30 Minutes in the Life of an Online School Teacher

  “Good morning, kiddos!  Today I want to do a mini-lesson with you on Longitude and Latitude, and then we will do some practice with it.”’

“Um, Mrs. Burwell, can you hear me?”

“I can hear you, Nora.”

“So you can hear me?”

“Yes, dear”

“Oh, okay...  (awkward pause)...  Well, I was just wondering what we would be doing today.”

“Hon, I just told y’all.”

“Oh, you did?  Sorry.”

“Alright, let’s get started.  Remember everyone should have your video cameras on.  Leah, please turn on your camera.  Leah?  Thanks, Leah.  (Leah turns her camera on, and then immediately back off.)  Leah, hon, you need to leave the camera on for the whole class.”  (No response. No camera.)

“Okay, well, let’s move on to our mini-lesson.”  “So, here is a globe…”

“Mrs. Burwell!  Hey I am sorry, this is Amy and I had computer issues and I am just now getting into the call.  So, did I miss anything?  I mean, like, have we done anything important yet?”

“Welcome to the call, Amy.  Next time just join us and let me know in the chat box that you have arrived.  So, like I said, here is a globe…”

“Mrs. Burwell!”

“Yes, Amy?”

“I am sorry that I interrupted the call.  Next time I will use the chat box.”

“Thank you Amy.  So, on a globe, there are invisible lines of location called….  Hey, kids?  I can hear a trumpet practice in the background.  Everyone look at your volume and make sure you are muted. Okay, thanks, okay, let’s get back to the lesson.  There are these invisible lines of location that are set at 15 degrees apart.  Wait.  I am echoing.  Do y’all hear an echo…echo…echo…?  I think that someone still has your volume on?  That is what causes echo.  Hey, again, will everyone please make sure that your microphones are muted….muted…muted?”

“Mrs. Burwell?”

“Let’s remember to use our ‘raise your hand’ feature and not interrupt.”

“Okay.”

(Student raises hand.)

“Yes, Riley?”

“Can I go use the bathroom?”

“Well, I mean, sure.  You don’t really have to ask me since you are at home.  Please just make sure that both your video and audio are muted.  Please.”

“Thanks Mrs. Burwell.  I will be right back.”

“Anyways, these lines that are on a globe are called ‘longitude’ and ‘lat…’”

“Mrs. Burwell?  Do we have homework?”

“Kids, let’s remember to use the ‘raise your hand’ feature.  Do you have homework?  Well, in one way, everything you do right now is HOME-work.  Ha!  Get it?”

(Total silence.  Not one laugh.  Not even a muted smile.)

“Alright, anyways, yes you will have homework.  We will get to that after the mini-lesson.”

“Mrs. Burwell?

“Yes, Riley?”

“I’m back from the bathroom.”

“Thank you, Riley.  Next time, you don’t have to tell me.  Just put it in the chat box.  Ok, back to the lesson.  Longitude and latitude.  These are very important features in geography. Wait.  Um, Jason?”

“Yes, Mrs Burwell?”

“Hey, does your mom know that your camera is on?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, you might tell her.  I just don’t think she would want us to watch her crawling on the floor cleaning.”

“Oh.  Yeah.  Hey Mom!  You might want to…”

“Jason!  Hon, can you mute yourself?”

“Sure, Mrs. Burwell.”

“Ok.  Oh, Riley, do you have a question?”

“Oh, no, sorry, I left that on from earlier.”

“Ok.  Kids, let’s remember to turn off the ‘raise your hand’ feature once you are done with your question.  Well, back to the lesson.  Oh, actually, it looks like our time is about to end.  I will see you tomorrow, same time, same place, and of course, same lesson.”

“Hey, Mrs. Burwell?”

“Yes, Nora?”

“Can you hear me?”

“Yes, Nora.”

“I really like this class.”

"Thank you, Nora.  Me too."

I promise you that every scenario that I just described has actually occurred in the past few weeks.  Names have been changed to protect the guilty.  Now, about online teaching...  It isn't my favorite.  (That his what we teach our kids to say when they hate something.)  I want to see my students' real faces, know how tall they are, give them fist bumps.  But, I will say this...I do feel like I am connecting with many of them.  While there are some students who "hide" from me every day, there are others who are engaged, learning, and writing me notes that I am their favorite teacher.  Awww....how sweet...and I need that kind of encouragement these days!  (I usually answer notes like this with, "Well, YOU are my favorite student.  But ssshhhh...don't tell the others!")  

I pray that we are back F2F (face to face) soon, and that we STAY that way.  I am ready for my online teaching career to wrap up, thank you very much.  

I hope all is well with you and yours, as you experience the strangest school year ever.  Dear Lord, please send us back to school, and keep us safe.  We need you.  Amen.

