Remote Mondays, Your Days Are Numbered #SOL21

I took inspiration from other slices and Kobe Bryant's Farewell to Basketball poem, which I used as a mentor text for a writing assignment I did with my 8th-graders earlier this year.  I am looking forward to the end of remote Mondays, so I am writing a farewell poem.

Remote Mondays, 

your days are numbered.

While I enjoy the solitude

of the quiet hallways,

I miss the masked faces

of my students and other teachers.

The extra half hour of prep time

is helpful as I ease

into a new week of hybrid teaching,

but I'm tired of overthinking lessons

and ways to keep students engaged on Zoom,

trying to pry them out of bed

and away from video games, YouTube, Netflix.

I just can't compete.

Some come to school

the next day lost,

having forgotten or perhaps

never having seen or heard 

the remote lesson.

Black screens,

half heads, 

kids in beds or eating breakfast,

and rooms, but no bodies

are simply depressing.

Oh, how I hate wondering 

if the students are on the other 

virtual end, and yes, 

I suspect that some have disappeared

to some other place.  

Oh, how it hurts, literally.

Numb butt from sitting

for hours.

Eyes that can't focus 

after staring at the screen 

for hours.

Backache from lack of movement

or standing in one place

for hours.

Remote Mondays,

I can't wait to walk away

from you.

4 more dreaded Mondays

to go!

I am excited to be participating in the Two Writing Teachers March Slice of Life Challenge.