About this time last year, I began to pay attention to the pandemic news, and not long after, I was writing to urge the Superintendent of Schools in the system where I worked to close schools to stop any spread of the virus. I spent March through June vigorously teaching students from home--we accomplished a lot. Students, in general, made good gains. Families were supported, and for the few students who we didn't feel made good gains, we knew why and had some good ideas about how to make positive changes in that regard in the year ahead.
I was ready to tackle a remote school year. I had many ideas about how to do this well. I shared those ideas with administrators, but my voice and ideas were quickly lost in the conversation, and the school stystem created a scenario that was no safe for me and a scenario where I saw little room for academic success. I made the decision to retire a few years earlier than planned at the lifetime cost of $500,000--that's a lot of money, but I felt my life was worth it, and I worried that to return to dangerous, subpar conditions may mean that I would get so upset that I'd lose my job.
Since that time, I've continued to recalibrate at every junction. Summertime and retirement meant recreating the schedule in ways that kept my family and me healthy and safe while also keeping our family ties strong and supportive. Retirement thrust me into completing many long overdue jobs related to closing down my classroom and re-organizing my home. That kept me busy until the holidays. Then, during the holidays, I focused on recreating the holiday cheer in new, pandemic safe ways. We had some fun with that, and while it wasn't as good as our traditional gatherings, there were some lovely moments and good, intimate times together. And now, in the winter months, I'm focused on preparing my life and home for possible change, changes that may include a move, a new job, and new family obligations and support. This is a bit of an arduous chapter, but as with all tough jobs, if I master this task, I'll love the results of the hard work as it's work I've wanted to do for a long time.
Despite the growing number of people who have been vaccinated, we have to continue to be safe with regards to the pandemic precautions. The pandemic is spreading faster than before--the death rates are higher as our the infection rates. We've stayed the course this long and we've been fortunate to stay healthy--this is not the time to give up the good work, and it is the time to stay the course with regard to pandemic precautions. So, it's also a good time to do as many jobs as you can to prepare for post-pandemic days. Make the big list of lousy, but necessary, jobs that can be completed in the winter months and get started. You'll reap good benefits for this work in post-pandemic days. Onwrad.