Learner by Nature

•Remember the students, teachers, custodians, aides, kitchen and office staff. The return to school will be unlike anything we have done before. We will all be trying to adapt to a new normal and giving it our best shot.  It’s the COVID era. •Remember the mental health for teachers and students...that teachers will not only need to have their own heads wrapped around dealing with COVID, watching riots and destruction, worrying about jobs and income, and much more, but teachers will also have to have the fortitude, composure and stage presence to initiate and foster a calm and understanding attitude with kids and their questions, their worries and fears- all the while working through these problems on their own.  •Remember that teachers, who care and want the best for their students, are cautiously attempting to implement the rules set by the state of Indiana and our SCSC administration. Teachers and students will return to school, not as they have known it, but with major changes- dist

  The term learner would be an accurate to describe me.  My curiosity still spurs excitement and the quest to know more. I have been that way for as long as I remember, and I think it helps me to relate to my 4th grade students.  We end up on a learning and sharing journey together.    I often remind them of my wish to have had YouTube and Google growing up.  Would I have learned to knit mittens? Fix an engine? Paint or build a swing?  I wonder how differently my life would have turned out if I could have relied on my own questions and hobbies to learn how to do things AND share with with others.     I use Twitter for this in my professional life.  I have met so many other educators looking for a place to learn and share.  It all happens like magic.  I finish a Twitter chat and my mind is racing with new things.  I can't wait to look at the many new tabs I have opened during the chat that were suggested by others.  (That's another thing about me-I often have 20-30 tabs open at