An Introduction

Originally written on 3/15/20:

Greetings to any who read!

My name is Ben Posluch. I am a high school English teacher and parent, among other things. I've been led to believe that we are experiencing a historical event right now with the COVID-19 outbreak that has disrupted our lives so suddenly. Some of the teachers I follow on social media are saying that we ought to do our part to document it and discuss what it is like.

I've decided that this is an excellent idea.

I schemed in the shower this morning – cliché, I know, but truly an inspirational location for me – thinking of ways to help my students through this challenging time and perhaps join me in documenting our stories.

I've been going to Kelly Gallagher for endless inspiring ideas over the past few years, and naturally, he was all over it, summing up most of my thinking and putting some good questions together. What a guy. I'll attempt to answer them as well.

Capture how this virus has disrupted your school year—including sporting events, concerts, assemblies, dances. 

Things kind of began to hit at the end of last week, March 12-13th, a Thursday and Friday. Sporting events and leagues were canceled or postponed. Celebrity Tom Hanks and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's wife contracted the virus. It was on my students' lips and minds, although not yet at the forefront. We'd done an article of the week on it, so they'd read the basics. Many of them scornfully derided the panic shoppers who had been buying toilet paper by the truckload. They were headed to Spring Break and didn't seem too concerned about any possible school cancellations.

I got emails from the district's community outreach rep all day giving updates that basically said "we're in wait and see mode."

I expect our school to use the full Spring Break to monitor developments in the situation and then close until Easter. I predict that we will be asked to connect with our students and offer meaningful work online during that time.

I suspect my students will miss out on many things this school year – Senior prom, dances, and the precious months spent with beloved friends, many of whom will go their separate ways and never meet again. I hope that we will return to school, but I would not be surprised to see the virus peak in May as some experts are saying, meaning we've met our last for the year. I hope I am wrong.

Discuss how your daily life has been disrupted. 

I went home after wishing my students a restful break. We followed the news, surprised at how quickly schools in the area decided to close. It appeared that the writing would be on the wall for our children: their school was sure to close as well. We gardened and cleaned, talking to the kids throughout the weekend about how their school would likely not be open on Monday and why it was important. We told them that everyone would be okay and offered sympathy for the temporary loss of friends and teachers.

As I'm on Spring Break and my children are not, so my thoughts and concerns are primarily for them. My wife's preschool center is remaining open, which surprises me, but I'm not convinced that it will last much longer. What I'm looking at, then, is a familiar situation: me and the kids hanging out all morning until my wife gets home. It's summer vacation mode! I can do that. It's been our operational situation for the past couple of years, at least.

We'd usually have them do some reading, writing, and some kind of mathematical or logical thinking during the morning during summer break to keep their brains from melting away into a summer slide. Maybe we do something similar. We're waiting to see what, if anything, their teachers will ask them to do at home. That will be good, but if it's stupid, I'm going to be sorely tempted to have them ignore it and try to do awesome stuff like baking (so much math), finally stringing up my old classical guitar for some guitar lessons, and working outside in the garden we just planted yesterday – we could spend so much time hacking away at that blasted Bermuda grass... It could look so nice...

As with most of my utopian visionary plans for my family, this one's sure to go up in smoke. Kids are simply not going to go with the plans we lay out for them, although mine do seem to like the security of a schedule. We have been scheduling our days and evenings for the past few months to avoid freakouts and meltdowns, and it helps, although I'm concerned about being some crazy helicopter parent. Whatever. It helps us stay a little saner.