When I heard Friday morning that the school board of Los Angeles Unified was meeting to decide on school closure, I knew it was just a matter of time before my district, Santa Ana Unified, would follow. Hearing that whole states had closed school solidified what had developed in my mind by the time I parked my car at my site.
There would be no more days to wait. There were only hours.
I believe the administrators at the district office hoped for one more week to get ready. We received messages from the Superintendent each day and there was a step-by-step shut down. Big events were cancelled, then everything that required groups. Parent meetings (yes, I know, meetings just as we know not to have meetings) began in the evenings. Things were handled professionally but, perhaps, a week too late.
My colleagues and I will report to work on Monday without students. I suppose we will put together the packets of student work from the district office. I suppose these will be set out by the driveway for grab-and-go, just as some sites prepare to do grab-and-go for food. This seems to be what we can do. Online learning is “encouraged” by the district but, so far, not mandated.
Sigh. My colleagues in the Social Science department at my site created plans in an hour this past Wednesday. I wish we had been asked sooner. It is too late now, I think. Some of us, me included, are going to keep in contact with our students via Google Classroom. I plan on recording and posting me reading books for my young people, including a bedtime story every day. I had started with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. That may seem silly for intermediate/middle school students, but some have already made requests.
They need to hear from their surrogate grandfather.
I spoke up about this in a previous diary from March first: www.dailykos.com/…
I taught my students how to wash their hands properly on that Monday. I explained that, yes, it protected them but what it all was about was protecting others.
It is too late to get ready, now. It is here.
On Thursday and Friday, I told my students to keep in touch, at a distance, with each other. I told them that their friends will need them. They will be worried, scared, alone, angry...they will need each of you, my young people.
I would like to hear from other teachers. We have a role in what is coming; that includes the days when we all come out again. What will we do next? Who will we be?