I remember being in my 20s and not really knowing who I was as an educator or what my value was. I dove headlong into committees, task forces, seminars, clubs or anything else I could sign up for. It wasn’t the wrong choice for me then. I was single, I didn’t have kids and I was trying to learn as much as I could. As I was trying to find my voice, and I ran myself ragged in the process.
The first two schools I left, it took me a while to realize it was the wrong fit and make the decision to go. I didn’t know if what I was feeling was normal, or if it was just growing pains. I didn’t know what the just-right fit was.
Now, here I am. I have a solid sense of my strengths, my goals, my worth as a teacher. I have made choices to be in a school I feel really strongly about. I am doing work I love and value.
And then the pandemic.
I’m not exaggerating when I say I have jobs I hate now. Online teacher? I’d rather wait tables. Homeschooling mom? I’d rather…every thing I stick at the end of this sentence is horrifying. Just know that I’d never choose this for myself.
Many times a week, sometimes many times a day, the voice in my head says, This job sucks and you shouldn’t put yourself through this anymore! Quit! Find something new! RUN AWAY!
[This is where I jump in and say that I need you to finish this post before you jump to conclusions. I am not saying I hate my real job. I’m saying I hate my pandemic job. Stick with me.]
But online teaching from my apartment with my kids next to me isn’t really my job. This is a temporary terrible job that I have to do until I can get back to my real job. But my inner sense of self worth doesn’t know that. It just knows that I deserve better than this. I do! And that better is my real job teaching in a classroom, at my school, to a room full of real-life middle schoolers.
And yes, I am very fortunate to still have a job. I know that. But knowing that rationally doesn’t change how the experience internally.
Cut to every day when I have to talk my inner voice off the quitting ledge.
We can’t quit. These kids need us. Our colleagues need us. We love the job we get to go back to (someday). We love living in Brazil. We love our brilliant colleagues. [Deep breath].
One thing I’m learning is that it’s both/and.
I BOTH want to quit AND I will keep going.
Maybe that doesn’t seem revolutionary, but how many people acknowledge the first part of that? Our culture tends to emphasize the positivity without acknowledging the real feelings. So, the feelings get silenced or swallowed. That doesn’t work; that only backfires.
So, what am I suggesting? I think we should acknowledge that we want to quit. Say it out loud. When teachers say that we hate this and want to quit but are choosing to stay, I want school leaders to know this is a statement of love and dedication. Please don’t police our tone or chastise us for not being a positive team player. (Magic phrase: this sucks, I’m sorry.)
I know that for some, to say “I both want to quit and I will keep working” sounds purely negative and unproductive. You are dragging us down; you’re disrespecting the work.
I propose that we shift our thinking. When people show up, listen when they tell you how hard it was to show. Hear them. Because they didn’t run away. Hear their pain, and celebrate their courage to stay.
This is part of a bigger strategy that relates to mindfulness. I’m learning that the first step to gaining some mastery over my thoughts and feelings is just to acknowledge that they’re happening. That sounds so obvious, but it’s hard.
“Oh, yeah, I’m starting to worry about that. I’m starting to panic.”
“Oh, look, I’m feeling some dread about work tomorrow.”
It’s amazing how naming it deflates it. The unspoken has so much power–name it and you take back some of that power. It’s a classic trope: you can’t outrun yourself. You’ll have to face yourself sooner or later.
So, let’s face it. Let’s face the dark side, because we withstood it for another day. The dark side didn’t win today.
Again, Glennon Doyle says it better than I can.
That’s the both/and.
Are you sticking around as a teacher even though you want to cut and run? That’s amazing. You’re incredible. You live to fight another day. I’m right next to you.
Administrators, leaders, mentors: can you have the courage to acknowledge what teachers are feeling, really listen to the struggles? Can you also hear the love and dedication implicit in their presence, in spite of it all?
Am I saying you should high five me each time you see me on campus and say, “Woo! Didn’t quit today!” Hey, I wouldn’t mind that at all.
I just finished my second day of parent-teacher conferences, conducted entirely through Zoom. I have one more tomorrow. At the end of the day today, I felt strangely happy. I even mentioned to David at dinner. “I’m really happy. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s that I exercised more today?”
