"This is Us!" -Not original, but it feels so appropriate.

2020, get out of our way!

We are living in such strange times. It feels like the world is up-side-down, twisted twice, and then turned inside-out. I have been wondering for weeks how a new school year, in the middle of a pandemic, would feel for my students? And not just them, how would it feel for me, their teacher? My fear: "disconnected." Would the masks, and the distance separations, and separate supplies, and the cleaning procedures make us feel isolated? Even as we gathered together? Today we would find out.

I had met all of the children on individual FaceTime calls. They were excited to start the new school year. Consistently they shared the same wish, "to be back in school" and "to be with their friends again." Today was our day to be together for the first time in our classroom space. It was sort of our "Meet the Teacher" morning, but life in a pandemic made it so much more! 

Our time together today was just going to be just a couple of hours. We wanted the students to see our classroom space, discuss a few rules and procedures, complete two enrichment activities and end by celebrating the start of our new year as a learning pod. Mrs. Bredemeier, our substitute teacher, was with us along with lots of parents and a very cute little sister.

My fear, that we would feel disconnected??? Not. At. All. 

There are definitely things that are different. It is not in our nature to keep ourselves separated from the friends we have missed and care about the most. It will take us some time to adjust to our new normal. It will take practice to fight the urge to stand close to our friends and classmates. We will all need time and practice to remember to put space between us, even when we are outside for lessons and taking a "mask break" in the open air. There are procedures we need to practice, and practice, and practice to make them habits. We will also stumble and make mistakes and learn from them. We will need to adjust our rules to improve our learning environment and keep us as safe as possible.

Did we get everything right today? No. We are learners. We need practice. We need time to process all of this new information. We need a little grace as we work together to figure this out. 

I said there were things that were different today, and that is true. What gives me hope and excitement for our year together? There were so many more things that were normal and expected! 

We were all excited to be here. A new school year is full of anticipation and possibilities.

We were all a little nervous about meeting new classmate friends, a new teacher, and her substitute too!

We all want to make a great first impression. We really want our peers and teacher/s to see our strengths and those characteristics that make us special.

We all have hidden fears. What will school be like this year? Will it be fun? Will it be hard? Will if be boring? Will my classmates be kind? Will they like me?

We also know we have gifts. We have talents and special knowledge we have gained from the experiences that have brought us to where we are in this moment. We will share those ideas and experiences with our classmates and teacher, because that will make us all a little wiser and a little better.

We are ready. We are ready to make new friends. We are ready to learn new information and skills. We are ready to take risks. And we don't really know this yet, but we are ready to fail. We will brush ourselves off, wipe away a frustrated tear, try as many times as is necessary, and we will succeed. We are ready to grow.

We all want to be the very best person we can be. This year we will search ourselves, seek out new information and explore as much of our world as we can reach. We will find out a little bit more about who we are and who we are becoming.

We are all unique, and special, and challenged, and accomplished. We are learners. That is a pretty exceptional way to start out our year! 

This is Us!

This is a learners blog. It is an academic tool we are using to share our learning with our families, friends and the world. We will use our blog to reach out and connect with other learners and experts. We will also use it to become better digital citizens, gain skills to use the Internet safely, and learn to interact appropriately in a digital environment. 

Each week a different student will be featured as our blogger- recording and sharing our questions, ideas, failures and accomplishments. We will also have a featured blog-grapher that will document our week in pictures. Our intention is to publish our featured students post at the end of the week. (Does that mean, Thursday? Friday? Yeah, not sure.  Give us a little grace here to figure out that routine. -Hopefully by Friday.) 

Mrs. Koch will also be posting here on our blog.  Consider "Following" us with the options found on the right.

We hope you will stop by regularly to see what we are studying. We would love for you to leave us comments and questions. Before doing so, we would ask that your read our "Blogging Guidelines" and "How to Comment" tabs located at the top of our blog. All comments are moderated and must be approved by Mrs. Koch, before they will be published here.

Lastly, we ask that you keep our blog a positive learning space. We know we will make mistakes and we ask that you give us grace to do so as we strive to be better. If you have specific questions or concerns, feel free to contact Mrs. Koch by email under her profile found at the bottom, on the right.