Almost three weeks in, I think I'm making distance teaching and learning work. It's not easy adapting lessons and activities, but it is teaching, and as I shamelessly wrote yesterday: I'm good at that.
Connecting with the kids is getting a little better, too. Even though most days I still find myself earnestly talking to my own tiny picture in the corner of the laptop screen, laughing at my own jokes, and listening to the hiss of the speaker while the students stay muted and offscreen, I sense a shift: a few more cameras on here and there, a couple more virtual hands, lots of good ideas posted in the chat, and even several kids willing to share what they've written or answer my question when I ask them directly. It's not a classroom, and calling it a community is way too much of a stretch, but it is something, and it is improving.
Even so, some of my more wistful moments this week have been when I explain what the routine is now and compare it to when we are in the building. Then my voice takes on a dreamy tone as I describe that shining bastion of education that is my classroom.
"You guys," I'll say, "when you come in the door, the announcements will be on the screen in the front of the room, and I won't have to take roll, because I'll be able to see you! Then I'll ask you to clear your desk of everything except your writing notebook and something to write with. And guess what else? You'll have to keep your iPads OFF until I tell you that you need them!"
Oh, wistful is right. You have captured the essence of your virtual classroom beautifully and truthfully.
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