In talking to my therapist tonight, she asked me to tell her how conferences went. They were great actually, I told her. The parents really listened and they showed a lot of gratitude and empathy. So many parents said things like…
“I know you have little kids at home, and this is so hard…”
“I can’t imagine how you do it with little kids at home and a full time job…”
“We know how hard this is, and you are juggling teaching your own kids and teaching our kids…”
I realized that this is something that has been missing from my life: Personal acknowledgement. To see and say out loud that what I’m experiencing is really, really hard. I know that they can’t really do anything to help me, but to just say it out loud, that what I’m doing is hard. And they see it. They appreciate it for the struggle that it is. There was another unspoken element there: thanks for showing up. Thanks for taking all the hard stuff and continuing to show up.
A friend sent this Tweet thread a few weeks ago:
The parents gave me something I need. They saw me. They acknowledged the challenges and made space for them. They saw me and they thanked me.
Yes, of course, I’ve heard “Thank you,” from administrators, but it generally happens in group emails and in large meetings. By contrast, in the parent conferences, it felt much more personal. The parents mentioned details of my life that they knew about, so it wasn’t just a canned line to say to every teacher.
The other really important thing that came from the conferences was parents and students saying positive things about my class and my teaching. These affirmations of my work have been something I’ve really missed in distance learning. You don’t sense a student’s joy, you don’t hear them saying, “That was so cool!” as they leave the room. You don’t see the giant smiles or the “Yes!” when they get a good score on an assignment.
But in the conferences today, I heard kids and parents say that they were excited to come to class, liked this class the most, talked with their parents about what they were learning. Parents thanked me for my enthusiasm and encouragement. I had been feeling like I wasn’t able to encourage and celebrate kids enough because I couldn’t walk around the room and give students little check ins. Yes, this isn’t ideal teaching, but parts of me are still coming through to kids.
One student said she was so proud of herself for reading 5 books during independent reading in just 3 months. Many parents thanked me for including independent reading in class each day. They are happy to see their kids rekindle (or kindle) a love of reading.
I heard from parents how much they appreciated my feedback on assignments. Now, all my feedback is online in our open gradebook, whereas before I’d write comments on a piece of paper. As a result, parents are able to see the time and detail I put into the feedback I give to students, and they thanked me for that effort and attention.
One parent said that he felt like I really knew his kid, really got what he was like and what he needed. I was so shocked by that. I always feel like online learning is so much more disconnected, that I have way less opportunities to form relationships with students. But my relationship building hasn’t been completely lost.
One parent even said she loved my voice! That had me laughing.
Okay, this isn’t magic. I think what’s so good about today is that I got real, personalized compliments on what I’m doing well. Not just like a “Thanks for doing your job,” but a thing specific to me. That’s the first part.
The second part is acknowledging how hard this is. How much this sucks. How much I’m juggling. How much I’ve lost. Just say it. And again, make it personal. Point out what is real about each person’s struggle.
Sincere, personal thank you + acknowledgement of specific struggle. That’s the formula.
I’m not a school leader, so I don’t want to make guesses about what’s going on in their hearts and minds. But those of us in the arena of daily Zoom classes and online teaching really need to have our challenges acknowledged and our efforts celebrated. There’s so much our school leaders can’t do, but this is one thing they can.
This year, our PTA gift for teacher appreciation week had two items. First, was a monogrammed blanket–a super fuzzy and soft one.
Second, we received a candle. I really love what’s printed on the candle:
This is a gift that speaks directly to my human needs, my struggles. It is my favorite gift I’ve ever received for teacher appreciation week. It just so happens it’s a chilly night here in Sao Paulo, so I think I’ll go get under that blanket right now.
By talking to a therapist each week, I’ve started realizing how much grief I am experiencing. I’ve been lucky in my life to not have much experience with grief–the kind of grief someone feels after a death, a divorce, an illness, a lost job.
But I am grieving. On March 18, 2020, from one day to the next, I lost the life I used to live. And I am grieving.
