My Turn: What a strange, wild ride this school year has been

We have been thrust (teachers, parents, and students) into a learning environment we were only partially prepared for. Sifting our way through the muddy waters of how best to provide learning from a distance via computer and be successful at it.

Sure, as teachers, we'd been using online curriculum for years, using Google Classroom and other tools to help get homework out to our students or keep in contact with them after school hours as they tried to complete assigned work.

The struggle was how to keep them engaged at home with a plethora of distractions that had nothing to do with school.  Heck, as a teacher, I had to deal with how to stay focused and be available for my students at a minimum through their "school day."  It was hard for me... I can't imagine how hard it must have been for my 6th graders.

The frustration was there... students who I was starting to see blossom in academics and behavior... what would happen to them?  Would they have enough support to still see success when they were over forty miles away from me?  Good students - would they continue to do their work as they did in their seats?  Some did, some were "happy with their grades" and slacked off, which is just as disheartening as losing rapport with the kids on the bubble.

Now here we are "graduation time," and I won't even be able to attend the graduation of my very first 6th-grade class who will be moving into the real world after this week.  I was really looking forward to seeing how those kids fared, to see my former students walk the line.

I completely understand the reasons behind the choices that my district made, that Kings County made... we certainly helped slow new cases by making sure that close contact between 500+ students and staff was ceased...

But it brought a lot of firsts and not all of them happy ones for me.

To all my students and fellow teachers - I wish all the best for the summer break and all the best for the next school year.

What next year looks like might be still up in the air, but we can prepare to be better at Distance Learning next year than we were for this year!

All the best.  Stay safe.  Stay healthy.

Denise Randall lives in Lemoore and is a sixth-grade teacher at Reef-Sunset Middle School in Avenal, where she teaches math and science. She has also written 14 novels, all of which can be found on Amazon.com.