Tag: school shutdown

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Dear Teacher: Thank You For Your Service

Dear Teacher, 

How are you? No, really. Take a minute to close your eyes and really think. How are you doing? 

This school year is unlike any other. Instead of walking into your classroom, putting up creative borders and posters around your classroom, and setting up for students, you sat at your computer waiting for emails, calls, or anything that would indicate how you would be teaching this year. 

Virtual? 

Hybrid? 

In-person? 

Masks? No masks? How much plexiglass would be installed in your classroom? 

It’s natural and okay to feel overwhelmed by the state of this school year. So many of you were told one thing, only to be changed last minute. Those expecting to be all online had to curate a socially distant classroom experience in a matter of hours because districts and higher-ups changed the protocol in the 11th hour. Some who spent all summer working on their socially distant classrooms were changed to all online and had to revamp their whole curriculum overnight. 

You’re expected to teach our “lost generation”, those who won’t have the opportunity at the same education as others have. It can put a certain level of guilt on you as their main source of education! 

But you’re a good teacher. 

You’re trying your best. 

The students are the center of your work. 

How do I know? Because it takes a special heart to be an educator, especially in today’s political world. And I know you wouldn’t be there if you didn’t care about your students as much as you do. 

Think back to one year ago, did you know the term “socially distant”? Would you have ever imagined teaching with a mask on all day? Did you ever see yourself on Zoom teaching concepts that really need to be taught in a personal setting? Like…. How to write….? 

No. No one saw this coming, no one could have prepared us for today. 

Your students are the same way, they were blindsided one day in March when nearly every school shut down with very little notice for an undisclosed amount of time. 

Doctors and nurses on the front lines treating COVID are heroes and need recognition. But maybe our teachers are being somewhat forgotten about. Here you are, putting in as much time and effort as these doctors. You’re working long shifts and giving your whole heart and soul to bring the education back to your communities, putting your life and your family’s lives at risk while you do it. 

Instead of nursing COVID patients back to health, you’re nursing our lost generation back to education. You’re providing our society as a whole a brighter future through your efforts. 

You are seen. You are of immeasurable value. You are the heroes we need right now. 

Thank you for your service. 

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Never Ever Give Up

Someone shared this YouTube video with me of a group of 9 to 13 year olds singing a cover of this song to essential workers. They are thanking doctors, teachers, grocery store workers, and more, in the most tender-hearted way.

To all of you teachers out there on the front lines, sanitizing desks, iPads, and markers just to make it through the school day. The teachers navigating Zoom to teach students. To those early childhood educators working out creative ways to still make toys and play a part of the classroom. To the college professors doing everything they can to follow school protocol, and encouraging your students to do the same. The professors pre-recording lectures for students to watch online.

To those risking their lives.

To those who are starting their first year of teaching all over again (p.s. that’s all teacher’s this year).

To the overwhelmed and the underpaid.

Please listen to this song.

“No matter what you’re facing, you are my inspiration. You’re the fire that doesn’t know how to back down.”

Never. Ever. Give. Up.

These kids need you now more than ever. You’ve got this.

Please share with a teacher, a doctor, a nurse, a delivery driver, a grocery store worker, or anyone else on the front lines who may need to hear this.

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An Open Letter To The Students Of 2020

Dear Students of 2020, 

Here you are! You are stepping into a world where no one has gone before. You are attempting to continue your education during a global pandemic. Someday your kids and grandkids are going to read about you in history books. 

They are going to read about your Chromebooks and iPads sent home to you from your schools for virtual learning. 

The face mask mandates in the districts and the creative face shields to replace masks.

They are going to see pictures of desks 6 feet apart and hanging sheets of clear plastic hung strategically throughout the school. 

Books and articles will talk about hybrid learning at home part-time, and at school for the rest of the time. 

It will highlight the stress of teachers, parents, and the stress of you as the student. 

You are being asked to learn on platforms that are still developing instead of classrooms that have been established for centuries. 

We are asking you to rise up and take a step into the darkness. The darkness of the unknown for our future. The unknown of when “normal” school full of chatting friends sitting nearby, tag at recess, and less than 6 feet apart for group work, will resume. 

It’s hard, and it’s scary, and you are the pioneers for this. Your feedback on Zoom meetings, Google Classroom assignments, and in-person lectures with adapted seating will drive our school system to success as teachers, administration, and parents navigate and troubleshoot this new layout of education. 

To the students of the 2020-2021 school year, our future is in your hands more than it has ever been in student’s hands before. And we trust you. Together, we can make it through and create a better world for those to come. 

You’ve got this. 

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Back To School Fall 2020

I know I just wrote about my blog schedule and that Monday’s are dedicated to past teachers and the influence they had on me/ still have on me. However, I felt like this subject was important to write about and it has been on my mind for weeks and weeks. 

Schools going back in the fall. There are so many politics behind this that I will not get involved in, but I still have been thinking about so many other situations. 

I worry about teachers who are putting their health at risk by going back. 

I worry about teachers who financially rely on this income to support their families and do not have the flexibility to find a new job, especially in this economy. 