One thing in particular I think about a lot is the loss of silent space and time. I used to have either 80 or 160 minutes of free period time each day at school. Add to that the 15 minutes in the morning and an hour after school. I had time to sit and read student work. To plan an upcoming unit. To create samples of work to show students. I lost that so suddenly.
While I may have blocks when I don’t teach in distance learning, I am doing my other jobs in that time: homeschooling and being a stay at home mom. I have to get my kids in their Zoom classes at the right time. I have to help them read the day’s activities and complete them. I have to cook, fold laundry, do dishes, clean the messes. I have to put the toddler in time out and solve the dispute over the couch blanket. I have to get snacks and wipe a nose. I have to remember to drink enough water and brush my teeth.
Here is what my week looks like:
Every member of my family has a color (I have two, one for school and one personal). Anything on the schedule is a Zoom call or meeting, not just an activity or suggested off-screen thing. Those are all things that are part of my job or my children’s classes. The people in pink, blue and green don’t wear watches and only one can read the Zoom app. The brown is David because he and I juggle who teaches from the living room while also parenting and who teaches in the back room.
By comparison, if I was on campus, my schedule would look like this, if you ignore Wednesday. Wednesday would look like the other days.
That first calendar feels like it looks. From one day to the next in March, I lost all opportunity to sit and work without interruption. Overnight I got 2 more jobs. And the expectation is still that I deliver quality instruction and quality feedback to students every day. When and where will that work take place? That’s not rhetorical. It’s a real question. My children go to bed at 8:30 pm and it is the first time I am able to work. After a day like you see on that calendar, what is left at 8:30 pm?
I live in red and orange all day, every day. Yellow is an aspiration. Yellow is reserved for small moments on Saturdays and Sundays. Green is nearly impossible when my teaching is done on screen.
I am grieving. I know this because I am angry and depressed. I cycle through those two over and over each day. I had a good life. A curated life. One with balance and separation of work and home life. I no longer have that. That was taken from me, even if I know it was for a good reason. It was still taken and I am grieving its loss.
Just know that if you ask me for yellow, green or blue, I am going to feel a wash of new anger and sadness. Because I remember what I had. It feels like mockery.
If you want to help teachers, give us the gift of silent time. If you can’t give us silence, give us time. Time when you don’t tell us where to be or what to do. Time where we can decide for ourselves how best to get through this day. That is the help we need. You can’t come baby sit my kids. So, take my advisory one day. Be a guest teacher in my class. Run a check in on Wednesday with a student who is missing work. Release me early from a meeting.
Each of my daily 80 minute blocks of 7th grade humanities begins with a 5 minute class meeting and then 20 minutes of independent reading. Next, I deliver a 10-15 minute minilesson, which is followed by 30-40 minutes of student work time. I approached this year with a personal preference to pre-record the minilesson that developed over my distance learning experience last year.
To give some context, students leave our Zoom meeting to watch the video and start their work, but I stay in Zoom. If they have questions, they return to Zoom and I answer questions or help them if they are stuck. It is common that students return for questions or help. At the end of the 30-40 minute offline work time, we come back to Zoom for 5-10 minutes as a class to share how the work went and ask questions.
Behind the scenes, I’m in an apartment with 3 school-aged children who have basic human needs and homeschooling needs. This means that my attention can be pulled away unexpectedly.
Second, the Internet, as we are all learning, is fickle. I have lost my connection or frozen in the middle of delivering important information. I find this super frustrating. I often don’t realize I’m not connected for a few minutes. Then there’s the frantic router switching, restarting, etc. It adds to my overall discombobulation. The internet is also fickle for my students, who may get kicked out in the middle of a lesson and have to return and then need the info to be repeated. Much time is lost.
In addition, I find that the pre-recorded video helps me iron out my lesson. I realize that maybe I need an example in my first take, so I add one. Then I realize that I need to create a checklist or graphic of the instructions, so I add that. What about a non-example? I add that to my lesson and record again.
Finally, I prefer pre-recorded lessons because they can be filmed after my children are asleep and I know that I won’t be interrupted. I start the next day feeling ready and calm–always good.
