Along the Road to Home

I hadn't planned to write this blogpost today.  It never entered my mind to do so, but after over 600 shares of a post I put on Facebook on behalf of my class of fourth graders at Newkirk Elementary School,  I felt it might be a good way to explain our request. I'm one of those old school kind of teachers and having been in the business of education since August of 1979, well I guess it's to be expected.  At age 65 years old, I've seen it all as changes and new strategies in teaching came in and out of the classroom during the past 41 years.  I had to teach 2 years before women educators were allowed to wear slacks to school on a daily basis.  It was another 3 years before we could wear jeans on Friday.  I used to go home in the early days with blue ink from the mimeograph machine covering my hands and clothes.  Back then we did it all on our own without a notion of a classroom aid to assist us or a computer to take attendance on.  Teachers called...

It's hard to believe the fact that this school year of 2020-2021 is more than half complete now.  It was the year that I wasn't figuring to have but one that I was blessed with regardless.  The calendar on the wall reflects that the month of February is knocking on the door and January will soon only be a memory.   Time flies and so goes life with it. Last year at this time I made the decision to retire and I mean really retire.  I had been in the classroom as a teacher for slightly more than 4 decades.  Originally retiring from Kansas in 2010, and attempting to retire several times after that, I knew it wouldn't be easy.  But I felt the time had come and it was a good moment to exit on a high note.  Finally I was at peace with it and figured that retirement would lead me to the next stop and purpose in my life. Then came mid-March of 2020 and the Covid 19 pandemic. I spent the final 9 weeks of the school year teaching my 5th grade students at Lib...