Teaching during a pandemic the path ahead
Dearest Emma, do what you can,
but most of all, take care of you,
and keep perspective.
This is just a blip in time.
I saw this quote, and it inspires me.
I hope it inspires you:
“Hope and fear cannot occupy the
same space at the same time.
Invite one to stay.”
This is really hard, let’s just face it.
And one last piece of advice,
skip the cheese and eat more chocolate.
Mrs. P.
As educators and citizens, how do we move
forward from here?
Do we accept the systems that have
failed too many for too long,
or do we acknowledge each of our own
parts in what has happened?
In doing so, can we think about how we
can build a through-line
to a more inclusive, better tomorrow?
This was not a plan that any of us had,
to be home and educating from home.
So this is trauma education.
And I wonder if our students still feel
part of our school,
of our school spirit, of our community,
and if they don’t,
what are they currently wanting
or joining right now?
What would we design the school
system like if it was designed
for the parents and the families that we
actually serve?
When we come out of this, we’re gonna
look at the role the school system plays
a lot differently, and start by asking
parents, what do we want to do together
to provide for your children and for you?
I look around the world and
I see my fellow educators
embracing everything from new programs
to technologies to synchronous learning
to you know, doing virtual classrooms.
I’ve learned that I can be a better educator
in terms of planning and innovation,
but it takes a whole lot more time and I
have used the Zoom sessions
actually to just check in on the
personal, emotional well-being of my kids
and have found that to be delightful,
and that I’ve gotten to know a whole
lot more about them by using it that way.
We are such a social group of people as
educators,
and we need to make sure that
we are being social with our kids
because that’s what’s gonna be what
keeps them going
and keeps those kids in balance,
keeps us in balance,
and keeps our teaching in balance.
I believe that as educators,
this is our time to come together
and design new types of
educational systems,
firmly rooted in an Equity Access Framework,
one that looks to a future that has opportunity for all,
not just for a privileged few.
And I hope that we all can come out
bigger and better from this.
I hope that we can look at equity and try
to close those gaps in the digital divide,
and also other areas.
I’m ready to work meaningfully, seek out
those who have gone AWOL,
bake a crust under that pizza,
put a marshmallow in that cone to stop
the good stuff from dripping out,
play music until my music fingers ache
and I don’t even know how to play music,
and get up every day ready to run that race
over and over again.
And I was committed like so
many of my fellow educators
to do the best we could in
these times,
to make sure that we presented the best
learning opportunities for our students
because we’re teachers, and that’s
what we’re gonna do.
And there’s a brave new world of
education coming,
and we’re gonna be at the front of this
because that’s what our kids deserve.