Zoom Zoom

Week #3 is in the books and now I have the weekend to get my act together to do again and teach next week. I'm starting to get a feel for this new way of teaching which is nothing like last spring really. While I have full classes instead of just a handful of kids, the dynamic has complete changed. I feel like I am teaching to students with bags over their heads. Every so often a kid will give me a glimpse of their face, whether on accident or just for fun but it is rare. With the exception of my yearbook class, most of my classes look like this photo -- me just talking to boxes. It's not fun or easy. A colleague shared with me that she has learned to change up the view to speaker (instead of gallery, like this photo) and just talk into the camera to herself. She ignores the all the black boxes. I am keenly aware that there is a kid behind those boxes, I'm trying to connect with. Today at the end of my last class of the week, kids started saying goodbye to me and it was wonderful. I have a feeling it's going to take the whole semester to get anywhere significant and then I'll have to start over again.