The No Good Very Bad Day for NMUSD

I first met Kristin Fredrickson at a Teacher's Union Meeting and was so impressed with her. She spoke up plainly, intelligently and forcefully with a flair. I love that in a person. I saw saw and heard her a few more times, and the thing I noticed about her is that she is able to deliver hard topics with a humor, yet with steel hard authority.
I later heard from, I can't tell you how many people, what a truly great teacher she was. She brought her heart to the kids which is the best thing you can say about a teacher.
Kristin was the first person I thought of interviewing right after the district went to distance learning. You can hear and see Kristin on the Zoom interview here.

Yet ...she's leaving...Kristin is retiring
and what she says tells you a lot about teaching in this time. What I mean by this time has more to do with the way teaching has been for a long time...ever since we decided that teachers weren't the experts in the room...that Standardized tests were the answer....

Kristin retires...

"These last 2 days of school will be a blitz. I can honestly say I've loved my career, but I also know it NEVER got easier, even though I improved. I felt like Lucy Ricardo at the candy factory, only with actual skills. The pacing plans, ridiculously age-inappropriate, back-to-back testing, and endless bureaucracy made it a tremendously exhausting dance, at times. But--this year, we learned a BIG thing. Computers may be able to adequately replace some professions--not teachers. For that, you need boots on the ground. and those boots in 20-21 will be severely limited. In the end, I'd rather be healthy and fit than not hug a child for a year."

Kristin Quotes

I have a little girl in my class who lives a half a block away. She's a remarkable reader and writer. I was going to deliver a Great Illustrated Classic version of "Call of the Wild" to her. It's a book I read annually, but never got around to this year, even though I had kids begging me to pull it out. (Whenever I see prior students they ask me the same thing--"Am I still doing the Amazing Race?", "Are we still doing reading links?", "Are you doing the Daily Debrief?" AND "Have you read them "Call of the Wild" yet?") Well--I sat down, with 6 foot distance, and began reading to her instead. 5 chapters in, I think we're going to have another Jack London fan!"

I am down to the home stretch. My mouse is less busy now that my lesson plans are done through June 19th. The melancholy I would usually feel this time of year has been replaced with a muted anger about everything. Friday the 13th, indeed! (3/13--last day in school). I know full well, our shortened summer (thank you, Dr. Fred) will require ample re-invigoration, as we return to a teaching environment, totally foreign to us. Not fair in my last year when I was planning to dump the pacing plan in favor of what I WANT to do. More than ever, we'll have a district TELLING us what to do. That's not teaching. Thank you COVID.