Today, I welcome Roxanne, my friend, fellow teacher, and family member to bothr.net. Roxanne and I teach in the same hallway and share many of the same students. I'm honored by her willingness to share this entry on my blog.
This started as an email to my students and turned into more of a blog post. I’m sharing here before I cut it down for my school kiddos.
Hello! We made it! Remote Learning can be done. Is it easy? No! Is it different? Yes!
I had a tough first week. It was a roller coaster over here! I have three sons-in 7th, 2nd, & 1st grade-all with work to do. My oldest has a Chromebook with Google Classrooms to check daily. My youngest two each have a bag full of workbooks, supplies, and as of yesterday, Chromebooks with Google Classrooms. I did my best to help them get their assignments done each day and turned in by this afternoon. I won’t lie: my youngest did his Reading program after 4 p.m. Friday while my oldest finished his Art assignment. My 2nd grader got lucky and had the afternoon off. We had a lot going on! I am so thankful that my dad came over to sit with them or take them outside to play sometimes.
I am very proud of my students who got their work done this week. It is difficult to make such a drastic change in the way you learn and work, especially right after an extended Spring Break. Yet, so many of you did it! You logged in, read instructions, watched videos, looked at examples, asked for help, checked messages, and tried! Take a moment and realize how much you’ve accomplished.
We have at least another month of our new Remote Learning system. Let’s figure out how to make this next week even better. Think about what worked and keep it up. Consider what felt stressful or confusing and how you might make a change to help with that.
For me, I will write out a to-do list for the week. There are some things that my sons and I need to work on each day while other tasks are just once or twice a week. We also have to think about time for exercise, meals, sharing wi-fi, and having some fun. Planning ahead will help us feel more sure of ourselves.
It may be helpful to make some type of plan for your week. It could be a to-do checklist of all assignments. Another idea is a weekly calendar with each assignment filled in when you can work on it. Some students try to get one subject done before lunch and one after. Others might want variety, so they spread the work out over the week.
If you need a teacher’s help, you should make time to message them during regular school hours. You might want to wait to do some topics when a parent or guardian can help. Other times you might want it to be quiet or you may have chores to do, so schedule with that in mind. One advantage of Remote Learning is that we have choices and flexibility.
If you want to take a day off, it’s better to get the work done early in the week rather than waiting until the end and trying to rush. We have to understand that this is a learning experience for us all: students, teachers, parents, guardians, family, and community members. We are all learning as we go!
My hope is that we allow ourselves and others grace to make mistakes and changes while we improve and grow through this together.
Mindset: 100% Accountable
Learning Objective: Grow Through Life
Thought: Our dream is that one day we will all point back to this time and tell a wonderful story. How we overcame adversity and found the best in ourselves and each other. We not only survived but became the people and the world we needed to be.
"Don't go through life, grow through life." Eric Butterworth.
Thank you for sharing, Roxanne!
May we all remember that even in the most difficult of times, kindness has the power to change the world.