It has been a rough 23 days of summer school, and it is apparent we will be continuing distance learning. Curriculum wise I feel confident to deliver what I want students to learn and receive from the class. I teach math. So I do math. But there is this other wave of social emotional learning, which has always existed but seems to be the forefront of political agendas and not curriculum. I was recently asked what I did to support that in my digital classroom, and frankly, I do not know what means. If it meant I called home, then yes-many times to the same parents and students. If it meant I conversed with students, then that is a checkmark. I am concerned that lines are not being blurred. In my mind it takes more than a teacher to have a collective intellectual citizen. Social-emotional learning doesn't come from textbooks or PBIS lessons, and norms establish. It comes from home, it comes from teachers who have to build relationships in person-human to human conversations. Not an email or phone calls. It takes curiosity and analysis to understand another person. And then we get survey's asking how I did it in my online classroom. Honestly, I didn't. Honestly, I do not know what the expectation is on that. Honestly, I didn't not take a psychology class to understand other's.
So, here we are. On the verge of distance learning, but FOR REAL. No more fluff grades, no more excuses. My role is to teach math. And it is going to happen. My health is my priority, just as it is for any student, colleague, or parent. I cannot teach, if I am sick. There are no replacements for teachers, just as there is no replacement for a doctor. If I choose this profession, it is because I wanted to be the expert in it. Not you, not politics, not media, not people who sit and make decisions based on their understanding. I am not a babysitter. I teach math. And I will teach math, the best way that I can.