I am towards the end of the second week of Coronacation from school. Well, it is actually the 3rd week because we had spring break before the enforced hiatus from school. Did I struggle the 1st week- couldn’t focus, couldn’t get motivated, kind of hid away from the world and was sort of in shock maybe? Whatever the case may be, it took a week for me to get motivated to even check email. Now I am back to emails, thinking about lesson plans, reading posts on Facebook about online learning and trying to collaborate with colleagues, other foreign language teachers, and pretty much anyone with an idea.
Now that I have put my head back in the game, my mind is busy busy. I am an idea person. I have ideas throughout the day. I have been thinking about what school is- it’s a building with rooms and the rooms have desks and chairs. There is a focal point called the front of the room. This is usually where the teacher is. In this building we call school, students move from room to room. They are inside most of the day. I am inside most of the day.
This week I have started thinking about what school can be. Because now we are not in classrooms. We are at home. I am having discussions and reading about home learning, remote learning, online learning virtual classrooms and all sorts of other terms for what school is, in this new age of enforced homeschooling for all. OK, I know that’s not what it is, but it sort of is, what it is.
I haven’t set anything up for my students, except to have them go to the online resources I have already established for use in my classroom to supplement what I do. But, I am thinking. Do I use these resources now as learning opportunities? Or do I keep developing new things to present in new ways? And I realize that I can’t only provide online work for students because not all students have access to wifi or even technology. So, again, I start thinking of other ways to teach remotely. And I do this by going about my day thinking how would I incorporate what I am doing now into a learning experience? How could I take what I am doing in this moment and make it relevant or connect it to something I have already learned? These questions inspired me to seek answers.
I created a Facebook group and a google classroom for teachers at my school so we could start talking about ideas. So we could collaborate and throw ideas around. So far I have seen only a couple of people doing this. Not sure why no one wants to try to work together in this new environment we are in, but whatever.
I do realize though, that because I have always tried to move out of my comfort zone as a teacher, I am already comfortable with all the hazards I am about to face in trying new things. But, I realize many teachers are having a hard time with this new change. Before I go any further, let me say, I know this…we are all going to grow and learn and develop at different rates as educators…and I think this is awesome and I sure hope the people at the top realize this too. That we are ALL now learners. And sure, there are schools already embracing and working in this arena, others are barely getting their feet wet and everyone in between…sound familiar- this is how students are…we get all different learning abilities, learners at different stages of growth and development- we are now who we teach. Keep this in mind.
So, ideas and all that aside. What I want to talk about is the Comfort Zone. I fight against this all the time in my classroom. I am constantly trying to push my students out of the comfort zone. As their teacher, I am working outside my comfort zone. ANd I love it. I feel stagnant and I get bored when I am not being challenged or challenging myself…in good ways.
Before this “break” I was getting really bored and frustrated with education. I was realizing how much I didn’t want to be in the classroom anymore. I was becoming uninspired by the box I was working in…and not just the room I was in, but the whole educational system. For years I have been trying to promote change. Now I have finally reached the end of that…I no longer want to promote it…I want it to happen. And here I am. In the midst of, I am in it and having to face it head-on. I have ideas all over the place about how absolutely wonderful this tragedy could be for education. It is forcing us to take a longer harder look at what we do and ask the question- what REALLY matters?
Today I was inspired to think hard on this because a teacher was expressing frustration, or more what I saw as fear, about how to develop online learning and how stressful this will be. This teacher is damn good. But, she has been in the classroom doing a damn good job for a really long time. And, she IS in her comfort zone. Unless this teacher is willing to move outside that comfort zone, she will really be unhappy in this new learning environment.
Think it through- we are experiencing new things and not so new things in this isolated state we are existing in. I am experience renewed energy and passion for education. But, I am also experiencing fear…on many levels and about many things- going back inside the classroom, reverting back to the same old thing we have been doing for 200 years, not embracing this opportunity to really discuss and rethink what we do as educators, not taking the time we have been given to dialogue, problem-solve, and communicate. I am afraid that teachers will continue isolation…because it is what we are used to…we work alone in classrooms and we rarely collaborate. BTW- I have no fear of trying something new that may totally bomb and fail the first, second and third time I try it. Just saying.
More than fear, I have hope. Hope that more teachers will embrace change. They will crave conversing with their colleagues, They will want to take a chance, be creative, take a rise. This is probably the safest time to take a risk…because we are all going to have to do it. I am hopeful that people will pause and ask themselves…what do my students really need to know? What other skills can I help foster from home? I am hoping that we will ALL- the whole DAMN SOCIETY we live in, will come to realize how productive we can be in a day without it being an 8 hour day. How alive and happy we feel when we are rested, we get outside, our homes feel in order and we have time to be with our loved ones. I am hoping we will start to see how incredibly important these parts of life are and maybe we will even say these should be priorities.
Along with hope…I have foresight…I truly believe many of us will realize how much work we do that doesn’t matter. THat we fight against the system that isn’t working. That teachers will be taken seriously and given an even bigger voice. Because we WILL be the ones to deal with this problem, we are facing. We WILL be the ones that will do all the work to discover ways to teach our content in meaningful ways for our students. And if the higher-ups don’t listen to us…we will stand our professional ground.
I have been productive. Each day I get up when I am rested. I turn on my computer, drink coffee, connect with the people in my house. I walk outside and look at the sky, the trees, I feel the air and the breeze. I stop, I pause, I meditate. I calm my mind and fill my heart with this opportunity. I have to begin working hard on something that had been long in coming. I have been exercising and working at the same time. I pee when I need to pee. I eat when I am hungry, not when the bell tells me to.
And I keep hoping my students are getting to do the same…although I know they will connect to themselves differently, in ways that work for them. And that is what I want for them and how I want to teach them…I want to foster learning remotely by finding ways to help them find relevance in their daily life and make connections to what they have learned and are learning.
This is how life should be. I hope everyone is finding the good and moving out of their comfort zone to find new ways to just BE in the world. Embrace this change…it will impact us for a long long time. Let’s start the conversations, let’s collaborate, discuss, debate. Let’s talk about what matters most.
Educational Rant 
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