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:
- 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.
- 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).
- Volunteering with Age UK (I've got a lady to call a few times a week who is 87)
- 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).
- 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.
- Making our first sourdough loaf. Then making another. Then making another.
- 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):
What I plan to do over the Easter Holidays (apart from bake bread, of course):
- Teaching myself how to online teach using these links:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/11/helping-teachers-students-switch-remote-learning/
https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2020/03/15/how-to-teach-online/ - Keeping all my documents on OneDrive and polishing it up so it's all neat
- Remembering how to use OneNote (I started with IT before I left but I've forgotten. I added classes but ended up not using it as I fell pregnant and it got hard to keep up new projects. I remember it being easy to add new documents for classes and it's a good way to save trees so they can access all the work for each topic before lesson or for revision instead of flicking through their folders. I'm hoping I can copy folders over from OneDrive but I'll check with IT when I'm back on my teacher feet again).
And lastly...keep strong, teachers. We've got this.
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