May 20

What a long, strange 60-ish days it's been.

I closed out my classroom last week. That's something I normally do at the end of the year anyway, but this time was different because none of my hallway buddies were there. I guess that kept me a little more on task.

My students submitted their last assignments on Sunday. I tried to be encouraging as I offered feedback, and I received so many kind messages in response. While the current grading system seems a bit flawed to me, I've come to realize that maybe the grade doesn't matter. If my students leave my class as a better version of themselves, then mark that as a success.

And with that, I'm closing the book (or laptop, rather) on this school year. My plans for the summer have all been cancelled. I have no idea what the fall will bring, and I really can't even make a prediction. As a person who loves to plan ahead, I have to keep reminding myself to breathe and know that everything will be okay.

April 15

Started my day with a trip to the grocery store, and I found paper towels!!! I guess it's true that the early bird gets the worm. Or the paper towels, in this case.

Met with my English team before lunch for updates on general school stuff.

Began reading through student work. I'm finding lots of new titles to add to my to-read-next list thanks to the discussion board!

Don't be like this alligator. Go for at least 8 steps each day.

April 14

I changed my office hours for this week, and I guess that threw me off enough to forget to post something yesterday. I spent a lot of time giving feedback to students yesterday--many waited until Saturday and Sunday to submit work.

I started my day today meeting with my PSAT team and figuring out how to get the information we need out to parents and students. 

This afternoon, I held my first live tutorial session. Eleven students showed up! It was great to see some faces and hear some voices. It was going pretty well until my computer froze up and I had to restart the entire thing. I also repeated myself a lot, so I think I'll create a mini-lesson to use next week instead of just a drop-in tutorial thing. 

Yeah, it's a little like that.

April 9

Started my day with a meeting on WebEx with Mr. McCoo and the most excellent English department in the universe.

Another meeting followed that meeting, this one with my English II PreAP team to hash out details for next week's work. We're moving into new content beginning April 13, and this work will be graded. Each week will focus on a different skill.

I spent time getting next week's work built in Canvas, recording videos and adding pages. I also gave feedback to students in the independent reading discussion on Canvas.

Feeling this way about the whole week, tbh. We can do it!

April 8

Not much of an update to share today. I graded some submissions and answered a few questions via email. I sent a challenge to my advisory kids--only 1 has responded so far.

This post is a bit of a letdown after yesterday's revelation. Oh well. Not all days can be awesome, but you can find something awesome in every day. Maybe today's cartoon will be that something awesome.

I'm the rhino.

April 7

A discovery for today--more like a reminder because I've heard it before: we all have different learning curves and methods. Some people get it right away and shift and jump right in to a new idea and try to figure it out along the way. Others (like me) take their time and wait until all of the information is in before starting something new. I'm okay with trying to build the plane while it's flying, as long as the major components of the plane are functioning and the whole thing won't crash along the way. As this "new normal" persists, it's going to be really important that we remember that not everyone is at the same level or can be at the same level because we all have different planes to fly.

It does not benefit me in any way to compare the work I'm doing with my students with the work other teachers are doing with their students. And the same goes for my students. This is the first time for all of us in this strange situation, and we're all coping the best way we know how.

And with that, I'm going for a walk. (Baxter is still sore, so we'll try a walk tomorrow.)

Super high stakes poker game

April 6

Just realized I didn't post a blog today. Not sure why...

Today was a little more packed than usual with getting new content loaded and grading work from last week (or Sunday night in many cases).

I met with my English team at lunch today to celebrate Ms. Perkins's birthday.

Baxter didn't get a walk today because he hurt himself while jumping out of the car after a trip to Petco Sunday morning. He's on some pain meds that make him sleep a lot, so hopefully we'll get back to our walks on Wednesday.

In the meantime, hope you're all doing well!

WebEx Meeting with English teachers (not everyone had showed up yet)