Back to the Grind

Jkjk. Kind of. Today we "started back" on a digitized basis. Core teachers (that's me!) had a staff meeting this morning via Zoom, which was quite the experience! I wasn't sure what to expect since I had only conducted meetings with one or two individuals, not 100.  The meeting went pretty well but the most entertaining part for me was looking at all of the thumbnails of teachers. I didn't know a lot of them but those I DID know made me laugh. One of them, my AP counterpart, was sitting in front of a window so it made him all shadowy. He looked like he was basically in the witness protection program and testifying on video. When we did our team meeting later we brought it up and had a good laugh about it.

And then later tonight a kid sent me a message asking about grades and then said, "You have to see this!" and proceeded to send me a meme of my counterpart with a caption about witness protection. I was really disturbed for a while because how did a kid get that picture to make the meme? But then it was discovered that our principal tweeted about our meetings this morning and kids follow her and she basically handed them the material they needed so then it was back to being funny again. I said I didn't even want to know what kinds of memes were floating around about me but they assured me they'd never seen one of me...yet. This is one of a zillion reasons why my number one rule is "PHONES IN THE WALL POCKETS!"

Anyway, it was really good to be "back" and in communication again. It's going to be wild and crazy, a total adventure, but being able to collaborate and resume some sense of normalcy really does help. We all agree we have ZERO idea what the future holds but we've got each other's backs, which sounds super cheesy and all but it's true. Today I got a notification that my counterpart had added me to his Google Classroom for his kids and that was huge. He's used to kind of being an island and he told me, several months ago, how great it was to actually be part of a collaborative team. Since I'm all about acts of service and gifts of time, that legitimately made my year.

I posted a discussion board post today for my kids to answer. The question: "What is something you are grateful for right now? What "fills your cup" and brings you joy in this time of craziness?" The responses are trickling in and I'm so thrilled that very few of them have to do with superficial things like electronics, Netflix, technology, and so on. Most of them are writing about how great it is to have time with their families, to see and actually interact with their siblings and parents who are often in a zillion different directions, and a few also mentioned how grateful they were that they're so informed because of my NUMEROUS posts. One kid said, "You are so into making sure we know what's going on and have all of the information. You're treating it like a real college/digital experience and it makes us treat it more seriously." Nothing could have made my day more.

Until I saw the memes...and the one about how "Nine months from now I better not see Ko'Rona Vyress, 6lbs 5oz" because that one absolutely killed me. I still haven't stopped laughing.

Aubs