Back To School 101

Lyssa High talks to Rachel Gutter, President Of The International Well Building Institute, about what we should do for this back to school season.

By this weekend.

Plenty of sunshine will the cooling c1 3 lisa: the back to school season is here and things are different.

When and how schools are reopening varies by district, but one thing is clear, teachers will play an influential role in communicating new health and safety measures.

The international well building institute recently unveiled their covid-19 teacher training program and joining us today to discuss the program is president rachel gutter.

Welcome to the show, rachel.

Rachel gutter: thank you so much for having me, lisa.

Lisa: well, let's go ahead and get right to it, rachel, how is the covid-19 teacher training helping prepare teachers for the upcoming year?

Rachel gutter: well, we've created a simple online self guided course that takes about an hour to complete, and it's free for any teacher who wants to participate.

The course is really designed to equip and empower teachers to take matters into their own hands as they enter back into their classrooms, so that they can enhance the health and safety conditions for themselves and for their students and feel more confident heading back to school.

Lisa: well, let's talk a little bit more about that.

Do you have any tips to help teachers concerned about their personal safety?

Rachel gutter: we sure do.

That's exactly what the course contains, is a whole lot of practical and actionable tips that teachers can perform themselves or help their students to perform.

It includes some measures that would be very familiar to teachers, like wearing masks, enforcing physical distancing and frequent hand washing, but also a lot of strategies that are likely less familiar, like opening windows to improve airflow wherever that's possible, or moving lessons outside, or taking breaks outside where the air quality and ventilation, or air circulation, is much better.

Also, provides tips for marking your classrooms to address the flow of students throughout the classroom and posting educational signs that help to provide context and information on new practices and protocols.

Lisa: what is the best way to engage with students on new safety procedures?

Rachel gutter: i think that our instruction to students really needs to begin with the why, and that's why the course goes over what is a pathogen?

How do pathogens spread?

We wanted to make sure that we translated that research to teachers in a way that equip them to translate that message to their students.

I think if students understand the why behind these new practices and protocols, they're much more likely to uphold them, because we know that as students are coming back into the classrooms, they're coming with all different levels of knowledge, awareness, and even opinions and perspectives that they've heard from family and from friends.

Teachers have the ability to level the playing field, and this year that is so important because a classroom is only as safe as the way we're interacting inside of it.

Lisa: absolutely.

How can teachers get the most out of the limited classroom space that's available?

Rachel gutter: one strategy that we recommend is that teachers orient all of the desks to face the same direction, because that really can help to limit the risk of transmission.

Moving desks as far apart as possible is another really good strategy.

And if you've got larger spaces that you can occupy, like a gymnasium, that also can be a smart technique to deploy.

Anything that you can do to improve airflow.

With teachers only so much of that is within their control, but simply opening the windows can make a huge difference, even when a chill is coming into the air.

Lisa: where can we go for more information about this?

Rachel gutter: you can find the training at teachers.iwbi.com.

Like i said, it's free and we know that everybody out there knows a teacher.

I really hope that if you're listening, you'll pass this along to someone in your life, because we think that this'll be about the best hour that a teacher can spend for really becoming emboldened and empowered heading back to the classroom.

Lisa: absolutely.

Rachel, thank you so much for joining us today.

We really appreciate it.

Rachel gutter: thanks for having me.

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