Of course, I am thrilled to be going back to school soon! However, frustration, despair, and deep concern for my little ones are strong undercurrents. My 4-5 year-olds may NOT: get within 6 feet of anyone, hug, hold my hand, get out of their seats at any time (except for potty), share any toys or supplies, etc. They will be sitting at their desks for all instruction (including specials), lunch, and breaks. There are NO toys allowed except for the small boxful that I give them at "break" time, which they may not share. These are just a few of the restrictions. And, the icing on the cake? We will all be wearing masks. My solution to this is: Go outside as much as possible, remove masks, and learn through play. I may have more documentation later. We'll see how it goes - if we even get to remain open for very long. I'm not looking for sympathy here - just trying to give an accurate representation of what millions of children and teachers are experiencing worldwide right now. (Thank you for letting me vent - I'm not allowed to do so on social media; not that I would anyway. It does help a bit to share my feelings with you all.)
Happy new (school) year to you! It's the same here in Quebec. My husband teaches gym in college and it's 100% distance education this semester. It's going to be a weird year. Hoping we don't have to reconfine in a few months... Little ones will adapt, but so much will be missing. :-(
After working in kindergarten my question was how will they do it? They are so social and of course they touch everything. Prayers for success and good health for all including you and that normalcy returns very soon!
Ouch!!! Our schools gave us options - I described the new school setup to kids (what you are showing here) and both of them said „no way“. So we went for fully remote option till January. Not sure how that will go, but I am not worried how mich they will „fall behind“ on the arbitrary achievement scale. I think they will learn flexibility, self-organization, appointment management, task list management, team communication when working remotely etc. Not an easy thing to do so it is great that they will get a low-stakes go at it at their age. I hope they can manage school (mostly) on their own - with both parents working no one will stand behind their backs making sure they are not getting off track. I have my fingers crossed.
I feel the frustrations and I don’t even go to school—I pray really hard and wish that this nightmare will be over— please be safe and outside is a good idea, they will breath fresh air, get vitamin D and exercises.🥰🌞💕
do feel for you so very much, julie, and your little charges. i'm sure though that you are doing everything you possibly can to make it easier on them. i'm glad that my kids are grown and i don't have grandchildren at school to worry about yet. hoping you'll be able to get outside as much as possible, and that the kids will adapt well to these strange circumstances, and you won't find it toooooo dispiriting
We are all remote here as of 9/2. I’ve seen posts of the little kids being very frustrated that they can’t keep up. Sad. Great job Julie! Be really safe!
@vera365 Yikes! I hope your kids do well with the challenges ahead of them. Our school is also offering remote learning, which means I get to teach all day, then take care of my remote students on top of all my other duties - AND learn google classroom in the process, AND teach it to my students and their parents. Hmmm, I think I deserve a raise. ;)
Bless you Julie...My great-nieces and great-nephew along with friends are very upset about not being in their classrooms this coming school year. I will not get into the politics of it but I will say that it breaks my heart to see the students suffer under their controlled lives.
I really do wonder how this will work out... my kids are in high school so they are a bit more disciplined, but it is still hard to imagine how it will be possible to contain the spread...
@northy Yes, so many unanswered questions! I can't stop thinking about the parents of some of my students (and others) who simply can't teach their kids at home for various reasons. So difficult!
@juliedduncan I think we all deserve a raise! The college is asking instructors who are teaching in person to teach on two audiences at the same time - students in class AND students on Zoom who are quarantined or just out of campus. While making sure everyone is working. While making them collaborate. While not seeing but just hearing Zoom-ing students. While navigating the technology of in-class presentations etc. While also managing and sharing resources with the remote students. This is just not in the job description for anyone and only could be performed if you have a technological team supporting you while you are teaching. Good luck with the new year! It will be a test of patience, nerve, endurance and patience again for everyone.
Lots of prayers for all teachers - but especially those in your age group who don't understand any of this! I have a 4 year old great grandson who is a special needs child (his mom and he live with me). Fortunately he has a very small class size since he's still not old enough to be required to go to kindergarten and they've had no problems. Were out for just about 6 weeks and have been back the past two months. Our public school system gave the parents the option - I'd save 75% chose to send them back - the rest doing virtual learning. We've been back just a week and I'm anxious to talk to my teacher friends as to how it's going. What state are you in? I've never been able to tell by your photos other than I recognize most of the flowers. Head outdoors every chance you get. Circle time works real well there!
@vera365 Thank you, Vera! Good luck to you too! Our staff got a total of 3 hours of training for google classroom and zoom. Just enough knowledge to make us dangerous. Ha ha! :( I've subscribed to Sam Kary's "The New EdTech Classroom" on youTube. He's an actual teacher and has some very helpful instructional videos for google classroom and other platforms. I do have to pause it a lot and watch each one several times, but I'm getting there. ;) Of course, I'm still left with the impossible challenge of actually teaching kindergarteners online if it comes to that.
@milaniet Thanks, Milanie! All the best to your great grandson! I live in Michigan, and we are in a small, rural district. We're praying that our governor doesn't move the state back to "Phase 3" before school starts - that would mean ALL distance learning. As long as we're in "Phase 4" the students have the choice to attend in person or study online. We start right after Labor Day. Unfortunately, I do have at least 2 students who will be online. How that's going to look, I don't even know. We don't even do "real" academics the first 2 weeks of school. Just acclimating at that time. Our director (principal) has bought each student a carpet square and is putting up 4 big tent shelters around campus so we can be outside a lot. I plan on taking full advantage of it and have even bought a wagon to haul all our supplies. ;)
I’m a teacher too, first grade. We will start remotely and I haven’t been to my classroom yet. I think it will be a miracle if we have individual desks by the time kids come in. Luckily my state reduced the required days for kids by 10 days and us teachers can prepare better for online learning. Good luck to you!
Sending you lots of well wishes. Such uncertain, scary times. I can think of few jobs more difficult than teaching little ones during this outbreak. Keep us posted.
