Tomorrow is the first day of school. We were supposed to start a week ago, but for whatever reason, the district moved the start date back a week. Kids were supposed to come to the school in shifts and get their Chromebooks and do some other administrative-type things. A lot of kids did; a lot didn’t.

We were supposed to have elearning starting tomorrow for those not coming into the school building (75% of the students on any given day). Instead, since the district was having issues with Google Classroom rosters, we’re doing school-wide lessons instead of teacher/subject-specific lessons.

Everything is turned, twisted, confused, and confusing. For the first time in my teaching career, including when I was student-teaching, I’m going into the first day of school with no clear idea of how things will go, what we will do, when we will do it.

And I’m completely okay with that. Seriously — no stress at all. This is going to be the year (as long as we’re going to school in person in one form or another) of letting go. This is the year of flexibility.

We — teachers, students, and parents — will become figurative contortion artists.