Looks like we made it

W
e graduated the 2020 seniors and we made it through nine weeks of online learning with all grades from seniors down to preschool students. 
No one asked for this, no one wanted this, but we all did it. It wasn’t perfect by any means. Students struggled, teachers struggled and parents struggled.
Making the switch from face-to-face learning to the online format with no background and very little notice was certainly challenging, but administrators, secretaries, teachers, paraprofessionals and students worked together and adjusted pretty quickly.
As I walked into my classroom on Tuesday, the calendar on my bulletin board caught my eye — it was still on the month of March.
The last time I saw my students in real life was 10 weeks and five days ago, and I’ve only seen my room a time or two since March 16.
It’s been all very surreal.
I remember vividly the first three weeks following the shut down. No one knew what we were going to do, but we were all hoping to be back in the classroom soon.
Obviously, that did not come to pass. As cases of COVID-19 continued to rise across the country and across Wyoming, and as each new Monday saw us still at home it began to appear as though this “thing” could last a while.
We went from the shock of cancelling the 3A/4A State Basketball Tournament just as it had begun on March 12, then postponing the spring sports seasons, to finally calling off soccer and track altogether.
We ventured into online education on the fly with little to no experience teaching in that format. Fortunately, I had been using Google Classroom as an online venue for disseminating homework and study materials already, so students were accustomed to that method of turning in assignments.
However, teaching my students through Zoom and in only half-an-hour was certainly a new prospect for me.
I tried to make my requirements as simple as possible, hosting a Zoom meeting for each of my classes twice a week with the times remaining constant.
I offered some flexibility if students had conflicts. In the event they were unable to make their regularly scheduled meeting, I would invite them to another so they would be able to get instruction on the content.
I must admit that my emotions were a little up and down throughout this whole process. At first I was confident we could manage pretty well, but then the reality of trying to provide online learning for so many individuals with varying degrees of connectivity and other issues became evident.
It wasn’t going to be so easy after all.
It feels like a lifetime ago that I was in my classroom with my students, and that online learning lasted a lifetime. 
At the same time, as I sit in my classroom checking out my juniors, it feels strange that it is over already. 
I know I am not alone in hoping that school will resume normally in the fall and that we can get back to life as we knew it.
But for now … it looks like we made it!