Time Warp Year

My sense of time is so warped. When I try to remember when, within the past year, something happened, I usually can't. All I can say for sure is that it was after the pandemic shut down my school last spring. Whether it's talking to the vet about my dog's injury, or my doctor about when I had my two COVID tests because I was experiencing symptoms (both came back negative) I just am not sure when things happened. In my head it's still January. Really. It takes me by surprise, daily, that we are already at the end of April.

This distorted sense of time is my new reality. Days, weeks, and months feel like they are crawling at a snail's pace while simultaneously feeling like they're flying by. I don't know how that's possible, but it is. This school year has been going on FOREVER. But how is it possible that we are already talking about our final units of the school year? On Tuesday I feel like the previous weekend was in the distant past and don't know how I'll make it to the end of the week. But on Wednesday I'm grateful that the week feels almost over. The latter is due at least in part to my school's asynchronous Friday schedule that allows me to sleep in and work from home. After a half hour homeroom zoom on Fridays, I spend the rest of the day in meetings with my partner teacher, my grade band's writing teachers, and the IB coordinator while fielding student questions in Google Hangouts, planning for the following week, and trying to catch up on grading. 

We finally took school pictures this week. But due to COVID protocols, we did not do a formal class picture, just individual ones. I had a few parents email me, lamenting the lack of a class photo to commemorate this crazy year. So after recess one day, I spaced us all out on the stairs leading to the "big field" and had the recess supervisor take our picture.

My students pray daily for a cure for COVID, for a vaccine for kids, for everyone who is sick, for an end to wearing masks. I do my best to keep it all light hearted, but when I see students playing with their masks or pulling them down, I will stop class and direct them to wear their mask properly and use hand sanitizer. Students need to use hand sanitizer before entering the classroom EVERY time. After recess I run around telling students, "It's SLIME time!" Even after hearing this for months, I still get a giggle or two every time. Although the students need constant reminders about our protocols, they are working. After four months of in person learning we have not had an outbreak in the building.

By and large the kids are done with the subjects that don't hold their interest. Their effort is waning. I have at least two students who suffer from extreme lack of focus after lunch every day. They are no longer capable of doing their best work for the subjects taught in the afternoons. The beautiful weather makes wearing masks more uncomfortable and serves as a reminder to the kids that it's almost summer. Their version of almost doesn't match my own, and not just because in my head it's still January. We are planning our final units of the school year, but we haven't started teaching them yet. We have seven weeks left where we are. It's going to be a long spring.