So Much Turmoil

So Much Turmoil

This week, there has been so much written and so much said about went start schools and how to start schools and what to do when we start up the schools. Earliest in the week, while out walking with Marlene, I crossed paths with two former colleagues who live in our neighbourhood and I made reference to the fact that there was so much discussion about when to start and if to start and so forth. I suggested that I was so thankful I was not in a classroom anymore.  I don't know what I would have done had I been dangling at the end of a lifeline like so many classroom teachers are right  now.  I confess that I would have been fine with the online learning because I was doing that at least twenty years ago and I have already suggested to friends who will have to teach online at the university level in the fall, that I can help them figure their way through the issues especially with assessment. So, I 'd be just fine with online learning. But I am a very tunnel focused individual and I would be at loose ends knowing what was going to happen in the fall. If it were me, I'd be advocating for school all summer long.  We normally get about 10 or 12 weeks of holidays over the summer....ten for sure.....and we are not even at 10 weeks yet that schools have been out. I'd consider the summer vacation as equal to the time schools have been out now instead.  So when schools can open, they ought to open and get the kids back to school.  They'll be tired come next June, but that's fine. It's amazing how quickly kids adapt and we certainly could, as teachers, keep kids busy for twelve months, instead of ten or even nine in some places.  So first  of all, make sure the schools are clean and will be kept clean after each day of teaching, let the run seven days a week or six days a week and keep them clean over night.  Let students come and have two or three shifts of teachers and thinks bout teaching as individuals, rather than classes. WE ought to be individualizing anyways.  So, I'd sit in my classroom all day, and have meetings with my students and tailor their tasks to where they are at ability wise.  Schedule them to meet every day at the same time and provide places where students can work if they need supervision or let them return home after they know what they need to do. The whole problem is that we are so used to school five days a week, ten months a year, when kids learn and can attend for periods of time every day, every week, every month.  Schools and their staffs should be working with the students in their neighbourhoods as individuals and only come together as classes when they are ready and if there is a necessity. So much of what can be done is that much harder because we are stuck in ruts as a system.  Hopefully some insightful administrators will figure out ways to use the summer months ahead to help students recoup the time lost because of the pandemic.  There is just no other way that is logically out there.