Mid-August Already!

 It's already the middle of August. Summer is flying by, even without the big trips we had hoped to make our yearly norm. I've already had several meetings in preparation for the new school year because I have taken on a leadership role within my building and the Archdiocesan school community. I am a teacher leader responsible for attending Archdiocesan meetings and bringing information back to my principal and helping to implement in our school. But I'm also a regional leader, acting as a liaison between 21 schools in my region and the Archdiocesan superintendent in charge of overseeing the program as a whole. It was fun making a slide to introduce myself to the group of teacher leaders during last week's kick off meeting. I was able to reminisce about some pretty cool professional development and think about what in my life matters enough to share with others.

My cat attending a meeting with me.

In the ramp up to the school year I'm glued to news from schools that are already in session in other parts of the country. Local soundbites say things like, "COVID cases on the rise as schools start to re-open." The back to school COVID anxiety feels more pronounced this year than last. The Delta variant is very different from the original strain of COVID that was circulating before the start of last school year. Several countries in Latin America apparently already have the Lambda variant as the dominant strain. Thus my hyper awareness to news of what's happening where school have already started up. My Facebook teacher groups have people reporting about COVID positive cases in their districts, buildings, and rooms. One said something along the lines of, "Well, we made it three days before going back to virtual."

Last year I knew I was starting virtually but didn't know when I was going back in the building. This year I'm planning and prepping as if I'm going to begin face to face and stay that way. There will still be masks and physical distancing (three feet instead of the six we attempted to maintain last year), and we'll likely use our shields while students eat in the classroom. But once we went back to the building last year, I didn't worry about returning to online school. This year, in the back of my mind I'm bracing for that possibility.

My partner teacher decided to leave classroom teaching two weeks ago. We've hired her replacement, a former co-worker of mine from a previous school. I'm excited to work with her, but I hadn't been anticipating onboarding a new partner when I volunteered to not only be a teacher leader but also a regional leader. My whole mindset about the upcoming year has shifted, and I wonder how the team dynamic will change. It's going to be an interesting year!

We spent a little time this weekend cleaning a path through the garage for tomorrow's AC installation. The annual smoke and heat, coupled with everyone being home all summer have finally made us buckle. I have a stack of boxes to bring to school that were relegated to the garage shelves when I left my previous school. I am actually moving into my classroom now that I know I'm staying in the same room (and the science supplies have been relocated to their new room). I've been printing, cutting, laminating, and taping in preparation for the first day. I have lists of things I can work on at home and what I have to be at school to accomplish. I plan to spend at least one day in my classroom this week and then will likely be in every day next week which is the week before our in-service days.

The 2019-2020 school year was unprecedented but 2020-2021 upped the ante. My school's theme this year is Building a World of Joy. No matter what the next ten months bring, I will do my best to build joy in my students each and every day.