Both my kids ended up getting my cold. My daughter was home on Tuesday and Wednesday and my son out of school on Thursday and Friday. I felt under the weather for most of the week (the first cold you’ve had since the pandemic started doesn’t play), but since there were already multiple teachers out without coverage, I kept going to work and my husband covered the kids instead. He was able to work while our daughter was home, but had to take the day on Thursday when our son stayed home. On Friday my father graciously offered to watch our son at their house, because it was clear he wasn’t as sick as my daughter or I had been.
By the end of the week both my husband and I were totally wiped – me from working while I was sick all week and him for covering the kids while trying not to fall too far behind. My husband was supposed to be away at a music festival this week*, which really made the whole disruption harder to manage mentally and emotionally. Instead of getting a break with friends he was home with sick kids, wondering if he was going to get what everyone else had. It sucked, and I tried to give him as much support as I could while feeling like shit on a shoe myself.
And now it’s Monday and we need to start all over again with another week. Hopefully this week will be easier.
The weekend was definitely better. Both kids were on the mend and their tests had come back negative. When my inlaws decided not to take our son on Sunday as planned, I was able to organize a last minute trip to the zoo with a new friend from school, which he really enjoyed. His birthday is in less than a month, and the weeks leading up to his big day are always hard for him. This year is no exception, so I’m going to need to be really proactive about planning things on the weekends so he doesn’t have as much down time.
I have planned a small birthday party for him, and reserved a tee time, and cabaña hour for pizza and cake at a little mini gold spot he loves. He really wanted to go to Dave and Buster’s but we’ve told him we’re not going anywhere near that place until he’s vaccinated. There is nowhere I’d rather be less right now than in an enclosed box, that receives no sunlight and surely suffers from poor ventilation, touching a million video games that probably never even get wiped down. I’m already not a fan of Dave and Buster’s, so I don’t mind saying no during a pandemic. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to celebrate there later in life. And this year, two hours outside with friends before the time changes feels like the perfect compromise.
His actual birthday is on a Friday, when he has soccer practice in the late afternoon, so we’re planning on having pizza and cupcakes after that to celebrate with his team. This will help quell the feelings of guilt I have that we can’t invite more of his new friends to the smaller party.
Halloween costumes are also ordered, so I feel on top of all things October, at least for my family. And it’s nice to feel on top of something because in most areas of my life I feel woefully behind.
SHU’s recent posts have me thinking a lot about work, and how much time I spend doing it. As a teacher who has a ton of free reign to teach what and how I want, there are literally endless opportunities for me to spend time on work related tasks. At the same time, there is also almost no oversight; as long as my students have seen certain topics by the end of two years of my class, I’m pretty much golden. I set high standards for myself; I want to teach in ways I know are effective, especially since my students will be taught out of a textbook once they hit high school (not at all effective). It’s also hard to be realistic about what is necessary and what is too much when I’m kind of the only person I know teaching foreign language (what a sad realization!)
{I do have to make sure my class is popular enough to sustain student interest. If that is an indication of success, then I’m doing really well right now because I have more kids enrolled in Spanish than ever before. This is the first year I’ve taught all Spanish classes only at my school (I’m not longer teaching a class at the other middle school). So I guess I have that going for me. It can be hard not to get meaningful feedback from anyone, but I suppose having a ton of students (and/or their parents) wanting my class is it’s own feedback).
The program I’m using to provide comprehensible input is really good. It’s also super time consuming and energy intensive. The creators of the program insist it be used every day, but I never entertained the idea because I knew I didn’t have the stamina for that. Instead I use it about half the time, and fall back on other materials that give the students more work in class, while giving me more moments of down time during the school day. On language acquisition days I need to be engaging my students with Spanish they can understand for most of the period. On language learning days there are more “practice worksheets” and other activities they can do on their own, or in groups. Right now I’m doing more language acquisition with the one class I have for three periods, and less with the higher class I only have once. Next month that will switch. So I am trying to be strategic about managing my workload. But it’s still hard, and being the only foreign language teacher in my district, I struggle with perspective.
