It's an odd thing, repeating the same thing four times. Four times. Four times. Four times. But that's what I did today, doing the first day scenario four times as I have four English I Honors classes this year. But in fact, I'll be repeating today's lessons four days, hitting a quarter of the students in a given period each day. That's an altogether different issue: repeating the same lesson sixteen times.

That's the Covid-19, 2020-school-year reality.

The only exception to this is journalism, which is not journalism this year because it's logistically impossible. Instead, it's "Creative Nonfiction" -- close but not really the same at all. In that class, I had the kids start their journals, and I wrote in my own to model the expectation and show that when I say "You can write about anything," I mean it:

The first day of the dreaded 2020 school year is over and what do I have to show for it? Well, I'm quite frankly completely sick of this mask: I haven’t worn a mask continually ever. Evetr. During last week, I took it off in the classroom, but GCS requires teachers to wear a mask when around students, and honestly, if the didn’t require it, I would be a little upset. It’s a pain, but it’s for everyone’s safety.

Still, there were a lot of things I didn’t expect. For one thing, it’s much harder to understand what students are saying when they’re wearing masks. I had one girl who spoke very quietly, and I had to ask her to slip her mask off for a second because I couldn’t understand what she was saying at one point. And it happened more than once now that I think about it. Another unexpected element was how warm my face got with it on. Having not worn a mask for more than a hour at a time, I didn’t realize how my face would warm up and just stay warm. My wife had to wear a mask every day when she was still working at __, and she told me how hot it was, but it really didn’t register that it would be my reality when the school year started. A final unexpected element was how I could get used to it. Despite the heat and the other challenges, there were points that I wasn’t even thinking about it -- until my nose itched and I went to scratch it.

Still, it’s a small price to pay. I’m glad to be back in the classroom with students. That 100% online teaching was hardly teaching. Granted, I didn’t do any teaching today to speak of (well, perhaps showing students how to organize their Drive folders a bit), but still, being physically with the students--there’s no substitute for it. I don’t really like that I won’t see these kids for a week after they leave today, though I know it’s necessary for preventing the spread of our covid reality. Will I remember everyone’s name in a week after not having seen them? I kind of doubt it. I’m so terrible with names as it is: having a week between each meeting will make it all the more difficult. That's tempered by the fact that I”m only learning 4-7 names per period. Despite that, I doubt I’ll remember every name next Monday.

(I just had a realization: if we have a snow day, one group of kids is missing essentially a whole week of school. It’s another argument against having in-person days different lessons from what online kids are doing.)

I will have to write a "first" entry three more times this week.

That's the Covid-19, 2020-school-year reality.