Hello and Welcome to the 2020-21 School Year

Hello everyone, and welcome to the start of our new chapter! I'm your host Ms. ELA! I teach ELA at a middle school in Florida. My goal this school year to record the happenings, both good and bad, because this is something that none of us expected to happen. There was no way to prepare for such a event, and there is no way of knowing if what we decide will actually work.

Before we move on let's review what has happened so far. I'll be honest, when we went on lock-down in March none of us thought it would be for forever. My school's directions to shut down came right at the start of spring break so I can't lie, I was excited for the little bit of an extra break. Then we got the call that we wouldn't be returning and that we had a day to come in and get our computers and personal belongs and get out. We had a few days of freaking out on how we would do lessons online when so many of our kids have obstacles that prevent that from happening. My district decided in the end to use the credit recovery program for the 4th quarter so teachers didn't need to create assignments. We just facilitated the assignments they were given and helped wherever we could. It wasn't perfect, but no program from the end of March to May was. Literally no one, yes that includes teachers, was happy. 

However, we have now had time to prepare for the new school year. Online is at the front of everyone's minds and we are actively looking at how to make the online environment work like our in-person classrooms. This is the first time in my five years of teaching that I didn't start off my year with a training that focused on keep kids safe from an attacker in some form (lock-down training, Stop the Bleed training, The Sandy Hook Promise presentation, etc). So far this we have had two professional development days where we learned about Google Classroom because our school just became one to one for computers, and how to create an environment that fosters learning even when we can't make the same connection like we would at school. One of my back to school questions to kids is "what out of school activities are you apart of" because I try very hard to show up to their sporting events, plays, and recitals. That helps show students that their teacher cares about them as a whole person and not just how they do in class. This also has helped with parent engagement because then my first interaction with them isn't about school, it's about how amazing their child is doing whatever the activity is.  

My school district had three options for students. 

- Option one was dictated by the state that schools reopen 100% prior to September 1. 

- Option two was our own county virtual school program, so we didn't lose kids out of the district which would impact us for next year. 

- Option three was to do home school or Florida Virtual, and if parents picked this they withdrew their student from our district which in turn causes us to lose numbers which will affect how many teachers we are allotted for next year.  

I will be teaching in a brick and mortar school this year. We start our full pre-plan week tomorrow. I thought about applying for the virtual school option because my boyfriend in high risk and my sister just had a baby that I desperately want to see, but there are so many teachers at my school that are high risk or have children that are high risk that I couldn't imagine taking the spot from them. I live with my mother, my father has recently passed, and we have two separate sides of the house. If I have to go a few months without sitting next to mom and eating dinner in my room, I can deal with that. 

My district has given us a pint of hand sanitizer and a quart of cleaning solution, we have also been told there are five cloth masks waiting for us. The hand sanitizer and cleaning solution are refillable, but we need to put in the request to have them refilled. I'm not sure how long it will take to have them refilled. I feel like we will go through them both in a day or two because we will still having normal class sizes of about 22-25 students per class. Students will be spread out as far as we get them, which in most classes will be 3 feet. I am hoping we get more information tomorrow during our meeting. 

That's all for now. I'm not sure if anyone will read this, but if nothing else this will serve as a great primary account years from now when we discuss the insanity that was the year 2020: The year we hoarded toilet paper and taught each other to wear masks.