Memories

"Ms. Wagner.  Meet with the ESOL students tomorrow.  They are all missing Social Studies assignments."  I was a little put off to receive the missive from a colleague, directing me to drag the students into virtual class on a day when they did not have their regular classes.  I looked at their assignments.  Yeah, they were missing some stuff.  As was the rest of the class.  I love my students and want to help them, I guess I just don't like being commanded to do things by people that are not my superiors and don't even do a shadow of what their own jobs are.  I sent my kids a link to meet up on their mental health day, adding a message to their Social Studies teacher that when I have tried to get them into virtual class on Wednesdays for extra help, they usually don't show up, but hey, we are all just trying to be the best we's we can be.  

Three out of six came, right on time.  It was a casual atmosphere, Alec making a massive lunch in the background and Lola jumping on the couch beside me.  I did not change my background and warned them a few times when I needed to get another monitor or more coffee, but never cut my camera.  I went into their assignments and realized most of them hadn't been taught how to use the technology they were supposed to be using. On top of it, the teachers didn't understand the technology either, it was a series of dead links and unwritable forms.  I was pissed.  They had been given zeroes, as was the rest of their class.  

I got one of my emerging students to share his screen, and we got to work.  I heard a little tune in the background, while one of my other students started playing music on her phone.  

Here's to the ones that we got

Cheers to wish you were here, but you're not

'Cause the drinks bring back all the memories

Of everything we've been through 

Toast to the ones here today

Toast to the ones that we lost on the way

'Cause the drinks bring back all the memories

And the memories bring back, memories bring back you...

"I like that song." I said and directed him on how to dictate his answers to me while I wrote them down and photographed them with my phone, because the doc was so dead it was unwritable.  

We continued to work, little heads down and up, questioning and answering and humming.  They would sing out loud the ones that we lost so rhythmically and I would feel my eyes welling up, thinking of the all the people that were gone, the ones that had died, of how much we had lost when school shut down last March.  I though of the teacher that I work with that was asked about how she felt on the first day of pre-planning, only to mention that the father of her newborn child had been killed, the same week as Rayshard Brooks, and played the same song to convey her feelings.   

"I have to go to another meeting..."  I told them.  

"I have to hang up."

"Can we keep working together?" Paw Ku asked.

"Yes.  That is why we did this.  Stay on the call.  Teach each other to submit."  

I can't wait to see you tomorrow.  

*Title - Memories, Marroon 5