Down Time, Hitting Reset
Down time has become so sacred recently, it's like my brain really needs to hit the reset button. Teaching online is incredibly draining, I have found it more draining than regular classroom teaching. Being in a classroom seems to energise me as opposed to sitting behind a computer screen which loses that human connection and that ability to read body language which is so important. Planning is just as long but you are always in amongst those same four walls. Whilst I am lucky I have a reasonably large space in which to work it must be incredibly challenging for students who are essentially sleeping, relaxing and working all from the confines of the same room. It would be no surprise if those students at some point had some kind of meltdown or period of time where they are utterly unmotivated. I have already seen it happen. There are suggestions in some quarters (especially back in the UK) that sees teachers as a scapegoat during the pandemic, that they are somehow refu...