(139/180) Keepin’ It Real

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From time to time, I just like to keep it real so anyone (anyone?) reading this blog realized that I am way more Finsta than Insta. (I’m much more like the girl in the picture on the right than the beautifully polished and posed group of girls on the left!)

Though I know there’s a lot more going a lot worse for people than my pity-party list below, I think it’s important to share our vulnerabilities, missteps, and frustrations. We can hear “we’re all in this together” over and over, but when we see that yes, in fact, we are all having good days and bad days (or weeks), it just helps keep it all in perspective.

Here is a list of things that have gone wrong or less-than-ideally for me since we’ve been doing school from home:

  • Students spending more time reading Sparknotes to complete their work instead of just reading the dang book and doing some honest thinking, even if it’s not “perfect.”
  • A lack of student communication and work production – we/they have hit a slump.
  • 2 students dropping off the planet – no work, no communication, no nothing.
  • 3 students that are living in delusions of “my work is done” (ummm… where and on what internet is your work done because it’s not in Drive, Classroom, Remind, my text messages, or my email?!)
  • No more than 50% of my students completing feedback surveys on how things are going for them.
  • I’ve had moments of aloofness in meetings with colleagues (haven’t been 100% present).
  • I find myself searching, pondering, and designing the easiest way for me and students to satisfice… and sometimes it makes me feel icky.
  • Collaborating with special ed teachers has been a challenge. They have a hard job in this situation, but…
  • Emotional availability for students, family, and myself… I’ve just kind of shut off all emotions except for frustration and nostalgia.

Though I look at that list and know it’s real, I also know that just because something is real doesn’t make it right or okay.

What’s my “next right thing” today, given the list above? I’m going to start class at 8am with a smile, get them going (today is a new activity, different than the grind we’ve been in so we’ll see…), wish them luck, tell them I miss them, and be easy on myself.

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