Curious about these video minilessons? I use Screencastify to record them. Our school has purchased the professional “Unlimited” license. I’m a big fan of the program. Here are some examples:
But what about how the students feel about video vs live minilessons? I decided that I would try both and then survey the students. I told them in advance that a survey of their feedback was coming. The first day, I used a pre-recorded video lesson and stayed in Zoom to answer questions, then called everyone back after work time.
The second day, I gave a live lesson in Zoom, then sent them offline to work, calling them back at the end of the class to share. During my live Zoom lesson, I was interrupted by my children 3 times and had to change wifi routers once. 2 students were kicked out of Zoom due to dropped WiFi and had to return, and then be re-taught during the work time. I felt significantly more stressed out.
At the end of the second lesson, I sent the survey out. I have 41 students and 22 responded. Here are the results.
1=Strong dislike, 5=strong like
Here are their comments on the first question about pre-recorded video lessons. (I have not edited or removed any comments.)
Video mini lessons dont give me a chance to ask questions and participate.
I prefer video mini lessons because there is no like, poor connection, no interruptions
I like it a lot it is very good because you don’t have to spend so much time on zoom
because I can pause, go back etc
its good and fun
Its better when there’s a lot of work but not as good when you want to give a mini lesson.
i think i like it because i take notes while the video is playing
Because its already recorded so that means that I can’t ask questions.
I liked because you could go back and re watch
I don’t loveee it but I like it
Because prerecorded we can rewatch how many times we want.
I really like pre recorded classes because i can rewatch as many times as I want and I feel more free when its a pre recorded video
I liked it cause it helped me.
I do like it because we get to rewatch if we have any questions or what to do.
I like being able to watch it at my own pace and going back if I didn’t understand what the teacher says.
Next, I asked this question, with 1 being a strong dislike, and 5 being a strong like or strong preference.
Here are their comments on the question about live Zoom lessons. (I have not edited or removed any comments.)
I really love them!
Poor connection, interuptions, and talking, not paying attenton.
I really liked it cause you can ask questions
Its good because I can ask questions
its better to understand and can ask questions
There good because you can interact and ask question.
i think it is hard because there are internet problem and etc
Then I can ask questions to the teacher and clarify my questions.
I liked because you could interact with us
Because we can ask questions.
I really like the part where we get to talk and read together but having a zoom lesson for me is a bit distracting because i will zone out often.
I DON’T LIKE BEING ON THE SCREEN SO MUCH BUT OVERALL IT WAS GOOD.
I like it equally because, I like that we can interact with you and our other classmates!
it is nice because if I have a question, I can ask you right there in the moment.
Then I asked them to choose their preference: pre-recorded minilessons, live Zoom minilessons, or an equal preference for both.
And again, I gave them a chance to explain or give a comment on their answer. None have been edited or removed.
zoom mini lessons is the closer we get to normal. it also gives me a chance to be active and participate in class
I prefer that one because there is not interruption and like there wont be anything lagging no the vid,I understand better on video.
I thought both we’re very fun and nice to do
It’s better
Because on live we can ask questions, but prerecorded we can rewatch how many times we want.
As I said before I love getting to talk and revise my work with teachers on zoom but for the lesson itself I prefer videos.
because if its recorded and you don’t understand something you can rewatch the video.
I would do fine with both! I can learn in both ways without any problem.
I like both of them, it’s nice to be able to ask questions and get an answer in seconds, but it’s also nice to go back and replay the lesson as many times that I want.
My big take-away is that 77.3% percent of the students who responded are happy with a pre-recorded lesson. This matches with my preference and instincts about the best way to deliver instruction, and also helps me to manage my home stress and responsibilities. I will continue to stay on Zoom for the students who need further explanation or guidance, or even just a re-teach of the lesson. And there will still be times when I teach a live minilesson. Sometimes a teachable moment arises and I can do it on the fly, and sometimes I will even plan for a live lesson. But, for the most part, I am going to use pre-recorded minilessons. The day I did the live lesson, I had a student who had a doctor’s appointment and missed the class, so I went ahead and made the video lesson anyways so that she was able to watch the lesson after school.
