The Chronicles Of Nay

Hello! Sorry that it has been so long since my last post… school started back up and it has been awesomely busy! Haha Creating lessons for online learning has been fun. I have learned all sorts of different platforms. Trying to build relationships with students has proven difficult. One of the hardest things has been trying to create boundaries with school and life. But here we are on the eve of everyone coming back to school! I know some people are apprehensive. I am too, but for different reasons! Really over all… I am super excited to see my friends again! The rest of the year is going to present challenges but with my friends by my side… we can take it! 

The online lesson plans have been interesting. I had used google classroom pretty well for the last 2 years. However when something didn’t work I was able to just hand the kid a worksheet or bypass the system so that they could get the work. Having them at home has made it difficult to troubleshoot. I don’t know what their screen looks like, I don’t know what button they are pushing. So There have been challenges! Haha I will see that it has been nice to use some of the tools I hadn’t used before. Edpuzzle takes a video and embeds questions so that they have to watch the video and answer the questions before they can continue. So that is nice for when I need to know they got some information. Peardeck allows me to add questions to my google slides so that I can see the kids answering the questions as they are watching the presentation. Both have been tools that I have loved using! 

Normally in my classroom I believe very strongly in building relationships. One of my professors in college used to say “they don’t care what you know if they know you don’t care”. I take a lot of time building relationships with kids. They will do so much more for you if they care. During online learning I have had a very hard time building those relationships. I am doing things to try to build them. I have been having “breakfast” with my kids. I allow the students to come to a google meeting at 8:30 where we break bread and have a cup of coffee together! It allows me some time to talk to them about their lives. It isn’t the same though! I am looking forward to the students coming on campus! 

Boundaries between work and school have always been something I have struggled with. I spend so much of my time doing work things. However I do it because I enjoy it. I like my job and most of the time it doesn’t feel like “work”. However this year has been hard because so much of every day is on the internet that it is hard to escape it. I have been spending so much time looking at a computer screen that my eye developed a twitch. I had to buy some blue light glasses. They look super cute and they have stopped the eye twitch so that is good! 

I am excited that we will all be on campus starting tomorrow. I know that some people aren’t. I still have some concerns. Like the hand sanitizer station in my room doesn’t work, there seems to be a paper towel shortage on campus. I am only supposed to get a bottle of disinfectant spray per month and there seems to be some confusion around paper towels. I have to have faith that someone will realize that is not enough and we will get more. Really I am looking forward to having kids again! I can get back to doing what I love! It’s going to be a challenge to do it online and in person but I will figure it out! 

I am adding my amazon wish list to this blog. There are some things on the list that will for sure help with in person and online learning. There are things like headphones and water bottles. Pencils and paper towels. We can’t share headphones yet they will probably need them, they can’t drink out of the water fountains so I would like to provide as many students as I can with these types of things. I would greatly appreciate any help that you could give. However I also understand that some people just can’t right now. I still love all of ya! Well it’s 1 in the morning and I do have to get up and teach in a few hours! Thank you for those of you that can help. And those of you that can’t just keep us in your prayers!  

This link will take you to My wish list for science in room 207!!