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Nina Wildflower Profile picture
Nina Wildflower
@Ninawildflower
Music fan. UK science teacher in an FFP3 mask. The right mask makes it easy to sing, perform, teach, or speak in public. #N95 #FFP2 #FFP3 #YallMasking
Sep 7 • 19 tweets • 6 min read
Why the deafening silence from the teaching profession on COVID? A🧵

If you spend any time on #EduTwitter, you’ll see vigorous debate about the best way to educate children. This is a debate worth having.

But nothing on COVID. Why? Teacher wearing FFP3 mask in an art gallery. I'm asking:

“Why is nobody involved in research, strategy, policy & “big ideas” connecting the dots on COVID & attendance?”

“Why are the “big ideas” folks ignoring the impact of COVID on children's cognition & learning?”

“Why are they bigwigging around ignoring research?” Teacher wearing FFP3 mask in an art gallery, in front of "Whaam!" by Roy Lichtenstein
Aug 2 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
Am I in a cult?

People in cults don't question their own behaviour, and they don't ask “Am I in a cult?”

What I do is #BootlegPublicHealth

Will there be music by Oasis in this🧵?

I said maybe. Man wearing FFP3 mask (JedX) in front of a building with a sign showing it is a masonic lodge. Oasis had a lot of great early “b-sides” that were hard to get hold of until the release of “The Masterplan” (1998). In my opinion it's their 2nd best album.

I knew someone who sold bootleg Oasis b-sides CDs before this.

#BootlegPublicHealth #GetLoud

Acquiesce (Oasis cover)
Jul 28 • 25 tweets • 7 min read
“Are you sure you're not one of us?”

A🧵about doubt, graphs, and “overdiagnosis”

I'm neurotypical, but like everyone else in the “COVID-conscious” community, I'm full of doubt, and I love a good graph.

It's what unites us. Man wearing FFP3 mask. Here are some of my favourite graphs.

I thoroughly recommend the books “Knowledge is beautiful” and “Information is beautiful”, and xkcd "What If?"

Do you have a favourite graph?

If you are CC, what is the last graph on your timeline? xkcd - Ninja Turtles / Renaissance Painters
Napoleon invaded Russia - a graph.
Image
Jul 22 • 25 tweets • 7 min read
I'm finished for the year! Thank you for all your support.

It's not easy being the only one doing this, and you really help.🧵 Man with visible mask lines on his face, posing in front of his bicycle. My children finished last week.

They have different challenges to me.

Since I made this post they have become some of the most popular children in the school.

I have not! So your kind comments are most welcome.
Jul 15 • 17 tweets • 6 min read
There’s a lot of stuff I don’t know. I don’t really know how jazz works. I don’t swing.

I’m not alone. I’m marking, so I can see just how much people don’t know!

A little🧵about barriers to learning. Teacher wearing FFP3 mask. He is marking papers. Behind him is a screen displaying the Archie Shepp album "Goin' Home" Those of us who do this are struck by how reluctant people are to learn about COVID.

I'm in the fortunate position of being familiar with “reluctant learners”, and it doesn't phase me. Teacher wearing FFP3 mask, marking.
May 13 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I'm going to weigh in on this extremely cautiously.

Because my academic training and personal inclination is not to jump to conclusions.

I'm not a primary teacher. I teach secondary. I have questions instead.🧵 Of course this could be an effect of repeated COVID infections.

There's a wealth of evidence showing COVID can impact the brain. Is this further evidence of this impact, from professionals who know the child really well and can pass judgement?

Or are there other factors?
Apr 18 • 19 tweets • 6 min read
The exception that proves the rule.

I was told recently:

“I don't know anyone else who is doing what you are doing. Nobody I know knows anyone else who is doing what you are doing.”

It's possible to change the rules.🧵 Man wearing black respirator mask. I'm not the first person in the world to be told:

“I don't know anyone else who is doing what you are. Nobody I know knows anyone who is doing what you are.”

I'm a latecomer to this experience, and I'm grateful to those who've done this before.
Apr 13 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
I teach.

But if I'm honest, I don't really like to learn.

That makes me quite unusual.🧵 Man wearing black respirator mask. Not in the education community. Teachers don't, as a general rule, like learning new things.

If they did, you would see more teachers wearing masks.

It makes me quite unusual in the COVID conscious community.

CC people LOVE learning new things.
Apr 1 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Since you genuinely want to know why I'm still wearing face masks, this is my children's bookshelf.

One of them, anyway.

They have an extraordinary ability to focus and read books.

I want them to maintain this ability for when they go to College.🧵 Man wearing FFP3 mask in front of a bookcase. There's two parts to this answer.

One is to do with “survivorship bias”.

The other is to do with the effects of COVID on cognition and the brain. Survivorship bias plane diagram.
Mar 17 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
As we approach the 20th March, I want to talk about something that doesn't happen in UK schools, but maybe it should.

It's called “retrieval practise”. Man with visible mask lines on his face. When I started teaching, we wouldn't review what had been taught last lesson, a week ago, a month ago, or the previous year.

We had “topic tests”, but once those were done, it could be the end of the year, or the next year, when children encountered those ideas again. Man with visible mask lines on his face.
Dec 16, 2024 • 17 tweets • 6 min read
I'm a teacher, so I take work home with me.

These lines - no. They soon fade.

But with 1 week to go, I don't want to bring home #ChristmasFever

Usually I write about how easy it is to wear a mask. But this🧵is about how hard it is, and how to understand why others don't mask. Man with visible mask lines on his face. I try to raise awareness of COVID in schools. It never went away.

