Skip to main content

The new world of the online teacher...

Yesterday morning I checked my school emails. I had a few in backlog so I was tidying my inbox up and getting everything into the right folders. I love an organised inbox. Anyway, as I was scrolling through, putting some emails into folders and deleting some, I noticed normality of previous life fluttering in. Emails like when they tell us that a car park is being cordoned off for visitors or the notice of a new CPD session or when the reception and office will be open. Emails that happen as a part of normal life at school. They stopped. All these 'normal' emails made me feel a twang of normalcy which we're craving so much since the outbreak of Covid-19. It's changed everything. We are all getting used to this change. We are forming a new normal.

Education has been flipped on its head. However, what teachers are good at is adapting to change. We have to. Every year, pupils surprise us, technology advances our classroom practice and we have to learn to adapt or get lost in it all. I haven't really had much contact with school since being on Maternity Leave apart from popping into school to visit a few fellow mums who live on site. 
Last week felt like it lasted 10 years. It'll be etched in our memories because we are learning new ways to live for the foreseeable future. This is what it must feel like for when our Year 9s enter our school and our world. New ways of living, a complete overhaul of normalcy. New people; a strange feeling of isolation. If anything, this change will bring empathy and a time when we all long for community spirit to thrive once again. 

This morning I felt strange about how I'm having to survive with a 7 month old at home. I was worried that the games I'm creating for her are boring and she'll end up under-stimulated. Coming on to check my work emails has made me realise that she is fine. She will always be fine if she's surrounded by love at home with her Mummy and Daddy. We are her world. To some of those children at school, we were their world too. They must be adapting and changing to their new education, too. As I scrolled through school life in my lounge, what I realised was the reason why I felt a bit strange was because I was under-stimulated. Yes, I go for a walk in the day, but it's not enough. I have to remind myself to do the things I love and not get caught up in doing everything for everyone else. It's easy to forget about your own mind when you're so worried about others. I was so busy trying to create fun all day for her that I forgot about myself. I forgot that I thrive on being a teacher. 

So, I've made a list of things I do for me so that when I feel like it again (it's something I have to do every now and then) I can come back on here and remind myself - or, it might give another teacher an idea to try while stuck between online lessons:
  1. Reading a chapter of a new book a day. I'm about to go sit out in the garden and read once I've finished this post (Olive and Oscar are out for a walk). Then post a review when I've finished.
  2. While teachers rest, I plan to keep myself up to date as I feel like been out of the loop. I feel a bit behind. I feel a bit lost when all the other teachers are going through a really hard time. So I want to try and be prepared (plan below).
  3. Volunteering with Age UK (I've got a lady to call a few times a week who is 87)
  4. Writing to my pen pal in New York (she's a fashion designer and I first started writing to her when I was 11 and we've recently taken it up again).
  5. Doing a book exchange with the wife of one of Oscar's old work colleagues who we met in Canada and they live in Florida. We're sending each other books from our own bookshelves that we think we might like.
  6. Making our first sourdough loaf. Then making another. Then making another.
  7. Remember that we will all enjoy a BBQ together at some point and the world will feel ok again. Oh, and school will go back to a new normal one day.

(2 continued)
What I plan to do over the Easter Holidays (apart from bake bread, of course):

And lastly...keep strong, teachers. We've got this.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Through the bleak grows hope: January 2025

One of my friends said to me last week that January is for organising. She's a vegetable gardener. More will follow about this later, but currently, I'm upstairs in our bedroom after a very average sleep.  --- I managed the above three sentences before I was interrupted. It's now very common with three little lives that come bursting in on me in the morning. We had to get ready for the school run so off I went to convince them to stand still for more than a few minutes just to get them changed. I rudely interrupted their game of MumandDad. They really have the sweetest games. But this post isn't about 3-4 year old games. As always, I never know where this writing will take me but I have a vague idea and I know that I need to write. So I write.  I'll crack straight on with this first post since March 2024...my mission is to use this blog to write every month. I have showered and dried my hair. Alone. A luxury in this Mum world I'm currently in. It isn't just ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Another New Chapter: Full of surprises...

I'm writing this when I should be hanging the washing out. Logging on has made me realise that I haven't written since last year. It was on a book about the independent sector of education. I have had a lot of eye opening and life changing moments since that last post.  Firstly, we are expecting our third baby...it still seems surreal to be writing that. I feel so lucky and overwhelmed with how busy our house will be and how much love can be in one home. A total surprise and I now have to navigate another fork in the road of my teaching career. Sometimes, life takes over and you just have to surrender to the family. It reminds me to slow down: how I'm here to love them, our children, and not my job. Yes, we have the most ginormous toddler tantrums with our middle one, but the cuddles she can give are just phenomenal. I wish I could cuddle her at this age forever. Our eldest is getting ready for school in September and is nearly 5. She is just so grown up. I wish I could rem...
Post a Comment
Read more

First, Second, and Third Summer Reads, 2019: Donoghue, Westover, Rooney

Here marks the first three books of my summer reads 2019. The reviews seem to get longer and longer the further into the summer I go (maybe my brain starts to be more productive after being zapped of any energy with the busy GCSE preparations). So, firstly, a parent of an influential, talented pupil suggested the following novel to me last year during Parents' Evening. The following week, I gave the book to her daughter as a present and I've finally got the time to read it. This young lady in particular is an amazing writer and I hope she continues to read, write, and love the cathartic sense of writing. 1. Room by Emma Donoghue A few days in to summer holidays and the first read was already finished. I clearly wanted to indulge into a non set text novel. I whizzed through in a few days whilst I recovered from a busy summer term. I was impressed with the narrative voice and the storyline is shocking. At the beginning, it was brilliantly written from a young boy whose ...
1 comment
Read more