Four weeks into “teaching” from home due to the Coronavirus. I was really anxious when the week started. I was worried about how many students were going to actually “show up” for “class.” I was also worried about the platform(s) we were supposed to be using. Would we just use Canvas solely or would we be able to integrate Google Classroom? Well..I have answers to these questions now…as I sit and think retrospectively about things. As of this morning I have 80% of my students on my Canvas “course” actively engaged in the assignments that are posted on my Homepage. Canvas is the platform we will need to use moving forward…not just as a space where the 4th Grade Learning Plan rests but for assignments that stem from that plan. I’ve already gone ahead and created assignments for the week we come back from Spring Break so I feel like I’m in a good place with that.

As I've said from the outset of this unprecedented pandemic...I cannot even begin to understand what it's like to have children let alone have to have them home, attempting to learn “remotely” while the adults are either working from home or not home working because they have to. I’ve witnessed glimpses of the difficulty while “Zooming” with families or reading frustrated posts or texts. And...with things changing so rapidly from “our end” (meaning the institution of school)...it’s been nerve racking to say the least.

The remainder of this post will be my attempt to capture what happened each day this week. And…as you will see…my nerves went from “frazzled” to calm and steady…as each day passed. Here we go! Thoughts about the first day…the first day was hectic…I knew it would be…not 1/2 as bad as my mind imagined it would be the night before…and I feel I should be learning a valuable life lesson from this…more on that later. A lot of the first day was spent dealing with connectivity issues…Zoom not working properly…getting recorded lessons I uploaded from Zoom to GC so families that could not attend “live” would have an opportunity to see what was expected. At the end of the day I still had 5 students not in the Canvas “course”…that’s much better than the night before when I was waiting on 15 students to join. Only having 5 students left to get on feels like a BIG win! I had to make a call to Tech Support because a student was having log in issues. The technician was so helpful…he had a great sense of humor and praised me for my efforts to help my students get through this first day of “real” “remote” learning. I did have several students get all of the assignments completed and turned in for me to review…another win. The flow of the “live” sessions went way better than I thought. I was calm, very focused…definitely in “teacher mode”…I answered every question. I logged a lot of contacts into the spreadsheet we’ve been asked to keep throughout all of this. Phone calls, Face Time, texting, and messages via the Remind app…19 contacts total. I have to imagine that this will go down as the week progresses.

Thoughts about the second day…what a difference a day makes! The second day, fourth week went much better than day one. As of this writing (on the second day) I only had to make 10 contacts. Many of these contacts were just to verify times for meetings with only a few dedicated to helping “triage” Zoom issues…again…not as bad as day 1. I got one more student into my Canvas “course” too…that was a major win because I had reached out several times to help the family and was not getting any response. Again…I cannot judge what is happening on the other side of that screen/phone. The families I serve are working as hard as I can to help their children through this and that’s all I can ask of them. As of this writing I am down to just 4 students that have not been on the Canvas “course.” Families are still getting a bit frustrated with technology and WiFi issues. My replies are always positive and supportive…extending my hand to help out. I told myself 1/2 way through the second day that I have to “let go” of feeling like I have to “chase down” every family to make sure they are getting on and that assignments are getting completed. I am doing everything in my power to make sure this experience is as painless as possible for every family. I have received many compliments from families…expressing their appreciation for my support and patience with them. I cannot obsess over the fact that not everyone is responding to my requests to help. The “mini-lesson/sessions” went well on the second day…everyone is used to the format/routine I am establishing and I am doing a great job of keeping them to about 15 minutes so that the students can use the next 30 minutes to work while I follow up with anyone that needs assistance via Google Classroom. I spent a good amount of time on this second day preparing for the week we get back to “this” after our well deserved Spring Break…which starts at the end of the week. Preparation included getting assignments ready for that week. I promised myself that I would only work on this a little bit each day until the break. Well…we know how that went don’t we? Dr. Overachiever went ahead and got it all done! I’ve decided to give putting the assignments into Canvas a shot. As I mentioned above it is expected. We’ll see how it goes. I also used some of this second day “informally grading” work as students were turning it in. A rubric was shared with us during a morning Zoom meeting which will make this relatively easy moving forward. For the most part…the students are doing really well…all things considered.

Thoughts about the third day…third day, fourth week. The fact that I am writing this part of my post at this time of day, 12:09pm should be an indication as to how things have gone so far! The day started with a PLC meeting for Literacy which then led to my Zoom Literacy session. A colleague of mine asked to be invited in so I did. She saw how I run my sessions and was able to connect with a few of my student with whom she serves in her role at the TD (Talent Development) teacher. A HUGE win for the morning was seeing two students attend my Literacy session who have not been in attendance all week long. One came really late so I had him stay on the line after everyone else exited the session. I used the time to guide him through what needed to be done so he didn’t have to wait for me to upload the video and do it alone. I also used part of the third day to further prepare for things happening after Spring Break and even had a chance (as I did the day before) to “informally grade” work that came into me up through my lunch break. Another indication that this has been the best day of the week…so far…I have decided to move “operations” outside…on my patio…for the remainder of the day! Ok…as is typical at this time of year…it got a little too warm for me to continue “operations” outside. Back in the comfort of my little office I held my Zoom Math session and had the biggest audience of the week…13 students. I also used the opportunity to ask a few students to test out a Canvas assignment I created…to see if it would work the way I thought. So far, 4 students have tried and it’s worked just fine. The last thing on my list of things to do is hold my Check In meetings at 3pm with 3 families then I’m done. It’s been a really good day and I’m feeling much better today than I was 4 days ago while I was obsessing over all of the stuff that wasn’t going to go well…as I mentioned yesterday…what a difference a day makes! I need to figure out how to learn from this “anxiety lesson.”

I wasted so much energy worrying about how things went. Now that I’m on the other side I wish present me could have went back to talk to past me and say, “Chill…it’s all going to go just fine!” As I move away from this sort of writing for awhile maybe…as I sit here with just a little bit of anxiety about how things are going to go after Spring Break…future me needs to listen to present me…as I say out loud, “It’s ok…it’s all ok!”