I also hope that the video lessons are helpful to parents who may be trying to support their children, but unsure how. My videos can help to educate them so that they can better support their child.
I gave my own personal context during distance learning because I don’t want to imply that this is the right decision for every teacher or every class. However, I do think it’s worth noting that a student admitted to “zoning out” during a live lesson. I think this is pretty common, and for students this happens to, what are they to do when work time begins and they are lost? They must stay back, lose work time, and be re-taught. Or perhaps they just log off for fear of admitting that they didn’t pay attention. Even if I preferred live lessons, I think I’d provide video lessons for students to rewatch in case they “zoned out”, had computer issues, or were just confused.
A note about community building. There many be some teachers who feel that the community building of a Zoom lesson outweighs the other factors. I use my class meeting, Q and A sessions, independent reading time, and share-out at the end to build community. Community and connection is a strength of mine, so I feel good about my ability to nurture the bonds I have with students. I also meet with students outside of class time during office hours and afterschool, and I try to send frequent “Good work!” emails to students and parents when a student is doing good work.
Beyond that, we have to consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
For many teachers–and students–we are focusing on securing our physiological and safety needs. Many international teachers and students are stuck outside of their country of residence. Some may be ill or have illness in their family. Even the fear of possible illness can be hugely challenging. Some of us may have changes in employment or income. Some of us may have limited access to physical activities and nature. Some of us may be grappling with fear, anxiety, depression in both ourselves and our loved ones–leading to a loss of sleep or eating changes, part of our physiological needs. I say all this because the “Love and Belonging” layer really matters, but we have to make sure we take care of our essential, primary needs before we attend to that tier. (The good old mask on yourself before you put the mask on the child.)
For me, that means making the video lessons the night before. I can’t build community and tend to the needs for belonging until I have met some of my basic needs. Video lessons allow me to do that. They allow me to help feed my children if that need arises during class, or put a band-aid on a booboo. That 10 minutes of pre-recorded lesson time might allow me to get some water, eat lunch, go to the bathroom.
We all have a different row to hoe right now, and I don’t want to disparage or belittle anyone else’s pedagogy, especially if mine differs from yours. I just wanted to share what is working for me, and–thankfully–a majority of my students. If this helps you, or if you are also using video lessons, I would love to hear about your successes, struggles and take aways.
I write a letter every year to students, but this year is a bit different. Video and text below. Year 14!
Sunday, August 9, 2020
Dear Students,
This is my fourteenth year of teaching, so this is my fourteenth year of writing my students a letter of introduction. I love the tradition of capturing who I am right now, and finding a way to share that with my students. Normally, I’d read the letter out loud in class. This year, because of the global coronavirus pandemic, I have to settle for reading this over a video.
Hello, hello, hello. My name is Mrs. Griswold and I miss you. Yes, you. You, who I just met last week. I miss you because I love teaching. This global crisis has made me pay attention to what I really care about by noticing what I miss. Those are the things that really matter to me.
I really miss my classroom. I love being with students every day, teaching, laughing, working hard, and celebrating my students’ work. Here’s what this pandemic has made me see clearly: I love my job.
And I really love working at Graded. I am an American, but when I was in 5th grade, I left the United States and moved to Mexico City. At the start of 7th grade, I moved to Caracas, Venezuela. I love teaching at an international school because that was how I grew up. I speak Spanish and Portuguese, and I love travelling–another thing I am missing during this pandemic. We moved to Brazil 2 years ago from Nashville, Tennessee. We really love living in Brazil and can’t wait to get back to exploring it.
I have a husband who is a math and computer science teacher at Graded, and three kids who are students. My son Calvin is in 3rd grade, my daughter Matilda is in 1st grade, and my son Everett is a K3. One thing I really, really miss is being able to leave my house each day and focus on being a teacher. I also miss being able to leave school and go home to focus on being a mom. Now, I’m everything at once, and that’s really hard.
Since I can’t do many of the things I miss–museums, parks, movies–I’ve focused on new sources of joy. I picked up the mandolin I hadn’t played in two years. Strumming and singing has brought me a lot of joy.
