Year 11 – Week 23: What I Know For Certain

Dealing with uncertainty is a muscle. After making it halfway through this school year, this muscle has become strong.

We are coming up to our mid-winter break. This period between winter break and mid-winter break has felt calmer and more stable. We know how to process the challenges and the uncertainty, and because of significant steps forward, our administration made. 

After winter break, the school provided COVID-19 testing to all students, faculty, and staff. To be able to come back to in-person school, you needed a negative test. Our community came through, and there was not one positive test. A couple of weeks ago, my school provided us with access to the COVID-19 vaccine, and all the adults working in the school got their first vaccination shot. Soon we will all get our second shot and be fully vaccinated.

The mitigation measures have not changed how we have operated as a school, but it has changed how teachers feel. The week that we got our vaccinations, the teachers in a great mood, and you could feel the positivity in the building. 

The most significant factor that made this period rewarding and joyful was the students. They were remote starting after Thanksgiving, so they weren’t in the building for almost a month and a half. So, when they finally came, they were really happy to be here.

Despite world events and all that is being asked of my students, for the most part, they are still moments of joy and meaning. They giggled walking down the hallways, they got on each other’s nerves, and they rolled their eyes at my bad jokes. Some of them deeply engaged in projects, others less than, but they all tried. 

My middle school students impressed me with new lyrics they wrote to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” My younger students continued after every class was over, working on collaborative music composition projects on their iPads, and we all had the opportunity to explore racism in music together.

The mask and the distance between us are barriers, but that barrier cannot take away the feeling of being in a room of students joyfully creating music together. The barrier may hide smiles, but it doesn’t take away the sweet voices of children saying hi to me in the hallway. And this barrier makes it harder for all to be understood but doesn’t make us any less determined to understand each other.

As a teacher, the future of my life is full of uncertainty, but what I do know for sure is that even in these difficult times, our students can continue to inspire us to be better and do better for them and ourselves.