This is not a vacation
Last August, I loosely planned out my entire school year for my two and three year olds. While I do deviate from my plan from time to time, especially given the curricula classes I'm taking, I tend to follow it most of the time.Because I'm that organized, I entered all my lesson titles into Google Calendar. Every morning, usually when I'm finishing my coffee, I get a reminder on my phone of the topic I was planning to teach that day.
A couple of times since schools were closed in our state, a person close to me, and an essential worker, has expressed that I should be grateful for this extended vacation. But this is not a vacation. It's not even like a normal break. It's a completely unscheduled stop to the work that we, as teachers, had planned months ago. Depending on what state we're in, we don't know how long this will go on, or if we'll even get back this school year. The uncertainty may be the worst part, and I check in for news from our office of public instruction every day. I don't miss a press conference from our governor. I want to get back this school year, but I don't think we will, and I just want to know. Meanwhile, we're working from home. Although I don't have to set up an online classroom or grade assignments, I struggle with the fact that early learning is NOT easily accomplished with streaming storytimes and remind messages. I am doing the best I can, and it is so far from what I planned to give the beautiful little people entrusted to me. I ask my readers...does this sound like a vacation to anyone, even if I am baking more and playing Pokemon Go (six feet from other people)?
If you have a teacher- or instructor of any type- in your life, please be sensitive to what they're going through right now. Don't tell them you're jealous of the "break" or "vacation"they're on right now. They can't wait to be back at work, doing what they love.
posted by gojirama @ 2:57 PM
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