Chewing on Rocks - January 18, 2021

 Chewing on Rocks

By, Michael Earnshaw

January 18, 2021

@MikeREarnshaw

@PunkClassrooms

“Today, I had a kid eat a rock during snack.” 

“What, no way? What did you say?”

“You’re kidding, a 5th grader legit ate a rock?”

“Yeah, I told them that they will be seeing that rock again.” 

And the attendees in the virtual meeting all shared a laugh. Even those that still had themselves “Muted” were seen in their Brady Bunch-esque square shedding a tear from the hysterics. 

At our school, our students are still learning remotely and since Thanksgiving 2020 our staff has been working from home. This has both its ups and downs. This blog isn’t about delving into the never ending debate of remote vs. in-person. This blog is to remind us to laugh. 

For the first quarter and some weeks of our 2020/2021 school year our classrooms were occupied by the teacher and paraprofessionals whose names were on the placard outside the door. Teaching happened in the front of each classroom, each staff member creating their own NASA-like station to engage our students who seemed galaxies away. Things were going great, everyone was in a good groove. We were able to stop by one another’s room, socially distanced and masked up, to have those crucial, 120-second conversations that are game-changers for educators. You know what I’m talking about, that hallway banter that happens when switching classes or walking your homeroom to their Special’s Class. We were even able to start holding Tuesday Town Hall meetings. These were 30-minute informal staff meetings where our Assistant Principal and I were able to give updates and info on anything new and also for staff to ask questions or share tips and strategies that would benefit others. These were not mandatory, but we did have about 90% of our staff show up. With all of the distance we had to put between ourselves with the pandemic these weekly gatherings helped to make us feel like a staff again, united, and committed to bettering our students. 

Positive Covid-19 numbers were rampantly rising in our area. With the positivity rate on the rise in Chicagoland, our Superintendent and School Board made the decision to allow staff to work from home following Thanksgiving for one week. This was to help prevent the spreading of Covid-19 amongst our staff. There was no way to police any staff from traveling or getting together with others despite what the top doctors were recommending. One week of work from home passed and numbers did not get any better. Another week of WFH was granted, and then again until winter break, and here we are now, January 18, 2021, and we’re still working from our living rooms, kitchen tables, and home offices. 

During these remote weeks we still instituted our Town Halls, but it wasn’t the same. Nearly all of our staff showed up to these, but something was missing. Everyone logged into our Zoom at the scheduled time and our Assistant Principal and I basically read off bullet points, something we vowed to never do in a live staff meeting so why would it be acceptable now? Once we were done we asked if anyone had questions or anything else, but no one ever did. 

I’ve struggled to feel connected with our staff during this time, you can read about it here, and I began holding our Town Halls three times a week. Now you may be thinking, “Mike, if you didn’t have much info to share weekly how could you possibly fill three days?” Well, these meetings aren’t so much to deliver info but to spend time with each other. I began rephrasing how I asked if anyone had anything else. Instead of, “Does anyone have anything?” I began asking, “What’s something positive you’d like to share?” or “What’s a highlight of your day?”

The reasoning behind the change in questions was to open conversations, to get some dialogue going. I have always believed that relationships are first, not only with teachers and students but everyone, including administrator and staff as well as staff and staff. With the very bland style of meetings we were having it went against everything I believe a staff meeting should be. Being virtual we are very limited, but we can still smile and laugh. 

No matter what our situation, we can always smile and laugh. 

Being an educator is a whirlwind of emotions on a daily basis, and the climate today with the Covid-19 pandemic does not make anything easier. Educators are working harder than ever, longer days that are taking time away from their own families. If I can’t get our staff up, moving, and partaking in team building activities like we do during in-person staff meetings (more about these in my upcoming book, shameless plug) we needed to share those smiles we were lacking. Creating laughter by sharing those funny stories we always say, “We should write a book about a day in the life of a teacher, no one would ever believe what we experience!” is just what we needed. 

And that was our entire Town Hall. We talked about that 5th grader eating a rock for a snack, and then the weirdest things we have all eaten! Did this conversation have anything to do with education? No, it didn’t...but then again, it did. Education is all about relationships.