Finally, this school year is over [View all]

[QED]

I have never been so exhausted and in need of a break. Earlier this week, the stress I'd been ignoring started coming out. But finally, it's over.

When we returned to in person teaching, we went to a block schedule. Instead of seeing each class for ~1 hour/day we saw them on alternate days for ~2 hours to minimize the number of students in halls, etc. The problem with this is that teenagers can only absorb so much before shutting down. To keep them engaged, I had to modify nearly everything. Lessons needed to be a little bit longer and then have students practice more. At first, we were to keep students 6 feet apart on tables 4 feet wide. We were to minimize interaction to minimize transmission. Even so, students were contact traced and quarantined necessitating having a google meet open and including the quarantined students in discussions. That was on and off through the year. One of my students was quarantined three times due to contact tracing! All work needed to be in google classroom - which works fine but it was essentially double work to do that and provide materials for students in person.

All through the year we were reminded of the stress on students, and rightly so. But the stress on us was barely acknowledged. We heard of parties students had with no social distancing or masks adding to our fears of contracting the virus. The stress did ease up a bit after we were vaccinated so we felt safer. But yeah, I'm supposed to be the grown up and handle the stress. I did, bottling it up, focusing on students. And now...it's my turn to just let it all go.

Thank you for listening.