Well, I had my surgery and I’m back to school. I’m fine. I have a few stitches and a small band-aid on my nose. This picture is with my husband, Doug, right after the surgery. We went sunscreen shopping.

I let kids know the truth if they asked about it. It was almost always greeted with, “My mom had that!” or someone else they know. Then they told a little story about it. I smiled and said, “Yeah.” Then we got back to the math.

After blogging about things going on with me outside the classroom and how they subtly impacted the classroom in Teaching Through Grief and Cancer, so many people said wonderful things and shared their experiences. Most comments reminded me of the resilience and acceptance of my students. They were right on.

What prompted me to write about it, well, in fact, what stared me in the face making me very aware that I had not managed to make my absences seamless for my students, was when I gave a test and almost no one finished. That really surprised me. I gave the test last Thursday. Only a couple kids finished. At the end of the period, not sure what to do, I told the kids to go study, come in for extra help if they needed it, and continue with their test on Monday. Many of them still didn’t finish on Monday. So, I let them finish today. Turned out, I was giving a three day test over a week long period. That had never happened before. 

One of the unplanned benefits was that they were very motivated to study and knew what to study. Plus, the test wasn’t easy. It was on circles, secants, tangents… with lots of formulas and relationships and complicated diagrams. I’ll probably still end up curving the grades.

I also learned that I didn’t need to hold back on testing because of my absences. I had delayed their test because I had been absent so much. For my Geometry class, I had created a flipped unit, which began the day my dad passed away. I wrote about it here Flipped Circles Unit in Geometry and thought I had done a great thing by flipping the unit, making my absence a non-issue. Never mind that it ended right before a week break. When the kids came back from break, they’d probably forgotten much of what they’d done. Plus, some said the videos weren’t helpful. But, I was also hearing that from just a few kids.

So, we reviewed for a couple of weeks – three more absences for me, then we finally took the test. As described above, it didn’t go great at first. A week later, everyone has finally taken it. And, I missed two more days. That’s okay, though, I gave a final exam review packet. Actually, I gave lots of misc review materials when I was out this semester.

I wonder if the sporadic review packets also had the students going in too many directions. But, isn’t that also spiraling? Hmm… where’s the sweet spot on that? I certainly didn’t get there. That’s a great topic to research: disjointed and sporadic versus ‘spiraling.’ 

Anyway, I’m not blaming myself. Many of the absences were beyond my control. And, I think giving the test over several days ended up being a great differentiation strategy that I would possibly use again. They didn’t memorize the problems and all share the answers, as one might fear. They went away and studied. They came back and asked great questions. So, I think it all is turning out really well.

The last month of school looks good. There will be continuity and plenty of time to review. Everything seems like it’s getting back to normal. I’m so grateful for the ability to blog and reflect and interact with others about this. My spirits have totally lifted from the experience.

Thanks to Dan and Erin and Julie for your kind words on your comments. Thanks to all the friends and colleagues who stopped by today or asked how I’m doing. And thanks to all those friends and family who sent kind words on Facebook or through messages. Putting personal stuff out there is generally outside my comfort zone. I really meant to talk about how it was impacting my students. I didn’t think I would get such a personal response from others. The benefits were really beyond what I expected and I didn’t imagine that I would hear from so many people with similar experiences. I heard from old dear friends and felt the support of strangers. That is really wonderful.

Feeling grateful….