We had a virtual staff meeting yesterday. Our Board has directed us to embark on a “Continuity of Learning Program”, beginning Monday. We have been instructed to contact our students by email by Friday morning to inform them of how this will move forward (how WILL this move forward? Oh…I guess I am supposed to have that answer…) Our principal, bless his soul, used terms like “diagnostic”, “formative and summative assessment”, and “triangulated assessment” during our virtual meeting. After the meeting, I drank copious amounts of vodka and watched all 10 episodes of Ozark, Season 3. Drinking and Netflix is apparently how I deal with feeling completely overwhelmed (I have learned some important things about myself during this pandemic). What’s cool, though, is that I knew - even as I watched Darlene kiss Wyatt (and he kissed her back - yeee-yuck!!) and wondered if the vodka was making me delusional -(that’s like what - a 40 year age difference?!)- that I would feel better in the morning. After a good drink and a good binge and a good sleep, I knew I would be capable of tackling this issue that seemed so impossible in the moment. And here I am - on the far side of the stress mountain that loomed in front of me yesterday. It only took me two hours this morning to plan, create, and schedule lessons for my three classes, and set them to open for 9am on Monday morning. I was able to do it because I waited for the screaming voice of stress to subside so I could hear that small, quiet voice of wisdom inside of me. It’s this small voice that is getting me through this. It’s this small voice that told me to breathe, and to keep things simple. This small voice reminded me that my students are feeling overwhelmed and stressed and sad and listless and bored and lonely and apathetic and all of the other things that I am feeling, too. And so, by the way, are their parents. I started thinking about the things that have made the difference between “good days” and “bad days” for me, over the past three weeks — because what I really want to do for my students at this time has nothing to do with grammar rules or Shakespeare or To Kill A Mockingbird - which were all on the docket for April and May - and everything to do with helping them have fewer bad days and more good days. The things that have made a difference for me are 1) having a sense of routine, albeit a loose one 2) having something to do that can be done relatively quickly and relatively easily, but which also provides the satisfaction of a job well done (think cleaning the washroom as opposed to painting the house). 3) having social virtual contact with others 4) having some responsibility (I fare better when my kids are with me, because I know I need to feed them…). I decided that the assignments I post on Google Classroom for my students will be based on these 4 pillars, and I mentally threw away all other curriculum expectations, “big ideas”, and school improvement plans. The clarity that came with this mental cleansing allowed me to move forward easily and plan for the next few weeks. So, no - I am NOT going to tell my Grade 9 students that their first encounter with Shakespeare will be reading Romeo and Juliet alone at home, from a computer screen (what a great way to make them HATE Shakespeare!), and I am not going to tell my Grade 10 students to read a racially charged novel narrated by a unreliable narrator (I LOVE To Kill A Mockingbird, but it’s a novel that requires a lot of class discussion to foster a deep and critical analysis), even though these are the works of literature they are “supposed to read” this year. They will not suffer by missing these classics. They may, however, suffer if school stress is layered on top of an already stressed family unit. Steep curriculum expectations, along with heavy homework loads, may just be the breaking point for parents who are already barely holding on to their ability to tolerate their kids 24-7 (I yelled at my son for washing his hands “too loudly” yesterday). Instead, this week we will be looking at the memes that have come out of this situation, and students will share funny ones they have seen, and we will vote on which one we like best as a class, and then students will try to create one of their own. Next week, I think I will have students interview the people in their homes about the situation. Students will also choose a book (any age-appropriate book) from their homes to read, and I will be asking them questions about the book, because - as a parent of teenagers - if ANY teacher can get my kid to READ a NOVEL, I will consider this school year a WIN! I will set due dates, because due dates foster a sense of routine and responsibility. The most important thing I can and will do over the next few weeks or (gulp) months, however, will be to keep the students chatting - to me and to each other - because a sense of community and communication is what will get us all through this isolation and loneliness. Huh - as I get to the end of this post, I think I’ve arrived at the final point. Really, I think that “keeping kids chatting to me and to each other” is what this whole “Continuity of Learning” boils down to for teachers. We can do that, right? Just get them talking and keep them talking. We’ve got this.
