Here Comes the Surge

After Thanksgiving Break it had been a while since I had "seen" my students, and so I set aside a longer period of time than usual to converse and connect with them at the beginning of class. 

"I'm warning you," I said, "I missed you guys last week, and so I'm going to ask everybody a follow up question to your Chat Snap today. I just want to hear your voices!"

I guess they wanted to use their voices, too. The question of the day was simply What was the highlight of your break? and the answers were predictable: food, family, and video games. But with a little prompting? Oh my! Some of the kids talked more than they have for the entire year put together, and in addition to pies and turkeys and Christmas trees, there were also pictures of kittens and parakeets and pugs in sweaters, and tales of family game nights and holiday movie marathons.

Unfortunately, there were also several reports of Black Friday shopping, huge family gatherings, and sleepovers with friends. I'm sure everybody thought they were being as safe as necessary. My own family ignored the CDC warnings not to travel. Of course we took precautions, but we also took our chances. I'm glad we did, and that makes it hard to begrudge others the same comfort and joy.

Even so.