Back to School in Uncertain Times

Usually, I'm always really excited to go back to school each Fall. I mean, the new school supplies alone, right?! But this year, it's much different. They did not prepare us for a global pandemic in my teacher training courses. This year is going to look much different than previous ones, and there are so many unknowns. Us teachers like to plan, and not being able to plan for everything right now is unnerving. Our district is going back face to face, with a blended transitional program for those who choose.

We had our first week back this past week. The first two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, were mostly health and safety meetings, procedure meetings. I felt like our district was really thorough in everything they put together for us, but it was a bit of information overload. (Thank goodness it's all online for me to review because I won't remember it all! So many new things to remember). I gotta say - my hands have NEVER been as clean as they've been this week. Pro-tip: hand sanitizer and paper cuts are not a good match.

On Thursday and Friday, the kids came in shifts of grade groups, and each teacher took 10 kids at a time into their room to go over new health and safety protocols. I was assigned some groups of grade 5s (so, my grade 4s from last year). It was so incredibly good to see them face to face again.

The rest of the time was spent trying to figure out class organization (a tricky juggling act at the best of times), grade group teachers doing planning together, and non-enrolling teachers (such as myself), working together to figure out how best to schedule all of the learning opportunities that go on outside of the classroom.

As for music, this is the first year that I will have another music teacher working with me! We just have too many classes for me to fit in one week by myself. So, one afternoon a week, a colleague of mine will be at my school teaching the grade 4s. That leaves me with Kindergarten through Grade 3.

Of course, my biggest worry this year is for the health and safety of my students. With so many kids coming through my portable each week, I need to make it as safe as possible. But I also want it to be as welcoming and friendly as possible. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the best way to set up my classroom. By Friday afternoon at 3:30, I think I had it figured out.

Next week, we start teaching again. I am so excited. Yet, nervous. Fortunately, I have a great bunch of music teacher colleagues across our district. One positive thing to come out of the total closure of school buildings in the Spring was being forced to learn how to use Teams. All of a sudden, the music teachers had a way to connect! We are often our own island in a school, and it can sometimes be isolating. But this past Spring, our amazing Fine Arts Helping Teacher set up a weekly Teams meeting for us, and it really helped us come together as a community.

I know this year is going to look far different than ones in the past. And, I know, for many music teachers, we like things to be just a certain way. I'm trying to embrace the uncertainty, as difficult as that is.

I end this blog post, and begin my year of teaching in uncertain times with this quote:

"Music enhances the education of our children by helping them to make connections and broadening the depth with which they think and feel. If we are to hope for a society of culturally literate people, music must be a vital part of our children's education."
Yo-Yo Ma

I hope you have a fantastic first month of school. We've got this. We're musicians - by nature, we are creative and compassionate, two skills which will help both us and our students this year.