I would like to go on record and say I have major reservations about teaching in person, especially now that our county has been moved to the "red" category.
I would also like to state that I support the teachers in our neighboring district that are making tough choices regarding "sick out" days while at the same time receiving loads of negative sentiment from the usual suspects. (We are in Idaho, after all.)
In recent weeks, I have also been the subject of hurtful online comments from complete strangers regarding a picture that circulated of me wearing the proper PPE as our district reopened to in-person learning.
I feel for you, my fellow educators.
By the time this blog post publishes, I am not even sure what format my job will have taken, but as of now, I am teaching an in-person A/B schedule four days a week. My classes consist of thirty-minute sessions of, for the most part, ten students, meaning I see over four hundred kids a week.
Despite my reservations about the safety of my students, my colleagues, and myself, I still love seeing the kids.
I collected some of my favorite moments as a mode of self-care, occasionally focusing on the funny stuff to take my mind off of the more worrisome aspects. This isn't, by any means, meant to make light of the situation we are in right now.
My nephew started kindergarten this year. The town his family lives in started school in person at the beginning of the year. (They have since moved to a hybrid model).
I was trying to get a sense of what other music teachers were doing in class, especially when the science has discouraged singing and the sharing of instruments.
So I consulted the five-year-old.
"She has more than one instrument . . . like . . . one hundred. [We wore] baggy gloves. [The instrument] had a metal ball, and you hit it with your hand, and it made a rattly . . . l-l-l-l-l . . ."
He shook his head around as he made a rattle noise.
(BTW: It turns out he played a vibraslap.)
A couple of weeks later, I was seeing my students in person for the first time. I had worked with all of them online, but, especially for the kindergartners, this was the first time many of them were meeting me in the flesh.
As my first group of full day kindergartners walked to music, I could hear snippets of their conversation.
"Mrs. Duggan is sooo fun!!!!"
"I wonder how Copy Cat is doing?"
(Copy Cat is more popular than I am. Also, he decides if the classes earn stars for their behavior.)
Now when they come to music, one little girl always asks, "How is it going over there, Copy Cat?"
Another little student gasps every time I greet them at the door, as though she hasn't seen me in years (even though she's only five) and yells, "HI MRS DUGGAN!!!!"
My celebrity status from only seeing me online hasn't worn off yet. I'm basically a Tik Tok star.
One first grader spent an entire music class spinning around in circles. That was awesome.
Another shook his hips during an entire song, no matter what the instructions were. The song said, "Clap your hands," and he shook his hips. Then it said, "Flap your wings," and he shook his hips.
This last one doesn't seem super safe, but I haven't figured out a way to stop it . . .
I have caught more than a few little ones pulling their masks down to pick their noses. And then they eat it.
Yep. #truestory
Some things never change.
But kids, seriously:
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