I felt rusty, out of practice, as the first class entered the Story Castle. It helped to sing the familiar songs and read the stories used for library orientation, the back-and-forth chants and the nodding of heads knocking off the rust. Library expectation lessons with the older students went well thanks to the helpful suggestion of using a Jamboard for each class, organizing our rules according to the school's safe-respectful-responsible guidelines. The giggles happened on cue when I mentioned that all bets were off if a T-rex entered the library--screaming and running allowed then. I saw smiling eyes above masks as our scholars walked or danced out of the library with their books in hand.
The week felt chaotic, though. Some students are still struggling with adapting to in-person learning again. The flow just isn't there yet, though I should hardly have expected it this first week back in the library. The schedule will have to change again this week as the lunch schedules were tweaked last Friday, and we are all hitting the ground running after a three-day weekend.
I long for routine days, for the flexibility they allow within their framework. In this pandemic, I think we could all benefit from some stability. I'm hoping the dust will settle soon.
Good Luck and give yourself time to adjust. So many changes over the last year or so. Hang in there. Thanks for all you do for kids and for books!
ReplyDeleteGood luck to you. Last year I taught in person all year and reading your slice reminds me of how I felt last year (we have yet to have students this year because of a really late start). Hang in there and look for those silver linings, like the children’s eyes lighting up imagining T-Rex in the library. You got this!
ReplyDeleteI know this sense of things feeling "a bit off," still. I told a colleague just yesterday that I felt this is the year that may make or break us - not last year. Things are more normal than they were, but yes, there's a lot that's so changed. "Stability" - I think we are all longing for that. Riding ongoing waves is exhausting. Yet I sense stability in the familiar scene you paint here, in the smiling eyes of the kids. In a time when "new normals" are being weighed, this is an old one we can never let go: Kids enjoying reading and learning.
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