Today was a struggle. Not in a bad way, but just in terms of feeling like I accomplished something.
I walked into school today with high hopes and a blank agenda. I had absolutely nothing on my calendar other than to drill down into what this semester will look like.
7:00am - Arrive at school and juggle a few big / bulky things. I decided to bring up a bag chair so I could sit outside for some fresh air and I also brought up a larger monitor. We have Surface Pros for the teacher computer, which is lovely, but a tiny screen for my old eyes, so I had an external monitor. However, after 5 months at home with a larger monitor, the school one felt "off" in terms of size / aspect ratio. Thankfully hubs is a techy guy and we had a spare. I fought with cables and cords, but finally got it set up and going - yay me!
7:45am - Neighbor teacher texts me to say she's headed to Sonic and did I want a drink? Ummm, YES!
8:00am - Drink arrives and I call our EL teacher to share what I learned last night about changing languages on Google Meet Closed Captioning
8:15am - Start working on setting up my Canvas courses
9:00am - Neighbor teacher and I co-teach a class, so we sit down to start thinking through what that looks like. We spend a couple of hours looking at various technologies and what might work. Two hours later, we still don't have a plan, but we are a bit better about wrapping our heads around what it looks like - maybe :)
11:30am - Neighbor teacher goes to run an errand, I grab my bag chair and text a friend to see if she wants to sit outside for a bit for fresh air. Grab my notebook from last year and a blank calendar to try to figure out some pacing calendars.
12:00pm - Come back inside, continue looking at pacing calendar, erase, write again, erase, repeat...
1:00pm - Meet with my content level team to try to figure out what remote teaching looks like. We hash out a few things, kind of get an idea of pacing, but still pretty lost on the day to day.
3:20pm - Head back to my room to wrap up for the day. Catch up on emails, send a few more, talk on the phone with our district PD director about how to do asynchronous PD
3:45pm - Look at my very blank agenda and desk, realize that I have nothing to show for today, decide to go home.
4:30pm - Get home, handle a few other PD issues that came up, send it off to the people that need to proofread
5:30pm - Walk around the corner to check on my elderly neighbor to see how he is doing and to thank him for the cheesecake he made for us this weekend :)
6:00pm - Dinner time, then a real walk (Gotta meet my #fitbos goal!), rest and relax for a bit.
9:00pm - Decide finally on the topic for today's blog post and sit down to write :) So here's my point in today's post:
We're on a pathway that is scary, it's unknown, it has switchbacks and crazy curves....This year is going to be really hard. I also know that I will come out a better teacher on the other side. However, getting to that other side is going to be a real challenge. I know that when the kids "show up" next week, things will be better. I know that we will pull it off, because we always do. I know it will work out - it just has to, right? :)
This year will challenge me like no other - new ways to present content, new ways to design activities, new ways to assess, new ways to connect with students, new ways to use technology. I know that I have an opportunity to try new things, to change the paradigm of my classroom, to have a complete mindset shift of education. I know that what we do this year will shape the future of teaching and learning for years to come. The unknown is terrifying and I think that's one major reason why education has looked the same way for 100 years.
Way back in January, I challenged my students to have a word of the year. My word was COURAGE. The main reason for that choice was that I was scared. I had never travelled overseas and I was about to head to Portugal for a week. That word still applies. I'm still scared. I've never travelled the path I'm currently on - I mean, it's a pandemic for goodness sake! - but I also know that if I can stay the course, if I can find courage, I will come out the other side and I will be a better teacher for it.
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