The last time I wrote was the last day I had with my 8th graders from last year. I had barely anyone show up to play scategories. It was a very sad day for me. There was no closure. No goodbyes. These babies were off to high school. I struggled for a while with this for a while. But, I didn't have much time to mourn this, I started working on the curriculum for the new school year and that made me really happy. I was even taking GT classes at CCU so I was fairly busy and it got me excited for the new year to start.
Fast forward to now, October, where we are a month into the 2020-2021 school year. We have been in a hybrid model since Sept 8th. Which to tell you the truth, I am not a huge fan. It limits our time to see our students to one day a week for 100 minutes (some schools are doing 50 minutes over two days). It has been a huge adjustment for all involved. I feel like I am a first-year teacher all over again.
To add to the anxiety of the school year starting with hybrid, I have a new co-teacher and an intern along with barely knowing what I am doing. We are working well together and have come into a fairly decent "routine" of sorts. Seeing each group of students one day a week, besides virtually on Friday's, has made our time in class with them that much more important. The three of us have worked out ways to all work with the kids in different aspects of each week's lesson.
My intern, Jess, is only with us for a few more weeks. It's crazy how fast this time has gone. This is my first experience with an intern, and I am struggling to help her become a teacher when there have been so many things stopping us from actually teaching. I am hoping that what I have been able to help her with will be enough for her to get her own classroom and succeed in the future. We have 3 weeks left and we are going to make the most of what we have because that's all we can do right now.
Check-in on your teacher friends, they are NOT ok. I am so thankful for the mindset change I started last school year because even though I don't always follow the routines lately, I still have them in the back of my mind and it is about the only thing that's keeping me going. I am going to try and write more frequently, but we all know how that goes...
Love from the teacher who is surviving on a whole lot of coffee and Hulu.
