My district went back to school with in-person students (mostly) four days ago. It's pretty surreal. After staying home with little outside contact for five months, I wasn't sure things could ever go back to pre-Covid. Life isn't completely normal, of course, but it was a huge step this week. I feel like my district is taking the necessary precautions to protect staff and students as well. Being from a very rural area, our Covid+ numbers are tiny. We've only had 72 cases as a county the whole year, and we only have 8 current cases. I understand completely why urban areas should not be back in person, yet, but we live in a remote enough place to try returning to school with proper protections.
Covid protections have been very politicized in my county, so I was shocked this week to see every student following the school mask mandate without complaint. (Our city does not have a mandate, just an encouragement.) Kids are just so happy to be back in a socialized world. Their mental health really did need it. Our middle school lunch shifts are spread apart, but it was still the happiest I've seen any of our kids! They were literally beaming. Not all kids are back, yet, though. Families were given the option to distance learn. 10 percent of our families chose that option. It's been a whirlwind the past two weeks trying to prep what distance learning looks like. Our district had to focus on our levy vote failing throughout June and July, so distance learning plans started later than they should have. I found out just a week before school started that I have 11 distance learning gifted students in addition to my in-person students AND I found out I am now the middle school distance learning Electives facilitator . . . for ALL elective courses. It really is the best solution for our electives. I just wish I'd had a few more weeks of prep time. But if this is how I can carry some of the 2020 burden for my team, I'm happy to do so. In my next update, I hope to share with you all how distance learning is going both in gifted classes and electives. Stay tuned!
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AuthorSophie -- a teacher, mother, wife, traveler, reader, camper, and Mizzou Tiger Archives
July 2022
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