Reflecting on the 2020-2021 School Year & Life in General

Ahh the 2020-2021 school year.  Back in September I began by 14th year teaching math in NYC public schools.  I was also starting my first full school year as a full-time working mom and oh yeah, we were all trying to figure out how to effectively engage & teach both in-person & remote students at the same time... no big deal, right?

The beginning of the school year is always exciting & stressful, but September 2020 with all of the unknowns & "awaiting guidance" while trying to plan for a school year that was going to be unlike any other made it exponentially more stressful... we didn't even have a school calendar until right before the school year started.  I went into this school year knowing I would be teaching one section of 7th grade math and two sections of 8th grade Algebra 1 & would be teaching both in-person & remote students at the same time.  Students would be 6 feet apart.  Lunch would be a "working lunch" period for students.  Sharing manipulatives was not a thing.  Everyone would be in a mask all day and we could all go remote at literally any moment for an uncertain amount of time.  So many changes.  So many unknowns.  Not since my first year as a teacher, were there so many things I could not imagine.

This year has been exhausting to say the least.  This past month & week in particular has been extra exhausting as an 8th grade teacher.  I have a lot I want to say & hope to do so over several posts on here, but I want to take some time on here today to talk about the successes from this past school year.  So here they are, in no particular order:

1. First & foremost, I survived & got through it... somehow, someway
2. I got through my first full school year as a mom
3. I co-organized, not one, but two graduations (one virtual & one in-person)
4. I helped students put together our 4th yearbook (with no set elective time during the school day)
5. I prepared my 7th graders for the state test & my 8th graders for the Algebra 1 Regents
6. I applied for my second Math for America Master Teacher Fellowship
7. I was awarded my second Math for America Master Teacher Fellowship
8. Although it was last summer, I did get re-certified as Level 1 & 2 Google Certified Educator
9. Oh yeah, did I mention that I survived?

Like I said, I hope to go into some of these things more in depth, but I also want to be mindful of it being summer and to maintain a good work-life balance, so for now I will just share some things from this past school year...

• For the third year, I had my students create memes about this past school year and once again, they did not disappoint... it's always interesting to see what they come up with.
• I changed up my EOY student survey this year (I only had a chance to look it over for the first time this afternoon)
• This summer I am participating in my third Math for America Summer Think, as well as the AIM-TRU Summer Convening & will be co-facilitating next year's PLT on Formative Assessment 

On a personal non-work related note, some things I am proud of so far at the halfway point of this year are...

• Reading 33 books so far this year in the Goodreads 2021 Reading Challenge
• Working out almost every morning for the pas year thanks to Beachbody on Demand (I am currently on my third round of MBF but have done MM100, T20, MBFA and other programs)
• Logging more than 1,014 miles so far this year in the Run the Year 2021 Challenge
• Being a mom to a funny, sweet, silly, curious, brave, amazing 20 month old, who is the best thing that has ever happened to me.