A year ago, I wrote a blog called Spring Break in the Air in the hopes of changing the discussion from the Coronavirus to something positive. I was getting stressed out and tired of hearing about this virus that was so far away and would never come to Arizona. Little did I know at the time, talk and news of the Coronavirus were only beginning and that life as we knew it would drastically change.
A week after I wrote the post, my school shut down for the rest of the year. At first, students were excited to have “more Spring Break” but the attitude changed quickly once businesses shut down and people were encouraged to stay home and avoid contact with anyone outside their household. We transitioned to learning online while teachers, students, and families tried to make sense of quarantining and surviving the pandemic. It was and still is, difficult for many teachers, students, and families to adjust to this new style of teaching and learning.
It is now a year later, and my school is preparing to open after Spring Break. Some of my students will remain online, and I will begin teaching students in person and online simultaneously in our version of a hybrid model. I know my students are excited and ready for Spring Break (only two more days!) but they may actually be more excited to return to school after Spring Break!
This week teachers at my school are taking our students on a “virtual field trip” of our school. Through GoogleMeet I am showing my students my classroom, the office, the library, specials classes, and whichever teacher happens to be walking by in the hallway as I carry my laptop around the school talking to myself. I thought that I would have students not interested, but boy was I mistaken!
After these “field trips” around the school, my students tell me how excited they are to return to school. These are a few of my favorite quotes:
“I can’t wait to come back to school!”
“Mrs. Gawlowski, am I coming back in-person? I miss school!
“The school looks so nice!”
“Our classroom is so cool!”
One thing one of my students said has stuck with me more than the others:
“When is Coronavirus going to be over?”
I wish I had the answer to that question. After a year away from teachers and friends our students are more than ready to return to the classroom and a sense of normalcy, as we all are. I am hoping this newfound excitement for the end of the year and returning to school in person is the breath of fresh air that we all need now.
Caitlin Gawlowski
Caitlin was born to be a teacher, although she did not realize that teaching was her calling until she went to college. She has always loved to write, and began college with the mindset of becoming a journalist. Before beginning her freshman year of college, she changed my major to Elementary Education on a whim and has never looked back. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from Arizona State University, and won the Outstanding Student Teacher Award during her student teaching experience in the Cave Creek Unified School District. Caitlin spent 9 years in the classroom teaching 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. She became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2018, and holds a certificate in Early and Middle Childhood Literacy: Reading/Language Arts. The 2021-2022 school year marks the beginning of her 10th year teaching, where she will be working as an Academic Interventionist, and supporting other National Board candidates on their journey toward National Board certification. If she is lucky enough to have free time, you can find her traveling Arizona with her husband and son, spending time with her friends and family, taking group fitness classes, or enjoying a good book.
Comments 2
I sure hope we don’t go back to normal in classrooms. I hope we honor the power of small class sizes. I hope we give students voice & teach them using technology in an authentic way. I hope we build digital citizens who are active and in charge of their learning instead of feeding information to them hoping they say it on a test. I hope we take what we have learned & work alongside to prepare students for an actual future they might have.
Hope everything goes smoothly for you and your students!