First Day of School 2020

 It was another late eve before the first day of school. 

No matter how hard I try to preplan the first day of school, the details never seem to be clear to me until the day before. As a teacher, it's hard to put into words the stress and anxiety that comes before the first day of school, which commingles with the assurance that you've done this many times before and have many more tools to pull from than you've ever had before.

This year we started the year off with distance learning. We all knew what to expect to some degree as we met the challenge of distance learning last Spring. It didn't feel like a work-less summer as we all anticipated a possible distance learning return. 

Of course, we decided to switch to the Canvas platform this year, and I tortured myself with deciding to go "all in" and teaching myself the platform in the days before.😆

Here I am, at 4am to reflect on the first day of school. Here is a working Mom's teaching schedule on distance learning. This isn't typical, and this kind of day really only works for me, but it's nice to memorialize this time for a moment.

10-2am - Sleep

2am - 6:30am Prep for First Day of School

6:30-8:00am - Sleep

8:00am - Wake up, get my eldest daughter up for distance learning

8:45am - Ensure my daughter has breakfast/snacks for a couple hours of distance learning, recheck her work station, pack a snack bag extra clothes for toddler who is going on a playdate with grandma, get ready to start my day

9:30-10:45 - 1st Period SAI Study Skills. 4 students were absent. All students had their cameras off. :( I immediately missed meeting the freshmen on my caseload and seeing former students. 

10:45-11:00 - Quick Breakfast Break, check on eldest daughter

11:00-12:30 - 3rd Period SAI English. Everyone was there! 

12:30-1:00 - Lunch break, fort building with my 4-year-old

1:05-2:20 - 5th Period SAI Study Skills. A couple students were absent. Rowdier but fun bunch! I did an icebreaker where we showed pictures from our summer break and one of my students showed a picture of a gory, mutilated hand and then froze his screen. FYI I was being observed by a new coworker. Groan. Turned off the student's video. Eldest daughter comes in and needs help with her distance learning. Assign students to breakout rooms with IAs to check in for a second while I log her in. 

2:20-3:40 - Phone calls to parents for students who did not attend, answer emails, case management

3:40-5:30 - Nap with my toddler

5:30 - Costco 😂

Although this wasn't a typical first day of school, I'll take it! It's more of a juggling act, that's for sure. 

Here was my Canvas Homepage for the day.

Here were our lesson plans for the day. 

Lesson Plan for SAI Engl III Day 1

1. Energizer: show me a picture! Students show a picture from their phone of something that is meaningful to them.

2. About Us (Slides)

3. Course Description / Syllabus

4. Tour of Canvas

5. Review HW: Email to Ms. Bautista and Eras of My Life Slide Show

(SAMPLE)

6. Breakout rooms with IA's

7. Exit Ticket

Lesson Plan for SAI Study Skills Day 1

1. Energizer: show me a picture!

2. About Us (Slides)

3. Course Description / Syllabus

4. Tour of Canvas

5. Review HW: "About Me" Slide and Weekly Schedule Doc. The theme/study skill for the month is using a calendar.

6. Breakout rooms with IA's

7. Exit Ticket

It retrospect, I think I assigned them a little too much for the first day back. But it truly feels weird to only see them twice a week. I'll definitely take it a little easier on them this Thursday, when we start our Unit on Digital Literacy. Stay tuned. 

Hope you all have a great 2nd day back! :) 

- Kristine