Survival

Just checking in with my loyal blog followers...I am still here :)

We did it - we survived!

Survival...many families feel that is all that they did in the past 10 weeks since March 13.

THAT IS OKAY!  We (teachers, parents, and students) were not prepared for a complete shift in society and education...

Celebrate your success and forget the losses.  Our district is pass/fail.  Did you child pass?  THEN YOU SUCCEEDED.  

Many people are all nervous for fall 2020.  I am in recovery mode as a teacher.  Sorry - check back in 2 weeks.

For the past month, I wake up and check my school email first.  Then I check our learning management platform then I start my day.

There are times when I try to unplug...I go for a walk, play a game with my children, sit down to help them with an assignment, make a meal, fold a basket of laundry, etc...  No unplugging truly happens.  I am left wondering...does someone have a question, should I be sending feedback to a student, does a co-worker need something, etc...

One hour a day for office hours really morphs into 16 hours of teaching...yes...I was in teacher mode most of my waking day since May 4th.  Not just Monday-Friday but 7 days each week.  

The notifications ding, the apps were slowly added to my phone, and everyone in our family learned to react to a noise.  

Online learning was an all in process from wake up to bed.  You guessed it...before I went to bed, I checked one last time.  

This is not to be a complaint, but a reflection and reality check.  

Parents want to send their students back and teachers want to be back in the classroom.  Not that many teachers do not naturally work in the evenings.  Online learning led most teachers to a whole new level of "ON".  

Parents and students survived the tears, the confusion, the technology, the curriculum.  That is why I wanted to be able to help or answer a question as quickly as possible.  You wanted and needed answers from us.  It was a lot for us all, but we are so much more knowledgeable and prepared for fall.   

The past week has been about DATA.  What can I do better in the future? We can only change the future if we learn from the past.

TOGETHER - we did it!!!  It might not have been perfect or pretty or ideal.  Celebrate your successes...pat yourselves on the back...reflect on what worked and did not work for the future.  

Then just unplug and re-focus.  I plan to do that after next week.  My co-librarian and I have to do ordering, inventory, book shelve, parent phones, etc...

Sometimes our children have a totally different perspective.  Ben age 12 said as I was typing this...I think that we would all be in the RED phase (Pennsylvania has a color code system on what is open/closed) if we would have been school for the past 10 weeks.  PROBABLY TRUE

My superintendent said from the beginning "In the end, it will be impossible to know if we overreacted or did too much, but it will be quite apparent if we under reacted or did too little."  

Being at home has been the safest place to be.  Embrace your safety.  Most of us have been super healthy...no colds, stomach bugs, etc...

GO BREATHE - GO CELEBRATE - GO RE-CONNECT!!!

Try these websites:
CALM

Here is a funny cartoon for the future: