Just a little over two months ago my world and yours was turned up side down with Covid-19 taking over the world. First, colleges and universities closed their doors and sent kids home. Than high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools all followed suit. We were given two hours to pack up everything we thought the kids would need for two weeks of learning at home, and were told not to ask questions. Administration didn’t have answers, and was not sure if we were even going to close, but be prepared. Send home technology, send home books, send home basically anything you could get your hands on and the kids could carry out the door. If that sounds stressful, it was. I did my best to stay as calm as I could, but if I’m being honest, I don’t know how calm I really was. I put on educational video’s for the kids while I began gathering things around my classroom, their math books, and math practice, and started sorting them out, Language Art Books. I was being told they only need work for 10 days. Over the loud speaker our admin instructs all teachers and staff to have their email open and near them and that she will be communicating this way for the rest of the day. Thank goodness, I have two computers, one that is the schools, and one that is mine in the classroom. So I was able to take one to the back table with me as I began to sort through what they would need to bring home.

What I didn’t understand at the moment was just how much our world was changing in those two hours. Until then, this was an illness that wasn’t near me, or my students. It had not effected me. After school, I took a long deep breath, and looked around my classroom. It seemed empty, too empty. I went home that Friday not knowing just how much our world was going to change over night.

We were told that all teachers and staff were to come to school as normal on Monday morning and that we would find out more information.

That Monday morning we were told that we were going online to a Remote/Distance Learning model and that it might be longer than two weeks, but at this point it was for two weeks which would lead into our Spring Break. My District began that day with online training and PD’s on different online platforms that we could use. They sent out survey’s asking us what we wanted to learn more of and they set up a daily schedule for different online trainings for us. Once we had everything setup and all students communicating with us remotely we transitioned to teaching from our home rather than the classroom. Our school was closed by Wednesday. This was such a weird feeling.

So, a regular consumption of Pomegranate juices helps in preventing the buildup of arterial plaque thereby resulting in much improved blood circulation and healthier vessel dilation which is essential to achieve a strong erection due to the augmentation of blood flow. discount viagra levitra http://deeprootsmag.org/category/reviews/ The practitioners of Unani are well aware of how not to viagra 100mg generika flout these rules. It order viagra overnight deeprootsmag.org is an effective drug that not only cures ED but also help older males to take treatment easily. Drugs for example viagra for women uk never have a special needs child, you work even harder to help you child and protect them from a world that can be cruel, including working to make sure they get the education they need and deserve.

My days on a regular teaching day are long. I like to get in early and stay late. That’s just the type of teacher I am. I don’t have a husband, and I don’t have children of my own. I love being a teacher, and I love being in my classroom and creating lessons, and creating diverse learning spaces in my classroom for my students to work in. Plus, my classroom has always been my Happy Place. But now I was at home, all day, every day, and not seeing my students. Seeing their name on the computer, or a message through ClassDojo was just not the same. I had not been introduced to Zoom yet.

Over Spring Break the School Board met, and decided that we would be Closed until May 11, but with the possibility of longer. And yes, it is longer.  It is the rest of the school year. We were given permission to go back into our classroom for 1 hour to get what we may need for the rest of the school year, and to prep things to send home to students that did not go home with them. My classroom felt like a ghost town where people had just got up and left. There were lunch boxes in cubbies, pencils and folders on desks, calendar on the wall that marked our last day together in that room. It was strangely silent. Not a sound of a child in the air.

I tried to make their package as cute as I could so that they would look more like a gift that they wanted to open, and this way, they might complete their work. I purchased the bags, paper clips, pencils, pencil sharpener, ruler, scissors, dice, crayons, glue sticks, eraser, and spiral notebook on my own. I work at a title 1 school and I worry about my students having what they needed to succeed in remote learning. I created and designed stickers to label everything and the package it’s self.

My days at home were very busy in the beginning, really up until just this week. I was up at 6:00am and at the computer by 7:00am just like a normal work day. Except where my work day would end around 5:00pm, and than I would drive an hour home. I was up until 1:00am working, creating, videoing, making, posting, uploading, learning. I was and have been running on fumes. I disengaged from my family outside the home, friends. I became cranky, cried a lot, and snapped at anyone who tried to help me.

I starting looking all over IG for inspiration and help, and found this wonderful teacher, who happened to live in the same city as me! Crazy, but small world. She is a new young teacher who is super knowledgeable in technology in the classroom. Her name is @hellomrsharwick. If you don’t know her I highly recommend following her. I have learned so much from her, and have had so much fun learning, and now that I know and feel confident in Google Classroom, ClassDojo, Zoom, Google Meet, and I’m actually creating my own slides! I’m not staying up so late. I now work my normal work hours and than turn the computer off, step away from my desk and re-enter the land of adults, family, friends, and I’ve gotten back in social media which makes me feel like I’m not sheltered in place at home.

Up until last week I was getting frustrated. I felt blessed to have a job, but my job I loved so much had changed. I was over worked and felt like just as my students were getting use to the new technology and responding and turning things in, my district would change something. I understand that as we were adjusting, my district was adjusting as well. But, they kept changing things. How much work the students should be doing, what type of work students should be doing, how I as a teacher should be presenting lessons, how often I should be live vs video, and no more Zoom. Bye-bye Zoom, you are missed. Hello Google Meet, I will love you soon as I get to know you better.

I have created Slides for writing, our class schedule, year end count down.

I have created Nearpod science lessons.

I have created Google Classroom Headers.

I have created Google Meet Posters!

A Google a Site! and Online Class Goals!

I have synced my Google Classrom with Nearpod, Boom Cards, McGraw Hill Wonders, Pearson Math. My students have transitioned from a “traditional” classroom, if you could ever call my classroom “traditional”, to amazing Online Learners! Both my students and I have learned and come so far in this new world of Remote Learning, and we are only in week 7! I still have 6 weeks left of school.

As per usual at this point in the school year, I begin to think of next year, but this time, it’s what will next year look like? Will it be smaller classes? Shorter School week? Hybrid part in the physical classroom and part online at home? Will we have to go to completely online again for a short period? With all the unknowns, I’m still preparing in my mind. I know now that I want to get my kiddo’s online the first week of school. I want to get their Google Classroom setup before the first day of school, I want to teach them the first two weeks of school how to use all the technology that I’ve begun using this year. Explain the importance of communication through our online classroom if we are to be sent home again.

I miss being in the classroom, I miss hearing the kids laughter, I miss all the talking, the questions, and mostly seeing the light bulb go off.

But I have to say, there is a component to this online teaching that I really like. I love learning, and in the last 8 weeks I have learned so much as a teacher. New ways to engage my students, new ways to teach, new ways to use technology inside and outside the classroom.

I would really love to hear how your Remote Teaching experience is going. Please share below. And ask me any question, I will do my best to answer you.

Happy Learning Everyone!