Hello everyone, my name is Janis Michael and I am a teacher at Avoca West School in Glenview, Illinois.
Right now, kids are normally running around, getting muddy and shouting out their sudden discoveries. As of May, 2021 this is not the case because we are remote. We live in Zoom and my students have not been in a classroom for over a year.
They inhabit COVID-19 bubbles of various sizes, some of which have expanded now that family members are vaccinated, some of which are still highly restricted. I have met each student once in person for 10 minutes at a carefully orchestrated “Meet the Teacher” event in a large open tent on a school lawn. We made sure to socially-distance for everyone's safety.
When students do come to the school building, I don’t recognize them. I see their faces every day, but those same faces are covered when I see them in-person. I don’t know how tall they are or how they walk. I know their homes and families. I know their siblings, their pets, the adults in their lives and which room gets the best Wifi signal. I see them curled up in bed, sprawled on a couch and snacking at the kitchen table. Zoom is an oddly intimate medium for teaching. We are remote, yet closer than ever.
What we aren’t, mainly, is outside.
