June 28, 2021

#15: “Goodnight School”

It had always been my belief that the most challenging year of a teacher’s career is the first one. There are no real words that capture what it’s like, so I’ll just use these: being thrust in front of 30 students multiple times a day is the closest (hopefully) I’ll ever get to shell shocked. Teaching certification courses help, but only a little. The days are lined with engaging kids, and the nights are filled with lesson planning, differentiation, and grading. This recently concluded school year, however, put my belief to the ultimate test.

The 2020-2021 school year will forever be known to teachers, students, and parents as the Pandemic Year. Like a shortened sports season due to a strike, this year was different and had its fair share of challenges. Though, it was also met with the overcoming of them. In September, it seemed like new roadblocks appeared daily, but as the year went on, we figured it out.

Teachers juggled in-person and remote students simultaneously, and while it might have had the appearance of an out-of-tune orchestra, by the beginning of June, most classrooms sounded like a John Williams’s score.

As a school librarian, I have the unique perspective of being in the trenches with both the students and the teachers. This year, I saw teachers adapt seamlessly into a new tech environment, and I saw students make the best of the situation they were in. Some did it better than others, but no matter where on that spectrum you fell, growth happened.

All throughout this year, I was making announcements to students and staff via Microsoft Teams. My announcements usually came in the form of book recommendations, school updates, and video tutorials. As I entered the school building this morning, there were only a handful of people left. (Most of the staff ended last week.) Devoid of all movement, the building slept peacefully after a difficult year.

This, naturally, shifted my thoughts to the famous children’s book Goodnight Moon by Margret Wise Brown. For my last post of the school year, I wanted to share this feeling with the rest of the school’s community and took inspiration from Ms. Brown’s book:

“Goodnight School”

In each and every classroom

There was a camera and a microphone

And each were still in tune

To various memories of –

Teachers teaching and learning consumed.

And everywhere, there were empty chairs

And extra chargers

And sentence starters

And a pile of books

On the desk of a librarian with very good looks.

Goodnight classroom

Goodnight custodial broom

Goodnight memories of teachers teaching and learning consumed.

Goodnight clocks

And goodnight old gym socks.

Goodnight forgotten Uno Card

And goodnight beautiful Courtyard.

Goodnight chairs

And goodnight stairs.

Good night Spartans everywhere.

Thank you, teachers. And, thank you, students. See you next year.

Thanks for reading.