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Ali prompted me to think about how we can provide resources and help for families and teachers, and I’m always eager to help -- feel free to email me at ajohnston@weber.edu and/or visit the website noted below. At the same time, I want to acknowledge that it’s easy for us all to ask too much of ourselves right now. For all of our ambition and expertise, technology and tools, we can’t possibly operate normally. I invite everyone to embrace abnormality for the time being.

Teaching and learning are not really about information so much as they are about building and weaving relationships. When there are ways to maintain those to help us as students, teachers, and parents, so much the better. But we can only expect so much online and at home. How I work with students in my classes and labs is unique and specialized. The loss of real, personal interactions with people, face-to-face, can’t be genuinely replaced in other settings, as useful as those may be. Communities are forged over centuries, solidifying our towns, our families, and our schools. We can’t expect to find a set of relationships that suddenly work just as well as what’s been in place; and I can’t possibly be at my best because I don’t have all of the community relationships meshing together right now. We’ve thrown sand into the gears. 

So don’t worry about being your best. Instead, take care of yourselves, do what you can with online instruction and what you’ll have for dinner and holding each other because, frankly, it’s not all that easy to function or even sleep right now. But maybe there’s something to laugh about; when you find that, embrace it and live that moment. Maybe go for a walk outside and watch for emerging honeybees and new buds on trees and maybe (in the midst of this silly season we call “spring”) some blue skies. My daughter, Grace, and I were fascinated by ants as the colony magically fountained up from a narrow crack in the sidewalk yesterday; just a few minutes ago I saw wild turkeys parading along neighbors’ front yards; and I can see the sun set a little more north of west each evening. There’s joy and something to learn in these moments. Maybe we’ll all experience or learn something new, online or otherwise, and I’m excited for a chance to share that sometime soon. But, in this moment, deep breaths and minor tasks feel like great accomplishments. And for now, that’s okay. 

 

A Compiled List of Online Science Education Resources for Whenever!