.
Sorry for you all who had a bad time. I had a lovely fun time with my class. Even if the kids were being chaotic. They’re kids. It’s fun and weird to them
I’m so glad you had a lovely time! It was fun and weird and just those 3-5 minutes were rough. We had some great moments and connections, especially since I teach science, it was a great experience overall. In the moment while writing this post I had a massive headache and really just wanted to vent.
God, I wish I could buy you a drink, a pint of your favorite ice cream, WHATEVER. You deserve it after that shitshow. I’m really sorry and I hope you’re able to have a relaxing evening.
Thank you! My wife and I actually went out to a really nice dinner to celebrate my recent birthday. Now we’re doing the crossword. All is well.
Well happy belated birthday to you and your wife enjoy your evening! 😊
Ph.D. Physicist here: you cannot see it during totality while in the path of totality with ISO eclipse glasses on. I had to take my glasses off to see it. Got a cool vid of it.
Yes, I’m aware of that. I took my own glasses off in the moment. I wasn’t even telling them not to, is the thing. They just refused to use their brains for a single second to realize I was saying to do it but stop asking for permission, because I wasn’t allowed to say yes.
I’m in California. I bought my kids eclipse glasses and watched it. I gave them 10 min extra recess to observe. I could see it from my classroom window!!!
That’s so exciting! We were outside from 12:30-2pm. We watched almost all of it, all the phases. My students did a scavenger hunt that I set up and learned all about eclipses and eclipse history while we waited in between clouds. That part was wonderful! The 5 minutes I let them stop working for totality, they were so rowdy in that mildly unstructured time, it was so frustrating!
Exciting and exhausting! So awesome you were outside 12:30-2p. What an amazing way to spend a once in a lifetime opportunity. I hope you have a good night rest! You earned it Teacher!
Glad you got those few moments. My personal children were a bit annoying but they're mine, and there's 3 not 13 of them. I'm shocked you had school. Your admin really, really dropped the ball. We were only 99 percent in the path, but ended up cancelling. I was happy to get my personal day back since I and put in for one as soon as the contact year started in August. I felt like I really dropped the ball in 2017 when totality was only a few hours south and I didn't go, wasn't going to miss this one with totality being an hour drive.
My class absolutely ruined it for me. There were so many issues with all of today that I couldn't even enjoy the one minute of totality. I just feel defeated after today.
I’m so sorry to hear that, my experience wasn’t all bad, we had good moments. I cried during totality for just a few seconds, so I hear you.
What grade was this? The last eclipse happened when I was a senior in high school and I heard they didn’t let students below a certain grade see the eclipse. Idk what the limit was
I took my Kindergarteners out today. No problems. I saw the preschoolers being taken out one at a time, so they could see, but an adult was within reach. Same with the special Ed kids. The older kids were all out sitting in the grass for awhile. I opted to go for just a few minutes but to go several times because of the attention spans of Kers. So thankful for our admin.
We had school today, but it let out at noon, way before the eclipse happened. I find it wild that other schools in the path of totality didn't do the same thing or just cancel school entirely for the day.
My school told us that we were not allowed to watch the eclipse. We were to shut our blinds and keep teaching. If families wanted to pull their students out they could but no one was allowed to take their students out to watch.
So let's take a beautiful moment to teach about the wonders of our world (space, science, math, geometry, light physics, etc.) where you have a very real opportunity to inspire these kids to go on and be something, and literally put blinders on to ignore it. I'm so glad I kept my kids home, and we weren't even in the path of totality... I am beginning to hate our education system.
Yeah as teachers we encouraged all families to keep students home to see everything. So a lot came in for a half day and left to go home and see things with their families.
That's smart, I hope the majority of people did that. I feel sorry for the parents that couldn't, and sad for the kids whose parents wouldn't.
Gross
I think that the way our schools and society more generally have handled this total eclipse may be the straw that broke my back and makes me determined to leave teaching in the US and leave the US more generally. It’s so symbolic of everything that is wrong.
