Thank You for Your Continuous Support

I spend a lot of time on EduTwitter.  It is simultaneously a great place for professional development and a dark and cynical place.  In some ways, it's a digital teacher's lounge.  The pandemic has only served to amplify those extremes. 

Just as schools began to close in March, EduTwitter was filled with people who had done online schooling before offering their best practices, making their resources available for free, and just generally being super supportive to other educators.  It was lovely and encouraging. 

About a week into the shutdown, divisions started rising between those who want to pretend online school is no different that in-person schooling and those who say, "This is a pandemic.  Why are we requiring students to do anything at all?"  My personal opinion, as usual, lies between the extremes.  Things are different.  There is no doubting that.  I believe it is still my job to provide the best education possible to my students and hold my kids accountable for responsible behavior, but I know that there are things I and they cannot do and try to go easier on them in grading.  Every context is different.  Some schools have wider disparity than others, so they cannot all be held to one standard.

The most disheartening stories in the past week or so are from those whose administrators and districts have changed their expectations from week to week and parents who write to them to complain.  Early on, there was an outpouring of love for teachers from parents who were finding out that their kids were not as easy to teach as they once believed.  As the lockdowns have gone on and this way of life has become routine, they have started to criticize everything from content to assessment.  It's as though they expect that the teachers should have it all figured out by now, two months in.

I read these stories on Twitter, and it makes me sad for them.  When I close Twitter and open my email, I have an encouraging message from a parent who reminds me that their family is praying for us, a thank you note from a student who thought taking a test on Kahoot was great once she muted the music, or a copy of the devotional our Head of School gave that day.  Our teachers send each other song lyrics, scriptures, or videos to keep each others' spirits up.  No place is perfect, and we have flaws to address, but at the end of the day, we address those issues to grow together as a team with love and support from the families who trust us with their students. 

Thank you GRACE administration and GRACE parents, not only for your support at the start of all this, but for your continuous support.