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Week 4, Day 15 (6)

Monday, and my last day working online from home. Today is the big reorganization at the school and all my previous students will be split up into three different classes. Then my classroom will be empty and I will be able to go into it and teach online from there. I have devised an elaborate set up where I can see all the kids in the class on one monito, share my screen with them from another device so I can see them when I am presenting. This is important so I can check for understanding.

I feel a bit anxious as there are so many things I need to get back into the habit of doing. My commute is half an hour so getting up early and making lunch are two things I am a bit out of practice doing. It almost feels like the first day of school all over again, and this will be my third one. I think I will be glad to see all my colleagues again, and I will be able to see my other students which will be bitter sweet.

End of Week 3, Day 14 (5)

Friday Friyay! It has been a long week as I transitioned into an online grade 7 teacher from a face to face classroom teacher. The beginning of the week I felt like this was way too much and that the stress was going to kill me. By the end of the week, after meeting the students, and managing to get some planning done for the last two days, I was feeling better about the whole thing, even a little happy by today. I am getting to know the students a little better and so now am able to let my goofy personality shine a little. One student and I had a dad joke battle in the google meet chat today, which was hilarious, and made my day.

The obvious key is to make sure that the day is planned and I have a good guideline with all the resources prepped and ready to go for the day. That made everything much easier and I wasn’t scrambling between meets to make sure that I had everything I needed. I am sure that is what contributed to my stress and anxiety at the beginning of the week, not time to plan. I am still missing a few kids from the class who have not shown up yet, but as I am not back into the school until Tuesday, and they are not responding to emails, I will not call them until then. I found in the Spring that calling from a blocked number resulted in no one answering the phone.

it is a little difficult because most of the kids in my remote class are not from my school, so they are all brand new to me. It can also be a little intimidating trying to liaise with the admin from another school. Working on getting better at that too.

So the upshot is that planning makes my life easier, so I will spend some of my weekend planning so that my stress level is lower. One more day at home, and then back to school to my empty classroom to teach from there. Another transition but hopefully not a big one.

Week 3, Day 13 (4)

Today was much better than the rest have been. I actually took the time to plan the day more comprehensively than I have been doing and it relieved a lot of my anxiety and uncertainty. Im also starting to figure out who the kids are, connect them to their names, and seeing a bit more of their personalities come out. I think I’ve got a structure that works for now and will enable me to build things a bit more as we move forward.

The kids are very patient with my tech glitches and my mispronunciations of their names. They patiently wait or quietly correct me. They are not much for having their cameras on or their mic’s, so a lot of times I feel like I am talking to myself. They type like crazy in the chat and sometimes I find it hard to keep up, but at least they are communicating. I hope they will talk more when they get more comfortable with me.

Since the day went well, I don’t feel like I’m scrambling and I have some time to plan for tomorrow. Then I will take some time on the weekend to plan ahead so I can continue to have good days. Back into the school on Tuesday and that might be a whole new ballgame.

Week 3 Day 12 (3)

Wednesday, hump day of what appears to be the longest week of school in my entire career. Cannot believe there are still two more days. It is getting a little better in that the kids are getting better at logging in, muting their mics, and asking questions in the chat. It is funny how there are still some kids that have to chat in the chat instead of making sure it is something on task or on topic. Pretty sure those would be the kids chatting in class and not paying attention.

I had a bit more structure today but still a lot of waiting time. There seems to be quite a lag between when I talk and when they hear me. Not a big fan of synchronous online learning to say the least. Kids are quite patient and as I get to know them I am getting a feel for how much they can tolerate. I do feel that I am explaining things over and over again and still they don’t get the simplest things like upload it to Google classroom, do not share it with me. This will be a long haul I am sure.

No time for a longer post, as I have to plan for the next two days if possible to try and get a little bit ahead of the game. Everything is going to change again next week when I have to set up my little empire back at the school.

