Is It Really August? #MTBosBlaugust

Talk about a blogging hiatus! My last blog post was around Labor Day of last year.

I have had thoughts of blog posts and the desire to do some blogging, but nothing ever materialized. The start of a new MTBoS Blaugust was the motivation I needed to crank out SOMEthing.

While the first semester of last school year was pretty typical, and the first half of the second semester was, too, we all know what happened in March.

As the coronavirus and COVID-19 entered and started spreading throughout the US, it felt like a snow forecast. Will it happen? Will it get to us? Will we get a dusting or a foot (a large amount for Alabama that would shut us down for a while)? Will we shut down?

It did come, and we did shut down. Like, really shut down. Things are mostly open again, and movement is a little freer, but numbers continue to rise alongside uncertainty.

The 2020-2021 school year was (and still is) in danger of being done from home. For many, it has already been decided that it will begin that way.

My district kicks off next Friday (8/7) with the return of teachers. Our superintendent says we are going to do everything possible to begin "as normal" - as normal as it can with masks, social distancing, lots of sanitizing, and some students choosing to do school virtually - so that we can build those crucial relationships with our students.

I appreciate that.

But it seems surreal that it is August and time to go back to school. Time has been in some sort of weird warp where months have seemed to last for years.

It didn't feel like August would ever get here.

While I did some normal summertime things, it did not feel like a normal Summer Break.

And now my brain is trying to shift into school mode for a year that will be unlike any other.

So...hello, August. I have no idea what you hold, but I've (mostly) quit trying to predict. I'll take a day at a time, do what I need to do, and try to create the best year I can for me and my students, regardless of what comes our way.