Earlier today, I watched as the Governor of Texas change the setting of my classroom… again…
We started this school year,optimistic that we would have a “normal” year. We were fresh eyed and full of ideas. We had survived the year with Harvey in 2017-2018- full of half-days in shared classrooms and campuses (“new normal”) and then in our own rooms with half walls (“new normal”). The constant construction zone that was our lives home and school (“new normal”). Classrooms were “ours” again. August 15, 2019 – fresh ideas, fresh smiles, new clothes – we were ready. Woohoo! A new normal! (not in quotes this time!)
September 19, 2019 – Imelda – flooding again… homes and schools damaged again… at my house alone we still had construction tools and supplies that were on the floor when the water came in again! We took 2 cars filled with what we could grab, (when I finally went to sleep at 6 a.m. the water was only halfway up my yard by 7:30 a.m. I was standing in ankle deep in my house…) we drove across 2 flooded bayous… Once again, rubber boots and gloves and N95 masks became our new dress code. Thankfully our campus was spared and we did go back to our own classrooms. Not all of our campuses were spared. A “new normal”
September 26, 2019 – Pulling into the school “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba – We got knocked down (by another hurricane) but we got back up again! That was the pep song we needed. Starting over “new normal.”
So, we have survived and made it through the toughest part of the year, we were a month from state testing, our kids were ready for the test and the end of the year (lets be real).
March 16, 2020, rumors were running rampant, I only had about 80% attendance in all of my classes…. I went over Teams in my classroom, “just in case.” Schools in the bigger areas were starting to cancel… I spent my conference period calling parents, “Have you traveled over the winter break? Been exposed to anyone that has traveled? Do you have reliable internet at home?” 5 pm the call came — starting tomorrow school would be online….. you guessed it, “new normal.”
March 17 — Online teaching, Teams, Istation, Prodigy, Zoom, and every other website we’ve used in our classrooms…. Teams and Zoom meetings with the HOPE of hugging those kids again… OK there’s nothing normal about this “new normal”!
April 17 – We aren’t going back this year… Sure I can see these faces through Zoom and once the quarantine is lifted maybe at the store — but can we see them as their faces light up when they learn something new, when they tell us about their day, when they confide in us, use us as a place to bounce ideas off? We feed them, give them confidence, hug them, love them – because they are “ours.” So sure, we are going to finish the year online, but it’s not the same… my 8th graders, they’ll move on, but we didn’t say goodbye. Sure, I’ll see my 6th and 7th graders around campus next year, but it’s not the same, we didn’t say goodbye. I have cried many tears today over the clip from the last episode of Boy Meets World…. Mr. Feeny got to say goodbye – “I love you… Class dismissed.” COVID-19 has taken our ending. There is no ending to this school year, it’s like that sitcom that didn’t get picked up for the next season and left us hanging… I’m not impressed with this new normal.
Teaching Re-Imagined 