Day 12: Adjusting to a new school
There were some touch-and-go moments, but we’ve made it through our first official week of distance learning.
Hannah gobbled up every opportunity to learn and do the worksheets provided by her teacher, reminding us all to take a “body break” partway through the morning, because “that’s what we do at school.”
For the older kids, completing assignments for their teachers was almost a treat compared to the aimless reading and watching of videos during their first week of social distancing. It was particularly welcomed by Christian, who finished everything sent to him by Thursday afternoon and actually chose to email his math teacher, who had offered to provide him with additional work, for new math problems.
Whose kid is this? Certainly not mine. I live by the motto, “I’m an English major, you do the math.”
Speaking of which – I was beyond relieved when I remembered my high school students had each done math in their first semesters. I may have been okay with numbers back in my day, and I can handle some basic algebra and trig (enough to help my Grade 7 kid who doesn’t need help) but finding the sine, cosine or tangent of angles – there’s something about a hypotenuse in there, right? – is definitely not up my alley.
They’re all working on English and language arts, and that I can handle. Want help with that Romeo and Juliet? You got it. The Outsiders? Awesome book. I’ll edit anything you write, help you decipher the text – honestly, let me at it.
It’s now Friday afternoon, and they’re all finished with what was assigned this week. The only one still poring over books is Brooke, who is working on a King Lear assignment she was given before this whole COVID-19 thing. She’s being fairly diligent about it, but not being in a classroom makes it difficult to stay motivated sometimes.
Grade 12 was definitely never meant to look like this, not for my girl. But she’s pushing through the best she can.
Last week there were lessons I’d learned as we adjusted to our new home-work-life situation. This week, the kids had a few a-ha moments of their own.
Brooke: As much as I thought I had troubles focusing at school, it’s nothing compared to here. It’s not even that I’m distracted by my stuff, but at school I’m “supposed” to be doing stuff, but here I’ll go to work and just sit in front of a computer for 10 minutes not doing anything – that’s always been the case for me at home, even with studying for exams.
Alyssa: It’s easier than being in a classroom, because if I understand something I don’t have to sit through other people having questions answered for half an hour. I can move on when I want to. At the same time though, at least for me, it’s sometimes harder to get a full understanding of the lesson from just a few slides. It’s easier to make connections when the teacher is giving the lesson.
Christian: I like being able to do my own thing and tackling whichever subject I feel like instead of sticking to a class schedule. (Clearly he’s a man of many words).
I forgot to ask Hannah before she went to her dad’s for a couple days, but it’s clear she’s missing the socialization and regular routines of the kindergarten classroom – the hands-on aspect of play, visual learning and sharing, and little things like the songs or poems they would learn.
We try. We work with her, next to her, help her and entertain her, but it could never emulate her regular school activity. For one, her teacher is suddenly Mom, who is suddenly doing three full-time jobs at once every day – reporter, parent and educator all at once – and that is not the same as a dedicated teacher.
They’re all missing their friends and peers – even the ones who may have annoyed them in class. And they miss their teachers, seeing them every day, listening to (sometimes bad) jokes and random facts, feeling their support and a general sense of normalcy.
I get it. I miss my colleagues, too. It’s different when I want to run an idea past someone and it means an email or phone call instead of talking it out in-person. Collaboration has taken on an entirely different meaning.
With this first week of distance learning under our belts, I’m hoping next week will be even better. We’re slowly getting used to this new normal.
Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca
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