Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Yule Blog Prompt #1: A Success Story from 2020
3. Conclusion
Introduction
That's right -- a new blogging challenge is upon us!
It all started with a tweeting challenge -- 12 Days of Twitter. One of the prompts was to tag five other MTBoS members we recognized from Twitter. One of them was Shelli, the founder of the Blaugust challenge -- and right then and there, she came up with the idea of a new blogging challenge. Shelli attributes this Yule Blog Challenge to another teacher, Pam Wilson, but I'm not familiar with her.
http://statteacher.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020-mtbos12days-yule-blog-challenge.html
I didn't participate in Blaugust this year because I was just a day-to-day sub -- I didn't consider myself worthy of participation in a math teacher challenge. But now, while I'm still a sub, I'm a long-term sub in a middle school math position. And besides, it was our Twitter discussion that inspired Shelli's revival of this challenge, so I owe it to her to participate.
And so let's dive in. Even though Shelli tells us that we don't need to follow her prompts exactly, you know that I like to do it anyway -- I consider it part of the challenge. And since today is the first proper day of winter break, let's start with the first prompt.
Yule Blog Prompt #1: A Success Story from 2020
My most obvious success story is my getting this long-term sub position in the first place. And so let me tell this story in more detail.
When the schools closed on Pi Day Eve, we day-to-day subs were basically out of a job. The closures were sudden, and schools had to come up with solutions quickly. While distance learning was patched together for students and teachers, we subs were left on the outside looking in.
Over the summer, districts came up with a much better plan for distance learning. Here in California, counties were assigned a color based on coronavirus levels in that area. Counties like LA County, in the purple tier, had to remain in distance learning only, but those like Orange County, in the red tier, were allowed to open schools in a hybrid mode. (Even though all counties have returned to purple, districts that have open can remain open.)
I knew that some Orange County teachers would prefer to avoid teaching in-person classes once the schools reopened. And that was exactly the case for one particular middle school teacher -- his mother became sick, and he didn't want to risk catching the coronavirus at work and spreading it to her. And so the school found a long-term sub -- me -- to cover this position for 3-4 months. My position started the last few days in September.
This teacher has two sections of Math 7 and two sections of Math 8. His last class, fifth period, is Math Skills, for students who need extra help in math.
In a certain episode of The Simpsons, Homer learns that the Chinese use the same word for crisis and opportunity -- and Homer pronounces it "crisitunity." Anyway, the pandemic has certainly been a crisitunity for me. Yes -- hundreds of thousands of Americans have died, and millions more have gotten sick, so it's a crisis. But for me, it's also an opportunity. Had COVID-19 never occurred, this regular teacher would likely still be working -- and I'd be stuck as a day-to-day sub.
Fortunately, the teacher's mother is starting to recover. Thus I have only one week left in this long-term position -- the first week in January. The regular teacher will return to school for the second week.
This job has allowed me to teach math to middle school students, and while it has its ups and downs, I believe that I've largely been successful helping the students out. Therefore, this long-term subbing position is my biggest success of 2020.
Conclusion
Twelve -- that's a lot of blog entries! I'll participate in as many of these as I can, but I admit that I likely won't make it to 12 winter break posts. (The 12 Days of Christmas are the obvious inspiration for both the 12 Days of Twitter and the 12 Yule Blog entries.)
Nonetheless, I'll surely be posting more than the two times I'd thought I'd be posting during the current winter break. The most time I've ever posted during a winter break is seven, and so my goal will be to beat my previous record and post eight times during this break.
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