The alarm was set, but I didn't need it. I beat the alarm by nearly 30 minutes and there was no way I was going back to sleep; I was too excited. I grabbed a quick shower, poured a cup of coffee, and started getting my things together. The morning was already hot, but a scattering of thunderstorms in the area brought a little bit of relief compared to previous days. But rain or shine, nothing was going to ruin this day!
This picture could be any number of things. In the past, this easily could have described the first day of school, but not this time. This time, I am describing a camping trip with my family. We had planned this trip for over a month, four nights in Williams, Arizona, a temporary home base from where we would explore the Grand Canyon, Bearizona, the small towns along Route 66, Sedona, and Flagstaff. This trip would be the last before returning to school at the end of the month for my wife and me (yes, after two years, my wife would be returning to work!).
The trip to Williams began rather uneventfully. A stop for drinks at 7-Eleven and a quick check of the tires and lights on the camper and our Dodge Durango and we merged onto I-11, crossed the O'Callaghan-Tillman Bridge over the Colorado River dividing Nevada and Arizona, and then through about 80 miles of the Mojave Desert toward Kingman, Arizona and Route 66, the road less taken that we would use to get to Willams instead of I-40 that bypassed the highway decades ago. So, a stop in Kingman for breakfast and gas and we would be on our way, or so we thought...
After getting gas and starting the vehicle back up, the temperature gauge instantly went to the top. Normally, the gauge hovers around the middle, even when towing in the heat, so I knew that something was wrong. My fears were confirmed when I opened the hood and saw radiator fluid spewing out of the bottom of the vehicle. Luckily, a repair show was down the street, so I carefully guided us there with the vehicle screaming at us the entire time.
My hope was that the shop would be able to look at it, make a repair over the next few hours, then we could be on our way. Unfortunately, that was not going to be the case. The shop was booked until the next day, other shops in the area were also full, and my insurance company would only cover a tow for 20 miles. So very quickly, it was determined that our planned camping trip would be no more. And when I said that nothing would ruin this day? I was mistaken...
So as a family, we began to go over options. We could find a motel in Kingman, but without a vehicle, what would we do? So then the thought was that we could rent a car so we could do something. But nothing against Kingman, there isn't a whole lot to do around there, at least that we knew about. Out of frustration, we thought about renting a car to drive the 100 miles back home, return the car there (for a significant fee), and drive back in our other car once the Durango was fixed. Regardless of the decision, none of these sounded appealing.
So my wife suggested the following: rent a car in Kingman, transfer our stuff from the Durango to the rental car, drive two hours to Williams, get a motel room there, and still go to the Grand Canyon, Bearizona, and other places over the span of the couple of days that it would take to get the vehicle fixed. No, it wouldn't be the four we initially planned in the camper, but we could salvage something of a vacation. While she called to reserve a car, I found a motel and called the campground to cancel our reservation (and after explaining why we wouldn't be coming, the incredibly sweet woman on the other end of the phone refunded our entire reservation that we had prepaid, thank you Circle Pines KOA in Williams, Arizona!). An hour later, we were back on the road sans travel trailer to have some family fun!
So, what happened to the Durango? The thermostat failed, causing the radiator to overheat. When the radiator overheated, it failed completely, explaining why it lost fluid. While the parts to replace a radiator aren't much (surprisingly, only about $250), the labor is very intensive because of the way vehicles are designed now. When the shop called to tell me that the total bill for the fix would be nearly $1100, you could have knocked me over with a feather. But in the end, while the trip ended up costing us a lot more money than we had intended, it was still a great time!
This kind of a situation is exactly what our school year is going to be, what could happen at any moment in our classroom, and what could happen after spending the summer prepping materials only to learn that the tools, subject area or grade level, or something else has changed. NOT EVERYTHING GOES AS PLANNED! Sometimes, it is something minor, like the student information system going down when you want to input grades or attendance, waking up to a two-hour start delay due to weather, or the fire alarm that sounds right in the middle of the best lesson that you ever taught. But this year, the 2020-2021 school year, is a beast that we have never encountered and no amount of successes and/or challenges in the spring during the initial shutdown can truly prepare us for what's coming.
Outside of the continuation of distance learning or the challenges of returning to a face-to-face or hybrid model, what are some of the other challenges that you are going to face, things that you certainly did not expect six months ago? For me, there are several challenges.
First, I will continue to co-teach classes, namely United States history and world history, courses that I have taught and co-taught before. However, I will also be co-teaching three sections of algebra. I haven't taken a math class in 20 years, let alone ever taught it. However, after learning that it would give me the opportunity to interact with students on my caseload more frequently by having them in my class and knowing that I will be working with an excellent math teacher, I am more confident that I can be successful as a co-teacher in a course in which I have no experience.
Second, my district is moving toward implementing Canvas for all teachers and students. In the past, many teachers used Google Classroom, but after a directive came from the Nevada Department of Education mandating a common learning management system, it is now up to teachers to learn how to build courses in Canvas. I have used Canvas as a student and a few years ago, I completed a training in Canvas, but have not used it much outside of that. Luckily, my district has provided several training modules (on Canvas!) to prepare teachers, my school has created a technology team to provide training (a team that I was asked to contribute to), and I found a wonderful course, Canvas Educator, through TCEA that was only $29 and included a one year membership to the organization. As a result, I have been able to learn the basics of Canvas very quickly, but I know there are going to be numerous educators that are going to struggle with the stress of virtual teaching and learning an LMS at the same time.
Lastly, I have my own children and their education to consider. I was looking forward to the first year without paying for childcare in a very long time, but with my district moving to fully online learning, I had to consider childcare once again, with many reservations. Because so many others are also going to need childcare, a large organization like the Boys & Girls Club was not even considered as I do not feel comfortable sending my kids to a place like that in a pandemic. Hiring a "nanny" to come to my home was cost-prohibitive. And keeping my kids engaged at home while I worked with my own classes, while a last ditch option, was something I wanted to avoid as well. After conversations with other educator friends, we were able to arrange for a school counselor that would be working from home and an educator that typically works as a substitute to have my children and four others at their home where they can complete their online classes, interact with some other children their age (two of the kids are family friends), and have some free time throughout the day to play games, swim, etc.
Think about the challenges that you are facing going into this school year that you did not sign up for when you became an educator. What are you options when facing these challenges and how are you going to tackle the challenges head on? Know that you have the supports of your colleagues and millions of educators, students, families, and communities around the world and that we will get through this together!
Until next time...