March 13, 2020. Friday the 13th. That was the day that we were notified that schools were shutting down. Just over a year ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. Owen had to present his 3rd grade project about the Encinitas Boathouses and I had driven his poster in around 10am. I had been planning to sit in and watch him present to the class but they were not allowing anyone else on campus besides staff and students. There was a mild panicked energy going on in the main office of the school and the school secretary seemed baffled and overwhelmed, fielding phone calls from parents non-stop, dealing with all the confusion, etc. I dropped off Owen's poster and picked up Ella's iPad. She happened to be home sick that day already and since parents had been notified by text just an hour before that students would not be coming back the following Monday for school, I decided I should get that for her. This day is just so ingrained into my memory. It was a very surreal day. At pick-up at 2:20pm there was an eerie quiet in the air as cars drove through the loop, picked up their kids and moved on. We sure what the next few weeks would entail, working parents were wondering how they would manager weeks at home with their children, etc. We were told we would be out of in-person school until after Spring Break so that meant a month at home with the kids. A MONTH. It was hard to wrap our heads around. If someone had told us that we actually wouldn't step foot back in the classroom for the remainder of that school year no one would have believed it. It couldn't be! If someone had told us that A YEAR later we would STILL be not back to full time normal school schedule, we would have lost it. I think I can speak for all/most parents on that one.
Anyways, I have done my time. I am OVER it. I am so OVER facilitating and teaching the kids at home. They are in school Monday and Wednesdays and home Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. All of their work is in Spanish and I think that is what is (continuing to) take me over the edge somedays. Owen does not only NOT want to work on his 5 paragraph essay on Life on the Ranchos in 1800's California...he also doesn't want to write it all in Spanish. It's one thing for me to help him with the structure, format and how-to of the five paragraph essay (this isn't our first rodeo during this pandemic) but then translating it all into another language... I. just.can't.anymore. (This is how I'm feeling RIGHT now, while typing this. I've stepped away for a moment in order vent/release. To bring my frustration level down. So I can go back into the trenches of the school day today and help them with a fresh start and energy. I have a tween who shuts herself in her room all day and then a 4th grader who doesn't love the writing part of school (but does love the math) and a 2nd grader who the teacher says "seems distracted" on Zooms (HELLO, she's a 2nd grader!...and she's Zoomed-Out like the rest of us!).
It has been a year. It has been a year for everyone. I know that we are so lucky that I am able to full-time help the kids and manager their lives, help them when needed. However, we NEED to go back to regular school. I'm not a dual-language-immersion teacher. Also, kids, MY kids at least, take suggestions better from their teacher or another person than they do from their mother. They are as tired of me as I am of being such an integral part of their learning day....for the past year. Soooo, that said, they are supposed to go back to school 5 days per week for just under 5 hours per day starting after Spring Break. I am over-the-moon ecstatic about this. I'm OVER it.
Thank you.