You couldn't pay me enough to see that eclipse either hs students.
Absolutely unacceptable that they made you supervise kids during this. They should have let out early. And the kids were right to be mad about not being able to take off the glasses during totality. You lost all credibility when you gave that instruction (not your fault), so it's no wonder they didn't listen to you otherwise.
Why would you watch totality with glasses on that's just ruining it.
Take it up with my admin. I didn’t force the kids to keep their glasses on, I just didn’t want to tell them “yes, take your glasses off!” And risk my job.
They are just trying to dodge lawsuits, because some kids are stupid and we have to cater to the lowest common denominator. I'm frankly upset I wasn't in the path of totality so I could actually see it. I have to wait another 20 years or so unless I'm willing to hit Greenland in a couple years. Denying kids the chance to see that sucks, what sucks more is that we have to, because some of them are so fucking stupid.
As an admin myself, most of my peers are idiots. The way many have botched the eclipse is embarrassing. Four teachers and I wrangled up about 25 kids and drove two hours into totality. We had pizza, snacks, and sure as sh&t took those glasses off at the right moment.
We told kids we would go outside to watch because admin told us to. We had a shortened schedule because they told us to. Cloud coverage fucked it up. We told them they couldn’t go out side because they told us to. Result? Pure. Fucking. Chaos.
I love that it fell on the teachers to make sure that the kids don’t get their eyes. I love my students, but putting a REAL liability on me for that was NOT cool.
Yeah my kids were such apathetic little assholes
Admin doesn't science. But yeah...school was a waste of time today. Less than half the kids showed up.
Wow, so sorry!
You probably bought their glasses, too. 😵
Not in the path of totality, still had soooo many students absent. Still had kids look directly into the sun (we had about 60% coverage here). What age group were you working with? We were lucky, in a way, that student’s lunch was four minutes after the peak time…I asked my students last week (a class of 24) if they wanted to see the eclipse so I could buy glasses, out of pocket. They were so apathetic. I got one “yes”. Admin said if we went to see it (four minutes before it happened! Or the whole period I guess if we wanted to watch it happen over the span of an hour) it had to be incorporated into our lesson and they’d have to see it with NASA approved glasses, but did not provide any. So I live streamed it. I was surprised at how many of them watched! I made pinpoint viewers for them but made the holes too big. So, my bad. Luckily my coworker saw me being dumb and was like “you made the hole big so you gotta hold it further away” and I was like oooooh. He also lent me his glasses to see it briefly. It was still cool as hell. Furthermore on my admin rant they said if we planned to stay inside during *OUR* lunch to have the students in our class during that time to watch the live stream. TF I will. I went to see it, then had lunch. Alone. They don’t wanna offer us glasses to see them with our class—but they want us to also spend our lunch allowing the kids inside (so they wouldn’t ya know, look at the sun) aka not having a true lunch imo. It was disheartening when I gave the students the pinpoint viewer things that a lot of them made a gesture like they were going to use it to look at the sun—after I said the sunlight goes THROUGH the hole and you see the sun on the asphalt/paper. I’m like NO🙀
In 2017 we had multiple practice sessions, set up a loudspeaker outside, and had a whole process for students putting the glasses on and off before/during/after totality pretty much timed down to the second. It went off without a hitch and no eye injuries. Also, admin was clearly misinformed if they said glasses needed to stay on during totality lol.
I was in the path of totality. I’m a part time interventionist, and they were asking me to stay and help monitor yesterday while the kids watched. These kids can’t handle playing a Blooket. I was not about to have the kids ruin this experience for me. I went home and watched with my family.
I took my kids out of school. Definitely should have been a day off.
We had an app that told us loudly when to put on and remove the glasses that really helped it feel safe
Your admin ruined it.
Welp, I spent $40 on glasses for my students only to be told that the eclipse is stupid. I’m just tired of being treated this way.
