School starts soon. The pencils are sharpened and the folders are labeled. Some students will be walking in the front door with masks on. Some students will be sitting in their kitchen with the Zoom link clicked. All of them will want someone to be waiting for them.
Last week, the Chicago Tribune published a commentary, “I will not know how to teach them,” from a Catholic middle school teacher, Hillary Richards, concerned about in-person instruction in the era of the coronavirus.
Here is another perspective from me, a middle school language arts teacher in Arlington Heights: I will know how to teach my students because I am their teacher.
I have been preparing for my students all summer. I will teach them as I have every year since I began teaching: with a caring heart, a problem-solving mind, and a hope for the future found in each of my students. I have planned for this. I am not caught off guard. I am not confused. I will choose grace over grades and possibility over perfection. My philosophy of building community, teaching compassion and engaging in creative learning experiences will remain the same.
The practical ways to care for and educate my students may look different, but that should happen every day as I am evaluating and engaging my students at their level.
This year will have different procedures and routines. Students in school will sit farther apart. They will not share their books and they will have their own calculators. Students at home will have their own calculators too. They just may be stored on their dining room table instead of on the bookshelf by the flag.
Each child had unique needs last year when I taught, and this year is the same. I will meet them where they are because each child is important. It doesn’t matter if they see me in person or in a square on a screen. I have the privilege to be part of their story. I will know how to teach them because I am their teacher.
That student who struggles with answering questions because people call him shy? Whether at home or at school, if he is my student, I will look for ways to engage him and to give him opportunities to speak about something he is passionate about.
That student who is lagging skills in compassion and self-identity? I will pour into her and show her the good she can become. I will read stories of people who overcame obstacles by standing up for what they believed in because we all know, at the core of one who bullies is a hurting heart. I will read “Where the Red Fern Grows” and my voice will crack when Little Ann and Old Dan die and there will be a silence in my classroom or on the screen as the students learn how sacrifice can bring heartache and freedom at the same time. Ultimately, it is up to me to set the tone of a team attitude in my classroom.
School administrators had to make tough decisions. Some plans are remote. Some are face to face. Families needed to make personal decisions. If someone is speaking out against children being in school, hopefully they are not going to a restaurant, the park, or out to grocery stores because that is the same situation they are asking from the children — their day becoming an isolation from the realm they know. Yet whether a district is remote or face to face, I would hope there is respect for the teachers and an understanding for the students and families.
In a few days, students will walk through the door of my classroom or click the link for our homeroom and I will welcome them with a smile.
I will look at each face and know deep in my heart that I will know how to teach them. I will teach love, compassion, inclusivity, kindness, and grace because that is what I always teach and that is not changing now. I will not be perfect at it, but I am their teacher.
And I will know how to teach them.
See you then,
Mrs. Ryg
Angie Ryg, M.Ed., is an author, speaker and teacher in Arlington Heights.