I worry about retired teachers and those who have chosen not to go back next year that feel guilty for not being on the front lines as a teacher, but shouldn’t feel this way. 

I worry about the students’ health. 

I worry about COVID outbreaks in schools. 

I worry about the parents’ mental health either with sending kids back to school and the stress that comes with that, or keeping them home and again, the stress that comes with that. 

I worry about the students that utilized school as their refuge from undesirable home life and will not have that in their life. 

There are worries left and right about going back to school, keeping kids home, and all of the inconsistency this Fall brings for us. 

But we do have one certainty we always know to be true- The teachers will show up. They will adapt to online learning, socially distant classrooms, and more. There may be anxiety and stress behind it, but they will show up. It has proven true time and time again, and with my own teacher friends I’ve followed on social media. Most of them have expressed their frustrations and concerns, but at the same time, I see them wearing masks and making their classrooms socially distant. They worry about their students too and how much they will miss if they are learning from home without the proper support. 

How is your school going back in the Fall? What are you worried about and what can you look forward to? 

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The Rallying For Student’s I’ve Witnessed Working Customer Service

To all of my loyal readers out there, I’m sorry I’ve been a little MIA the last few weeks. 

I’ve been working from home for my company, Honors Graduation, a graduation outfitters store. April and May are very busy for them with graduations all over the United States going on. This year, despite graduations being canceled all over the nation, they are still as busy as ever. I wanted to share a few things I’ve been able to witness as a customer service rep for them over the last few weeks. 

Parents ordering their student’s graduation items because schools are not handing them out with graduation being canceled. 

Schools are still ordering cords, caps, tassels, and more for students to keep. They are also paying extra to have them shipped to individual students so that they don’t have to go out to the schools to pick up the items. 

Grandparents, parents, club advisors, teachers, and schools have ordered embroidered custom stoles for their graduates who can’t have graduation this year. 

Parents working hard to put on virtual graduations for their kids, with family and friends tuning in via Zoom. 

Schools setting up virtual graduations via Zoom. 

Paying extra in shipping costs because schools have been moving graduation dates around. 

Parents buying all of the graduation essentials so that their kids can take graduation pictures. 

So many custom stoles ordered to provide graduates with as much recognition as one can give at this time. 

Overall, working for this company I have seen first hand how hard everyone is working to recognize our graduates during this uncertain time. Working customer service is obviously full of unhappy customers with a problem- that is why customer service exists! But on those occasions where someone tells me their heartwarming story of their college graduate who worked so hard to achieve this goal, and how they just want to purchase a cap and gown so that she can have something to remember this by. 

When someone thanks us for being open during this crazy time so that they can still have their needs met. 

I know times are crazy and uncertain right now, but I can’t help but to slow down myself and see everyone rally together. It’s incredible. 

How have you witnessed a greater collaboration of a society? Whether on a larger scale or in a smaller, community scale? How have you shown your graduate recognition during this time?

If you are or know of a graduate that could use some encouragement during this time, check out my open letter to college graduates part one and part two.

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COVID-19 Time Capsule For Kids

A mom somewhere out there with kids at home during this global pandemic recognized an opportunity for keeping a record of the history that is being made right now as we speak. She created a FREE printable of a time capsule for kids to fill out. It’s all information that someday they can look back on and serve as a memory for this time in our lives.

Here’s what the time capsule looks like, and how I’m doing it with my 2.5 year old daughter.

This is only four of the 11 included pages full of great information for your child to fill out. And it’s doable with tiny kids that can’t write too! Our time capsule looks a lot of scribbling and random marks with me filling in information that my daughter reiterates to me. I ask her all of the questions and try to fill in exactly what she says.

I pulled out the crayons for her to add some color, but having a pen to use was much more exciting to her, so we went with it! I love that this time capsule is so her right now and that years down the road we can look back and remember her obsession with pens and Doc McStuffins. It’s also easy to do one page, then come back when you’re ready to continue with the rest of the pages. No rush in getting it done fast- the pandemic seems to be taking its sweet time!

The mom who made this has taken over the internet quickly with how popular it became, if you Google “kids COVID time capsule” you can see news article after news article about her and how generous she was in sharing this with the world!

Go ahead and share this fun activity with your kids, your friends, neighbors, and students! They are going to love it just as much as we are. You can find the link to download the time capsule printable here.

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Just Checking In With The Teachers, How Are You Doing?

We made it through *roughly* a month of shutdowns across the world due to COVID-19. You out there as teachers, parents, and educators in any way, how are you holding up? How are you doing?

This isn’t easy for majority of us. Us as the teachers, our students, or the faithful parents trying to step in while we can’t be there.

I know we are all worried about our students with fewer resources at home such as WiFi or lack of usable devices for school work. We’re wondering what impact this is going to have on our classrooms next year. We’re knee-deep in the unknown right now, how have you been doing through all of this?

We all need grace right now. Give yourself grace, give your students grace, and give your own children grace.

Stay safe and wash your hands.

No but really, how are you doing?