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| Lost... London, ON June 2021 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
I’ve had a front-row seat to her entire journey since the first stay-at-home orders forced schools everywhere to hastily shift to online delivery. If Zoom, Team, Hangouts and other collaborative tools proved challenging to knowledge workers trying to do their jobs from home, they were infinitely less appropriate for teachers.
Because this remote thing is hard enough for adults to figure out. Kids? Don’t even get me started.
My wife teaches first- and second-graders. Keeping them engaged in a conventional class setting is akin to herding cats. Or juggling panda bears. Or cooking Michelin-starred dinners with an Easy Bake oven. Or maybe all three.
So asking her to continue to hit curriculum goals through a barely-stable video connection is essentially asking her to perform miracles. Which she did. Day after day.
Which, from where I sit, is as awe-inspiring as it sounds.
I took this photo in her classroom a few weeks ago. She had gone in to collect each child’s materials, clean up their desks, and prepare their year-end packages for later pickup. I did my best to help, but as usual she was a few miles ahead of me.
I accidentally bumped a pencil as I walked past one of the desks, and this resulting scene struck me as a bit of a signature for the chapter she was now in the process of closing off.
We may not know exactly how that next chapter will play out. But after countless months where pencils like this one gathered dust in empty classrooms, the universal hope is these special rooms will once again be filled, and these pencils will be used once more.
If you know a teacher, please say thank you.
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