Day 12. March 27, 2020.
Today I learned that my district will not be re-opening schools for the rest of the school year. I am still trying to process this information. It pains me to say there are teachers who might actually be excited about this. It pains me that the best of teachers don’t see this as a missed opportunity because there is no standardized testing anymore. It pains me to say there are parents and students who might be okay with this. At least here in my district this is part of the reality. The rest of us have to keep going forward with or without such people. Most of the students in the U.S. are already several grade levels behind where they should be. What this learning deficit means will be determined in the next few years…
I am also thinking about this daily reporting (minus the weekends). I originally decided to write these posts because I knew this whole situation couldn’t last this long, so what was a little daily blogging? I had time after all. But now we know we don’t know.
While I decide whether or not I will continue these daily posts, one thing I must admit: writing daily about being in this situation has illuminated the well-known and most-ignored fact: literally no two days are alike even if every day feels like you are doing the same routine, whatever that routine might be.
My district’s spring break officially starts tomorrow. In addition to not reporting on the weekend, I will be taking a week off. This will give me time to plan instruction and learning for the students–maybe more will participate now that they know there is no school until August? I really hope this doesn’t last beyond that. The week ahead will also help me recalibrate writing goals–trying to write during an “unexpected” time versus having a specific amount of “free” time changes things.
Leave you with the following…
I love this cartoon for the obvious reasons but also because I think more than anything else this is a time for us (especially Americans) to re-evaluate our relationship with making-a-difference.
Amy Gaffney from the Dooligans shared the following quote in our What’s App Thread and for me it sums it all up. If you would like to read Amy’s latest poem, happens to be about this pandemic, it’s here, where you can read many other writings by people all over the world dealing with this new normal and maybe you can submit to them your experience too?
