Remote Teaching Update...

I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking about this week’s blog post before sitting down to write. That’s because of how busy the week has been for me. Most of you know that I am a school teacher. Most of you know that since March that teaching has been done from home due to the pandemic. A few weeks ago all teachers were told that we would all have to report back to school to be trained on how to support during the morning before instruction and in the afternoon at dismissal, as students begin to come back to in-school learning. That training happened this week.

From 7:30am until 7:55am, and from 2:45pm-3pm I learned how to help out with carpool, distributing breakfast, and what my duties would be, on the bus lot either in the morning or in the afternoon. Prior to the beginning of the week I was very anxious about what would happen. As I moved through the week that anxiety went down a little in that the duties I’ll be asked to help out with are not particularly difficult. The only remaining anxiety I have revolves around the fact that I have…and will be…around more people than I’ve been around since March. Yes we are all protected with PPE, yes we are all social distancing, yes I’m in my classroom by myself teaching my students remotely. That does not make me feel 100% better about it though.

I know I really don’t have the right to complain. There are so many people out in the world doing way more than me. I don’t think this is complaining though. It’s more like, I’m just not ready to be back and I’m trying to come to terms with it. One thing that has helped make the situation tolerable is the fact that I am slowly replicating my home set up. I purchased a 15 inch monitor that I am using with my school laptop. Coupled with my iPhone XR (taking the place of my iPad Pro) as my third screen, I feel like I can make being in school, teaching remotely; doable. I’ve only used the new monitor 1 day so I’m not fully ready to talk about it…that will be saved for another blog post.

Another thing I have going for me is that after this week, I will only be asked to teach from school 2 days a week…supporting in the morning before instruction and in the afternoon at dismissal. I came to terms with this about a week ago. There are people at my school that have been at school since August working everyday without the option that has been granted to me and others. I feel that my presence there is helping lighten the load of others and if that is the price I have to pay to be home 3 days out of a 5 day work week; so be it!