Distance (Learning) Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?

It's been two weeks since my anxiety started about Covid-19.  Things are not going well Out There... stores are shut, for the most part, as are restaurants.  There's no place to go and nothing to do once you get there.  It reminds me a lot of Sundays when I was little, when all the stores were closed... too quiet, too still.  You are able to go to the grocery store or to other stores that sell necessities, like WalMart, but with everyone online and in the real world screaming at you to stay the heck home, you feel guilty - and scared - to go there.

Schools are closed, but that doesn't mean we teachers are out of work.  After a short break, we were all informed that we're now doing Distance Learning... teaching via computer.  That instigated a bit of a panic among my colleagues and myself, let me tell you!  HOW are we supposed to teach on a computer????  WHAT are we supposed to use to deliver our lessons????  HOW THE HECK DO YOU USE THESE PROGRAMS WE'VE NEVER BEFORE HEARD OF?????

But, as with many things, that panic eased as we gamely threw ourselves into the breach and started trying to figure out how to do what we were supposed to be doing.  I learned how to Zoom a meeting.  I learned how to Screencastify my lessons, making videos that my students could watch.  I figured out how to effectively navigate Google Classroom - though I have not yet figured out what on EARTH the use of the "stream" is.  Seriously, Google people... get rid of that.  It's bloody useless.

And... much to my own shock... I'm finding that I'm actually enjoying teaching again, for the first time in I don't know how long.  Why?  Darned if I know.  It's definitely not the lack of kids... I really, truly enjoy my students, being with them, giving them their daily dose of knowledge.  I'm not one of those wonderful teachers who is miserably lonely without them, mind you.  But I do enjoy being with them, when I am.

It might be that classroom management is much, much easier.  I'm definitely happier that I don't need to spend so very much of my time hushing one student, telling another to stop eating paper, telling a third to open up to the right page, and then telling that first student to hush again.  I am able to interact, in text, with each and every kid who posts an assignment.  I'm able to answer questions as they come up, and encourage students as they go along.  I'm not expected to pull small groups for instruction while at the same time monitoring the rest of the class, trying to assure that everyone is dutifully engaged in some sort of learning activity - small groups, honestly, are the bane of my teaching existence.  And I don't worry about having an administrator show up unannounced, or having a lesson interrupted by a call from the office, or telling that kid who won't stop yakking to SHUT UP ALREADY (which I can't, but wish I could).

I'm actually working much harder putting together my lessons than I have for many, many years - but it isn't wearing on me the way it usually does.  In fact, I can go for several hours at a clip not really being aware of how much work I'm actually doing.  I'm collaborating with colleagues the way we should ALWAYS be doing, because every one of us is in the same boat that we're building even as we're sailing it.  And as a result, I feel a good deal fonder of my colleagues than I usually do.

I'm not thrilled with the amount of time I'm sitting down.  My body is really feeling that, and I'm not getting out and walking around as much as I know I should.  But... I'm happier than I thought I possibly could be, two weeks ago.  I'm still anxious, yes, but it's not the all-pervasive anxiety that consumed me at the start of this pandemic.  Maybe it's having something productive to do each day - something that vitally needs doing.  Having a task to do is a great way to alleviate anxiety.

All in all, I'd say that thus far, the social distancing and isolation hasn't hit me as hard as I'd been afraid it would.  I hope it stays that way.