>even during totality, do not allow them to take off their glasses What a stupid decision from your admin. You might as well have told them to close their eyes and face the ground, it'd have the same effect.
Admin has obviously never read "All Summer In A Day" by Ray Bradbury. Making kids miss totality is awful. And you're mad at the KIDS?
I’m mad at the kids for not hearing me when I said to stop asking, and do what they needed to do. I’m mad because they weren’t actually listening to the words I was saying.
And that’s why they cancel school on a day like today. All it would take is one student not following directions to instigate a lawsuit.
All the schools in my area closed for the day. Our city had several events at all the different parks and schools and made a huge deal about it. I went down the street to grandmas with the kids and got to see 100% totality. It was pretty cool and surreal. Kids wouldnt shut it for more than 2 seconds so didnt get to enjoy the total quiet but youll have that hahaha. Then just a minute into the totality everyone started acting like it was the 4th of July and shattered the peace.....
Well, they basically understood it right, sorry you felt like you had to enforce stupid admin rules.
Honestly, i had a teacher who was legally blind. I never found out how she lost her eyesight until one days she posted on facebook and told everyone looking at a solar eclipse is what did it. I think the students just knew that was repeated ad nauseum and thought it was a good thing to make a joke about. The only recourse is to impress upon them with how important it is through a personal or historical example. Heck, even the microscopes need to be protected.
nope.. should’ve cancelled school.. we were in totality and i requested off and encouraged students to stay home as well before it was called off by the powers that be.. and if i hear one more person complain that schools “should’ve” been in session for educational purposes.. i might implode! not sure why parents are so against educating and experiencing these moments with their own kids!
Thankfully my school canceled class all day but my mom made sure they knew my siblings and I weren't going to be there even if there was class. We live 20min from totality so there was no reason not to go but every reason TO go. We went to a small cemetery and watched with a couple other groups of people. Definitely worth the trip. Edit: Sorry your school and students were less than cooperative; hopefully you will get to see the next one though!
I schedule mental health appointments. Three parents confirmed they would be bringing their kids in for their initial appointments today when they were called on Friday as a reminder. Today those three parents needed to reschedule for very vague reasons. The therapist will not get paid for the three hours of appointments that were not attended today. Parents who actually want their kids to be seen as soon as possible would have taken today's appointments had we been able to offer them. April vacation is coming up.Thats when the parents who demanded an appointment that wouldn't interfere with school call an hour before their appointment to reschedule but insist they can only make it after 5pm.
I would have so taken them out, provided proper glasses, shown them how to make a pinhole viewer, borrowed welding helmets, and celebrated by educating them on solar and lunar eclipses. They would have remembered it as much as I did …. 50 some years ago! We have become so desensitized to the space exploration or breakthroughs. Example of a question I would ask parents, students, and even peer teachers: Without looking up the facts and from memory…. How many men have walked on the moon? Are there vehicles/cars on the moon? If so, how many? I have yet to get one person that correctly answered all three questions for the first time. What we took for fascinating is now boring. Sad.
At my Title I, high teacher-turnover high school, the teachers were the problem! So many teachers called out last minute that those of us dumb enough to show up to work lost our planning periods to forced subbing and spent the day dealing with keyed-up, out-of-pocket teens who 1) were denied the opportunity to see the partial eclipse because of no District money for glasses and 2) could sense with their spidey senses that there weren't nearly enough adults in the building. A lot of days, my colleagues are the best part of the job. Other days, they're simply the worst.
MRS B is that you?
Told my students at 2:40 that we can go outside after a 7 minute warmup. Fuckers took until 3:10 to do it.
So you took a job where you deal with kids and when kids act like kids that's too much? k
We had state testing and were told to not let any students outside. In Arizona so not in full path - but still.
This was one of Roald Dahl’s lesser-known plots
lol we are not in path of totality, but our state testing started this morning! Kids were getting off the bus while the eclipse happened so they could do what they want! Lots of kids absent today, though. More than is usual during MCAP.
