I am so impressed with my colleagues today.
The teachers, principals, and superintendents who have worked at a record pace to develop and deliver curriculum and instruction to children across America.
For every second of our careers, we have delivered curriculum and instruction to children in a classroom, using skills and pedagogy honed through years of schooling, training, and practice. Then, in just three days in my children’s school district and just five days in my own school district, curriculum was developed and written, online resources were identified and vetted, and instructional plans were integrated across 13 grade levels.
Instructional plans for typical students and specialized plans for each and every one of our students who require unique accommodations. Librarians, school psychologists, social workers, reading specialist, and more have join the fight, ensuring that children’s needs are met despite the distance between us.
Teachers have also needed to learn to use tools never seen before. We are conducting classes through Google Meets. Meeting with students individually via Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, and others platforms. Yesterday, during a series of eleven meetings with students and their families, I was switching between five different platforms and providing IT assistance to families on those platforms.
I’ve been using digital conferencing for years in my consulting and coaching businesses, but for many teachers, all this is new.
One teacher asked me, “What exactly is Skype?”
Teachers are also learning the best ways to record lessons, including software, editing, and even lighting.
Most important, teachers have taken on the gargantuan role of balancing content with care. We want our students to continue learning in this highly imperfect model, but we also want to reduce the stress and anxiety in our students. Ensure that they feel safe and happy in every way possible.
If they need to learn to divide fractions next year instead of this year, that is fine. But the trauma that kids could potentially be suffering and could be contributed to through the pressure and stress of school work could last a lifetime. This is in the forefront of every educator’s mind. When we call our families, our first thoughts are for the wellbeing of our students. We ask them questions to ascertain their mental health. We check to see if they are exercising. Eating well. Sleeping well. Remaining connected to friends. Being kind and patient with parents and siblings.
All of this and so much more.
Remember that scene from Apollo 13 when the engineers are asked to make a square peg fit into a round hole?
An engineer tosses a box of random junk on a table and says,
“Okay, people. Listen up. The people upstairs handed us this one and we gotta come through. We gotta find a way to make this… fit into the hole for this… using nothing but that.”
That is what educators are doing today. In almost no time.
It requires skill, flexibility, and endless hours. Elysha and I worked well past 11:00 PM on the first two days of this teaching, finding time to eat, check in on our kids, and go for a walk, but otherwise we were working. Reviewing and prepping and recording and planning. Talking to kids and families. Assisting other teachers.
Every teacher who I know is working tirelessly. Working at home sounds lovely until you realize that is simply means working constantly.
The couch is far less appealing as you approach hour 14 of your work day.
Don’t get me wrong. As teachers, we know how fortunate we are to be able to work. I know many people who cannot work from home and are suffering,
As teachers, we also feel honored to be able to contribute in this way to the lives of children and their families. Meeting children’s needs and providing a good education is what we want to do. Finding a way to do it while socially distant from our students has been a blessing to us all.
We are the lucky ones.
Still, I am so damn proud of my colleagues today. The work they have done to launch this new way of learning is astounding.
If you have a moment to offer words of encouragement to a teacher today, please do.
In the midst of all of this work, they are also dealing with all of the fear and anxiety that the rest of America is facing. We are trying to keep our own children safe, happy, and engaged. Trying to ensure that there is food and toilet paper in our homes. Worrying about aging parents and immunocompromised loved ones. Supporting friends and family who have lost their jobs. Watching the failures of the federal government to provide basic necessities like masks, gloves, and gowns to our medical personnel. Trying to contain the rage we feel over the idea that less than a month ago, the President was referring to the coronavirus as “a hoax.” Wondering about the future of our country.
We are lucky, to be sure. Certainly not heroes. We are not the doctors and nurses who are waging a war against this virus everyday at great personal risk. We are not the grocery store workers, truckers, pharmacists, first responders, plumbers, electricians, and others who go to work everyday, uncertain about their own safety but necessary for our country to continue to function.
These folks deserve gratitude beyond measure.
But I can’t tell you how proud I am of my colleagues today for all that they have done to help keep kids safe, happy, and engaged.
I salute them too. The days are long. The workload is immense. The concern we have for each of our students is never ending.
But this is our job, and my colleagues have proven themselves more than capable of taking on this challenge.
I’m so very proud to be working alongside them, albeit distantly, today.
