COVID-19 Social Distancing Day 6-8

At 11am during her press conference, Governer Gretchen Whitmer issued a “Stay Home. Stay Safe” executive order.  This order is set to last for the next three weeks. This is an unprecedented event.  I am going to put off my usual light-hearted post today and do a little reflection.  Expect plenty of humor, sarcasm, and wit tomorrow!

I am sitting here trying to wrap my mind around what this will mean for my family and me. We have been preparing ourselves mentally for the past 24 hours.  We have been about 24 hours behind the orders that Ohio issues, so my wife and I have been prepping not only ourselves but our kids for this.  This order also means that our annual Spring Break trip to Florida is off for this year.  While this is a bummer for our family, I am aware that this is a pretty insignificant issue compared to the seriousness of the health crisis we are facing.  It is also insignificant when compared to the sacrifices that our healthcare workers are facing on a daily basis.

I wanted to offer up a few thoughts from a teacher’s perspective on this time when we are unable to be at school.  Most people I have been in contact with have been really supportive and understanding about school closures. However, there are a select few who just don’t seem to be satisfied with anything. So….

In case any of you are still wondering, we know that this is not an ideal situation for our students. No. Seriously. We know.  However, keep in mind that every student in our state, and most others, are in the same situation.  We are all working our way through this.  I am sending emails three times a week to my students with articles to read, resources to learn online, writing ideas, and many other things. I don’t know if they are using these.  I hope they are eagerly waiting for my email on Mon, Wed., and Fri., but there are a lot who probably won’t even check their email. My friend and colleague Jill Toner shared this on Facebook today about kids staying “on track” and it struck a chord with me.

“There is no track! Different kids have access to different resources during this time, some will be able to move forward, some simply cannot. Either way, teachers KNOW there will have to be some remediation work when we get back to school.”

You should know this about teachers if you already don’t.

We’ll figure it out.

Some of you may not like that answer right now, but just as we (teachers) have when standards/grading practices/funding, etc. has been dramatically altered, we will do whatever is in our power to put the needs of our students first, and get them to where they need to be. If all of the “homeschool memes” are to be trusted, I am hoping that people will entrust that teachers, educators, the administrators with doing what needs to be done.

On a more uplifting tone, today, in closing, I will offer a challenge to each of you that read this.  When you get up each day, choose 1-2 people to connect with and fire off a text, email, phone call, etc. Let people know you are thinking about them and that you care. We might be staying home, but let’s not drift apart.

Stay home. Stay safe. Save lives. And always remember, PEOPLE CARE ABOUT YOU!