Day 8: The New First Day of School

Today was our first NEW day of school. Remote school. School where I can't interact face to face with students and colleagues. It's doable but tough. So much is lost when one is only communicating with written language through a keyboard. Videoconferencing should alleviate some of this but we have to wait for permission from parents. 

During my lunch, I joined a Zoom video conference hosted by Meredith Atwood. You have probably never heard of her but I've been a fan for years now.  In the triathlon world, she is known as swimbikemom.com and I've had the pleasure of meeting her.  She just published a book, "The Year of No Nonsense:How to Get Over Yourself and Get On With Your Life"  (https://www.amazon.com/Year-No-Nonsense-Over-Yourself/dp/0738285536) and she is now hosting daily community meet ups.  Today was a great day to participate in her Community Meet Up because her guest was Mike Reilly.  Unless you are a triathlete or are related to a triathlete, you have never heard of Mike Reilly. He is the "voice of Ironman."  For over 30 years, Mike has announced finishers of Ironman Triathlons (2.4mile swim/112mile bike/26.2mile run all completed in 17 hours or less).  In 2014, he called my name as I crossed the finish line at Ironman Mont Tremblant in Quebec. I trained for over 2 years to hear Mike say, "Kirsten Surprenant, YOU are an IRONMAN."  

  

What does this have to do with our current global pandemic, working from home, and remote teaching and learning?  At first, I signed into the Zoom conference because I find listening to Mike and Meredith inspiring. Then Mike explained how this pandemic doesn't have a specific finish line. That is so true. I know that I am working from home until April 3rd at the earliest. What comes after that?  What does the rest of the school year look like?  How do we know when the pandemic is over? 

There were over 100 people on the Zoom conference and that highlighted his second point, "you aren't alone."  While I may be sitting alone in my home office, I wasn't alone while on speaker phone with colleague Rachel while we were having a Google Stream chat with our first block students. Other colleagues were sending texts and my email was exploding with more communication from more colleagues and students.   

Participating in the Zoom conference set up another of Mike's points, "Teachers love to teach because they love to learn." My lunch break on Zoom was my learning time.  Participating in a videoconference as a "student" helps me better understand how this will work with my students. No matter what happens with remote learning, we are all learning new skills, abilities, and habits that may open doors we have never imagined.

Finally, and most importantly, Mike reiterated what he tells the 2500+ athletes who are anxiously standing on an Ironman start line waiting to dive into the water for the swim. I remember this clearly as I stood trembling on the beach of Lac Tremblant at 6:30 am August 17, 2014. "You can only control your own attitude and your attitude will get you through it."