No internet at school

After arriving to school, parking my car, taking my morning walk (and what a wonderful walk it was with so much light outside), putting my lunch in the fridge, getting my temperature checked, greeting people on my way to the classroom (the morning smiles give a good start to every day), taking off my coat, and filling my tea cup (making tea in the morning creates a slow pace to the day), I finally took out my laptop, sat down, perched reading glasses on my nose and was ready to check my emails, an expectation we have since so much communication is digital. "You are not connected to the internet" and the forever uploading wifi icon made me just shrug my shoulders and close the laptop. I drank my tea. 

My initial thought "I can do this later" switched to slight curiosity. Perhaps it was only my problem. Masking up again I walked to my neighbouring classrooms. No internet. 

When the students arrived, I already forgot about the emails. The before lesson time with the kids chatting in the classroom passed quickly. 

When we sat in the morning circle the school's IT specialist popped his head in, "Sorry to say, there will be no internet today." 

No panic. Thankfully this week we are in the process of generating ideas for animations and doing some science experiments with everyday kitchen stuff. We played  "Walk like a..." game to warm up our creativity (I was an old grumpy man), used SCAMPER technique to change monster drawings (the kids were surprised how much their first drawing different from the eighth one), and after snack watched how ice and chocolate melted (simple things that can bring excitement). The kids did not miss their I-Pads at all. 

It would have been a completely different reaction if we were in the middle of writing reflections or doing research. Even the thought of this rises my blood pressure and stress level. 

Today was my day with several planning periods at the end of the day when kids went to music and art. Time when I usually need internet. My to-do-list for today included writing a letter to the class parents, updating the unit related google sites, and creating an animation related task for SeeSaw. Now I had a choice. I could have create a hotspot with my phone and glued myself to the screen or I could have come up with things to do without internet. 

I saw the no internet as an opportunity to do screen free tasks. I read student journals (collectively we have a good collection of potential unique characters for the animations), I made copies (some prompts for creative drawing tasks) and then decided to face (in my mind) a gargantuan  task to declutter one shelf (the one that likes to pretend it's a filing cabinet or a teacher desk, two things famous for being hoarders, and that I got rid of years ago).

The good thing is that since I have moved classrooms so many times it has already had to give up many things and wasn't too overflowing.  For those unaware of its contents it might have actually looked organised. Nevertheless, I found books needing to be returned to the Literature Circle cupboard, some old and half-used journals from years ago, some tattered binders with documents long pass due date, school supply catalogs from 2017, some magazines I never read and never will, and a folder with pictures for a unit I don't teach anymore. Removing the things that I should have removed long ago felt satisfying. It's surprising how fast the day went. I didn't miss the internet. It even makes me think that we should schedule these days purposefully (only not when the reflections are due). 

Back at home, I made dinner, drank a cup of tea, and opened my laptop to write this post. I am thankful for the internet.