I Won't Give Up, I Won't Give In, I'm Gonna Reach the End, Then I'll Start Again (235)

These last two weeks are a blur. Prepping and preparing. Planning and purposing. It is hard to put all your focus on one thing with distractions. It took my whole attention, my entire outlook pinpointed into a laser like precision. Making an impact in one specific area of my life: teaching. Setting up a room that will not be used for at least three weeks. 

Designing a corner where it looks like a classroom on Zoom. It is a whole new way of thinking. 72% of our school decided to KVA, virtual school for at least six weeks. So, when students return to school on September 8th, there will only be 28% of our students (1890) in the building. About 15 per classroom, staggered dismissal times, no lockers. It is going to feel like many things- the least of all school.

The first three days of school included- internet outages, LMS delay, students in parking lots in cars so they could attend synchronous classrooms. Class sizes on Zoom (KVA) of up to 52 students. You open Zoom and there are 45-50 faces looking back at you, you are sitting in an empty classroom- it is surreal. In the background you see parents milling about, listening. Younger siblings playing. It is a new world indeed.

Our classrooms are now living rooms, cars in parking lots and bedrooms. I start every class - all on Zoom these days, with music, so as I admit students from the waiting room, I have the agenda shared on my screen and music playing- it sets the mood for the day. Our first day it was Happy by Pharrell. Thursday it was the theme to Jurassic Park by John Williams and Friday our 3rd day was Try Everything by Shakira. A song from the film Zootopia.

Most of the kids new the song and you could see them bouncing their heads as they worked on the warm-up. My first line was this song should be our class song- they agreed.

Why?

Like Shakira says in Try Everything-

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

I messed up tonight
I lost another fight
I still mess up but I'll just start again
I keep falling down
I keep on hitting the ground
I always get up now to see what's next
Birds don't just fly
They fall down and get up
Nobody learns without getting it wrong

I won't give up, no, I won't give in
'Til I reach the end
And then I'll start again
No, I won't leave
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail
I won't give up, no, I won't give in
'Til I reach the end
And then I'll start again
No, I won't leave
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, try everything
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, try everything
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, try everything
Oh, oh, oh, oh,…