Blog
"Good Morning, Miss!"
Is anyone else finding the week strange?
For me, Monday and Tuesday were unusual but at least I was able to be “useful”. I was at one of the Trust hub schools and, odd though it was, there were the classrooms, the children, the routines, my occasional lessons…
Today, though, it has changed and it is taking some getting used to. Don’t get me wrong - I have plenty to do - but those little personal interactions are missing, and I hadn’t realised quite how much of a gaping hole they would leave.
Did I realise how many little communications I participate in throughout a single school day? Definitely not!
What do I miss? The “good morning, Miss” greetings in the corridor; the doors being held open; the ability to talk freely rather than planning every discourse to minimise the number of emails. Yes, communication is still taking place – and it’s more obvious than ever before, too – but the spontaneity of school life is missing. While we are planning what we type into WhatsApp, or Showbie, or text messages, or emails, we omit the ad hoc stuff, like the child who stops me while I’m on gate duty to tell me a joke…
My phone doesn’t stop pinging, the emails are plentiful, Showbie messages are flying around during lessons, WhatsApp conversations are happening between staff and text messages are all added into the mix. We are all busy communicating, but are we missing something too?
It is starting to become apparent now just how important our communication processes are, and how important that face to face contact is to us all – after all, we are social beings.
I expect, like most things, we will eventually settle into a routine. I hope, however, that we will take from this experience a few life lessons; that we learn to appreciate the true value of what we had, when it returns.
Let us know how you are getting on in Virtual School Valley Park, we would love to hear from you!
