Back to "School" 2020

 We had our first week at "school" this week.  School was each of us in our own space with a laptop on zoom.  But--I have to say, it wasn't that bad.  It actually felt like school. Student/teacher interactions.  Lessons delivered.  Work completed.  It was so much better than I expected.  It is still a whole lot more work to prepare than for regular lessons.  But I feel like it will be sustainable, as long as I have time on my weekends to do some work.  (Because by the end of the school day I am SPENT!). I just sit and stare into space.  And burn dinner.  And aimlessly weed my flower beds.  Hopefully I'll develop more stamina.  This week I only did 1/2 day on Wednesday and 3/4 on Thurs/Fri with students and filled the rest of my day with family meetings.  That was a nice way to work in slowly.  Also, since I moved to teaching Highly Capable students--it turns out they are highly capable of attending school and meetings with teachers.  I had 100% attendance and 100% of my families met with me.  Not too shabby.

And did I mention that for now, I only have 22 students?  (That may change this week depending on the 4th day count...we have a surplus of teachers with many students in our district deciding to homeschool or move.) Crossing my fingers that I'll be able to move forward with my 22!

All of us looking happy for day 1! 

Libby all ready to learn in her bedroom.  With her jeans with holes that she made herself because her mean mom didn't want to buy jeans that already had holes.  

Sarah's room is great--the only problem is that the built in desk has the window behind her creating a ton of backlight.  Problematic for Zoom.  I can't believe that when they put in that built in (maybe 30 years ago), they didn't anticipate that a student would need to sit there on Zoom for 3 ninety minute periods a day.  Haha.  (We couldn't even have imagined it just a year ago!) The curtains help, but I may need to get something to create a better blackout.  

Sarah's original schedule on Skyward was wrong.  But we didn't get the update until she'd already attended all the wrong classes on day 1.  Not a great start to Middle School/6th grade.  But she was cheerful about it.  It's not as embarrassing on zoom to be in the wrong place. One interesting development...she's decided she wants to play the tuba.  Oi!  Goes against our policy of small instruments.  But she's pretty determined to play something that other Nortons didn't play. 

Ben all set to learn.  He loves the teacher that he had this week.  She's interviewed for the long term sub job--his official teacher is on maternity leave.  I hope he'll get to stay with the sub he loves.  We will see what the 4th day count brings.  They may bring in another teacher from the district to take that position.  

He's the only one that remembered to write his grade down...and you can't see it.  But it was a great effort.  So I'm posting.  4th grade! 

My principal came by and did his usual paparazzi in my classroom. Usually he's taking pics of kids and teachers.  This year, it's just me.  On day 2.  I believe at this point I was reminding students that to use an acronym in the Zoom chat, like LMFAO is against school policy...because the F and A stand for swear words.  Sigh.  

Overall, I find myself looking forward to this week of teaching & learning.  I'm learning as much as I'm teaching I think.  Which is actually not a bad thing--for now.  I hope I can get into a rhythm quickly though.  Wish us luck!