Year 10: Week 34 - Go The Distance

The end is in sight. This unexpected, challenging, and unpredictable school year is wrapping up. On the calendar it’s three weeks, but in the life of a teacher especially during the end of a school year, three weeks passes by quickly.

I came into this school year knowing that it would hard. Lucas was on the way, and I knew that being away for the third time on paternity was going to be difficult. Yes, this being the third time I was going to be leave meant that I knew what to expect, but this didn’t change that the fact that leave is very hard to manage..

I think back on the fall and winter and prepping for my leave and being away and even though at the time it was so difficult and stressful, right now it doesn’t seem like a big deal at all. You know how some days feel like three days in one? This school year feels like it’s been at least three school years crammed into this one.

I had goals this year, and plans, and things I wanted to get done, and now my main goal is to just go the distance and get to the end.

This isn’t a cope out. This is really how hard it is for educators. Many projects, new lesson, guest artists, and all these other ideas have been put aside. It’s been day to day, week to week, laser focused on what is most important, what are priorities, and how can we make this work. In this way, we are doing less, but it so much harder to do even that because, well, we have no idea what we are doing

There was not time to for a gentle learning curve but we figured it out.  This week I used Zoom for the first time with students. I was previously using Google Meet. There was a lot learning that happened on the fly. As other teachers and my school figured out new systems of operation, I had to learn along with them, as I learned how to teach from a distance

I hesitate with silver linings. No good at this point I feel can overcome the worldwide trauma that has occurred in the past couple months. That being said, there were some positive things that happened. Introverted students came out of the shells, as the disruptive students were less able to take over classroom discussions. Some students have really done well with this way of teaching and learning that may actually be better than what we did in class. This time has been a good reminder of my privilege I have to teach at such a great school, and work with such wonderful colleagues.

There’s a lot to do in the next couple weeks, and I am looking forward to taking a break from all of this. For a time, I will put aside the uncertainty of next fall, and find some time to reflect on what a school year this has been and what this all means to me and my students.