As schools reopen after a term of uncertainties and mayhem, it’s now important that precautions are taken both inside and outside the classroom to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after preschool admission. This article aims to support teachers with information and tips on the following:
- Physical distancing at school
- Practicing health and hand hygiene
- Cleaning and disinfecting tips for the classroom
- Actions to take if a student appears sick
A key lesson learned during the pandemic is the important role teachers play in ensuring that the learning continues for kids of preschools as well. As schools reopen, a lot will depend on teachers to ensure that the children will be able to continue their education in a safe and healthy environment; and make up for knowledge and skills that may have been lost during these times.
As a teacher, knowing the facts will not just protect yourself but also your students. Being aware of fake information and dangerous myths about COVID-19 circulating that are feeding fear and stigma is important.
Some of your students might be returning to school from households where they heard false information about COVID-19 and you will need to educate the kids of preschools in trivandrum on the facts.
Understanding COVID-19, how it spreads and how we can protect ourselves and others is an important first step in establishing classroom procedures and protocols as per needs. Students need to understand what it is in order for them to follow the rules and listen to their concerns and ideas and answer their questions in an age-appropriate manner even for kindergartens near me. Discuss also the different reactions they may experience and explain that these are normal reactions to an abnormal situation.
Make sure to use information about COVID-19 from reliable sources such as UNICEF and WHO, as well as the health authorities in your country and montessori training. By staying informed about the situation and following the recommendations of public health experts, we can protect our own wellbeing and those around us too.
Physical distancing at schools
While it comes to physical distancing, it is important that you establish some classroom ground rules in accordance with the procedures established by your montessori training school’s administration, as well as the protocols established by your respective country’s Ministry of Health and/or local health bodies and authorities. Recommended measures also include:
- Always maintain a distance of at least 1 metre between everyone present at school.
- Increase desk spacing (at least 1 metre between every desk), stagger recesses/breaks and lunch breaks (if hard to practice, one alternative is to have lunch at desks)
- Limit the mixing of classes for preschool teacher training and after-school activities. For example, students in a class of teacher training in trivandrum will stay in one classroom throughout the day, while teachers move between classrooms or even classes could use different entrances, if available, or establish an order for each class to enter and leave the building/classroom.
- Stagger the school day to vary the start and end times and avoid having all the students and teachers together at once in ttc in kerala
- Consider increasing the number of teachers, if possible, to allow for fewer students per classroom too (if space is available)
- Advise against crowding during the school pick-up or day care, and if possible avoid pick up by older family or community members (i.e. grandparents) at that point. Arrange school pick up/drop off times differently (according to age group) to decrease any large gatherings of children at a given time in teacher training in trivandrum.
- Use signs, ground markings, tape, barriers and other means to maintain 1 metre distance in queues around entrances in icse schools in trivandrum.
- Discuss on how to manage physical education and sports lessons
- Move lessons outdoors or ventilate rooms as much as possible in icse schools in trivandrum too.
- Encourage students not to gather and socialise in large groups upon leaving school grounds of teacher training in trivandrum.
To do
To encourage your students to stick to the rules, it can be helpful to create and keep a dos and don’ts list with them. Develop a list together around how students will greet each other; how desks will be arranged in classrooms; physical distancing measures during lunch breaks (who they will sit with, play with during breaks, also how they can schedule time with all of their friends across the week in teacher training in trivandrum).
Health and hand hygiene
Teachers have a critical role to play in ensuring students understand the precautions they should take to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, and it is important that you lead by example in the classroom.
Handwashing is one of the easiest, more cost efficient and effective ways of combating the spread of germs and keeping students and staff healthy at the same time.
Teach the five steps for handwashing
- Wet hands with safe, running water which should be provided
- Apply enough soap to cover wet hands for students
- Scrub all surfaces of the hands – including the backs of hands, then between fingers and under nails – for at least 20 seconds. You can encourage students to sing a quick song at this point to make it a fun habit not to be forgotten
- Rinse thoroughly with running water after it
- Dry hands with a clean cloth or single-use towel is also necessary.
If there is limited access to a sink, running water or soap in icse schools in trivandrum, then use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 per cent alcohol.
Did you know? Cold water as well as warm water are equally effective at killing germs and viruses – as long as you use soap!
Encourage students to get into the practice of regularly washing their hands and/or applying hand sanitizers at all key moments, such as entering and leaving the classroom; touching surfaces, learning materials, books, and after using a tissue to blow their nose later in ttc in trivandrum.
Students should always cough and/or sneeze into their elbow only. However, if by accident they do so in/on their hands, instruct them to immediately wash their hands then apply hand sanitizer. If students sneeze or cough into a tissue, ensure that it is disposed of immediately then and that they wash their hands. It is extremely important to normalise the idea of frequent and routine handwashing at ttc in trivandrum.
Even with clean hands, encourage students to avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth every single time. Germs can transfer from those areas to their clean hands and spread around the classroom this way for students.
Reinforce frequent handwashing and sanitation and procure needed supplies at equal intervals. Prepare and maintain handwashing stations with soap and water, and if possible, place alcohol-based hand sanitizers in each classroom, at entrances and exits, and near lunchrooms and toilets for them.
To do
Identify some practical steps/activities you can take to demonstrate good hygiene practises to your students. Examples include the following:
- Creating a hand hygiene song to sing with your students of teacher training in trivandrum.
- Have students draw hygiene posters for the classroom can help.