Then I learned how to watercolor during quarantine. A YouTube video auto-played one day with a watercolor tutorial. I grabbed my kids’ watercolor set and started painting. I like how watercolor is about luck and improvising–letting go of control. I took 2 online courses and bought better paints. My plan is to watercolor at the end of the day to destress.
My other new joy is roller skating! I saw some TikTok videos of people skating and my daughter had been asking for some, so the whole family got skates! It’s a great way to get out of the house, and I feel free and joyful when I’m skating.
What about you? What have you noticed about yourself during this time? What do you miss? What new joys have you found? I want you to write me a letter and help me get to know you. Until we can meet face to face, and I can give you a hug or a high five or a hand shake, this letter will have to suffice.
This has not been a great week of distance learning. Zoom keeps crashing, I can’t share audio when I’m sharing my screen, I can’t get any grading done, and I just hate it all.
Yes, I’m being extreme. Yes, it could be worse. Yes, I’m still annoyed and frustrated and tired and I can be all of that at the same time.
I almost lost my mind yesterday. I spend all of Sunday making a weekly slide that is embedded on my Powerschool page. I have the whole week laid out. Links to videos and documents, links to flipgrids, links to the Zoom call.
Students in 6th grade, for example, are writing a compare/contrast essay about the books we read this year. I made a document explaining the essay and with an outline of what needed to be in each paragraph. Underneath the outline is a sample essay that I wrote.
But wait, there’s more! I made a video where I walked through the outline, then read my essay sample, pointing out key things.
And then, in my Google chat pops this message: What is the second paragraph supposed to be about?
I’m about to go Office Space on my computer.
But then, I felt better when students said in my class today that my weekly slides are so organized and helpful and everything is right there. One student wrote in the chat, one word at a time: I. LOVE. THE. DAILY. SLIDES.
It isn’t all bad. But until I get purposeful messages like that from students, there’s not feedback! There’s no room to read, no heads nodding or kids falling asleep.
David and I keep saying that we’re shouting into the void. No idea if any of it is helpful or heard. It’s so demoralizing. Teaching is hard, but it’s also so rewarding when it clicks. When our teaching works, the relationship and moment of connection with students is so amazing.
So, here we are. There are no other choices. The whole world is like this. That’s almost worse. The feeling of being stuck is so loud.
Man, I feel like I’m in my 20s again, unsatisfied and unhappy and trying to find myself. I just want my job back. I know what I love to do. I know what makes me feel stimulated and happy. It’s so sucky and unfair. I want my job back.
I haven’t written in a while because life is absolutely batty, which I don’t even really need to say, I guess because we are all living it. It’s weird. Normally, you’d have to compose a blog post or a social media post about going through some stuff, and sorry that I’m absent. Ha. No explanation needed. We all understand.
But, I wanted to give you an update on our lives. I’m going to start doing some more blogging about my teaching and things I’m doing to survive my teaching. But first, a personal update.
Our school works with a team of filmmakers and they asked me if I would be interested in working with them. They dropped off tripods and steady cams and an iPhone at our apartment. We spent about a week documenting what our life was like, teaching online and raising 3 kids. The film team, The Filmistas, edited it into this amazing final product:
I got so many amazing messages from parents, students, and other teachers. I basically cried every time a message came in. Every time I watch the video I cry. I cry a lot.
About a week and a half ago, we got the call that our school would not be reopening during this school year. David and I had been talking about next steps. It’s so hard to know what next week will bring and how I will feel about it. There are about 100 scenarios of what might play out, and I’m never sure how I’m going to feel.
We happened to have the May Day holiday coming up, which gave us a 3 day weekend to travel. We got yelled at by doormen for letting our kids play in the sand below the roped off playgrounds in our condominium. We both realized it was time to go.
I felt some guilt about leaving. Staying was a point of pride at first. Maybe I shouldn’t have felt pride at staying, but I did. Deciding then to leave felt a bit like abandoning ship.
But my admin was really supportive. They understood and they knew that we needed to do what was right for us. That gave me some peace. Just the idea of being somewhere different suddenly sounded amazing.
