Hello Teacher! Day 79
By: Heidi Chase
Tags: Schools, Travel, Remote Learning, Students, Teachers

Photo by Roxanne Desgagnés on Unsplash

Online learning poses new challenges every day. This short week before our holiday break brought me the challenge of teaching entirely with my school-issued Chromebook. Because my district is completely online, and I can teach remotely and my son can attend virtual classes from anywhere, my family and I decided to save about a thousand bucks and travel before the official first day of vacation. Traveling south for Christmas is nothing new for me and my boys, and we have enjoyed a beach vacation during winter break for about twenty years. What is new is the pandemic, and the daunting threat of becoming infected during our travels, or inadvertently infecting others. It was not an easy decision to continue our tradition to travel south for the holidays, and a tentative decision was made weeks after Thanksgiving. Even though we had airplane reservations, our minds were not made up until the final days leading up to our travel date.

What if one of us is asymptomatic and spreads the disease carelessly because of our somewhat selfish decision to keep at least one holiday tradition intact? What if one of us gets the virus during our travels and becomes very sick and suffers the same fate hundreds of thousands of Americans have faced: death? As we packed our bags and loaded them into the minivan for the short trip to the airport, all discussion of whether our decision was right or wrong had ceased, and we began to feel the anticipation or our annual trip to warmer weather. As expected, the airport was about half full, as was our airplane, which allowed the passengers to spread out. Everyone wore a mask and many wore face shields with the mask. The usual beverage and food service was not happening, both at the airport and on the airplane. There were few options for food at the airport, as everything closed by 7pm, and it looked like many restaurants had closed during the past nine months due to few or no customers. Everyone I know has been following travel protocols which restrict our options, and have slowed down or stopped travel plans due to the pandemic.

Our travel plans are simple, and include going to the beach, which is right outside our high-rise condo, walking the boardwalk, and dining outside in the handful of restaurants that have survived the shutdown. We are wearing our masks everywhere, and so are the others who are on the beach, boardwalk or at the restaurants. We are being careful and are aware of the health risk of possible infection and even death, that our decision to travel has posed to our family, and we continue to rationalize the risk against the facts. It is a fact that you can mitigate the risk of infection by wearing a mask, washing your hands frequently, and avoiding close contact with people outside of your family. It is a fact that a friend contracted the virus while working as a nurse at the local flu clinic. Another friend became infected while playing outside with her usual doubles tennis partner. It is a fact that all of us are vulnerable, even with the safety precautions, but we intentionally decided to give ourselves a break with the gift of a change of scenery. So far we do not regret following through with our travel plans, and are thankful for the opportunity.

That being said, there is a level of discomfort that comes with being away from home, even if we are in our own home here. The allure to continue online learning and teaching from the beach is not that great for several reasons. First, I am missing my home desktop computer and second, I felt like the couple of online teaching days were endless and too distant, and third, there is a lot less space here so finding appropriate teaching space was impossible. My home computer allows me to reach my students in ways that my travel laptop cannot. Also, I feel even further away from them here, thousands of miles from home. Teaching from my home office, I find it comforting to know that I could knock on their doors and be with them within minutes, if they need anything. The screen can only do so much to create the sense of connection, and being physically closer makes the learning seem more real. Soon enough, my family and I will return to our regularly scheduled daily routines and our real homes, and I will feel closer to my students. There will be no regrets, only a renewed hope for a healthy and happy new year. If our decision to travel restores our hope, then the benefits outweigh the risks, and it is all worth it!