Wait, it's March?

February is a short month. And the February I just finished was one of the longest of my life. I guess that's why I haven't written anything here since January. 

So, here's a status check on Samantha's teaching life: 

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I had been approved for an ADA accommodation and expected to return to work on April 2. 

I was content with that, since I had every reason to expect that I would be fully immunized by then, and my district had a conservative return plan which would have had roughly 1/3 of my students in person at any given time. 

Small numbers + good precautions (including air filters!) + vaccination = safe enough Samantha. 

Then the state of North Carolina tried to push through legislation that forced schools into in-person offerings without following CDC recommendations and they wanted to do it super quickly. 

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So, my school district pivoted, and changed the plan. (the bill eventually failed, but we're still in person sooner anyway and I think the district probably did the right thing avoiding last minute panic and not pivoting AGAIN--we were all getting whiplash from the back and forth). 

So, three days before I became eligible for the vaccination, my ADA accommodation ended and I was flung into the hybrid classroom. 

My stress went through the stratosphere. I considered applying for a new ADA accommodation based on the stress levels and effects on my mental health, but I had every indication that would not be considered, and we made the decision to trust to the PPE we were able to acquire to keep me safe. 

On the good side, my district took it slow. Roughly 60% of my students are not returning to school--their families opted to remain on remote. The remaining 40% was basically divided in half: 20% on Cohort A, and 20% on Cohort B and come to school 4 days a week on an alternating week schedule. 

So far, my largest in person group is nine students and it's pretty easy to keep them six feet apart in my normal-sized classroom. Ask again tomorrow though, because I haven't had the same class lists two days in a row yet. 

We also took two weeks of transition/orientation: Monday, only 6th graders came to school; Tuesday, we added 7th graders; Wednesday we added 8th graders. Rinse and repeat with Cohort B the second week. 

So it's only this week that I've started having ALL my classes. I teach three classes a day on hybrid: which means I have some kids physically in my room and some kids in a zoom meeting at the same time. One set of classes on Monday/Wednesday and the other on Tuesday/Thursday. 

That slow roll out came with a lot of confusion:

• kids didn't understand where to be and when because all the class times changed
• families didn't fully understand what kinds of restrictions in-person learning would operate under (even though we TRIED to convey that information repeatedly)
• last minute decisions to come to school in person or change back to remote learning happened and keep happening
• switching which kids were in which group to solve transportation issues
• letting *some* kids come both weeks if there was an educational support reason to do so and space allowed, etc. 
• changing rules about how to handle lunch, PE, and music courses
• approval of an app to speed staff check-in, then un-approval and re-approval of that app. 

My role sheets are nothing but scribble-outs and arrows. 

After teaching middle school all these years, I know this age group doesn't handle irregularities in the schedule well, and it's been nothing but irregularities so far. So, in that sense it's been a hot mess. 

The stress levels are so heavy I'm surprised any teachers can yank their shoulders out of their ear lobes at all. I'm not especially prone to stress-related illness, but I've been exhausted, nauseated, headachey, eye-sore, and throat-sore in turns. 

I'm no longer able to help facilitate the flow for my own child during the school day, so my husband who still works from home has to try to manage our ADD kiddo among all his meetings without my help. They've stepped up and it's gone okay--though the kiddo isn't eating well enough or regularly enough and has ebbs and flows about managing their workload without the accustomed support. 

We're feeling lucky that our kid is old enough to manage some of this without hand-holding at least. I remember my own children's toddler and young childhood years well enough to know those parents have it harder. 

So thank you to my students who are trying their best to make this possible and are being so patient while their teachers figure out how to manage two different information flows at the same time and be there for everyone. I hope we gain something that makes us feel like it was worth it.