Over a month of microschooling.
We’ve been at this for over a month now! Let’s chat about where I am and how I am feeling.
First of all, let’s just put this out there: this is the best I’ve ever felt about teaching. I love my students and I can see just how much they are learning in just a little over 6 weeks. We have a great time together and they are truly an amazing group of students.
I could end this blog there, because that is truly the heart of it. But I feel like readers of my blog and followers of my microschool (the 4 of you that exist) would like to know more details. And I would love to document this too for myself and to read back about what was going on during this time.
With that, I want it to still be known that this is my favorite thing I’ve ever done with teaching, and to those teachers that are discouraged and want to teach in their own way, I encourage you to look into what a microschool might look like for you. Or if not a microschool then maybe a learning pod, or even 1-on-1 tutoring. Just encouraging you to look into doing what you love in a different, and fulfilling way!
Okay. So SOME of the things I thought would be a struggle, have been very smooth. For instance: I thought dealing with parents was going to be a whole thing. I am not exaggerating when I say I have the most understanding group of parents. They are kind, supportive, sweet, and understanding. The fact that they trust me with part of their child’s education is already daunting, but they lighten that load and it’s clear that we all work TOGETHER for the best interests of their student. It’s great. The other big struggle I thought I would have was if I needed time off. I was super concerned about the parents reactions to if I needed a day off. This turned out to also be a non issue.
Both of these perceived struggles came to fruition this last week and proved me wrong in the best way. Last week on Wednesday, my husband needed to go to the ER. He was having some scary heart symptoms. I knew that I needed to cancel school for the next day, and possibly the day after that. I texted each parent individually, and I was overwhelmed with how supportive they all were. The sweet texts and comments from each parent that just wished my husband well and wanted him to rest, was so amazing. We were able to have some time of rest together while my husband rested. They all encouraged me to take some time off and relax with Elias (my husband) while he recovers. (He’s doing better, by the way. We are on our way for some answers).
All this to say, the issues I thought would be issues are not issues. I just said the word “issues” way too many times. But you get my point. My expectations have been exceeded in this whole process. And because of that, I feel like I can focus on student learning.
It’s been really cool to see how students learn and to actually see some growth and measure that in non traditional ways. I will talk more about that in another blog, but I’ll just say here how cool it is that I don’t need any kind of traditional tests to measure students’ growth. It’s been actually really cool. Most of the measurements have been through conversations and discussion with students. I’m just really proud of and impressed with all of them!
We will see how things progress. It is interesting that there really isn’t any behavioral issues at the moment. At least nothing to the extent that I usually have to deal with at this time in the school year. Teachers know that there is a “honeymoon” phase with students, I know that is a creepy phrase, but I am not sure how else to put it. We know that eventually, students show who they really are and their true colors and that’s when student behavior comes out and problems arise. I feel like we are into that phase and all my students are still just really pleasant. There have been a couple little things, but like I said, it NOTHING like I am usually used to.
I will end this blog with this: I’m having a great time. And, more importantly, my students are also telling me that they are having a great time AND that they are learning. That right there is the whole point of Noema Learning: a fun, personalized, learning experience.
