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[jules_11]

I can't sleep. I'm very worried about my students. I did a random search of six of my fifty students, and three of the six live in West AJ--two of them live on the fourth floor. I'm afraid to look for more. How am I supposed to go to class on Thursday and workshop and collect final papers next Tuesday? How do you proceed with class when this

Comments

[west_wind]

Oh, sweetie. I wish I had answers to those questions. I laid in bed last night putting myself in the place of those terrified teachers, trying to think how I would have tried to protect my students. I think about my students' essays I'm supposed to be grading, essays where they wrote about how much they love their families, where they write about their life experiences.

I can't imagine that they'll have you going back this week, but I know that these changes have altered the college and the lives of its community forever.

I think you just go on one day at a time. Do what feels right to you, and just try. Try to heal.

[tyratae]

you're not doing anything on thursday. you guys are off all week. but when you do go back to meeting your students & dealing with their work & their worries & their needs, you do it the way you always do it: with flexibility and compassion and genuine caring.

some of them will need answers you don't have or help you can't give; other people have that job. your job is to give them time, give them guidance about their writing, give them leniency and patience and understanding, all things you do anyway. just keep being you. you're already what they need. and if "being you" means you start to tell them something & instead you cry, that doesn't make you look less like you're taking care of them, it makes you look like you're human & you're sad too.

i'm sorry i'm not there with you.