a small space for big thoughts

This week has not been going well. I'm trying to ways to keep kids engaged, but they are weary. I am weary. And there's no better way to say this, but I do NOT like teaching this way. Despise might be a better word in this instance.  I don't want to hear the "You can do this!", "We're in this together!",  and the ever so popular, "We've got this!". Stop already. I know  that I can do this, horribly, but I can pull it together. What I want to hear is validation in my feelings. There is nothing positive about teaching to students who don't answer you, don't have their cameras on, and you know nothing about them. There is no way to prevent cheating, so I've stopped trying. I'll be able to tell if I give them something in person, and they can't do it.  It's difficult to teach to a group who is here in the room, but also a group that's at home.  There is nothing positive about teaching in a pandemic. Period. I try...

Well, it came. The moment when some kids came back into the classroom. I wasn't worried about the teaching so much as I was worried about the procedural aspect of how to maneuver everything. At my school, students come to the classroom with their devices, and we are continuing to teach through our online platforms. I'm very thankful for that because I have about 75% of my students that are still remote.  Right now, we have a set of two attendance groups, which is dependent on last name.  They attend two days a week, either Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday, with Wednesdays as completely asynchronous still.   That post I wrote about being exhausted? Still holds true. Maybe even more so. I love having students in front of me, and I'm finally getting to talk to them in person and learn a little more about their personality. But DANG. It's tiring to have to maneuver the two monitors, 2904 tabs and remembering all of the PPE and cleaning procedures... it's a lot. This we...

You know that moment when you get home after a long day, and you finally get the chance to sit down and breathe? That's how I feel every day...at 3:30.  I've seen something floating around social media about how a teacher makes more decisions in a day than a surgeon. I don't know if there's any truth to that, but it definitely. feels that way. There've been a lot of studies on a new phenomenon called "Zoom Fatigue", and let me tell you that everything about it is true. Being online all day is exhausting.  However, I wouldn't have it any other way because I know that the alternative is even more challenging. (I'm looking at you, hybrid model.)  I get a report every week on nearly every device about my usage for the week, and every Sunday without fail, there's an increase in the amount of time I've spent on my phone and my laptop.  Many of you might not know this, but my phone is primarily used as a work tool. I'm in so many groups and ha...