How We Ended Remote Learning

Today is Nolan and Judah's last day of first grade. Technically, Carter's last day was two weeks ago, but I'm throwing him in here also because he basically fully participated in any learning we were doing... so it's his last day of preschool too! 

Normally, at the end of the year, I have ALL the feels. 

For my sons, we make summer To-do lists, we spend a ton of time looking at their art portfolios, I cry reading their report cards overwhelmed with how much these tiny humans learn. I just cannot WAIT to spend every day with them, my excitement is busting. We look forward to cottage trips, BBQs, swimming, and so many outside adventures. 

My sixth graders spend the last week giving feedback on the year, reflecting, usually presenting on learning to a wider audience, finishing genius hour projects, and trying sketch maps of the Western Hemisphere being so proud of the global knowledge they've acquired. The last 2-3 weeks of school, we pop a balloon at the end of each day and read a note inside telling of a unique way to make the following day special- maybe they need to wear an odd closet item, maybe we will spend the next day celebrating 'talk like a pirate day' or maybe we will get banana splits. We do all our favorite community meeting greetings, read a lot of Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Nancy Tillman, and there is usually a lot of crying from both them and me. 

This year I still have feelings, they are just different one. 

This is the first year I was not teaching in my adult life- I have no 6th graders to call my own. That, in-of-itself, is strange. Then, you add a global pandemic where school, in its traditional form, is closed and that adds so much else on there. I realized the other day that I was responsible for my own children's learning for about 63ish school days. That's a third of their year.

I felt every bit of that weight, that responsibility, right alongside their classroom teachers and I worked my freaking tail off. I was thrown into a full time teaching job where I was educating three very different learners with three very different styles, needs, strengths and weaknesses while taking care of a two year old. 

It isn't lost on me that I usually am educating almost sixty different learners with very different styles, needs, strengths and weaknesses, but this is arguably, I think, the most challenging teaching job I've ever had ;) It was an absolute honor to be able to play such a big role in their education this year, but sheesh, was it hard! My sons teachers have been working their butts off and so have I. 

Even though the year is done, the actual change in our life is so small when it is usually feels so big. We are done with school, but we will continue to be together, mostly at home, as we have been for the last almost three months. Our daily routine will remain similar.

It was important to me to try to honor the end of the year as best as I could.

• We popped balloons for the last 8 days of school. This allowed us to have sundaes, to have a PJ day, to do a backwards day, and to have our very own field day at home. The boys looked forward to popping the balloon each night to see what might be special about the following day. 

8 balloons for the last 8 school days

Field Day 2020

• I am in the works of making them a little end of the year report card. Since I am much more into feedback than grades, I want to capture the social-emotional competencies my sons worked through as we learned together at home, I want to give them feedback on their academic habits, and to highlight the new things we experienced and new knowledge they gained. I want to honor these three months- they mattered, the work my kids did mattered.  

• I ended our last community meeting of the school year reading The Crown on Your Head by Nancy Tillman. This is the book that starts the year in my sixth grade class and ends the year. My boys have heard this book read to them probably a hundred times, but today we talked about why I picked to read this today. We discussed how each of them has a different crown with different jewels on it. We talked about I, as their mother, can always see it shining and I, as their teacher, have seen it shining too these last weeks. We talked about how important it is to acknowledge that we all had times that felt successful in this learning and we all had places where we struggled. 

• The boys let me know their favorite community greetings and we've been picking one of those out of a bowl each day as we were wrapping up. 

• We watched thoughtful, kind, videos from all their teachers. This way of teaching and learning has sucked, but their teachers sure did try to make lemonade out of lemons. We, the boys and I, appreciated their work and I know the teachers appreciated all of our work too. 

I don't really think summer break will look drastically different for us this year. I think we will still learn, I think I will still teach, I think we will still all be very much together. However, I am so proud of Nolan, Judah, and Carter's work, but especially, their attitudes. 

It is not the same watching your teacher on a screen. 

It is not the same trying to do work while your baby brother is drawing on your paper or trying to climb on your lap. 

It is not the same trying to get help from your mom while she is making lunch or changing a diaper or trying to put the markers back your brother just dumped on the floor. 

It is not the same seeing all your friends on Zoom instead of playing with them at recess. 

Every day was NOT easy and did NOT always go smoothly, but Nolan, Judah, and Carter remained calm, optimistic, and enthusiastic.

HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3