With Grace

Tales of the first week of school. Here are some things I saw and heard of from the first week of school 

• Hand sanitizer everywhere

• Kids (in-person) forgetting how to be around other kids

• Teachers adapting

• Kids who literally don’t see another live human being all day

• Kids not getting “let in” to a class all period. *Bonus craziness if it was during block schedule. 

• Some kids and teachers glad to be home and safe.

• Some teachers crying. 

• Some technology failing. 

• Great cleanliness processes 

• Younger kids melting down and having nightmares.

• Older kids being weirdly sweet and nice to their families. 

• Classrooms shut down due to Covid. 

• Schools not letting children bring school-issued computers to class (yes, really!)

• Plexiglass.

• Super-cute face masks.

• Teachers ghosting their jobs. 

• Canvas confusion

• A lot of Tech-Help tickets

• Creative teacher geniusness 

• Kids glad to see other kids 

• Everyone trying to figure out the “new normal” so we can get into routine. 

This “Home Learning Dome” below is a joke. It’s, sadly, not a real thing, otherwise, I would have put two on my credit card. But I wish it was real...

Y’all.Y’ALL!

I know we had to do a hard shift in the spring. And this is a whole ’nother giant adjustment. 

So this week, all I can ask you for is this. 

Grace. 

I ask that you give yourself and others around you grace. 

By grace, I mean goodwill, understanding, and kindness. 

This is not a normal year. So don’t treat it as one. Not at this point, anyway.

• Sure you normally start giving homework -- and grading it -- the second week of school. Show a little grace. Maybe wait another week. Or extend the due dates. 

• Sure, you normally have a certain set of expectations . It’s not “lowering expectations”. It’s giving a little grace when it takes the kids a little longer to learn those expectations. 

• I know you are a perfectionist and you expect yourself to have amazing lessons. But Canvas is new and it's hard to tell what’s going on behind the kids’ masks. And you have to sleep sometimes... Give YOURSELF a little grace. Let it go. Not every lesson can be an A+. It’s okay if this one is only a B. 

• Your administrator set up this wild schedule and it’s not what you wanted. It’s messy and hard to pull off. Show a little grace. They’re doing the best they can, too. 

• The parents are emailing you all the time, even sticking their faces into the screen to see what’s going on. Of course it makes you anxious. It’s so weird! They’re anxious, too. They’re worried if they made the right choice (about online or face to face learning). They’re worried about their kid. They’re trying to be involved (which they know they’re supposed to do). Give the parents a little grace.

• The kids at home have their cameras off.  It’s so hard to teach to a set of initials instead of to a face. But there are a million reasons why you can’t see those beautiful faces, starting with lack of cameras, moving to adolescent embarrassment about peers, and ending with home lives they don’t want others to see. Show grace and allow cameras to be off (although you might do a one-on-one conference with cameras on in the coming weeks and let the kid use a fun background, just so you can get to know their face).

• Your awesome lesson bombed because of technical difficulties. You worked so hard and the internet went down or the computer froze or Canvas acted up. You deserve grace too. S--- happens and you are still a wonderful teacher even when technology doesn’t cooperate. Take a breath. It’ll be okay. 

The only people you do not have to show grace to are the ones who use their anxiety to attack you in some way. If their anxiety turns into blame, bullying, unsafe behavior, or manipulation, then you do not have to show grace in that moment. You can walk away. But you can show grace. It feels good.  

But generally, we are all trying our best right now. Parents, students, staff, administrators, and teachers. We all want what’s best for our kids, with what we have to work with. 

Give yourself and others grace. Assume good intentions. Show understanding and give kindness. 

We will get through these first few weeks and we will figure out how to do this. It will get easier. And someday we will look back and tell people “I taught during the pandemic” and they will say “Holy crap! How did you do that?”

And you will say “We did it with grace” 

Have a better week than last week. 

Let me/us know how we can help. 

-Tracy