When I see students jump out of their seats with excitement in class, huddle together (in a masked, socially distanced way, I promise) in the classroom as they discuss the novel, giggle together in a hallway about something that’s extremely important at their age, make googly eyes at each other across the classroom, strike up friendships during and after class, and say, “hey, wanna head over to the library, talk about this some more?”, I know that I made this. I got over fear, inertia, anxiety, and laziness and gave students this instead of rows of black squares on a screen.
It’s too late this semester but let’s all do it for our students and ourselves in the Fall. Or at least next spring. It’s such a beautiful thing.