For Three Weeks

Today completes week three, a time span on which I would not have wagered as we continue to live in this pandemic with rising numbers within our state, county, and area schools.

For these three weeks, I am thankful...and several other emotions and descriptors.  Grateful, I am that we could gather our students back for a somewhat normal start.  Blessed, I am to continue to experience a career for which I was born.  Tired, I am after spending hours making and creating to plan and prepare for both face-to-face and online learning.  Unhappy, I am with decisions made to remove students from online learning for reasons not based on curriculum, resulting in more work for me as these students need the repetition gained from multi-ways of explaining to-do tasks.  Relieved, I am that none of my students (knock on wood...and say a prayer) have COVID (although some have been quarantined).

For these three weeks, I have been so busy, going from before daylight until night fall.  Teaching both face-to-face and keeping up with online learning remains a bit much.  I certainly do not have the answers as to how to manage it all.  I greatest frustration right now consists of the students who have yet to meet with me online, a,seemingly a common concern.  Next week, I will add the wording that each is required to join at least one of the Google Meets; afterall, are they not at home working on assignments also?

I so hope we are in school all year...and for at least one more...so that I and my kiddos might enjoy reading, listening, and discussing The Crucible.  The reflecting via writing will follow.  I had decided that if we were to be sent to full online learning that I was not sure if I would still have my students reading the longer core texts, for our previous plan just involved our meeting twice a week for 40 minutes with our students, but that has changed, and we will now adhere to our current block schedule, which really is a good decision.

I also hope to have my students check out an independent read next week...plotting and planning...you know...just in case!  (Over the last two days, each class and I practiced a Google Meet.)  I know...I know...I just want us to be better prepared than we were last March 16...when we went home, for what we thought would be just a few days....to not return until August.  Just sooooooo glad we returned!  Yay!

Now...off to plan the reading of The Crucible...looking for engagement...even through those masks!