Quaranzine: Issue 8

Quaranzine: A collection of creative works from our community

Quaranzine: Issue 8

June 3, 2020
Quaranzine is a collection of creative works from the community that documents how we responded to this strange time we find ourselves in.

Previous Issues

Issue 1
Issue 2

Issue 3
Issue 4

Issue 5
Issue 6

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The Rabbit Hole Called 2020, Part II By: Jessica Tomcsik, 4th Grade Teacher Instead, my students have had seventeen days of online learning. Our county-mandated learning platforms provide equity, but they don’t provide what we all really need and that is social interaction. We all thrive on social connection. As teachers, this is not a job we signed on for remotely, yet here we are thrown into this mess. We need to see the looks on our students’ faces in a real classroom. We need to see the light bulb go off when they understand new content. We need to see the frustration on their faces when they’re confused so we can assist them to help them through it. We need to see them brainstorming with peers, creating projects, cheering each other on, laughing, high-fiving, and even crying. We need to help students solve problems and work through conflict with peers. We need to be that school family. While we can leave comments for students online and help them when they are struggling with their online learning platforms, it is not the same. The students for the most part are silent online, lurking in the internet shadows, not asking for help, not reaching out to say hello. They don’t feel comfortable with this new “normal.” If I would have known that Friday, March 13 would have been my last day with my students, I would have hugged them for a little longer. I would have smiled bigger. We shared our hopes and fears as we were leaving school on that fateful afternoon, but it was not enough. We left school uncertain and that uncertainty has only grown into fear since then. For my students, fear about where their next meal will come from, about if their families will stay healthy, keep their jobs, and be able to live in their homes. For me, I fear that the trauma many of my students have will only grow, as they may witness and/or receive either physical or mental abuse. I fear that they are being surrounded by drug use. I fear that they will witness gun violence in their neighborhoods. I fear my students will fall behind with no access to books and/or learning materials at home. I fear that unlimited time on social media and video gaming platforms will harm their already fragile minds. None of this was supposed to happen and now it is all over. There will be no spring field trips, no field day, no talent show, no yearbook signings, no springtime writing and reading outside, no end-of-year parties and no desk clean-outs. I was robbed of fifty-nine school days from March 13 to the end of the year with my students. I can’t give them that last end-of-year hug on the last day of school wishing them a good summer. I can’t blow bubbles, waving goodbye as the busses leave the school parking lot at afternoon dismissal one last time. My classroom is frozen in time and we are all ice cubes trying to stay solid independently. — Jessica Tomcsik, Hollywood, “The Rabbit Hole Called 2020, Part II” – Continuation of an essay on quarantine through the life of a 4th grade SMCPS teacher. Read Part I of The Rabbit Hole Called 2020.