Well, week 28 of the 2019/20 school year just so happens to be unlike any week I’ve ever experienced in 22 years of teaching. In fact, in all of my 41 years of being a teacher and a student, I’ve never seen a week like this.
Once tomorrow is over with, we won’t have students here until March 27th. Even that is up in the air given the rapidly changing response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
So despite all of this craziness, worry, and uncertainty, I thought I’d try and offer a little levity.
As a teacher, I’m looking at the next 8 days alone in my classroom. Whenever I spend that much time alone in my classroom, it’s usually to pack away all of my Star Wars and Lego collectables for summer break or it’s to unpack them all and get my room ready for school in the fall.
I’m stalked up on my reading material – I have two new books from the media center Wonderland by Steven Johnson and Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport – as well as some of my classroom library texts that I haven’t had a chance to read yet – Glow Kids by Nicholas Kardaras and Born to Win by Zig Ziglar. I’m also ready to start planning for ‘distance education’ for what school might look like if the break from student is extended. For my College Comp I and II classes, not much really changes. I push out much of my content via Google Docs and Classroom anyway, but my English 9R class will be more difficult, but we will have to make the best of it.
I think that should be our mantra for the everyday upheavals that are coming out way: we will have to make the best of it.
Coach Mumm shared some key messages with me this morning that I think apply to us all and, especially to our students. The first one reads: “It’s always about the little things that you do when you think no one is watching” and “A coach from a Power 5 school stopped by to watch one of our players in the weight room. As he stood there looking intently, I asked him what he was looking for. He replied, “I am counting to see if he does all of his reps.”
Now these apply to us as teachers as we are going to have a ton of “free” time coming up. What we do while no one is looking is going to seriously matter. It’s also going to matter how meaningful the work we assign in the next few weeks of “distant” learning is going to be.
These also apply to our students. With our high school kids most likely going to be home alone, whether they get their work done is all upon them. And if they really do it or not, well that’s up to them too.
I’d love to hear the various ways that all of you out there are making the best of it. Please feel free to reach out and let me know. I’m going to have a lot of time to sift through the responses!
Inside this week’s teaching thoughts you’ll find –
Images of interesting – I snapped a picture from a book someone shared on Instagram. It’s about a miserable life vs. a happy life. I would argue that the same applies at home as it does in school. Some people just come to work to be a ray of light; others come to snuff out any and all light.
Book of the Week – The Customer Rules by Lee Cockerell. Speaking of bringing light, if you are one who brings a positive attitude every day, this book is for you. It has a ton of ways (well, actually just 39) to wow customers. Or, in our case, students. If you don’t bring light, this book isn’t for you. But odds are you aren’t reading this anyway . . . This book is so full of great ideas. Why not stockpile some customer service tips for our students while we they are away?
Podcast of the Week – You have to check out The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez. She shares her top tech tools for 2020. And they’re gold. I’m going to experiment with them over the next 8 days to see how they can help with this new world of “distance” learning we are in now.
Thoughts from Twitter – Gotta love this one from Jon Gordon – “Happiness is a byproduct of living a life with passion and purpose. When you live with passion and purpose, happiness with find you.” This is so true.
Where are they now? I catch up with Jackie Kuznia, a 2011 graduate, who used to be at NCTC but now we are blessed to have her at FMS as a behavior interventionist.
Tech Tool of the Week – Goose Chase. This is an awesome app that helps you create amazing scavenger hunts.
I hope you take care of yourself over the next 8 days of isolation (at least from students). Good luck developing your plan to deliver their education. And here’s to getting them all back a lot sooner rather than later. There’s nothing as sad as a school without any students!
Take care
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