Zooming Into A New School Year

We had an IT guy (Jeff) come to our schoolroom on Sunday night to make sure we were all connected to the internet, the printer, and to make sure our wireless mouses...mice?...were controlling the right computers. All systems were a go!

We got into a charter school this year, so school starts an hour earlier than we're used to. 8:00 rolled around fast! We ran out the door for some quick pictures before their homeroom Zoom calls started. Lincoln's an excited Kindergartner! 

Jonah's the boss of the playground. I had scribbled down some class rules with the boys on Sunday night and Jonah somehow ended up with those in tow for his picture. 

Carson is in 3rd grade!

He tries his hardest not to show it, but Carson loves school. He's really good at math and is excited for his weekly art classes. 

Eli's in 5th grade this year! He scored a male teacher. One of the first things his teacher told him was that he doesn't care about grades, he just wants the kids to try their best. Eli looked over at me, pointed at the screen, and said, "I like this guy." 

(He's wearing a bumper on his bottom teeth that is helping to make some space in his mouth for his new teeth to come in.)

Since he can't read or navigate a computer very well, Lincoln's teacher spends the whole morning on a Zoom call with the class. They practice writing their letters, cutting, and solving math problems on a little whiteboard. I've been impressed by how well the teacher can get all the 5-year-olds to follow along with her over Zoom. It takes some parental support, but Lincoln is doing a great job adapting to the circumstance. 

Carson gets to start his day in his special class. They have Music, Art, Spanish, Computer, and PE every week. 

Eli is annoyed because everybody has been getting his name wrong and keeps calling him Ellie. I find this so funny because with Eli especially, I was really concerned about wanting to name him a boy name that was only a boy name. At the time a lot of boy names were being turned into girls' names, and I wanted a name that was only a boy name for him. I thought the name Eli checked that box. 

Then at his very first doctor's appointment, the nurse that called us back into the office called out, "Ellie" when it was our turn. And I smiled. Because in all my stressing about picking the perfect name, not a once did I envision the issue of people mistaking the name Eli for Ellie. It hasn't happened too much since then, but I guess Eli's having a wave of Ellie confusion as this new school gets to know him. 

The days are chaotic. Basically I have three elementary school kids on a college course schedule. You have to find the right class at the right time and go into the right online classroom and hope you're at the right place and then class gets out early sometimes so you'll get 10 minutes here and there between classes. After class is over you have to hunt down assignments online and make sure you have everything turned in. There's a lot of accountability and responsibility resting on those little shoulders to be invested in their own education. 

And then there's the issue of them not being overly accountable or responsible. Like, they're all sitting there with their headphones on listening to their teacher's instructions...and then all of a sudden they yank the headphones off and they're like, "I'm done." 

And I look at them and go, "But are you really done?"

Because I don't know what their teacher just told them to do. And THEY don't know what their teacher just told them to do. Because they were playing with Lego mini-figures strategically off-screen. So then me and child just look at each other blankly in a game of chicken. Whose will power will win? Will I rummage through their online folders to see what assignments I can find? Once I do will they suddenly remember their teacher's instructions? 

And then there's the issue of them just, like, rolling around on the floor mid-lesson. Or forgetting their teacher told them to hop back on the Zoom call 20 minutes after they got off. Or having 25 tabs open on their computer while their teacher is talking. 

It's like college. But worse. It's like I'm in a college class with my kids in control of my fate. Like, I'm a big supporter of having my kids be responsible for themselves. At parks I never hold their jackets. At the pool they have to remember to bring their own water. Typically in school they need to be aware of their own schoolwork and get it done. 

But with distance learning it feels so unfair to expect them to be able to navigate a whole new system and way of doing school. So I feel responsible to help them find their assignments and quizzes and slideshows. But I don't know what's going on inside those headphones! So they have half of the puzzle and I have the other half and every time we try to connect the pieces we realize we're working from two different puzzles because it's just not matching up. 

And then times all of that by three. Five days a week. Four hours a day. 

With a baby on top. 

Lincoln is so cute doing his school work. He mastered the unmute button this week. And while sometimes he uses it to answer his teacher's questions, other times he uses it to scream into the camera. And every time he forgets to re-mute. I've developed obsessive-compulsive habits of checking his mute icon to make sure the class isn't hearing me yelling at certain children to "GET OFF THE GROUND AND SIT AT THIS NICE DESK IN THIS NICE SCHOOL ROOM I BUILT SPECIFICALLY SO YOU WOULDN'T ZOOM WHILE ROLLING AROUND ON THE FLOOR, SON!"

That's a wrap for week one! We can do this, we can do this, we can do this.