~extend grace/we will be ready~

~from along the Oklahoma-Kansas border in Kay County, OK~

It's the early morning hours here and some how or another, I don't think there will be enough coffee in the coffee pot today.  My eyes popped open at 2:00 am and after tossing and turning for an hour, I just simply gave up.  I guess it was time to start the day.

And here I am.

There is school today in our little community of Newkirk but instead of coming to the school, the kids are learning virtually from home today.  We are practicing what it would be like if the need for distance learning arises due to an outbreak of Covid 19.  I'm really grateful to our local school board who gave the green light for this day to happen.  Much hard work has gone into the planning for this day with teachers spending extra time to get preparations into place.  All of us agree that we'd much rather keep our students in class with us in the brick and mortar facility rather than see their bright and shining faces from behind a computer screen.

But just like we practice for tornadoes, fires, earthquakes, and intruders this practice drill is something that all of us needed.  My prayer is always that we never need to use it.

I remember back in the spring when the pandemic first arrived.  How badly I felt when I could no longer see the 18 kids that I had been teaching in the fifth grade at Ponca City.  The realization that it would be a long time or maybe never that we would be able to get back into a group again was a bitter pill to swallow.  For several weeks up until that last day of official school in early May, I was in contact with them daily via phone or online.  I tried my best to teach them everything that I could but never really felt like it would ever be the same for me again.  I wanted to reach right into that computer screen and give them a hug.  How I longed to just be in their presence once again.

That never happened.  In the weeks that followed, I only saw one of my fifth grade students again.  

Today I will be teaching my fourth graders from behind the computer screen in my classroom at school.  We have spent the past two days going over everything and I tried to leave no stone unturned.  Did they know their passwords?  Were they going to need to take home their own device to use for the online part of the day?  Had I explained the directions well enough?  Was there a parent who might have had a question?  

I'm sure there are things that I have forgotten even in my best laid plans.  I'll soon be finding out as the sun comes up and a new school day begins.  

You know I learned to bake bread during the days that have passed since mid-March, but there is something else I have learned that might be even more important.  I have come to know how important it is to extend grace to those around me.  These are trying times and ones in which character is being shaped on a daily basis.  It's not easy for parents to go through this nor is it easy for teachers.  Blessed educators have a strong group of parents who stand beside them even in these roughest of days.  I count myself in that most fortunate of groups and because of that, I know that my students and I will be ok.  

Tomorrow, the good Lord willing, we will all be back together again in our classroom as we return to a normal school setting.  May we never need to put into place what we are practicing today, but if we do one thing is for sure.

We will be ready.



Life saved the best to the last for me.  I have never regretted the decision to teach for Newkirk Public Schools, even in the midst of the great pandemic.  I'm proud to be a part of the 2020-2021 school year!

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