I’ll start journaling my school year and teaching experience by sharing 3 struggles and 3 joys (hopefully) every week. I hope to use writing to reflect, document, and generate useful strategies.

September 30th

3 Struggles

• Feeling like there is nothing positive

• Tough to gauge how kids are doing when video cameras are optional

• Are kids really learning online?

3 Joyful Moments

• Having a conversation with a student about the Celtics in Chinese in a breakout room.

• Feeling super vulnerable sharing my struggles and reflection with students during x-block and hearing back from a few of them saying that they liked the conversation and thanked me for talking to them.

• Hearing students asking me in Chinese if the could speak English when responding to my discussion questions!

Takeaways?

Take time to connect with students! Covering content won’t happen before students feeling connected and finding learning meaningful.