Today a student asked a question and I genuinely forgot that I was the one who was supposed to answer.

It wasn’t a hard question or one that was above my paygrade (although, with everything changing every day due to the pandemic, most questions are above my paygrade).

It wasn’t a trick question meant to mess with my head or make me look dumb in front of my students.

A student simply asked me what they could expect from this course.

And I sat. I nodded. I acknowledged that it was a good question. And then I waited for the teacher to answer.

Only…

I’m the teacher.

What.

I’d like to say I recovered smoothly, but this is a space to be honest, and, honestly, I did not recover smoothly. After what felt like 7 ½ years of awkward silence, I stumbled my way through an answer about a “variety of assessment tools” and “a little bit of everything.” The students still probably have no clue what to expect this year, but *spoiler alert* neither do I.

I have no clue what this year looks like for us. My school is opting for a virtual classroom environment the first few months of school until the COVID cases in our area begin to decrease. Unfortunately, my teacher prep program didn’t quite get to the “How to Prepare for Your First School Year As a Teacher When You Might Be Teaching Online and Also In Person and Also Maybe Probably Both All During A Global Pandemic” chapter in our textbook.

I have no clue where to begin. The other teachers at my school are amazing (and I truly mean amazing), but I have so many questions that I don’t even know what questions I have any more. I didn’t get access to my curriculum until 2 days before school started and I have no clue where to start. I keep looking at this blank Schoology folder and hoping that magically some great, engaging, standards-based lessons will just appear. Maybe I’ll keep drinking this Stella Peach until they do 😉 Ha!

Anyways, stay tuned as I hopefully figure out how to lesson plan—and how to not panic when I remember that I’m the teacher now. Happy back to school!