Week 1 A New Normal?

During a regular school year, I am usually excited about the beginning of a new semester. I like to stand outside my classroom door and greet students with a smile as they shyly approach my mobile. Students nonchalantly search for my room number, trying to look behind me so they do not have to make eye contact or ask me if they are in the right place. Dressed in new clothes, clean new shoes, and still tanned from summer, the students take seats among classmates that will soon be friends. Our shared intrigue coalesces into energy that shapes the rest of the semester. 

At the start of this school year, my usual excitement was burdened by confusion and concern. There were several challenges that I did not anticipate. Here are a few of those.

First of all, at one time the largest amount of students that I had was six, and the lowest was four. I had several students online. I had to remember to turn on the Google Meet and get the online students included while taking attendance with an ever-changing and dynamic class roster. Now, my mind was eased by the lower numbers, but speaking to only six students at one time, and several online students with their mics off led to me speaking an awful lot; way more than I like. Contrast this to my Thursday & Friday students, where my classroom had up to twelve students. These differing numbers affect the energy mentioned above and led me to wonder how I am going to approach collaborative activities that I wish to incorporate. 

Second, teaching the same lesson six times in one week is draining. Since I (thankfully) have only one prep this semester, I have to do the same lessons multiple times. I am grateful for the limited schedule, but the boredom by the end of the week was something I didn't anticipate.

Third, I volunteered to teach an online class. My job is to monitor student progress and assign a pacing guide for the completion of work. This class is supposed to be ready to go live in 24 hours. I still do not have access to this class. 

Not everything that happened in the first week of school was challenging or negative. The administration put a lot of thought into transitions, including lunches and school dismissal. While teachers this school year have been asked to work longer hours without a pay raise, the administration was more visible than I have ever seen, and reminded me that the same expectations have been made on them. This helped my morale and made me feel as though we are not alone. 

Having a mid-week workday is a game-changer. I used my Wednesday to read student work, plan for the next group of students, and send emails to students I had not seen yet. I used the time efficiently and hope that this time does not get squandered by bureaucratic demands that come from above because someone might get the feeling that teachers aren't "working" in the same way that teachers don't work in the summer. Utter garbage.

We had students! On the first day of school, one of my favorite students from last year escorted a student to my mobile so she could stop and see me. We got to interact with one another after leaving each other so abruptly in the spring. A student that had previously dropped out was in my class on Friday. Even though I didn't get hugs, I was invigorated by the eager minds that I got to share my days with.

Navigating the new school atmosphere comes with its new challenges. Technology is one of the new challenges, yes, but nothing can replace the face-to-face comfort that comes from building a classroom community. Everything is different and new, and it is not the classroom situation I would have chosen for our school year, but it is what we have and we will make the best of it!