I attempted to have my 2nd Read Aloud via Zoom yesterday. Only one student showed up. I think that is due to the fact that the invite went out the day of. So…I need to do a better job of inviting…at least a day in advance…so people can put it on their calendars. It was nice getting to talk to the student that did join the meeting. We shared what our rooms looked like, he talked to me about what he’s been up to, and we asked each other questions…catching up with each other…it was time well spent. Needless to say I did not read. I didn’t think that would be fair…and…the student that joined didn’t mind…he was equally happy just catching up with me!

After I ended the Zoom meeting I got on the phone with a parent that was having trouble with technology. We resolved the issue and…while I had him on the line, I got him to help me with the urgent request my principal asked us to complete by the end of this week.

That request being continue to set up “Remote” Learning Office Hours for next week and beyond. As of this writing I still have 2 students left to get scheduled, both of them are in families that I have not heard from at all since March 16th. While I have made great progress on this request in just two days, I must say that trying to get this task done has caused a bit of anxiety and stress. Why might you ask? All you’re doing is trying to get 18 families to commit to meeting virtually once a week…you say.

One issue I knew was going to have to be addressed eventually during this unique moment in time…otherwise know as “teaching” from home…was the issue of interdependency. “Remote” learning cannot happen without strong lines of communication between “school” and home. Even if those lines are “strong” they are only as “strong” as a teacher and family’s capacity is to depend on the other...to be online or offline…available during agreed upon blocks of time daily. We have to be there for each other. Speaking to at least 5 parents yesterday helped me better understand just how hard it is for the families I’m working with. They do have to work after all. Trying to set up a work from home situation for themselves WITH children that you have to parent/watch over…I cannot even begin to imagine what that must be like. The anecdotal information I’m getting from some of the families I serve leads me to believe the task to be borderline Herculean.

Because my overachiever mind was pushing me to get 100% of my families locked into my “Remote” Learning Office Hours, I resorted to making phone calls yesterday. That’s how I began to get more of a sense of how things are/not going from some student homes. During one call I found out that a student who was unable to get his Chromebook back on the 16th of March was using his iPhone 11 to attempt to get things done. I could not let that continue. I offered to meet the family at our school so I could deliver his Chromebook to them. They took me up on it and in a matter of minutes (15 minutes to get there, 10 minutes waiting on the family, and 15 minutes to get back home)…the situation was resolved. I was at school, getting his Chromebook from the classroom. Going inside the classroom was a little eerie. It felt like the room was caught in the past, March 16th…the day we passed out Chromebooks to families who were able to get to the school. The message I had posted on the board was still there…the Chromebook cart was in the same place I’d left it…with papers on top of it…just in case a family came to get their technology after I’d left that day. A few things had fallen to the floor from a bulletin board. I tried not to slow down and take it in fully…I tried to stay present…focused on why I was there. There will be time to figure out what happens to that room at a later date.

I met the family outside of the front entrance of the school, gave them the technology they needed and they were off! Before they left, after handing the student’s mom his Chromebook, she commented, “This will make things much easier moving forward…thanks!” That about broke my heart to hear. What would they have done if I had not reached out? I’m not saying or writing this to pat myself on the back. I’m writing it so people know just how crazy this whole situation is! We are attempting to build infrastructure for something we were never prepared to do…”teach” from home. Small moments like this reveal just a little of the friction both myself and the families I serve are experiencing daily…as we attempt to figure things out together.

I drove home feeling good about what I’d done yet still feeling anxious, stressed, and uncertain as to how all of this…ultimately, is going to play out. I’m hoping that a meeting I’m about to go into clarifies some of what’s coming next. We’ll see.