Made It to the Fall Break

 Wow! What a year! I'm not just talking about 2020, but I am also referring to last school year 2019-2020 and the current school year 2020-2021. Last school year was my first back in the classroom after an amazing experience with the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program. I highly recommend this program, so please feel free to reach out with any questions. Not only was I back in the classroom, but I had shifted from a specialist teaching engineering to all kindergarten through fifth grade students engineering once a week to a general classroom educator teaching third grade students. Some big shifts but ones I looked forward to. In fact, I was having such a wonderful experience with my group of students that it was fairly devastating when school shut down in mid-March. I had events and plans that I was looking forward to sharing with the students that never came to fruition. I did my best to make lemonade out of lemons and continued on.

The week before school started for the 2020-2021 school year, I was notified that I would have to change schools and grade levels. I shifted once again from teaching third grade to teaching a first and second grade Gifted and Talented group. We started all virtual, so that gave me plenty of time to settle in. Then we moved to a hybrid schedule where we were all virtual on Monday and half the students came on Tuesdays and Thursdays while the other half attended on Wednesdays and Fridays. On the days students weren't attending, they worked independently on their assigned work. I have been using Seesaw for classroom management and assignments. Before the Thanksgiving break, we received word that we would be teaching all virtual again after break and at least through January 15. This time we could teach from home and report in to school as needed. The opportunity to teach from home makes it easier to do activities such as make pancakes to work on fractions and more STEM related activities. I will try to submit activities from the all virtual at home time.

I can't believe we have made it almost half way through the year. Although it wasn't a year I hadn't exactly planned for, I have enjoyed getting to know my students and their families. I have also enjoyed getting to know staff members at the new school. Even though so much of this year has been out of my comfort zone, I feel satisfied with what I have been able to accomplish so far. I am learning and growing each day, and I think my students are too. I couldn't ask for more from a school year, let alone, a school year in 2020.