Today I had a bit of a wake up call. I'm usually pretty good about wiping certain parts of my room down every week or few weeks but I have been a little bit more lax about it this year. In passing today I found out that one of my kids has a staph infection, which is a contagious bacterial infection. My brother had the misfortune of contracting one from the gym in college (not a fun thing to go through!).
Since I know what he went through, I quickly sprang to action wiping down every surface this child may have come into contact with, plus more. It was a good reminder of how vigilant I should be. I know the custodial staff comes in and cleans certain parts of my room everyday but there are other things that they aren't responsible for that I could be taking care of.
Some of the things I try to wipe down frequently are:
Tables
Baskets that store frequently used supplies like pencils.
Risers
Door Knobs
Counters
My desk
Remotes
Recorders (Normally I disinfect them in a bin but every once and a while, I run them through the dishwasher.)
In addition to this list, I think I'm going to start doing the following (at least quarterly):
Switch out pencils - I'm talking a brand new set
Clipboards
Mallets
At the end of the year I always clean all of my instruments with a mild cleanser. I take the bars off, gently wipe them, let them dry and put them back on before storing my instruments away. I repeat this process with my mallets and some of the other small percussion instruments.
Something I want to try doing is open the lines of communication with my teachers. Occasionally someone will mention an illness or infection that one of their students has contracted but sometimes I won't find out until many more students have traveled through my room. I think it is important to know, especially about the more serious viruses, so I think this is something I'm going to work on with my classroom teachers.
Before using any cleaning products check your districts policy. I know that our district is very strict about aerosol sprays (Lysol spray, Glade products, etc.) because of the effect they can have on allergies and asthmatic students.
I meet my classes at the door with the bottle of hand sanitizer when we're playing instruments. I'll be making it a part of our routine soon.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea. I have heard of other music teachers that do that at the end but before would be even better. Have you ever had any parents complain about you having their child use hand sanitizer? I know some parents are particular about these kinds of things.
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