We had a Google Meet today with my daughter's third grade teacher. The meeting was for parents to talk about the plans for the upcoming school year. My daughter attends public school, where she receives excellent support and education as a visually impaired student. The school is a for lack of a better term, "regular" public school in which students without any disabilities make up the majority of the classroom.
This year is starting with a level of complexity I'm guessing has never been seen in the history of public schools. There are "Virtual Academy" students who's parent's have elected to keep them home in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an elective choice by parents and for my daughter's elementary school, was selected by parents of over half the attendees.
The balance of the students will be rotating in and out of the classroom, some weeks with in-person education and some weeks distance learning. This is to keep the classroom sizes down. This means teachers will have some students at school, other students not at school but will have the benefit of in-person education for the period they're at home and then other students who will need all of their education delivered remotely.
My daughter was going to be one of the students who would be rotating in and out of school. We know how important it is for her to be with her teachers as they can deliver education specific to her, as a blind student, that can't possibly be done remotely.
But there was a change: the county isn't yet prepared to have special needs students and those with IEPs back on campus yet. They're working on it, and I hope a path for safety of the teachers and students will be worked out soon, but for now, my daughter is distanced learning only. I'd like to say I'm upset about it, but I think I'm numb to the whole situation now. I emailed my daughter's VI teacher and she said I was taking it better than she was. I don't blame her for being angry, she understands the impact to her students far more than I ever could.
Back to the Google Meet today. My husband and I were on the call, reading the PowerPoint slides and listening to my daughter's new teacher. The amount of work that has been put in place over the summer is tremendous. I was impressed by all the online web sites put in place, procedures created and things teachers will be doing to create/record lessons as well as deliver online lessons. There are processes for submitting work, attendance expectations, a standard daily schedule and even office hours where students or parents can connect with the teacher.
My husband turned to me after making sure we were muted and said, "None of this applies to Reese." And he was right. Or almost right. The essence of what needs to happen for my daughter is the same. She needs to attend the lessons and do the follow-on work. But all the process around almost everything else is different for her.
The supply list her teacher sent out last week doesn't include things my daughter can use because they have to do with writing, not braille. There is a packet pickup this week for parents which I asked about, because I thought we didn't even have a packet to pick up. Our packet, it turns out, which contained the materials the students will be using over the first part of the year, was handed over to my daughter's VI teachers so they can prepare it for my daughter in braille.
I like my daughter's new teacher and am so happy we still have my daughter's Braillist and VI teachers this year. I sent an email to my daughter's teacher and echoed to her what she said to all of us, "we'll get through this together." We'll figure it out, even if things will be different for my daughter. And hopefully it won't be that long before she can get back to the classroom and see her favorite teachers.
The Big Boy Update: I've printed several things for my son on the 3D printer and he's been mildly interested in most of them. He asked me if I could print him Tony Stark's heart. That, he said, would be cool.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter asked if I could print something for her on the 3D printer today. When I asked her what, she said she wanted a stool for a doll—about an inch in size. I printed one, but at that size, it wasn't overly stable in the filament I used, so we printed it four times as large in candy apple red filament. She is happy with the new stool. Even though she can't see colors, she has strong feelings about which ones she likes where.
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