Days 53 & 54 - A Lot to Do

Tuesday and Wednesday, May 5 & 6, 2020

Yup. I skipped a day of blogging. I was doing to do this EVERY day for posterity. For primary documents. Yesterday I was crashing from four hours in the classroom, and I decided it was better for my health if I skipped the blog post.

Yesterday I went to school for my four-hour slot, and I'm actually surprised I used the entire time. Half an hour was spent taking student binders off of our shelves and labeling them on the outside with tape and then putting them in alphabetical order. I then put these in a huge garbage bin which I took down to the gym. On my way there, it fell over. Ugh.

Once at the gym, I had to open each bag for each student's binder to be put in. This took a full hour. Some bags had twist ties (that we used to close them the day prior) that were breaking or twisted oddly, and some bags that were tied were very difficult to open. My back was aching. I felt like crud not writing a letter in each binder, but I didn't think of it ahead of time, and my slot to head into the classroom was early on in the month. Big sighs. This is when I feel I'm not doing "enough."

It was odd being in the classroom, but not too odd. I was actually happy when I threw out the seating charts, the questionnaires I gave students as to where they'd LIKE to sit, the sign out sheets, and homeroom papers we never got to. I was elated when I found a note from my students tucked away:

The front... Mr. Ron is a substitute/guest teacher.

The back...

I was able to share it with them on the video I made for them today. Then I got an email from one of the three on the front that said, "Did you like my note?" Yes. Yes, I did.

Today students are sharing their Genius Hour projects on our padlet!! I'm soooo excited to see engagement!! I guess the brainstorming the last few Wednesdays hasn't been their cup of tea, but it looks like it worked out for most of them so far!

I'm exhausted (for what reason, really?!) and Hubby and I were talking about how, if there wasn't a stay at home order, we'd be camping at the Taft campus. I looked at the time and thought about where we'd be. I'd be finishing dinner with 150 students and 20 or so staff, ready to go on our next activity, where we'd stay until snack time and night hike, or campfire and smore's. Until 10:00pm. Or later. I would NOT survive the first day of our Taft trip if I had to be there today.