Spring Break, 2021. It's been a year.

Our country, our community, our friends, our neighbors and ourselves -- we are all noticing that it's been one year since we've locked down, stayed in, and changed our lives.  So what's the long-term consequences for us as a result? What's happened with our children?  We don't really know, and likely the unknowing is the hardest part. I believe it's important to simply keep doing our best and to behave so we will have no regrets or apologies after this experience is in our rear-view mirror.

More immediately answer-able and perhaps interestingly for you and me:  How is this trimester's students' responses to learning different from last trimester's students' responses to learning? 

I've noticed two significant differences.  

The first is that students from this (the third trimester), in general, have lost more of their math skills when compared to the students from the second trimester. I'm needing to do (and am actively doing) more review.  People forget ideas, skills, and material when it's not kept in any kind of active memory for a period of time; that's expected.  Many of these students are blissfully unaware of how they've slipped; some are terrifyingly ultra-aware of what they've lost and can add "anxiety" to their list of concerns about math.   I'm adjusting by honoring students for remembering and by honoring students who are working a little harder to retrieve their habits of mind and their skills.  For me, there is always something to praise and honor about student work; I believe everyone wants to do well and does their very best.  Everyone improves.  I'm encouraging students to work at their own pace; we have such differences in the room that some people can work ahead, and others just "keep on keepin' on," as I nudge them towards the larger goals.  It is my hope that by now each person understands that I will support them and work with them to achieve their goals. Helping students move through their forgetting is par-for-the-course for any math teacher; I'm not worried because, based on last trimester, they will be on track at the end of our 55 days together. 

The second is that zooming has taken a toll on their social comfort level and classroom-participation skills.  They've now spent a year (a YEAR!) taking classes looking at flat rectangles on a computer screen.  They've hidden behind the technology -- not answering questions, not chatting with peers, perhaps not even watching class.  It's so easy to zone out while looking at a computer screen; some students have adopted a zoom-like zombie (can I say "zoombie"? ) approach to time in class, even when we are in-person. There's been little background chatter as kids enter the room.  They immediately zone into their screens, and not poke at each other, not chit-chat, not flirt (this part amazes me; their hormones are still surging, aren't they?), and generally not move.  That's right, for two hours, they don't move.  I offer breaks. No takers. Little to no responses to my presentations or tutoring sessions. Several kids might ask a question, but less than what I saw a year ago before the pandemic hit. This is new to my 34 + years of experience with teens; this is what keeps me up at night concerned for this generation.  The last day before break, we took the last couple minutes of class to go outside and play Bocce Ball -- it was great to see them being kids again, even in a contrived and silly outdoor game.  I will continue to work on helping them return to being teenagers, both in and out of the classroom.  I'm confident they will bounce back and will bounce back better than my generation.  

During parent night, those of you who attended saw that I am a "whole child" teacher.  I bring more than just math into the classroom, as evidenced by the previous paragraph.  I look out for students' well-being -- particularly now in these unique and challenging times.  I try (and will continue to try) to help students re-connect socially to each other and to their normal world.  I try to have them practice writing skills; this is math class, I know, but the thought of some students not practicing writing for potentially two-thirds of the year concerns me. (link to the prompts below; you can subscribe to this blog as well to see what prompts I post for them for the rest of the trimester.)   I try to have them think about larger issues (how mortgages work, how to challenge ideas that don't seem right to you, how to be your best self, including being kind....)  Of course, we'll do the math curriculum included in Geometry/Algebra II, but we'll try to balance our lives in a healthy manner that helps us all become fuller and more satisfied people.  

This next week, I'll be composing the comments you'll read in a couple weeks about how your child is faring this trimester. I've sent out a couple "heads up" emails to parents regarding a student who hasn't participated in the EdPuzzle assignments or who is behind severely in homework assignments. I encourage you to ask your children to let them see the canvas page; I enter a lot of information that's helpful to parents as well as students.   In general, students are staying the course and completing their work well and on time (please ignore canvas's "LATE" admonition; see below for more information.) Many of your children are expressing deep appreciation for their good fortune; they know some kids have their education frozen for the year and some kids don't have heat or enough to eat.  The pandemic and public reporting on people's challenges has resulted in many teenagers feeling acutely aware of how well they are moving through the pandemic relative to their peers at other schools or (even more powerfully) in other countries.  Being thankful has been shown to improve our mental health and well-being; I'm so glad we have developed a culture in our classroom of being thankful. 

If you have a concern or topic or observation that you'd like me to address in this blog, please send it along to -  Feel free to read previous posts go collect a fuller view of my approach to education during the pandemic.