October 19th marked the beginning of a new grading period, and parents had a choice to change their child's placement as at-home or on-campus learners. As a result, sixty more students joined us, bring our school to forty-six percent capacity. Classes were shuffled yet again as virtual and in-person teachers alike became hybrid--teaching students at-home and in-person at the same time--to safely space students in their rooms. The master schedule changed; students started going to music, art, and p.e. instead of following asynchronous lessons.
More than a few teachers were feeling overwhelmed. Attending to students in class and on a screen sounds easy if you're thinking of college lectures, but wrangling the attention of "virtual" elementary students who aren't necessarily used to sharing their onscreen time with in-school classmates, coupled with the distractions of home, is another matter. Newly grouped students meant repeating the first-day tasks of classroom expectations and getting-to-know-you exercises, which must have felt odd alongside the second nine weeks' curriculum. Specials teachers went from covering two classes a day of asynchronous lessons to a full day of in-person students.
Last Wednesday, with the support of my administrators, I made the decision to not have library this week. The master schedule was being worked on and tweaked up until the last minute, and I couldn't bring myself to ask my teachers to accommodate yet another new thing, knowing what this week would be like for them. I'm surveying them to find out who's comfortable coming to the library, and/or sending small groups to check out. Most of my classes will still be virtual, meeting the needs of the many hybrid and handful of virtual-only classes. Time will be built into the new library schedule to wipe down tables between visits. We're surveying students about their home libraries and building bundles of donated books to distribute. I need to set up space to teach in person again, too.
Next Tuesday will be my personal seventh first day of school, as I welcome some students and staff back into the library. There will still be book deliveries and online classes; I will become a hybrid teacher librarian.
Yikes! That sounds like there is a lot going on! Our district is currently up and arms because next Monday, the 26th, they are welcoming students into the buildings for the first time. We started virtually this year. Families were given the choice to have their students attend a local online virtual academy for a semester or be virtual within our district with the ability to have in person instruction once the district decides to offer it. The problem? They are offering it and our state #'s are high (county numbers are less). I think this year has required so much flexibility on the part of students, parents and educators like yourself! Hang in there! Hopefully, there aren't too many more "first days" left! Take Care!
ReplyDeleteThere is unrest here, too, Carol, as numbers are rising and the district moves forward with allowing more students in. I have a sneaking suspicion that we may all go back to virtual around Thanksgiving, as the universities have already planned to do...but I'm not counting on it.
DeleteMagic 7. Will it will be the last of the first days? Your post needs to be archived in the Library of Congress as an historical artifact of these times! At my school we’re currently preparing for cohorts of children to return on Monday. Today we’re doing all the temperature checks and disinfecting protocols - and trying to solidify how teachers will be delivering instruction live and online simultaneously ... it goes on and on and on. But you write with strength of spirit, Chris, which boosts ours. Can’t help but think of a Scripture: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” It’s all one can do, is grapple with teaching and living this one day - especially if it is yet another first day- perhaps learning to forgive ourselves (let alone others!) seven x seventy times!
ReplyDeleteYes, this, Fran! I knew it wasn't going to be a creative post today. I feel like each change needs to be noted for future reference. Each day is a new start, a new opportunity for grace given to ourselves and our colleagues. My school counselor and I decided that the mantra for the year should be "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." No sense worrying and robbing today of what hope and peace we may glean! So glad to have you in my circles, Fran!
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