From the city of Taguatinga-DF, Brazil.
Thursday – October 15, 2020.
I barely slept well with the intention of challenging myself and giving personal thanks to God and celebrating life. I decided to do the 14 km journey from my house to school on foot, calling me to reflect that I need to persevere, break paradigms, and that it is possible to do a little more.
For the first hour and 50 minutes running, I cried, I thought about the employees who were contaminated, the teacher who died, and the various students who were orphaned by Covid-19. But I thanked God for being alive and overcoming difficulties in this new normal, in education.
Today, teacher’s day, in Brazil, we make fun of teachers. We said they had to sign work reports at the school. It was not true. We organize a drive-thru for the delivery of souvenirs and certificates in celebration of Teacher’s Day. We cannot hug them, the educational orientation gave a celebratory tone, and even if it was quick, we were able to register the desire and joy that the masks tried to hide. To each one, one photo, and a see you soon. I am sure that nothing will be the same after the pandemic. Education has gone through many problems, but a promising future for reformulation is certain, essential. New work tools, new ways of teaching and learning, new possibilities for solving exercises.
I believe that we need to see, in this devastating moment of humanity, an opportunity to be better. Teaching goes through transformations without return, the old method will not be possible. Technology does not replace anyone, technology completes, implements, and reinvents.
We are aware that the new pedagogical practice cannot be exclusive. Even the Federal Constitution, drawn up in 1988, article 205, is very up-to-date when it says: “Education, the right of all and the duty of the State and the family, will be promoted and encouraged with the collaboration of society, with a view to the full development of the person, their preparation for the exercise of citizenship and qualification for work”. In this sense, the law ensures that its compliance must meet the needs for the educational success of all students and education professionals.
Friday – October 16, 2020.
After the teacher’s day celebrations, Friday is my workday. At home, I access processes, I attend to teachers and the school community, always in contact with the vice-principal who is at the school today.
Tomorrow, Saturday is a day of virtual meeting with the delivery of the spreadsheets of the student’s grades(A, A-, B, C., etc.). It demands challenges for the parent-teacher meeting. This new reality asks questions like:
- a) How to make a meeting in times of distance education?
- b) How to demonstrate results without exposing students?
- c) How to face the educational crisis?
- d) How to keep students and tutors trained with a follow-up commitment in the next two months of the year 2020?
- e) What are the challenges for the final leg of the 2020/21 school year?
Saturday – October 17, 2020.
What nervousness washed over us all! The board of directors needed to have approved the new meeting format: each teacher gave should deliver the grade of his class. The desire was to involve the parents in a virtual meeting in two moments: one, in the presence of all the others with the bi-monthly general subjects, and the other in a private room with the subjects related to the individual student.
Many teachers are concerned about the format of simultaneous virtual meetings, videos, reports, graphics, and individual newsletter delivery.
Parents and students concerned about grades. Explanations, reports of the difficulties faced so far. Some sad stories, some “thank you” situations, and the certainty that everything is very different. Once again parents and students without access could not attend the meeting of the day, so a video was sent to parents in the WhatsApp group and the grades for educational guidance were given to the rest.
The Educational Orientation will have a demand two more weeks ahead. The specialized teams of our school, that is, the resource room and the educational orientation serve a sensitive group: students with special educational needs, and the task of emotional treatment of these students is not easy. Taking care of the curricular adaptation, taking into account the specificity of each student, accompanying them, entertaining them, motivating them, diverting the focus of the problem, and focusing on overcoming, it is a daily task that requires special skills from all staff.
At the end of the meeting, we shook off the dust of fear that floated in the air at the Elementary Scholl, so-called CEF 17, in the city of Taguatinga-DF. Thank God everything was ok. Now we have to work towards the goals of the third quarter of this reorganized calendar.
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