#online learning #online teaching

Week 3, Day 11 (2)

Well, today was the first day I met the students online in a Google Meet. Lots of tech issues but most of them got online okay, muted their mics and were present. That is the most I can say, there was very little interaction online. I feel like I have to entertain the troops. It is very difficult to get to know them when they won’t talk, however, I get that it is a bit intimidating to think that everyone is looking at you all the time. I, myself, am not a big fan of that. And no, before you ask, I do not make them put on their camera, it is just really hard for me to get to know a bunch of students that are not from my school when I cannot see them.

It is obvious to me that the powers that be have no idea what it is like to try and teach something in front of a computer for 225 minutes per day synchronously. I do not feel like the kids are benefiting from this, and I definitely am not. I am exhausted, both physically and mentally, and I am not really getting any exercise in as I have to be in front of the computer all day. At least in the classroom you get to walk around a bit.

I am a bit frantic because I still have not been able to get ahead and plan for online work, neither am I at my school where my resources are, so I am scrambling to get things organized. By the end of the day I am so tired I cannot focus enough to prepare adequately. Without any resources handy it is pretty difficult to fly by the seat of your pants.

The other issue is that parents think that because you are online they can contact you at anytime and my notifications are ringing off the hook. I think I am going to have to establish that my office hours for parent contact are before and after school. Otherwise, I will be answering them all day.

Well, enough whining, gotta plan for tomorrow.

Week 2, Day 9

Worst day of my teaching career I think so far. Even though the reorganization is not for another week and we usually do not let the students know until the day before, I asked my admin for permission to let my class know so they did not turn up on Monday and wonder why they had a supply teacher. I was given permission and figured I would tell them closer to the end of the day. However, there was a perfect opportunity to tell them sooner than that and so I decided to bite the bullet and let them know.

I told them that this was the last day that I was going to be their classroom teacher. There were audible gasps of disbelief. Cries of “what!!” and “why???” were heard around the room. I explained that due to the number of students in the Board that had opted for online learning, some classes were being collapsed and redistributed into other classes, and that we were one of them. All together there were 7 classes that were collapsed in my school, but we only gained 6 online designated classes, so we lost one teacher who was made surplus to the school. The kids understandably were not happy and did not really grasp the math that goes into reorganization. It was very tough for me and I did not manage to hold it together in front of them, but had tears rolling down my face as I told them I was no longer their teacher. In fact, every time I think about it I still get a bit teary over the whole thing.

We managed to get through the rest of the day with little upset. I told them I wanted it to be a fun, easy day since it was my last and a Friday. They were cool with it and things went fairly well.

Our last period of the day was outside and we had a paper airplane flying contest. As the kids were testing their planes, one student came up to me and said that on behalf of the class he wanted to give me something. Unbeknownst to me, the class had created a thank you for being their teacher card and all the students had signed it, some adding their own messages. If I was teary before, I was a ball of mush now. It was one of the nicest things I had ever received. Think of the things I could have done with this class if I could forge this kind of relationship after only 9 days. I only hope I will be able to do something similar with my online students.

I start that on Monday morning. No class list at the moment, no way of contacting them, no time to prepare anything before we start. I already feel out of control. However, it is the weekend. The lack of planning on the part of the Board of Education does not constitute an emergency for me, so I will try to enjoy my weekend and worry about what the next week will bring on Monday.

Week 2, Day 8

Today was one of the hardest days for me. I knew that my classroom was going to be collapsed but was not allowed to let anyone else, especially the students know that. I had to carry on today as if they were going to be with me for the whole year. Acting skills really took a work out for this. It was very difficult not to keep breaking into tears knowing I was leaving them and being sentenced to online teaching. What made it worse was that my lovely colleagues kept coming up to me and telling me they had heard my class was collapsing and asking me how I was doing. As we all know, if you are not doing well as soon as someone asks you, you break down. I spent the whole day trying to keep myself together while I was working through the whole issue.