Right now I’m making it work, but it feels like a house of cards. Having said that, the house is still standing despite all the set backs we’ve encountered so far this fall. Maybe I’m more on top of things than I realize. The beginning of the school year always feels overwhelming. Everything takes more work because the kids are still learning procedures and every assignment requires copious amounts of direction and support. This year that is true even for the higher level class because they never met with me in person last year. I guess it makes sense that it all feels so energy intensive right now. Also, my 6th graders are meeting every day, not on an alternating A/B schedule, which is something I’ve NEVER done in 18 years of teaching. I’ve been surprised how long it’s taking me to find a rhythm that feels good with that class, but I suppose that is also understandable.
I don’t know where I’m going with all this. I guess I just wanted to articulate that it’s hard, but I also recognize that maybe it doesn’t have to be this hard? At the end of the day I need to have plans for 240 minutes worth of class time a week for each of my three distinct levels. Language acquisition is more time consuming before hand and during class. Language learning is always more time consuming during class than I think it will be (kids need more support than I anticipate) and more time consuming afterward (the work they do needs to be scored more carefully). I think the mix I’m using makes sense, but there may still be even more I could do to lighten my work load. Right now I’m using my time really wisely at school, and working at home pretty minimally. I’m way better at using downtime during the day to get meaningful tasks completed, which means I don’t fall behind as quickly. Maybe I need a straightforward goal. Maybe right now I will say that I will keep tweaking things until I only bring home 3-5 hours worth of work a week. Then, once I’ve achieved that, I can try to bring at home work time down to 1-2 hours a week. That would be pretty fantastic.
I also have to remember that my higher level class is working through new content this year, and that always requires more prep time. Maybe this year I have to accept that prep will take a little longer, knowing that next year it will be a lot easier (because the main prep work will be done, and I’ll only be tweaking things, which I’m always doing).
I also have to accept that the disruptions from kid sickness and close contact quarantines will throw me off and set me back. I am taking steps that will make it easier for me to be out at a moment’s notice, but there is nothing I can do to make bring the prep of being out down to zero.
I knew this year was going to be better, but not easier. Now I need to figure out I can make it more manageable, so that maybe some day it will be easier.
How is work for you these days? How has this second pandemic fall been treating you?
*He and his friends decided to cancel their trip because of how crazy community spread has been in the area of the South, where the festival was located. Three of the four friends have young children who can’t be vaccinated at home, and they decided it wasn’t worth the risk of bringing Covid home.
Glad the group of men decided to cancel for safety. That had to have helped but yes, it is hard to not get a time you have been looking forward to. Also hard to fall behind at work for ANY reason for everyone.
Impressed by your breakdown on time management, found it educational to read. I think you are doing wonderful work at making your world more reasonable while doing more than I think most people can manage.
Congratulations.
PS: What lovely compromises about the birthday celebration!
as teacher you are front-line. myturn.ca.gov Kaiser isn’t ready (AGAIN) (maybe on Wednesday) but you can get booster if not moderna NOW.
The time investment you’re making sounds like a LOT and your students are very lucky to have you. I also hope that you find a way to make it more manageable because hopefully you’ll be doing this for as long as you want to.
Work is just this side of scream inducing with staffing issues and dealing with management issues and so on. My hope is we get through this rocky period intact before the holidays or by the holidays. I need an end in sight so that I can stop feeling like such a tightly wound spool of rope about to snap.
Your description of high school language and textbooks reminded me the differences between year 1 and year 2 of German at my school. The first year, I had my AP English Teacher who had never taught German before, and it was awesome. He did so many creative things. We listened to (and translated) 99 Luftballoons, we were immersed in German in his class, and I don’t think I missed a single point the entire year. (And I became the resident tutor) but, my 2nd year I had the usual German teacher and it was all textbook, don’t use any part of speech you haven’t been officially “taught” yet, watching 20 year old filmstrips. It wasn’t nearly as much fun- and while I still got A’s I never enjoyed it as much as that first year when we learned everything. So, all that is my way of saying I love creative language teaching.