Donning and Doffing My Mask as a New School Year Begins

This week, like teachers all over, I headed back into school, after leaving at the end of a teacher workday on March 13th and never going back to finish out our year in person. Though I’ve been back in my room a few times since, walking in for the first time this week was a bit of a gut punch. 

The Vienna wall calendar my son gave me as a gift, still turned to its March page. Words on my white board, never erased: “Once upon a time…suddenly…fortunately…” (a reminder to use them in my never given next day’s planned lesson on storytelling through video). The bulletin board on the wall above my desk with trinkets and drawings from kids over the years, pictures of past advisory groups, all exactly as I’d left them. Tears may have fallen as the heaviness of this year came rushing back as it so often does.

I worked a bit on my room, moving furniture out of the way and putting tables into place so that it adheres to the new lower capacity of the space in preparation for that time in the future when we may have kids back in our building. I donned my mask and left my room and waved to old friends from a distance. I had my temperature checked, worried when it measured high, sighed with relief when the next try didn’t and answered the health questions with "no's." I took part in Zoom meetings, had Zoom conferences with parents. 

I sat down and looked at my MacBook to start putting all the ideas I’ve had swirling in my head the past two months into actual lessons for next week’s first week of remote virtual school, using the different apps we’ve had professional development for and training on all summer. I stalled a little and then stalled a little more and then finally got to work. For real. Creating lessons, activities and assignments for students to work through on their own in their own homes. Asking myself, “Is this engaging enough? Is it too much work? Not enough?” Recording screencasts, stuttering and stumbling through words for an embarrassing too many seconds, hitting stop, delete and starting over wondering, “Am I too energetic? Not energetic enough? Will they get my personality or humor over video? Talking too fast?” (more than likely yes to that last one!). Thinking about how to best use synchronous Zoom sessions to build relationships and start creating awesome content this year.

I’m pretty sure some version of that scenario played out in classrooms not just on my campus, but in campuses across the country this week. And you know what I think people need to know? Particularly the ones who don’t teach children for a living? Or the ones who think teachers are lazy and don’t want to work because they expressed concern about scary rates of transmission and percent positive Covid numbers and worry for their lives and those of their family members? Or the ones who feel the need to protest impossible decisions forced upon school administrators in a country plagued by an unrelenting pandemic, yet don’t want to do the hard work to help make it go away because of a misguided political agenda? Or the ones who call themselves “pro life” but at the same time publicly express, “Well, some live and some die, that’s how life goes?” The ones who hold elected office and are insisting schools open for in-person instruction, even while their own children will be attending school virtually this fall? 

They need to know that virtual school is absolutely real school. And it is an incredible amount of work to pull off and do well. They need to know that teachers everywhere would give anything to be with their full classes and do things the way they used to. That the safety protocols, while important and necessary, aren’t fun and will make school feel less like the “real school” some politicians are demanding when kids do finally come back. That they’re also all coming off a summer that wasn’t really a summer, where they’ve worked and learned and opened their minds to new ways of doing things, all in the service of doing what’s best for children and their learning, while also being aware that they need to be there to help with their social emotional needs, too. 

If they’re like me, they’re scared and excited all at the same time. Scared of the unknown, scared of the uncertainty. Excited for new opportunities and learning and growth. When I recorded one of my course introduction videos, I told my students what a college professor I had in a summer course a few years ago said: “If we always do things the way we’ve always done them, then we always do things the way we’ve always done them.” What a weird but necessary gift we’ve been handed to try something new and see if this can bring education into a more modern era. That instead of technology for technology's sake in the name of "21st Century Skills," using technology purposefully and gaining true skills 20 years into the 21st Century.

Doffing my mask as I got in my car after finishing a week of work at school for the first time in five months, I got home feeling that Friday night exhaustion that used to feel so familiar. I scrolled through my Facebook page, reading post after post from teacher friends (at my school, across the state, around the country), all mirroring what I was feeling. That prepping for in-person school is easier than prepping for virtual. That they’re doing what teachers do. They’re thinking about how to make learning fun and engaging for children. Different this year, to be sure, but finding ways to give them the best of themselves that they can. 

And so, here’s to the beginning of Year 17 for me, which is so different from how I started any of the previous 16.

Just for you, Marianne

I'm clearly a very sporadic blogger. Here's this year's blog post.

