Falling Back, 18. Off We Go.

Today was my first day of classes. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday.

It's not that it was a rowdy lot, but just that it was intense. Yes, the afternoon did go by quickly, for which I am grateful. But at the end, I just sank into my chair and sighed in relief.

To top it off, one mother changed her children around in their time slots. The only problem with that was that I had already put in two other kids in those hours of approximate ages. Now, I have upper high school kids with fourth graders. It's not an impossibility, but there is little chance that way of unifying lessons. 

Then, a mother forgot that she had to bring her kids. I spent that hour doing little things around the house, and eating something, glad that I had that time to myself. The next hour, the kid I had scheduled came. A few minutes into the hour, and someone knocked on the door. It was the mother who should have come the hour before. She got mixed up and thought her class was an hour later than it was.

At the last hour, two kids didn't come. Again, a tiny class was no problem. Once the last kid was gone, I slumped into the chair.

The first thing that got me was that the days were very noticeably shorter. That is not to my liking. The second thing was the mask. During the summer, with less contagion, the window open, and warmer weather, I wore a face shield, instead. But now that there is more contagion, and the window is closed, aside from having the air purifier, I wear the lightest, coolest mask I could find. But that means not wearing my glasses, because they fog up so much I see practically the same with them as without them. Also, talking during most of the hours, the fabric gets moist and wants to go into my mouth. And my voice doesn't come out as clearly as I would like. I sometimes have to pull the mask away from my mouth to better enunciate. It's going to be a long winter.

Another thing was that many of the kids are behind in what they should know. During the lockdown, not every teacher did the same. Some, the rare ones, held online classes with the kids. Others gave worksheets, with some or no explanations. Many others just told kids to watch certain movies and comment on them in English. No one was really prepared to give long distance classes, and only those who are proficient in technology attempted it. Yet, I believe that teachers were not trained during the summer to be able to give online classes in such a manner that the children will learn. Of course not, it would mean investing more money, something few government actually like to do. So now, kids have to review what they should have learned.

Life continues.