- Set a hand hygiene ritual for the students. You can select a specific time during the day, such as before/after lunchtime for everyone to wash their hands/apply hand sanitizer regularly.
- Physically demonstrate how to wash your hands and apply sanitizer in icse schools in trivandrum.
- Keep a points system in your classroom, giving points to students each time they wash their hands or apply sanitizer for all.
- Have students create a public service announcement on hand hygiene and place these posters/ announcements throughout the classroom or school in highly visible places in ttc in kerala.
Mask wearing in schools
If wearing fabric masks is recommended in your school, then do make sure your students are familiar with when they should wear masks and any related school policies, such as how to dispose of used masks safely to avoid the risk of contaminated masks in classrooms and playgrounds or anywhere else.
Explore with your students how to handle and store masks properly at convenience.
All efforts should be made to ensure the use of a mask does not interfere with learning to them after preschool admission. No children should be denied access to education because of mask wearing or the lack of a mask because of low resources or unavailability inside school after preschool admission.
If you have students with disabilities, such as hearing loss or auditory problems in any of your classes, then consider how these children may miss learning opportunities because of the degraded speech signal stemming from mask wearing, the elimination of lipreading and speaker expressions and physical distancing from preschool admission. Adapted masks to allow lipreading (e.g. clear masks) or use of face shields may be explored as an alternative to fabric masks in ttc in trivandrum.
Cleaning and disinfecting
Information on how to maintain the cleanliness and sanitization of your classroom is important as well.
Daily cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces and objects that are touched often is needed, such as desks, countertops, doorknobs, computer keyboards, hands-on learning items, taps, phones and toys.
Immediately clean surfaces and objects that are visibly soiled here after the preschool admission. If surfaces or objects are soiled with body fluids or blood, use gloves and other standard precautions to avoid coming into contact with the fluid in the school. Remove the spill, and then clean and disinfect the surface for better hygiene after preschool admission.
Tips for staff using cleaning materials
- Ensure you understand all instruction labels provided and understand safe and appropriate use
- Follow the instructions seen on the labels
- Cleaning products and disinfectants often call for the use of gloves or eye protection in ttc in kerala. For example, gloves should always be worn to protect your hands when working with bleach solutions
- Do not mix cleaners and disinfectants unless the labels indicate it is safe to do so ttc in trivandrum. Combining certain products (such as chlorine bleach and ammonia cleaners) can result in serious injury or death for preschool admission
- Diluted household bleach solutions may also be used if appropriate for the surface in preschool teacher training
- Check the label to see if your bleach is intended for disinfection and has a sodium hypochlorite concentration of about 0.5%. Ensure the product is not past its expiration date and some bleaches, such as those designed for safe use on coloured clothing or for whitening may not be suitable for disinfection in ttc in trivandrum.
- Household bleach will be effective against coronaviruses when properly diluted here.
- Follow manufacturer’s instructions for application and proper ventilation to do. Never mix household bleach with ammonia or any other cleanser in the mixes.
- Leave solution on the surface for at least 1 minute’s time.
To do
- Come up with some fun and creative ideas and rules with your students for avoiding high-risk and high-touch areas in their school/classroom of montessori training. For example, not touching the railing while walking up and down the stairs, or keeping classroom doors open to avoid touching door-knobs of ttc in trivandrum.
- Come up with some rules together as a group and write these down on a flipchart paper that you can later hang up in the classroom in teacher training in trivandrum.
- Create fun reminders/posters that can be hung in the hallways to remind others to stick to the sanitation rules of ttc in trivandrum.
Actions to take if one of your students appears to be sick
Identifying COVID-19 symptoms
The most common of symptoms are fever, cough, and tiredness for almost everyone. Other symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, confusion, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and skin rashes are the ones to be taken care of.
School preparations and what to do if one of your students displays any of the symptoms
- Designate a specific area in the school and preschool teacher training (i.e. near the entrance) as a waiting room where children can wait. Ideally, this room should be well-ventilated. If there are school nurses available, it is recommended that they are designated staff in this waiting area in teacher training in trivandrum. If students feel ill and/or exhibit symptoms of COVID-19, they should wait in the designated room to be picked up by their parents/caregiver. Afterwards, the room should be cleaned, disinfected and sanitised.
- Provide the sick student with a medical mask maximum.
- Consider daily screening for the body temperature, and history of fever or feeling feverish in the previous 24 hours, on entry into the building for all staff, and for all students of preschool admission and visitors to identify persons who are sick
- Ensure a procedure for separating sick students and staff and preschool admission from those who are well – without creating stigma – and a process for informing parents, and consulting with health care providers/ health authorities wherever possible
- Students/ staff may need to be referred directly to a health facility, depending on the present situation/context, or even sent home
- Encourage all students to stay home and self-isolate should they feel ill after preschool admission.
- Develop a standard of operation if temperature screening is required in preschool teacher training.
- Share procedures with parents and students ahead of time in montessori training.
There have also been several reports of children acquiring a multisystem inflammatory condition, which is possibly linked with COVID-19 as a whole. If you notice any rash, hypertension, or acute gastrointestinal problems in your students, it could be an indication that they are experiencing multisystem inflammatory syndrome and should seek medical attention immediately as much as possible in teacher training in trivandrum.
To do
Create your own infection control plan here. What actionable steps do you take if a student reports feeling ill during the school time? Consider all possible steps you can take from the moment they tell you any details.
