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Teaching Diary 12: Exercises in Patience
Apr. 7th, 2021 09:49 amWhen I’m not in the throes of some sort of emotional response (or exhausted, or both), I am extremely grateful that this year has been generally one of not-too-painful personal growth. My work has actually completely saved my sanity. It’s been challenging enough to feel like I’m doing something good with my time but not so chaotic that it’s giving me ulcers. My poor friend, who went back to China, has been filling me in on the chaos at my old school, and I am so fortunate to be away from that mess.
It’s not all sunshine and roses here. In fact, until recently there has been very little sunshine, and we can’t have roses until it stops snowing. 😤 We’re on distance learning this week due to a positive student covid case. I really admire the plan my school has to make our year as “normal” as possible. We’ve managed to keep in person learning open for all but about 5 weeks? I don’t think our entire school has been shut down at the same time. I may have mentioned that our school is working in cohorts and trying as hard as possible to keep the cohorts separate, so when there are positive cases among staff or students, only that group is sent home. The middle and secondary cohort, unfortunately, shares a lot of staff and there is some mixing of students in math classes, so we tend to all be shut down together, as we are this week. Anyway, it’s a lot better than I hoped for.
So, I’m practicing patience as school closes and kids don’t log in for online classes or complete their work. I’ve gotten better this year at not internalizing student choices as reflections on my teaching. I still take a good look at my practices — have I done my best to create opportunities for students to learn and grow? Are the things stopping students things I can change, things the students can change, or are they our of our hands (like closures but also the upcoming AP testing schedule has thrown a wrench in my lesson plans). I haven’t diversified my curriculum as much as I hoped, but now that I have a better handle on the standards, I can see more clearly where I can make improvements next year.
And to end on an amusing note — I will never be mad about wearing a mask. I believe that consistent mask usage is what has kept our school open and our community covid numbers low. But it’s sometimes hard to make myself clear while wearing a mask. Last week, as we discussed The Hobbit, which we are reading as a class novel in my sophomore class, a student had a question about the events in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I said something about destroying the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, and kiddo stared at me and said “Mountain Dew?” although it took me a few seconds to realize, through his mask and his strong accent, that is what he said. Once I did, the image of the dramatic scenes at the end of The Return of the King having a river of neon green soda instead of lava popped into my head and we all had a good laugh over it.
ALSO. I still need to work on home/work boundaries. Being in my home means that I literally can’t teach the same way as I would in the classroom, so I need to adjust my expectations and shuck off some of the guilt I feel if I’m not constantly refreshing my email so I can “prove” that I’m working and earning my paycheck.
It’s not all sunshine and roses here. In fact, until recently there has been very little sunshine, and we can’t have roses until it stops snowing. 😤 We’re on distance learning this week due to a positive student covid case. I really admire the plan my school has to make our year as “normal” as possible. We’ve managed to keep in person learning open for all but about 5 weeks? I don’t think our entire school has been shut down at the same time. I may have mentioned that our school is working in cohorts and trying as hard as possible to keep the cohorts separate, so when there are positive cases among staff or students, only that group is sent home. The middle and secondary cohort, unfortunately, shares a lot of staff and there is some mixing of students in math classes, so we tend to all be shut down together, as we are this week. Anyway, it’s a lot better than I hoped for.
So, I’m practicing patience as school closes and kids don’t log in for online classes or complete their work. I’ve gotten better this year at not internalizing student choices as reflections on my teaching. I still take a good look at my practices — have I done my best to create opportunities for students to learn and grow? Are the things stopping students things I can change, things the students can change, or are they our of our hands (like closures but also the upcoming AP testing schedule has thrown a wrench in my lesson plans). I haven’t diversified my curriculum as much as I hoped, but now that I have a better handle on the standards, I can see more clearly where I can make improvements next year.
And to end on an amusing note — I will never be mad about wearing a mask. I believe that consistent mask usage is what has kept our school open and our community covid numbers low. But it’s sometimes hard to make myself clear while wearing a mask. Last week, as we discussed The Hobbit, which we are reading as a class novel in my sophomore class, a student had a question about the events in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I said something about destroying the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, and kiddo stared at me and said “Mountain Dew?” although it took me a few seconds to realize, through his mask and his strong accent, that is what he said. Once I did, the image of the dramatic scenes at the end of The Return of the King having a river of neon green soda instead of lava popped into my head and we all had a good laugh over it.
ALSO. I still need to work on home/work boundaries. Being in my home means that I literally can’t teach the same way as I would in the classroom, so I need to adjust my expectations and shuck off some of the guilt I feel if I’m not constantly refreshing my email so I can “prove” that I’m working and earning my paycheck.
