Tiger Pride

As my district finishes the last few weeks of remote learning, I am both relieved and in awe of the whole experience. Depending upon which parent group you listen in on, you might hear that Gardiner demanded too much of their students, too much of their staff or too much of their parents. I can sympathesize and recognize any of these hardships. With that being said, at the end of the day, I have nothing but pride for all that was attempted and achieved from March to now. You always hear in emergencies that a person has a fight or flight response. They either get crushed by the threat, or they adapt, remobolize and continue the original goal.

We started off with feeding families, which involved resources, planning and our biggest asset, our staff. I read something recently where Trader Joe’s put out a statement that said something like and I’m definitely paraphrasing, but it said something to the effect of we are not replacing our workers with machines, technology, self check out lanes, and curbside orders. We are going to continue using our best resource, which is the people we hired, as the epicenter of our management and production plan. This made me think of my gratitude to work in this district. Yes we have google meet, yes we handed out laptops, yes we gave areas for families to access technology, but it wasn’t the technology that has lifted this remote learning. That is just the tool. It is the teachers who initially panicked at the idea of listening to themselves read a story on camera and then plowed forward anyway. It is the ed techs who packaged hundreds of meals for families, who otherwise would have been in a dire situation. It is the technology team who met with hysterical second grade teachers, urging them on in their knowledge of google meet. It is the pre-k teachers who went and spent their own money on hands on materials, so that those 4-year-olds could still dig in the dirt. It is the school board, who insisted let’s continue to pay, value and invest in our staff. It is the PTA groups who said, we have these funds, how can we still invest in our kids. It is the high school principal and staff who said, how can we still honor our seniors and their families who have supported them along their journey? It is the parents who looked at that “new math” and instead of putting it through the shredder, took another sip of coffee and said well let’s give it a go. No one threw up their hands and said I played my cards and I came up with nothing. Everyone used what they had, challenged kids where they could, backed off when it was needed and supported when it was necessary.

I am not saying this to demonize districts or schools who followed a different road map, because let’s be honest, we all lost a GPS somewhere along the way, I am just saying, we did not fold, we did not lose momentum. We leaned on our people and our families and said trust us and THEY DID. It is all a beautiful thing. I saw this picture of one of our staff members at LER, and she works with special education students, students with autism, while also working another job, and she is standing in the entryway of LER, giving a heart signal to one of the non-verbal students that she works with and it is EVERYTHING. Imagine being a student who got to access the routine of school everyday and see her everyday and feel that warmth and feel that security. In a time when a lot of places went dark and said no entry, our district said here’s a flashlight and we will find each other in the in between.

Yesterday I was scanning my social media feed and I came across an image about what would be required for schools to be reopened. It was a laundry list of items and not thinking very deeply I shared the image and the reason that I shared it was because I was thinking, wow that is a long list, but at least it is a list. It is a starting point and let’s get to checking off the boxes. After I shared it, it gleaned such a response of negativity, that I immediately took it down. I have since seen it shared in several different locations and it really puts a bee in my bonnet. First of all, the heading of the list reads we might as well keep our kids in zoom lessons, which makes me want to barf on the sidewalk. Zoom is not the instrument everyone! The teacher is the instrument and I know I sound very up on my soapbox saying this, but look what we have done already, look what we have asked kids to do and they have done it. We have the gift of time on our side now and so don’t go shutting doors to school before we have even explored the options. Also, please don’t make the mistake I did and share lists and hysteria, to create more hysteria.

I haven’t been invited on any committees to open the schools back up and that is probably because I would have FAR too many opinions about it. But if I was , I am a pillar of creativity. For example we could try

-Giving less spots to pre-k, as hard as this would be. One class of 10 in the morning and one class of 10 in the afternoon.

-Moving to half day kindergarten for a time again. Each K teacher could have 7 or 8 kids in the am and 7-8 kids in the pm. I know this is not ideal, but kids could still get a read aloud, some phonics time and a short number sense lesson, with a meal provided (possibly in the classroom).

-First grade through fifth grade are trained on wearing masks and hand washing like crazy. Perhaps moving to desks instead of tables. Each student is assigned a chrome book and it is disinfected as much as possible and kept in the classroom. An additional staff member is assigned to each teacher as the other point person for indoor recess/lunch/emergency help. Students have individual bagged items of small toys and coloring tools for recess.

-If class sizes are crazy large, 10 students could come in am and 10 in pm or an every other day schedule. You might argue, how would this affect childcare. I would argue right back, it’s better than what you got.

-Students that are able, should be transported by car. This would not be everybody, but it would be a lot of kids and it would minimize the amount of kiddos that are on the bus.

-When kiddos do show symptoms, guardians have employment that listens, respects and honors them by asking them to stay home. This country has a sick, twisted record of rewarding people for going to work and school when they are sick and this needs an immediate overhaul.

– Educators become valued, respected and honored in a way they rarely have been before in this country.

What are your thoughts on my list and my nod to Gardiner pride? Do you share in my sentiment or are you drowning in negativity? Please comment directly on the blog or in my social media feed.