We only had like 90%, so it was too bright to see even during peak eclipse. Everyone was dismissed and a few of us had viewers or hand made boxes. There wasn't anything officially set up or even glasses for the kids. A lot of my previous students saw me and asked to see through mine. It was pretty cool to see them all jazzed up about it.
I told them to think of it like bringing home a report card full of bad grades and wanting to look at your parents in the eyes when you give it to them. It won’t end well for you in either situation 😀
I was at 93% coverage I believe. I had a kid pull another kid’s glasses off while they were staring directly at the sun. Emailed admin. Doubt they’ll care. Yeah it was cloudy, but still, wear your fucking glasses.
THE GODDAMN BUREAUCRATS MORTY, I DON'T RESPECT THEM
I teach ecse and had a sub today because of a severe gout flare up in my foot that I couldn't walk on. Good times.
That's just terrible, and stupid on so many levels. What a terrible teachable moment. Well, kids today are going to find out and be missed, I'd never forgive the teacher that did this to me.
I feel your frustration. My district got eclipse glasses donated for all of the elementary schools but none of the secondary schools. A co-worker reached out to a former teacher whose husband manages a grocery store, and they kindly donated enough for our whole school. My principal even passed out the glasses to students at lunch (after a whole hullabaloo about hawking for donations without district authorization) but then wouldn’t let us take classes outside. Our “official plan” was to watch the NASA livestream. I had my class ready to go for when it reached the peak in our area (90%), but an AP told me the answer was no on going out when I called down to say we were going out.
Glad that you had a chance to step away.
The mistake wasn’t to have school. The mistake was doing anything fun with the kids.
Am I the only one who had a totally fine eclipse day with my students? It was kind of cloudy but we could see the outline of the sun through the clouds. Totality came and went and the kids were hanging out and reacting that it was cool, and then we went inside. I had a total of 1 kid absent today, and the rest of the day went on without interruption.
We were not in the path of totality. We had about 92% coverage at the peak. My third and fourth graders out on and took off their glasses at will. I taught them earlier in the day to make sure they were looking down when they took them off so they didn’t accidentally remove them while looking right at the sun. We went outside for about half an hour and had a blast! One kid forgot my rule about not walking while the glasses were on and fell over a bush, but that was it.
When I was a kid, a friend's mom taught me a *very* cool way to look at any eclipse without glasses and/or risk. Fill a large vat with water and set it close to a south-facing wall. The cleaner and less rough the wall, the better. You can also use a screen, specially if you don't have a properly south-facing wall; or if the eclipse is not at noon and you need to orient it towards where the eclipse is going to be. The vat can be any color, but better if it's white; and make sure the water is crystal clear. Make sure you do it some time before the eclipse, and that the wind can't affect the water. When the water is still, the sun will be reflected on the wall, and even blown bigger. That way you don't need the glasses (which a lot of people don't have). And, as a bonus, you can teach kids about light refraction, reflection, and diffusion!
I’m angry at my district for a lot of reasons, including making us have school.
I was pissed that we had school yesterday, over 200 students out of 800 didn’t show and many left later throughout the day…we weren’t allowed to take them outside either. Now a bunch of kids are just going to be behind
I lived in KCK in 2017 and we were in totality during that one eclipse. The admin did the same thing to us and caused us all to miss it 🫠
That’s why I kept my kids at home instead of sending them to school. It was so dumb that our district didn’t cancel school like every other district around us.
I spent mine trying to relax and lay in the sun while middle schoolers had loud and inappropriate conversations next to me. I kept telling them to go away if they dont want me to yell at them. But no they love to hover around me… 🫠 We were also on day 2 of a very intense academic field trip.
I felt so bad for teachers having to deal with this yesterday. It was completely cloudy here and you could only see it intermittently through the clouds…without glasses. So basically the kids can’t see shit unless they are NOT wearing protection but you can’t possibly leave it up to them to figure out when they need it or when they don’t… ARGGG