Nobody expected us to be sheltered in place for 8 weeks straight, let alone, be teaching our student body all online. From the first week, we proudly dived in head first. It was a lot of learning and adjustment for the teachers, our staff, our students and their parents. During Teacher’s Appreciation Week, we thought it would be a great time to share our experiences and thoughts on our new Sustained Learning environment.
The world is inundated with the pandemic news, on top of many of us experiencing cabin fever alone or with our loved ones; both come with many challenges. Being able to meet with our students in this digital day and age has been a light in our days. Meeting their pets online, seeing their posters on their walls, and giggling with them during discussions has brought a new sense of meaning to what teaching is about. As teachers, many of us look forward to the holidays and our summers off; today, we look forward to physically going back to school to see our students.
One teacher said she feels cheated for the shortened year she experienced with her great class. The first few weeks was more work than usual for everyone - tons of lesson planning, coordinating schedules, and even learning all the apps or programs available to make teaching easier and learning better for the students. Teaching in a virtual environment can be challenging and frustrating; Mrs. McCarthy shared “the best part of being a teacher is feeling connected to our students”... And many of us couldn’t agree more.
As we close out this week of receiving so much love from our students, colleagues and the Corpus Christi family, we want to focus on gratitude amidst chaos and uncertainty. Grateful for our strong bond; that we will all come back home to each other. Grateful for access; that most days, most of us are able to connect with each other through emails, Google Classroom, class meetings, calls and texts. Grateful for health and for safety. But most of all, grateful for the passion God has put in our hearts in being a part of our students’ lives and their education. This is what we were meant to do; we are teachers and we are proud to be yours.