Teaching in a Pandemic: A New Year, A New Schedule

Week One already comes to an end!  Wow!  I do hope you had the best of weeks in these quite challenging of times.  Not returned?  Read on for some words of advice!

First, masks.  I have made and given away 300+ masks and thought I was ready for returning to teaching fulltime in a mask.  No.  Not at all!  Here are my thoughts on this subject that I posted on Facebook after Day Four:  

Oxymoron: seemingly contradictory statement.

Example: Masks - I have a love/extreme dislike with masks right now.

My vain side says, “Oh, make sure my mask matches my outfit of the day! Yay!”

My sane side says, “Just wear the medical masks, so by bell time, I won’t feel like I am going to eat the oh-so-perfectly-matched mask!”

NOTE OF EXPLANATION: Inhaling air seems to be important when talking in front of groups. Seriously. Feels like I am going to inhale my mask!

Plan B: I am going now to my sewing machine to make a different style.

NOTE TO RONA: As I tell my kiddos, where there’s a will, there’s a way...and where there’s a way...there’s an A or a B or a C! Thus, Rona, I have a few more ways to appease my vanity!

PS Yes, I have ordered some of those silicone mouth guards! Yay! Which...should have been Plan B...but they are not here...yet...

PSS Please forget you read any of this, for considering what our friends in Louisiana/Texas have just endured...this is just so trivial. Truly. Lifting up those who have lost so much... 

Next week, I am wearing the medical masks, more specifically the KN95 masks...I think.  In other words, my battle with them continues, but I want to be in school more than I do not; therefore, for my students' safety and mine, I will continue to battle the masks...knowing...that, yes!...I will win!

My advice (which I read several times...back in the summer...and did not heed):  wear the masks at home and talk...and talk...to determine which style you prefer, for you will talk.  Much!

Second, blended learning.  At our school, the online students are listed in whichever class they would be in should they (at any time) return to face-to-face.  I would prefer they all be in one class in the grading system.  I assume that is a computer nightmare.  So I am adjusting and learning where each one is.  Doable.  Just more work.

Also, we have been asked/told to have online learning posted on the Friday before so online may have ten days or so to complete.  Having now lived this schedule for a week, I know this results in frustration, as I reaffirm that I do not always cover what I had planned, so what would have been Week Two is truly Week Two for online, as I just have to post what I have ready, but Face-to-Face will work in real time = not quite with Online Learning, which is okay; just one more thing to keep my mind busy!

Online students email anytime, all the time.  Even though the teacher has a full load of face-to-face teaching...and records videos to post for online students.  Yikes!  Consider posting office hours.  That said...I have a hard time not responding, as I assume if they are emailing me, then they are working, and I want them working, so I should respond...right then or in a timely manner.  

BUT.  I only have two classes for which to plan and prepare.  Some teachers have four and five.  I can only empathically sympathize. 

BUT.  We got this!

Third, block scheduling.  I have taught block before...loved it...and still do.  The format the admin adopted to decrease traffic throughout the day is odd/even, which means, as in Monday and Tuesday (August 31 and September 1), we will meet with odd numbered classes back-to-back.  Not a big deal...teachers just have to wrap their brains around odd and even classes not being together for a few days (in our case, next Friday and the next Tuesday will both be evens, so by September 8, the classes will be back in sync.)  Doable.  Just another thing teachers have to consider.  

On odd days, this past week, I had morning duty and classes from 8:00 until 3:12, with a 35 minute lunch, the only time I could remove the mask.  Again, doable.  That is just a long time to teach and breathe in a mask!  Doable. Note:  refer to my advice about wearing that mask now...practice! :)

Your schedule will not look like mine, nor will your schedule roll as last year's did.  Teaching in a Pandemic requires such changes.  Good luck!

Fourth, my attitude.  I left Friday tired, overwhelmed and head spinning.  Very.  Much.  Then, yesterday, my daughter and I took most of the day for a Girl Day.  I just needed to walk/drive away for a while. As the day passed, I relaxed, regrouped, rejuvenated.  Just bless her for putting up with me!

Teaching in a Pandemic, both face-to-face and online, is doable.  I, too, read the memes and messages about giving teachers grace as we returned to a situation unlike any we have ever faced.  My Advice:  Give yourself grace.  I appreciate the gift of grace from parents, students, peers, admin...BUT...I need to give myself grace.  Sometimes, just a few seconds, sometimes a lunch period, sometimes an evening off, sometimes a day off.  Just grace.  This is doable...with grace. 

Rona is a beast.  Beasts, though, are meant to be conquered, maybe even tamed.  Not an easy task.  But doable.

Doable.  My theme for Week One.

We got this.  I wish you the best year ever as 2020-2021 becomes our year.