My daughter ended her sixth grade year on the computer. She began her seventh grade year on the computer. She went from having three elementary school teachers to six middle school teachers. Distance learning started out strong. The first couple of weeks seemed to be going well and I was actually excited for her. Her start time wasn’t as early, the food was better, she seemed less stressed. Then it all began to change. She started not caring if she showered, if she brushed her hair, if she logged on she wouldn’t turn her camera on and I never forced her to because teachers do not belong in our homes, she wasn’t doing the assignments and when asked why she simply stated she wasn’t motivated and she just doesn’t care.
I work for the district she goes to school in. I actually work at the same school she should be attending. I am at work teaching (not a teacher) special education students while my own child is at home struggling to get out of bed. It’s terrible! I hate it. She is failing. I finally reached out to another mom who has a daughter facing the same struggles and we agreed that they should be together. I’ve started taking her to her friends house three days a week so she has a friend to see and they work together. Both started doing better immediately! I am not also taking her to work with me on Wednesday’s and she is getting some tutoring for a couple of hours a week. I want her to have something to look forward to. Even if it is the same friend everyday. This small crumb of Wednesday is better than nothing. We jumped right on it as soon as it was offered.
My daughter is smart, she is social, she is athletic and she is strong! When everything has been taken away, anyone can lose faith, even the strongest ones.
The teachers got to vote on whether they should go back, just over 50% of them voted no. I’m furious that the general education teachers have a choice but the special education teachers do not. How is that equitable? Why do teachers get to decided that my child isn’t as important as other people’s children? Some of these teachers are not even home, they are vacationing all over the place and because they log into zoom and tell the kids to do an iready lesson they get their full salaries. That’s maddening!!!!
That’s my pandemic learning experience.