We have a key factor in place for us to leave: a place to stay. We have a townhouse in Minnesota that technically belongs to my in laws, but we’ve made it ours for the summers. We spent nearly 3 weeks here last year, and we put bunkbeds in it, beefed up the kitchen stuff, stocked it with art supplies.
So now we are hunkered down in Northfield, Minnesota, an incredibly cute and cool college town. It’s small, it’s quiet, and there’s lots of open space. There are only 2 cases of COVID here as of my last reading, and the governor is making thoughtful, careful decisions–in my opinion, at least.
Brazil is also getting bad. The cases are rising, the deaths are rising. More scary to me is the number of people facing starvation because of the shut-down economy. The government is not providing significant support. There is a quarantine in place, where only essential businesses were supposed to be open, but right before we left, we noticed lots of businesses on the street open.
I don’t want to get into a whole big debate, but let me tell you where I always go first: the children. Bear with me while I explain. When you shut down all retail–all malls, bars, restaurants, stores, etc–that is a huge segment of the Brazilian population. They live hand to mouth. And they have children. What happens when the money and the food run out? If you want to keep the economy closed, then the government has to feed those kids. I don’t see that happening. (To be clear, I am not minimizing the death toll. I am just afraid of those other deaths, the children facing malnutrition.)
Okay, so, on Friday night, May 1, we flew out. We snagged a cheap upgrade to business class and jumped on it. Business class was full, but the seats are very separated. In coach, there were empty rows between passengers. The airports were ghost towns. There were maybe 40 people on our international flight, and 20 on our domestic flight.
As soon as we rented our car and got the house, our kids hopped on the bikes in the garage and went around the block. We walked to a playground that wasn’t roped off with caution tape. I almost cried watching them play.
I have more to say and more stories to tell, but I’ve got to go teach my 7th grade class via Zoom.
Oh my god. I’m exhausted. But! I had 100% attendance. Every kid showed up to my Zoom meetings. They participated in the Flipgrid and Padlet activities. We survived.
That’s only half the story, though. I had 3 kids in my apartment who wanted snacks and games and butt wipes. David and I have 3 common periods where we both had to be “teaching.” That about pushed me to the edge. Our whole home life needs to be revamped. Routines, organization, schedules. Ish is about to get REAL. I lost my temper too many times today.
We started with daily chore breaks in the day and that has to get formalized.
We need a snack drawer they can access on their ownw.
We have to make a schedule for each kid each day because they have their own Zoom class meetings and one-on-one check ins.
We need 4 offices, one for David and I, one for Calvin, another for Matilda. We can hear each other and our microphones pick all the noise up.
Our wifi doesn’t reach everywhere (see previous paragraph). So, I spent most of the day in kitchen.
We did not build in enough move breaks.
I have officially lost my planning and preparation periods. Those are now filled with cooking, cleaning, snacking and butt wiping. This perhaps sucks the most. There is no quiet period at my desk getting work done. Not unless I let the kids watch TV all day. I had two kids in two rooms doing two different math activities. That was one of my free periods today.
The win of today was that the kids had 1 hour of screen time in the afternoon. Everett had a book reading to him during the period when David and I both taught. It reads and turns the pages. Calvin did lunchtime doodles with Mo Willems.
I’m totally spent. I’m both relieved I survived and stressed for tomorrow and the future of this. I am every emotion at once. People have been so nice today to ask if there’s any way to help or anything they can do. Do they want to come and parent my kids? Teach all my classes? No? Well, I guess I’ll just have to do it all better and more efficiently. [Lays face on keyboard.]
My workspace in the kitchen. That’s a Zoom call with my advisees.This was the rough schedule we made today. It was not enough! We weren’t able to totally stick to it and it wasn’t specific enough. But the paper calendar with check boxes was a good idea. We just need more specific times and planning.This Pete the Cat book was reading to Everett and turning the pages.Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems
I’m taking a Global Online Academy (GOA) course called “Designing for Online Learning,” and the second Module was about student wayfinding. How do students and teachers find their way through online course content and projects? How can we help students find the content they need and how can we track their progress?
