I wear many hats as a professional and one of them is a teacher. I prefer teaching face to face but, in light of the global pandemic, my energies have had to shift to online.

This season I have 3 classes that I teach and each one is a hybrid of the other. One is an intensive for 2 days straight, 8 1/2 hour Zoom sessions, ugh. One is a blend of synchronous and asynchronous with a weekly 1 1/2 hour Zoom class, better but still ugh. And the final one is totally asynchronous and it’s my biggest UGH. 

I interact with my students behind my keyboard and laptop. I grade papers and assignments in software with their names attached but with no notion of the thinking they’ve done to get to pressing the submit button. It’s weird and lonely and I don’t like it.

I’ve tried to find the right way to hold it but I am struggling. I miss important emails from them and messages. I feel like my notification settings are not set enough but, when I change them to reflect the immediate, I find myself working 24/7.

Education needs to change. We must be able to gather face to face again to share knowledge and to exchange energy between people. In the meantime, online and asynchronous work has to be done but I’m certainly not happy about it.

To learn is to live and it's a full body experience best shared face to face,