Since my class was being collapsed, of course, it fell to me and my colleagues to split the kids into the classes they would be joining. This was difficult because I was a straight grade and the class was being split into three parts, one 6/7 split, one straight 7, and one 7/8 split. There was also the issue that the grade 6 teacher had some of them last year and really did not want some of them back. Finally managed that, but I am sure there will be changes over the next few days.

Online teaching is supposed to start on September 21 but the reorganization of classes is not going to happen until September 29. Not really good planning on the Board’s part. This means I will be starting my new class and my old class will have a supply teacher for the intervening week.

I made it through the day and got home, thoroughly exhausted from trying to keep it all together. I just chilled for the evening and let my brain work through the issues and sort itself out. One more day of this nonsense, and then it will be a whole new ball game, but likely more nonsense.

Week 2, Day 7

Today is the day all hell broke loose in my education world. I had the day off for a long dentist appointment and left the class in the competent hands of a supply teacher. He had a great day and the kids were excellent for him. I am so grateful for that. It doesn’t always go that well.

However, after the dentist was done I found I had received a couple of texts from colleagues at school. They had been told that we were losing 7 classes at our school due to online learning options and that 6 teachers would be seconded as remote learning teachers and one would be surplussed. Even though I had fairly high seniority and a really full class of 26 students, my class was the one that was collapsed and I was designated as an online teacher.

I was devastated as I had spent a great deal of time preparing for my f2f class and had started to build a rapport with them already. I was a bucket of mush for the rest of the day. I was told that I was chosen because I did such a great job with my students during the emergency remote learning in the spring. However, this was definitely not my choice. I am not in a very good place with this right now.

englishmajorhumor

Romeo and Juliet face mask on Etsy

wincherella

Love this!

Week 2 Day 6

This is the day that we start our 5 day schedule from the beginning again. So far I am starting to get to know the kids fairly well in spite of the ridiculous classroom set up. I gained a new student today as well. I have to say that I am enjoying the outdoor periods and getting some much needed space and fresh air. The best part is getting to meet all the dogs that are being walked around the playground and park grounds that we use at the school. The students seem to be enjoying the different games we are playing too.

I have decided to start in with the basics of my program and just hope that reorganization does not affect me too much, so I will be able to keep on going. Working on a Hero theme this year, especially as many workers have been called that over the past few months working through the pandemic.

My colleagues and I are starting to collaborate on some of the things we will be doing in class, and I realize how much I missed being able to bounce ideas around with like minded people.

Today is training class with our dogs, so a slightly longer day for me than normal. So far so good. I am away tomorrow at a medical appointment so will be relying on a supply teacher to carry the day.

Day 6

Back to the beginning of our five day cycle. Somehow it is difficult to believe it is only Tuesday of the second week. My feet and legs have never been so tired and I find it had to do more than chill on the couch when I get home. My whole body is exhausted. Kids really enjoyed our outside games today. I’ve been challenging myself to find ways to get them active, even the ones who hate to participate, and gave some fun. Today’s game of sword in the stone went over well. Class soccer is a bit harder to motivate some of the more reluctant ones. I’ve also been incorporating some science lessons and art ideas into our time outside. Not really looking forward to winter and being outside. I will have to find a lot of new ideas for these periods. Our hero unit is off to a good start with kids exploring different types of heroes and their characteristics. Math is a bit more of a challenge especially without a lot of hands on materials. I’m slowly figuring out how to make this work. Staff meeting after work via zoom, which I still find ironic. Not only that, but we are all alone in our classrooms and most people still wear their masks. I need the break from it once the kids are gone and I’m alone in my room. Lots of protocols to remember, and I found out I’m still being evaluated this year. That should be fun!

Second week, day five.

I looked forward to going to school today. It was a good weekend, I got some downtime. I’m finally beginning to sort out my schedule and figure out where and when things can happen. I’m beginning to get to know the kids and figure how to relate to them individually. It’s nice to have colleagues to check in with and chat to even at a distance or masked. I’ve started into my regular program a bit. Kids are working at things and seem to enjoy the discussions we have in class. They are pretty good about wearing their masks and only need to be reminded a few times to keep their distance. We have completed some spectacular art work and they are enthusiastic about writing stories. I have started to see some of the personalities shining through.

