From the Inside Looking Out

One week ago, I was given 3 hours to go to school, clean up my room, and turn in my keys. When I walked out of the building on March 13, I had no idea that I wouldn't be returning this school year. My planbook was sitting on my table ready for the next week. My copies were in their folders waiting for Monday to arrive. The kids notebooks are sitting in their desks. It just felt like something was missing. Yes, we continued learning online for 8 weeks, but is just felt like we didn't get to finish. This school year will forever feel incomplete. I packed away all of the stuff that I care about in my closets. I tossed out all of the work that was never graded or never used. I cleaned out my desk, and only brought home a few things that I wanted to look at this summer in the event we get to start the school year off in the building. The one silver-ling, we didn't have to take down bulletin boards! Taking down bulletin boards to then just turn around and put paper and borders ri...

It’s been awhile. Life. Life has been busy, hectic, and confusing. I took a few weeks off from writing to prepare and enjoy our Disney trip and then boom, a national pandemic. As someone who has anxiety, my mind and heart have been racing. As a teacher, I’ve been trying to be that comfort zone. That place of safety in a scary, unknown world. As a mom, I’ve tried to continue our day to day lives and shelter them from the fear of the unknown. It’s scary out there. At first, I tried to downplay it all. This wasn’t a big deal, we will be fine. Then as more and more information comes out it really starts to make more sense and made me realize it is ok worry. I have quite a few family members above 60 years old. I fear for them. I fear for my son who already has respiratory issues. When schools shut down for 2 weeks I didn’t know how to feel. Sad? Scared? Happy? What I do know is that I’m going to enjoy this 2 weeks (at least) with my children and husband. I’m going to make ...

It's a brand new year which means that for many people it is time for a fresh start and new beginnings. Unless you are a teacher. January brings about a lot of feelings for teachers. We are feeling refreshed after winter break and excited that we are about to hit the halfway point in the school year. But January also brings about a time of anxiety and stress. Because we are about halfway through the year, the time comes when it seems like all we do is test, test, and more tests. I can speak for my current school I work in, we got back from break and our students took a mid-year reading assessment. Students who are considered ESOL begin taking their WIDA assessment which consists of multiple parts and multiple days of testing. We will be giving a Math Benchmark assessment and a mid year science assessment. Our students will also begin taking the SLO post-assessments, which are given in each subject area and used to assess the teacher. All of this testing occurs on top of still bei...