January 2022
Last year was the most challenging year of my teaching career. The pandemic changed how we needed to look at education. Having to go online and teach virtually was not only difficult, it also caused me to question my future as an educator. Thankfully we only had to teach virtually for a short time and were able to return to the classroom but those thoughts from that experience made a strong impression on my philosophy of education. That’s why when I decided on January 3rd that our school must pivot to virtual learning, it was one of the most difficult decisions I had to make this year.
The holiday break was great. Everyone was able to spend much needed time with friends and family. With that though was the potential for exposure to Covid. We returned to school on the Monday after New Years and were informed of a case amongst the student body. With such a small student population it became clear right away that we were going to end up with some close contacts. We got through the day after having to send some students home from school but still needed to contemplate our next move. I was on the fence all afternoon about whether or not to go virtual. I figured maybe we could hold out one more day and see what Tuesday would bring. Just then I got an email from the LMAS health department informing me of more cases amongst our student body. It was at that moment I knew what I had to do.
I called all of the teachers back to the school and informed the staff that we were going to go virtual for at least the rest of the week. I knew it was the right decision but it didn’t make it any easier. We worked into the night prepping, preparing, scheduling, and communicating. We once again worked as a team and pivoted to virtual learning starting Tuesday, January 4th. After learning about even more cases amongst our school population over the next few days it was determined in our best interest to continue our virtual learning through the following week. The last thing I wanted to do this year was to have to do virtual learning and here I was with very few options staring down two weeks of kids at home on their laptops.
I once again can’t say enough about the people who work at this school. From the teachers who made the best of a terrible situation, to Jane cooking meals for families to be delivered by Lou, to Olivia having to take on extra pupil accounting work, to Gary taking my calls and keeping the snow at bay. Everyone came together to work the problem and we got through it. With anything challenging you can find light in the darkness. Though some students really liked being online, for the ones that didn’t they came to realize how much school means to them. When we finally returned in person on January 17th, it was like a weight was lifted from our shoulders. You could just sense the relief throughout the school in things returning to normal.
Covid in a lot of ways has changed how we live but it has also reinforced just how important in-person learning is. Schools can change and should strive to be innovative in their programs and offerings but one thing in education will always stay the same: there’s no substitute for live, in-person instruction.
Some shots below from our first week back in person
