Back at it

It's been a very long time since my last real blog post. I've linked to my Teaching Thoughts newsletters here and written a few other things, but it's been several months since I've put anything substantial on here.

So here it goes . . . What's new 

Well, I survived distance learning and hybrid. There is enough on those two topics to write a thousand blog posts, but I'll keep it concise: I'm glad they are over. I went in to distance learning, and you can see what my initial thoughts on it were here, with high hopes. In retrospect, I wouldn't say my hopes were dashed, but it didn't develop into the experience I hoped it would. That's more than fair to say.

I learned these things from Distance Learning - Students tended to fall into two separate camps (as did parents, by the way). I had students who excelled; I had students who totally fell off the map. There were very few students in between. The real lesson I learned as that the magic of teaching a class full of 25 kids all in the same room at the same time can't be replicated with Zoom. I'd rather go 100% asynchronous as opposed to doing Distance Learning via Zoom ever again. I learned that I had about a dozen students who if they would have been in room 205 with me, I know I could have hounded them, helped them, badgered them enough to get their work in and pass my  class. As it stands, they 'passed' (because the state made us pass everyone), but now, over a year later, they are struggling mightily.

And hybrid, I don't even want to talk about that. It was better than Distance Learning but not much.

I learned that nothing will replace the sheer wonder/magic of 20 kids in a single room along with the teacher sharing ideas and stories and making meaning of something together. I will never take that for granted again.

I've learned how wonderful it is to see an entire student's face instead of a mask. Of course as I type this the CDC has begun reverting to a mask mandate for schools, which breaks my heart. I just want normalcy back.

May the school year of 2021 be just like the school year of 2018. Normal.