We're (almost) there! Congratulations, my fellow educators for making it this far! Can't believe the first semester is (almost) over! Hopefully all of you are able to get a well-deserved break during the coming holidays! And most importantly, stay safe out there!

After distance teaching for a semester, there's quite a bit to reflect, especially lessons learned. I'm here to share with you what I learned. Perhaps you relate to some of these. 

2020 just couldn't catch a break. We're all exhausted from this year. We're stressed. We're burnt out. And we still have 2 months left of 2020. This past weekend finally brought some sigh of relief in quite some time. 

I've been distance teaching for nearly a month now. Many of us started at around the same time. Others are barely starting. I'd like to take a moment to share with you the lessons I learned so far. It can be summed up in 7 lessons.

Let's face the reality. We cannot go back into the classroom in the fall. The new school year is just around the corner and the number of COVID cases hasn't even dropped. In fact, it's been spiking with record numbers on the daily. Trump and DeVos want schools to fully reopen, but they have no plans beside "schools have to reopen." There is no way to guarantee student and staff safety. My state of California is rolling back reopening plans and yet we're still pushing for schools to reopen? It makes no sense. It's unrealistic for so many reasons. We have no plans to reopen schools SAFELY! So many unanswered questions. 

For many of us, this is our last week before the holiday break. Congratulations! You've made it through the first semester! What are your plans for the break? What are your plans for your students over break?? I recall being assigned homework by my teachers every single break. That's ironic right there. Being assigned "work" during "break." I had no break. 

Perhaps we should reconsider assigning homework over breaks for students? After all, don't we need a break? Shouldn't they also get a break?