What Kind of Amazing?

I think this experience of staying home is sort of like a roller coaster ride.  In my profession we often experience elation of learners reaching a new level of understanding.  We also sometimes feel frustration that learning and understanding were not achieved.  Every single day is something new and amazing in this profession of education.

I thought about the distance learning experience I had with my mother yesterday.  She was a willing and eager pupil because she needed to know and needed to advance beyond where she was.  That is just like how some students in the classroom are everyday.  Then, there are some students who are not so eager and really don't value what we are trying to teach and that is where the educator's frustration sets in most of the time.  Then, sometimes, though, there are students who start out eager and feeling the need and desire to know but get bogged down because learning is not easy. 

When you know your students well and recognize how they learn best, teaching becomes easier and learning for them becomes easier.  Even when you have a classroom full of learners who have different needs, teaching can sometimes be easy.  As educators, we just adapt and offer options and teach the same thing in different ways.  We will set up stations where students can perform a hands-on learning activity or we will have something for auditory learners or have a visual for those who need to see something to understand it better.  I maintain that all learners are smart, we just have to find their strengths and build upon them.

Maybe my experience as being a part of a school's special education department helped me to develop that mindset.  I know that it helped me to better understand that we need to meet students where they are and that sometimes some students need something more or something different than what the majority needs in order to move from where they are closer to where they will find more success.

I pondered the situation with my mother and wondered how many folks are out there who don't have a daughter who is an educator to do a little distance learning via text message.  I wonder how many folks don't understand all of what is going on in our society today and don't have a close, trusted person they can call on to help them better navigate this journey.  I went to sleep thinking about that.

Then, as I always do, I looked at the headlines and caught up on what the news blurbs for the morning were before I ever really started my day.  The first headline that seemed to hit me in the gut was this one: Coronavirus Bill allows DeVos to waive parts of special education law.  Then, another source reported the same thing.  Then, I saw this: Toward a New and Better Normal. 

In times like these it is so easy to become self-centered and think poor-pitiful-me.  It is easy to get angry because others don't do exactly what we want them to do.  Yet, when we take a moment and pause and think about all we have to be grateful for, things generally seem to feel better.  We seem to feel less pitiful.  We seem to have a better outlook. 

I'm trying so hard to do that right now - that pausing and being grateful. 

I'm also thinking about those who might not be as fortunate as me.  I'm thinking about how distance learning is going for lots of different learners.  I'm trying to think that we are all "growing through this" together as author, Couros, said in his post.  I'm asking myself, "How do we ensure that we honor the different situations of every one of our families?"  I hope that our country's leaders are asking themselves this question as well. 

I think about what might be happening for those who are going through this instead of growing through this.  I'm thinking about those who might be growing through this but it is not a positive kind of growth.  And when I do think about some of those things like I read in the headlines, I break down and cry.  It's an ugly cry like I did this morning.

I'm trying to convince myself that this "change is an opportunity to do something amazing," and we certainly are doing something amazing.  I am just hoping that it is amazingly good!