Filled with excitement for our high school's big ribbon cutting event last night, my family and I headed to the Egg in Davidson for dinner first. We figured that, since we were asked to park away from school and walk, we'd just eat, leave our cars and go to the school. Very sad to find that the Egg is no longer open for dinner. Bummer. So we headed for the high school (knowing they were grilling hot dogs there and had ice cream), my 15-year- old was booking it, walking around 200 yards in front of us, his brother ahead of us, too and then the two of us taking up the rear.

We turned down the street when suddenly, my foot felt, well, weird. And wet. And gross. I looked down and saw that there was some sort of poop thing on my toes; and because we were out (in the wild!) and had nothing with us, I picked up a leaf and wiped my toes off. All was well, except my hand was kind of wet feeling, so I wiped my hand on the back of my shirt; realizing as I was doing it that my hand might not be clean.

As we kept walking, I got a bit in front of my husband, when he said, "My G-d, Jennifer (not Jen, which denotes irritation on his part), what did you do to your shirt? And something smells bad, too." So I turned to him and whined, "Well, what am I supposed to do now?" He pointed out that the sports boosters would be selling spirit wear, so I could probably find something there.

We got to school, where a crowd of around 500 was gathering. I ran up to the booster's booth and asked a friend if I could grab a shirt, noting that I had no cash, but was good for it. She said it was fine and I ran inside, where the air was blissfully cooling things off.

I got another friend to help me pick out a shirt and we found one that was cute. There was a stack of mediums and one large and I really would have preferred an XL. I took the shirt and went to the bathroom, where I stripped off the dirty shirt and, without thinking, turned on the sink and started scrubbing out the spot with soap & water. It was then that I realized I hadn't yet tried on the shirt. Oops. I looked at the shirt, scared it wasn't going to fit and did what all respectable women do when they are sure a shirt won't fit: Put my hands inside and stretched like crazy! I put it on and it fit well enough.

I thought all was well and went outside to join my husband, who was talking to another couple. As we were chatting, she pointed out that she liked my sandals. I thanked her as I looked down at my feet to tell her where I got them, when I noticed that my toes were brown and, yes, a bit poopy still. I looked at them and said, "Uh...I think I need to go back to the bathroom now," and bolted back inside, where I basically gave my foot a bath in the sink.
I'm realizing as I've been typing right now that out of 5 or 6 blog posts in the past 3 or 4 years, this is my 2nd post about poop. Says a lot about what I find interesting in my life.

Taking Friendship To the Next Level

My day started with the utmost in embarrassing situations. At 8:50, I was sitting in our school's little theater, strumming my guitar, as families came in to get ready for their first graders' performance, at which I was going to accompany them on two songs. As I was sitting there, I kept smelling something awful. "What IS that?" I mumbled and started looking around for the source. I looked down and noticed a piece of pine straw stuck to the bottom of my sandal. I had a sense for what the smell was then, but checked anyway and sure enough, I'd stepped in poop. I was thinking dog poop, but realized that I hadn't smelled it in the car, so it must have happened once at school, so it may have been goose poop.

Either way, there I was, minutes before a performance and not sure what to do. So I ran out to get outside quickly. At the same time, my son came barreling out of his Art classroom upset because he'd gotten ink on his shorts. "So?" I said in my most mature mom voice, "I have poo on my shoe!" As I got to the door, I heard him tell his class the exciting news.

I got some paper towel, tried to scrub it off, dunked it in a puddle outside for a minute, and then just left them sitting outside as I walked back in, barefoot. My friend was doing some work in the hall and I told her what had happened and she said she'd clean them. I told her that she really didn't need to do that.

I felt like the epitome of professionalism as I walked back into the theater with nothing on my feet. I even heard a younger sibling point out to her mom that "that lady had no shoes." Thankfully, the play was about the rain forest and taking care of our planet, so I was just being "earthy" and fit right in!

After the show had ended, I went back out to take care of my shoes, when my friend told me that my shoes were all clean and sitting right at the door to the theater. I was blown away. To me, that qualified as a really good friend thing to do. In my mind, I'm not sure I'd do that for another person, but my sister assured me that I would if I felt like that person was in a bind. Maybe, but it made me think of the old Seinfeld episode about new friendship with Keith Hernandez. "What? He asked you to help him move?? You just met the guy!" So thank you, Chris!

Oh, not sure if there's much more tear inducing than a bunch of first graders singing "What a Wonderful World," unless it's a bunch of first graders singing "What a Wonderful World" while they sign it. Great stuff!