COVID CHRONICLES (FROM A TEACHER’S DESK)
(Written by: Jodyann Hutchinson-Bernard )
Standing ovation for the greats who will go down in history
Who rose to the occasion
Who bloomed in the face of adversity
With gifted hands and the bravest hearts
Held this nation together
When it was bound to fall apart.
School doors closed
Cartridge papers rolled
Markers that have once written a million words
Have stories now untold
Methods that were once in lowercase and italics
Have become rather bold
Uncertainties crept in and rocked our very core
We had a million prospects , dreams , plans tossed through the door
How now will I teach Tajay the concept of four?
How now will I reach Kemar ?
Who doesn’t know y-o-u-r is your
Jamie hardly knows numbers
How will he understand more
His mother is a higgler in the market
He will miss classes for sure.
These are the many thoughts that haunt us ,
Keep us awake at nights
We grapple with the fear of failing , the nation’s hopes ,
the nation’s brights
But this fear of failure, fuels our very cause
Catapulted us into a mindset to learn google slides , google docs, google forms
Ushered us into a space where we had to deviate from the norms
Even it means , putting our very own child
On stop
On mute
On pause
Lord God of Heaven , we need new sails for these storms
The sacrifices are endless, still we do it for the love
And not for the applause
Meet them at their zone
Creating stars among stars.
We pull on peardeck because we know Allan is hands-on
Nearpod takes us places, it keeps Damion logged on
Jane likes to write so whiteboard fox is a current trend
Ken is a visitor but it keeps him engaged to the very end
Toytheatre is a real God-send , it helps Phillip to really blend.
To their needs we have to tend
For a void that’s ignored, will be even more difficult to mend,
Though we are superhumans in the eyes of the world
By the wind sometimes , we do get swirled
By the storms sometimes, we do get twirled
In a ball sometimes, we do get curled
Times and times again, we hear the insults hurled.
Still we get up, dress up
Dry the silent tears
Adjust our seats, turn on our cameras
Shrug off the lingering fears
We got this! We got this !
That’s what we often say
Time to screenshare that ray of hope
Time to brighten their day
Time to give that virtual high five
That hip hip hooray!!!!!
Though we are wounded warriors
This mission we must complete
Zero-tolerance for failure
Zero-tolerance for defeat
For we were not built to broken
But to lift this nation to its feet
Raise your glasses, applaud yourselves
You’re doing a great job at realizing
dreams.