MEA PRESIDENT'S LETTER
I bet I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve ever said the word “zoom” in my prepandemic life. And now it is not only something we all say, hear, and read multiple times a day; it is something we are all doing.
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My personal record for a day’s worth of “zooming” is nine—nine “Zoom” or similar meetings (that’s not counting the “Good night Face Timing” with my granddaughter when I’m not zooming for work in the evening).
The Word “Zoom”
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s a language teacher, I would often have to remind students to consider the context in which a word is used to be sure they are understanding the correct meaning. (I learned this lesson the hard way myself as a student who translated the Spanish word “mora” as “blueberry” when the context clearly gave it the meaning of “Moorish girl”…my face still reddens when I remember that moment in class from decades ago!). Words often have very different meanings in different contexts and can change over time as well. A recent example is “hot spots”—something good, when we’re talking about getting more students connected to the internet so they can access the current form of instruction we’re compelled to provide during the pandemic. But a “hot spot” is an awful thing when talking about places where there has been a spike in COVID-19. And then there is the word “zoom”. I bet I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve ever said the word “zoom” in my pre-pandemic life. And now it is not only something we all say, hear, and read multiple times a day; it is something we are all doing. But not in our cars (well, maybe some fools are, given the reduction in traffic), and not on trains or planes, but right in our homes at kitchen tables or wherever we have created our pandemic “classrooms” or “offices”. And we’re “zooming” with everybody—students, colleagues, friends, and family. Even if it is a different platform, we talk about “zooming” (though we may actually be “google hanging out” or “teaming” or whatever…) 6
Maine Educator • June 2020
But here’s another meaning of “zoom” from Merriam-Webster that is also appropriate during these past months: “to climb for a short time at an angle greater than that which can be maintained in steady flight so that the machine is carried upward at the expense of stored kinetic energy”. That pretty much explains why many educators are feeling exhausted—practically overnight we all went from our “normal” lives, we climbed rapidly in a steep trajectory, and we have tried to maintain some sense of steadiness in our students’ lives, at the expense of whatever stored energy educators might still have had in reserve by March! You have all in your many roles done an absolutely remarkable job in the face of the most daunting of circumstances. You have persevered. You have done it for our kids. And soon it is time to do what you can to recharge those depleted batteries, to take a prolonged break from “zooming” around. Many of us of course will still be working over the summer months, and likely more of us than usual to help continue to see that our students get nutritious meals or maybe to extend the school year for some students or to be sure our school buildings are as ready as they can be for whatever we will face at the end of summer. But I hope everyone will have at least some respite from what we have endured since early spring. We all need to renew that spent energy. We will need to be stronger than ever, given the new challenges facing us, to fulfill our mission of a great public school for every one of our students. We’ve traveled through some tough times in the past months, but we’ve done it, and we will keep moving ahead, together, and we will persist in our efforts to see that educators have what they need to do their jobs so that our students have the schools they deserve. Stay well, stay strong, and thank you all for the great work you do!
Grace Leavitt President gleavitt@maineea.org
