Taking Things to a Whole New Level
Well, if I thought some of my other weeks of school this year were interesting, then this one definitely takes the cake. Let's actually rewind to last Friday. Last week was my week of meetings, and it ended with an IEP meeting for one of my students during the last hour of the day. Just before the meeting began, there was an email sent out explaining that the students would be taking their Chromebooks home (they usually stay at school) as a precaution for school closings. At that time, it had not yet been determined that our school would be closed, though there were some other districts in the state that had closed school. With about 10 minutes left in the school day, one of my colleagues came into the meeting and explained our students were going to be returning from their specials early so that we could explain everything about the Chromebooks. The students were obviously in a tizzy, full of questions about what was happening and if we were going to have school this week. I could only really explain what I knew at the time, which was that this was just a precaution and, as of that time, school was still on. I wished the kids a good weekend and a "See you on Monday" goodbye. It was then, if my memory is correct (it's getting a little fuzzy at this point), that we received the information that Governor Evers had announced that schools would be closing on Wednesday. Our district's plan would be to have the students come in on Monday and Tuesday, with Wednesday being a day for us to prepare for virtual learning.
Monday rolled around, and it was definitely interesting. My first class of the day only had 11 of my 20 students (that was the largest number absent), as many families kept students home as a precaution. I don't know if it was the number of absences already on Monday that did it, but it was announced after the students left that school was being called off for Tuesday and that it would be a workday for us to prepare for virtual learning starting on Wednesday. Luckily, knowing that the students were going to be rather unfocused due to world events, I decided to not worry about teaching too much content on Monday. Instead, I thought it would be better to focus more on the coming expectations of virtual learning. I think this was more valuable for the students than a day of content, knowing that the students were going to be experiencing several days of online learning.
Tuesday was quiet, spent with my 5th-grade team to prepare for the next couple of weeks. Our main goal was to identify the core items in reading and writing (those are the classes that we team-teach) that we felt the students could be independent with and then modified routine work for the online environment. I think, all in all, that we have a good plan laid out for the next couple of weeks--hopefully it will only be a couple of weeks!
Yesterday, for the most part, was spent putting out fires via email. It wasn't too surprising to receive that many emails, as this was a very new experience for the students. Most of the emails came in the morning, and by about 1 o'clock things had settled down. I was able to get caught up on a good deal of grading and identify missing work that needed to be sent to me.
Today was similar to yesterday, but fewer fires. We had our first digital staff meeting via Google Meet, and I think it went pretty well! I also made a phone call home to check in with one of my students who had a rough day adjusting yesterday. It was nice to talk with her and reassure her that she would be okay. I know all of this is very stressful for the parents as well, so I am going to be making regular phone calls to my students and parents to see how things are going. Again, hopefully this won't be too long. One bright note is that we have spring break next week, so that should alleviate some of the stress from all of this. Time will tell just how long this lasts...
Monday rolled around, and it was definitely interesting. My first class of the day only had 11 of my 20 students (that was the largest number absent), as many families kept students home as a precaution. I don't know if it was the number of absences already on Monday that did it, but it was announced after the students left that school was being called off for Tuesday and that it would be a workday for us to prepare for virtual learning starting on Wednesday. Luckily, knowing that the students were going to be rather unfocused due to world events, I decided to not worry about teaching too much content on Monday. Instead, I thought it would be better to focus more on the coming expectations of virtual learning. I think this was more valuable for the students than a day of content, knowing that the students were going to be experiencing several days of online learning.
Tuesday was quiet, spent with my 5th-grade team to prepare for the next couple of weeks. Our main goal was to identify the core items in reading and writing (those are the classes that we team-teach) that we felt the students could be independent with and then modified routine work for the online environment. I think, all in all, that we have a good plan laid out for the next couple of weeks--hopefully it will only be a couple of weeks!
Yesterday, for the most part, was spent putting out fires via email. It wasn't too surprising to receive that many emails, as this was a very new experience for the students. Most of the emails came in the morning, and by about 1 o'clock things had settled down. I was able to get caught up on a good deal of grading and identify missing work that needed to be sent to me.
Today was similar to yesterday, but fewer fires. We had our first digital staff meeting via Google Meet, and I think it went pretty well! I also made a phone call home to check in with one of my students who had a rough day adjusting yesterday. It was nice to talk with her and reassure her that she would be okay. I know all of this is very stressful for the parents as well, so I am going to be making regular phone calls to my students and parents to see how things are going. Again, hopefully this won't be too long. One bright note is that we have spring break next week, so that should alleviate some of the stress from all of this. Time will tell just how long this lasts...
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