This GOA article offers some ideas for how students navigate through the content. One cool one was about “Greenlight Spreadsheets“. (Search for those words, that part comes late in the post.)
I made a video about how I’m adapting my physical tracking chart for my middle school journalists to a greenlight spreadsheet.
Here is what my tracking chart normally looks like:
In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, we had an assembly today and I was asked to give a speech about gender equality. I’m a talker and a writer, so being asked to give a speech is something that really energizes and fulfills me. Below is the text of my speech, delivered to about 300 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. The images were projected behind me.
When I was in elementary school, my mom taught aerobics in the evenings and I would go and hang out in the kids play area at the gym. I remember playing with two little kids, maybe they were 4 or 5 years old. I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. The little boy said, “I want to be a ballerina.”
The girl turned to him. “You can’t be a ballerina, only girls can be ballerinas.”
The boy shrugged and said, “Okay, I’ll be a dinosaur.”
It’s a funny story, but I’ve remembered it for 30 years. It was the first time I was aware of gender inequality. It was just a little moment, sure, but I saw it happen in front of my eyes. How might the path of that boy’s life have been different because of that interaction? Maybe that future–the one where he becomes a world famous dancer, travels the world, starts his own ballet school in Moscow or New York City–that future may have just closed forever to him in that moment. And he didn’t even notice. That seed was planted so young: he learned that as a boy some doors were closed to him. He probably didn’t even remember that that was the moment he learned to accept that reality.
We talk about gender inequality on large scales, and that is an important part. 56% of US college students are women, but only 24% of congress members and 18% of governors are women. Women are only 5% of CEOs of major corporations. We should also be concerned that men have shorter life expectancy and men and boys are more likely to be the victims of violence and suicide.
But we have to think of the small personal ways that someone is treated differently because of their gender. The moments in classrooms, on playgrounds, around dinner tables.
But who cares? Maybe you agree that boys shouldn’t dance, or care for children, or design clothing. What’s the harm in that?
Well, as a teacher, my goal for students is to open as many doors as possible for you so that you get to have as many choices as you can. If you never learn to read, your choices are limited. If you don’t practice public speaking, then some doors will be closed to you. Don’t we all want the most choices possible? Don’t we all want to grow up to do the work our hearts call for? The kind of work that makes us feel energized, alive, fired up?
Think for a minute about the thing you love the most. Maybe it’s painting, or video games; soccer, or math puzzles; building stuff, or making up stories. So let’s imagine for a second that you lived in a parallel world where the thing you love is done by almost no one of your gender. Other kids laugh at you when they find out you like that thing. They tease and make jokes, they whisper and snicker.
And now, imagine that because of all that, you abandoned that thing you love. It’s no longer a choice for your life. You decide maybe it’s better to be a dinosaur.
Okay, it sounds crazy. It sounds silly. But could it have already happened to you? When did someone say something about gender expectations to you as a kid? Do you even remember that moment? Do you like the things you like because you actually like them, or because you saw all the people of your gender doing it?
Are you freaking out? Maybe, maybe not. But you should be asking yourself all the time if your thoughts are your own or if they’re a reflection of the limits placed on you by the world around you. Ask yourself if you are limited or lifted up. If you are limited, shrug it off.
But wait, how do we undo this? How do we show that little boy that he can be a ballet dancer?
I think the answer is that we surround ourselves with models. Have you heard the phrase “Representation matters”? It means that what we see has a big impact on us. Seeing people that look like us in the world and on TV and social media help us imagine what’s possible. So I charge you to open your eyes and seek out representation that opens all those little closed doors. For example, this photographer completed an entire exhibition of Swedish dads taking 6 months off of work to raise their children.
You don’t even need to look that far. Look around this room at the adults who teach and coach you every day. They set amazing examples of strength, dedication, and passion–regardless of gender. We are men of science, and women of science. Women who love poetry and men who love poetry. We are shy men and women, outgoing men and women. Let these adults show you the possibilities for your future. I know that I speak for all of your teachers when I tell you that we believe in you. Our hope for you is that you believe in yourselves enough to tear down all barriers and accept no limitations.