But this week, there are lots of other diseases around that can spoil our holidays. It's not all COVID.

Let's imagine a teacher decided, this weekend, that they didn't want to get #ChristmasFever this year.
Nov 3, 2024 • 25 tweets • 9 min read
Why do people do things that are silly, wrong, and dangerous, when they KNOW* that they are silly, wrong, and dangerous?

Why don’t people say “No”?

I’m more interested in the behaviour of the people than the behaviour of the lions. A🧵
The most dangerous movie ever made. 'Roar' is a 1981 movie about a family that lives with 150 lions, tigers, cheetahs and jaguars.

Most of the lion attacks were real, and usually resulted in actual injury to the cast and crew.

Why didn't they say "No." or walk away? Poster advertising the movie "Roar"
Oct 31, 2024 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
Trick or treat!

I'm wearing a Vitacore CAN99 mask here, but check out the bag of treats. Hundreds of nose foam inserts!

A Canada-focused Halloween thread about less-than-perfect masks.

There will be scary stuff in this🧵- will it attract any ghouls or trolls?

#YallMasking Man wearing black Vitacore CAN99 respirator mask, holding a bag of stick-on nose foam from 3M. I've made lots of posts about different masks this year.

I'm wary of making people feel frustrated or disheartened. Hearing that there are “better masks” available in other countries could be scary.

It might make people give up.

Weighty Ghost (Wintersleep cover)
H/T @MeInYYJ
Oct 25, 2024 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
It's the weekend. I really want a beer!

But I had Covid at the start of the month.

I'm largely recovered, but I'm going to wait before I have a drink.

A🧵about drinking, being sober, & Covid.

There will be music. Some after a few beers.

What are you drinking this weekend? Beer, wine and whisky that I won't be drinking tonight. Alcohol is an issue for anyone trying to stay Covid-safe.

It's very easy to portray Covid-conscious people as joyless scolds.

It's not a surprise if bosses in the drinks industry & hospitality sector are opposed to Covid-safety.

Sober (Lorde cover)
Oct 23, 2024 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
We need to learn about Covid.

My children wear masks in school. I've borrowed my son's coat for this photo.

Someone in his class told him he has “main character energy".

A🧵about learning.

#MainCharacterEnergy Man wearing FFP3 respirator mask. I teach. I wear a mask.

This doesn’t make much sense to my colleagues, or my students.

This is because they haven't learned about Covid.

They don't know what it can do.

Or maybe they do, but they don't feel comfortable talking about it. Man wearing FFP3 respirator mask.
Oct 11, 2024 • 22 tweets • 7 min read
Some people asked me how I got COVID when I wear an FFP3 to teach.

So I thought I'd revisit "The Swiss Cheese Model" to explain. A🧵

As the diagram shows, it involves firing lasers at cheese.

The cheese blocks the beams. The more layers, the fewer lasers get through. Representation of the "Swiss Cheese Accident Model" Incidentally, I was taught by Professor James Reason, the originator of the model, when I was an undergraduate.

Many years ago.

If someone is trying to prevent accidents, then a good principle is to use "Lasered Protections". Copy of "Human Error" by James Reason
Oct 5, 2024 • 25 tweets • 10 min read
You can't tell from this video, but I had COVID when it was recorded.

I seem fine, but I'm not.

And if you knew what COVID can do to children's bodies, it would scare The Living Daylights out of you.

A thread on “asymptomatic transmission” for Global James Bond Day. #JamesBond Covid is 007. If caught, the British government will deny all knowledge.

@007 #JamesBond #JamesBondDay
Sep 25, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
My children have a new Headteacher.

In attendance assembly today, he told the children that he has now had 8 Covid infections.

My children told me that he said this “rather gleefully”🧵1/4 My son said “I have never heard anyone mention “paracetamol” quite so many times in a short space of time.”

The new Headteacher said that he'd never had a day off, even when he had Covid, apart from when he was forced to isolate. 2/4
Sep 4, 2024 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
I teach. Part of my job is to prepare students for the world of work.

But my most successful students won't work in the way I do.

The world of work has changed since 2020, and it isn't going to change back.

A🧵on attendance, uniform, and working from home.

And ties. Teacher wearing FFP3 respirator mask. He is wearing a tie with a print called "Seaweed" by William Morris. I don't do home or hybrid working. I'm in the minority compared with other people with a university education. For a few weeks in 2021 I worked from home.

It will be my LEAST successful students who are most likely to have to attend in-person work.
. forbes.com/uk/advisor/bus…
Table of data showing that 67% of UK workers with a degree are working from home, or hybrid working in 2023-4, compared with 32% of those without a degree.
Aug 26, 2024 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
World Health Network has created a magazine for children and families.

Issue #2 is out now and we are looking for submissions from children and families for future issues.

You can submit via the WHN website.

Full🧵below.

whn.global/kidszone/
Cover of World Health Network "Kids' Zone" magazine, issue #2 I don't let my children use social media.

Occasionally I show them an article or thread, but X is not safe for children to use independently.

But like you, I rely on this place for information & support. My children could use a secure, curated space to find out about Covid,
Jul 18, 2024 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
This is the #TourdeFrance mask.

It wasn't close. There was a clear winner.

This🧵includes wildflowers.

#YallMasking #CovidIsNotOver In an update of a thread I made last year, I took a selection of #FFP3 respirator masks out for a 30 mile cycle ride.

I'm going to tell you my favourite - I'm more scientific than @UKHSA and @LeTour

I've taught Sport & PE.

Sport = Good A selection of respirator masks used in this thread.