Twas The Week Before School Started

 This week was my first week back in the school building without children. We spent the week going through professional development in order to prepare for kids on the 17th. My experience going virtual has been less than stellar though. Being in front of a screen for an extended period of time is exhausting and by the end of the day I definitely feel drained. 

Monday and Tuesday we spend some time looking at content that we would be teaching our kids while in a virtual setting. The experience was helpful but it didn't quiet connect how we are going to set this up with our kids in mind. 

On Wednesday we hit a road bump. We were supposed to do our lessons with our kids on Zoom but at the last minute our school district decided that Google Meets is more secure. We spend our entire afternoon setting up our meeting with the kids for the test run we had on Thursday. 

When Thursday rolled around we went through a crash course before finally testing out what a day might look like for our kids. I had an average of four or five kids on each call. It was kind of challenging since I have never used Google Meets before. When Friday arrived we spend the rest of the day learning more about Canvas and setting it up so that we can sort of have it together by next week.

If I have learned anything this week, it's that teachers and the administration in the building are going through a lot. There are so many moving pieces, and communication between the district and our building takes so long to get something across. But all this frustration is a sign that we as teachers and the administration in our building care about our kids and want the best for them. We are in uncharted waters right now with virtual learning but when we look back this will be one for the history books. I firmly believe that the decision made by our district was the right one even if it's a headache sometimes.