#MTBoSBlaugust - Feeling Behind

 

Y'all - I've already failed at Blaugust and that's okay! :)

My goal, every year, is to blog daily.  But some days that doesn't happen and I have to give myself grace.  Every day that I blog is a victory and one more way for me to reflect about what is going on in this world and in my classroom.  So that failure is a success because I'm working on it!  I'm still blogging!  I'm not letting it get me down.

Right now, we have to honor those successes.  We're in the middle of a pandemic here - hug your pet, celebrate the successes, realize that you are doing the best you can and give yourself grace.

This idea of grace came up this weekend at our first Math Teacher Virtual Collaboration Day (which was freaking amazing... that needs to be a post soon).  Some comments were made about being behind.  And I'll admit I'm behind!

But... what if by being behind, I'm actually ahead???

Seriously.

This past spring, we had a "do no harm" policy with grading and we didn't teach new content, which means that my students won't have had traditional schooling for 5 months.  We are starting our year in a remote learning situation, so by the time I meet my students in-person, it could be 6 or more months since they've been in a traditional brick and mortar school.  People keep lamenting about how far behind our kids will be.

But behind who?

The *entire world* is facing this same situation.  Traditional schooling has been interrupted everywhere.  Heck, we often gripe about how fast paced our curriculum is, how we push our kids to master something before they are ready for it, and we have this perfect opportunity to SLOW DOWN and people are still upset.

Instead of being behind, what if our kids are ahead?  This spring, I had students that mentioned they enjoyed the slower pace, the ability to explore other interests such as art or reading, the time to learn how to cook or sew or just spend time with their family without the constant pressure of being overbooked.  What if they're actually ahead?  Ahead in empathy, ahead in finding their true passions, ahead in finding ways to combat the pace of life?

I get the "feeling behind", as I feel it too.  I report back to school this week and I have done minimal school work.  I've filled many days with webinars and PLCs and exploring tech tools, and soaking up knowledge, but I don't have anything concrete to show for it.  And normally, I would be super stressed right now.

But I'm not stressed at all.  I'm not stressing about my classroom looking perfect.  I'm not stressed about cleaning out the cabinets and organizing the mess I left in March.  I'm okay to look forward and figuring out how to do this thing.

What if, by being behind, I'm actually ahead?  

In the spring, I had opportunties, based on necessity, to explore tech tools that I had always put on the back-burner, in my "someday" pile.  I figured out new ways to give my students feedback.  I worked on non-in-person connections.  I learned so much and walked away from this spring with so many new ideas.  We've been 1-to-1 for years, but you wouldn't have known it if you looked at my pre-March classroom.

Instead of lamenting about being behind, what if I embrace this new opportunity to rethink my classroom?  What if I figure out new and better ways to connect with students?  What if I learn methods to utilize the technology in more efficient and effective ways?  

I don't know what my post-COVID classroom will look like, but I do know that I will take the lessons I've learned and those still to be learned and I will come out a better teacher on the other side.  There will be times of stress and frustration and anguish as we learn to navigate these waters, but together, we WILL get through it.  We'll rely on each other, we'll collaborate to produce even better lessons for our students, we'll give ourselves grace.

And we won't be behind in the long run.