17 More Hours of Summer Vacation Left...

Like thousands of teachers around the Atlanta area at this very moment, I am counting the hours that I have left of summer vacation.  Usually summers feel so quick, but this one has been EVER-LASTING.  For one reason, it kind of started in mid-March.  I mean, not really, but yes, really.  That is when my kids and I began spending, um, every waking moment together.  (Courtesy of Fulton County Teleschool!)  So, yeah, I am pretty okay with going back to work tomorrow.

But people, it is going to be weird.
No hugs, no visible smiles, no large gatherings, no applauding.
It's pre-planning, Covid-style.
😷

So, I need a pep talk.  (Maybe you do too, if you are a fellow teacher.)
I want to remember WHY I am a teacher.  I need some pre-inspiration for pre-planning.

Here goes....

I worked my (cute little) tail off to get my job.  I am so glad that Taylor Road Middle School admins gave me the chance to prove that I could teach 6th graders!  I don't do it for the money.  (Clearly.)  Or the ease.  (Have YOU ever been blessed out by a Karen-helicopter-mama with regards to her son's test grade?!)
I do it for the kids.  I love those kids...like 99% of them.  (I know you get that and you won't judge me.)

I keep thinking about the kind of summer experiences that some of my 150 future students are having...They watch TV until there are no Netflix shows left to be watched.  They play Xbox games to level 1,000.  They wear out local cellphone towers.  And now, now they must gaze into the black mirrors (their device screens) for hours a day, rather than GOING to school.  Some students have immuno-compromised siblings or parents, and so they have barely ventured outside the house in months. 

(Disclaimer:  Please don't read anything into that statement. I know that our leaders could not win with this decision they had to make, either way.  I love my bosses, for real.  Their heart is to keep us safe.)

On August 17th, I get to meet my kids.  I get to give them a big smile and make them laugh and teach them Social Studies stuff.  I get to begin to build a "family" of 6th graders, albeit a remote learning one.  I get to connect with them, and help them connect with each other.  They have the strangest first-day-of-middle-school in recent history.  But I get to help them through it.  I have quite a privilege.  And if I get irritated at how I have to do things or what kind of rules that I have to follow, I will lose my joy and potentially lose the chance to really love these kids well.  I will be full of ME and there won't be room in my heart for THEM.  May it never be.

So, 17 hours until I get to prepare to bring laughter, knowledge, and love into 150 homes around Johns Creek.  Yay!  I feel inspired already!

Looking Forward to Looking Backward

Dear Favorite People,

Are you like me...looking forward to looking backward?  Can't wait till the pandemic is in your rearview mirror?  Awaiting the time when thousands of people don't die from Covid-19 every day?  Anxious to give up your recently acquired career of home-schooling parent?  Tired of smelling the inside of a mask?  Yes, yes, I see those heads nodding.

My faith informs my belief that God is in all of this, and that he is doing a lot of really good things in and through our suffering.  I really cling to that belief every. single. day.

Meanwhile, I am trying to LOOK FOR the good He is doing.  I think a lot about this question:  "What will we think when we look back on this time?"  Answering that grows my gratitude and calms my anxiety.  (small pandemic miracle:  have not had to up my dosage, if you know what I mean!)

So here is what I will think when I look back:

*That was really cool when my kids had the experience of being BORED, realizing that boredom is not the end of the world.
*I liked staying home for most of the weekend...it felt very refreshing.
*Humans can really solve problems when we want to.  And there sure are some extra-smart science-and-doctor-types out there. 
*I liked getting to know my kids more.  They have great personalities.
*That was the time that confirmed my worst fear:  I literally have no control over anything. 
*It also confirmed my greatest hope:  I sure am glad that God does.
*Sleeping 9-10 hours a night was awesome.  Man, sleep is really good for me, huh?
*Freedom to stand near people, hug them, shake hands...I really missed that.  We really ARE built for community.
*Worshiping with my family here at home...wow, I will never forget watching my kids dance to church songs.
*God bless the Starbucks drive thru.  Oh, and Target. 
*I loved having a whole hour every morning to drink coffee, read my Bible, and write in my journal.
*I grew in my technological prowess as a middle school teacher, forced to step up my lessons digitally.
*Suffering shows what people's characters are really made of, for good or for bad.
*If that didn't prove that I was not made to home-school, then nothing will!

I know my experience comes no where close to the hardships that many people have had.  We still have our jobs and we didn't get the virus.  Many people (maybe many of you) will have much more meaningful things to look back on.  Your character, no doubt, has grown much more than mine.

Lastly, I will say this...as a teacher, I look forward to reuniting with my beautiful 6th graders, to see what transformations they have gone through.  I expect them to be different.  I am not sure what that will look like.  But I feel that suffering always makes one deep and emotionally-rich, and these kids are living through different levels of suffering right now.  If this time is changing ME, then no doubt it is changing them too.  And in some weird way, I am happy that they got to change like this in their teens, rather than waiting till their 30's.  Okay, 40's.  I am in my 40's.  There, I said it.

And what about you?  How are you changing?  And what do you think you will say when you look backward?!

Can't wait to see you all and give you a big, fat hug.
love, Cathy