110/180 Challenge of the Day

Wednesday Update: No major side effects, a little sore arm.

I delivered materials to each of my students.

My TAs and I carefully filled them with materials

we will use in class.

We put them all in a backpack just their size.

Donors blessed us with a variety of art and sensory materials.

All my students got these materials,

and more.

But not all of them will have the materials 

when we need them for class.

Today, I introduced the art of Brian Pinkney.

I had taken some of my students (early 90's)

to meet him and get an autographed copy

of Happy Birthday Martin Luther King.

I still have that copy somewhere in the garage.

As an extension,

I wanted students to create scratch art pictures.

This would normally be an easy task at school.

We would have students work in small groups

with all the materials provided.

This task becomes more challenging at home.

It didn't surprise me when some students said 

they didn't have the scratch paper in their backpacks.

The usual suspects won't have the materials 

because they have used them, lost them, or 

baby cousin has taken them out.

But it did surprise me when I saw G burst into tears.

He usually always has everything he needs.

His mother sees to it.

But not today,

at least not for the first few minutes.

Thanks to a quick demonstration,

we showed students to create their own scratch paper.

This has been one of the hardest challenges to overcome in virtual teaching.

You try to provide everything they need

or just the basic essentials

but no matter how hard you try to make sure

that every child has the same access to learning materials

not all of them will have them when needed.

It drives me crazy!

It's not the students' fault.

it's not their family's fault.

It just is.

So as teachers,

we learn to adapt and

look for quick solutions and alternatives.

Sometimes it works,

sometimes it doesn't.

We can just do our best,

and for this year,

our best is good enough.

Before we ended our day,

three more students managed to locate

those pieces of scratch paper.

G was one of them.