I have the largest class in the school with 26 students. They are doing well with the old fashioned set up but it is difficult to move around the room. We do our best. I’m happy to be interacting with them in person rather than through a screen.

Day Four, End of Week One

Well, we got through the first week. It wasn’t horrible. I hate the desks in rows, and there is barely any room to walk between them. I always feel like I’m going to knock something flying ever time I have to walk from the front to the back. The kids are great, and I am very happy to be interacting with them again. Much easier to get to know them face to face. I’m starting to figure out a bit about each of them even though some of them were only there for two days.

It was a fairly nice day so we made some natural mandalas during our outdoor period. This incorporated science as we talked about biotic and abiotic elements in our designs, math using patterns and symmetry, and art using radial balance, proportions, texture, and colour.

I joined some of the primary teachers for lunch outside today. It was nice to get out of the building without the students for a change. The only downside was the wasps that kept buzzing around us. One of our EAs was stung on her hand. Very painful.

The afternoon was fairly choppy with short periods, hardly any time to really get started on anything. Our last period was outdoors again so we played a game of soccer baseball for gym. A good end to the week. All in all, I am fairly optimistic for the year. Hopefully I won’t get caught up in the reorganization of classes and will be able to really work with this crew. I am exhausted but in a good way, although my feet and legs hurt as I am bot used to this much walking and standing. Gonna rest and enjoy the weekend.

thatsbelievable

Day 3

All the students except one were in attendance today. It feels like the room got a whole lot smaller with 25 grade 7 bodies in it. Now they are all here I can finally start doing some meaningful work with them and not worry about being repetitive and boring. It was fun meeting all the new personalities and introducing myself to them. It’s been a wet few days, so tough when we were on our outdoor periods. We played soccer today, trying to keep apart and just kick the ball around. A few of them got a bit wet when they fell but you can tell they really needed to get out and let off some steam. It’s hard for them to remember all the rules. Something we will all get used to doing I am sure. I am glad I decided to go back face to face, in spite of the risk. I really missed the students. It’s been a long, short week, and my feet have never been so tired. Getting all my steps in, that’s for sure. I have to walk all away around the room since there is not enough space for me to walk between the rows. Tomorrow is my second full day with a full class, and it’s Friday. Gonna be a good day.

Day 2

There were 10 kids today to begin. I should have had 12, but one was absent and one has yet to appear. He is suffering from anxiety about catching the virus. The day started off well and greeted all the kids outside. We went in , they found their seats and we went on with the safety protocol presentation. After that I gave them one of my first week of school activities to write an I Am poem. Most of them got to work right away but one girl just sat there and did not even attempt to open her notebook. I checked in with her a couple of times and finally asked her if she wanted to speak to me privately. She broke down and said she just could not handle things today and wanted to go home. Had to call the principal to come and get her. Later that day I found out The father of one of my students passed away just before school started. That is bad enough, but that now puts that student in a precarious living situation. That was all before lunch. The rest of the day went by fairly normally for these weird times, but by 4:00 I was exhausted. My legs hurt, my feet hurt, my back hurts, and my brain hurts. Must be getting old. Tomorrow the whole class should be there, all 27 of them. Two more days before I can collapse.

First day

I was up way too early, anxious and excited for the day. First day back to school and it’s raining. Not the best weather. We ha e a staggered start so I am only expecting 9 students today. 8 show up. It’s tough working with a small group to make things relevant for them and not repetitive when they come back tomorrow with the next wave of kids. Although, the smaller group was easy to get to know better. The day went much better than I thought it would with our chopped up schedule, no bells, and small number of students. Our two outdoor periods were pretty good and discussions were interesting. I am feeling a bit better about things but this may change with the larger class. Masks are hot and uncomfortable, but not unbearable. It’s not the best trying to teach in one, but it’s not the worst. Kind of looking forward to tomorrow.

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