Day #132 Writing Through COVID-19: Pulling a Thread

Last night instead of blogging, I watched "Inherit the Wind" with my parents. Throughout the movie we wondered aloud about what liberties were taken in turning the Scopes trial into the fictionalized film.

So this morning I'll do a little research and our morning poem will instead be a history lesson!
--------------------

I woke up today with thoughts of school and the associated sinking feeling in my stomach. Last night another colleague contacted me with her concerns that our school is telling her she cannot require masks inside her own classroom.

Think. About. This. As teachers, our classroom is our domain. We make decisions about the use of cell phones, allowing food or drink, seating charts vs. free-range seating, late-work policies. But evidently, a mask is a bridge too far.

I'm anxious about how this will play out.

And if I tug that anxiety thread, my lip starts to sweat and my entire fabric of calm unravels:

• How can I simultaneously teach online (for students at home) and in person?
• How can I recraft my curriculum (heavily based on group and partner work) for 6-ft distancing?
• Do I dare send student journalists into classrooms to take photos? (I think not.)
• Do we dare share cameras? (I think not.)
• Where will I eat my lunch? Alone in my room :'( 
• Who will wipe down desks during our three minutes of passing?
• How can my students select books from my classroom library without mingling and touching the books? (I've got an idea for this...not a great one, but it's a start...)
• Passing time looks to me like a giant stirring of the petri dish.
• How many students and teachers will get sick before we move to online learning?

So much feels out of my control right now. And as we inch toward my parents' return to Friendship Haven at the end of this week, my worry skein in that category unwinds as well:

• Has this 4.5 month intervention been for naught if I'm returning them to a county that today shows 582 cases? Cass County is at a mere 36, although that is up by 50% from the 24 we were at on July 6.
• How confused will my mother be?
• Who will help us unload my dad's scooter (wheelchair) upon arrival?
• What groceries will my parents need to get through their required two-week quarantine?
• Will my mother remember how to do her own laundry? (Wait! She won't have access to the laundry room for two weeks.)
• How will I close this most precious, unexpected chapter of my life?

Enough.

Be well.

Write. 

Allison

My dear friend Kathy of Flowers for You brought my parents their
birthday bouquet yesterday. <3