Today was Day 2 of UMaine’s move online.  At this point, all College Comp courses have ‘met’ in some way, shape, or form.  I gave some guidance, but generally left it up to my instructors to know what kinds of communication would work best for students in this environment, particularly in the first week.  Thus, the scare quotes around ‘met.’

But, anyway, it seems like all is well.  Students are showing up for Zoom meetings when they can, and making a good faith effort to stay current if they can’t.  Some students have been hard to get in contact with, but since we’re on Day 2, I’m not overly concerned as of yet.  I hope that communication can be better established over the next few days.

“PICT1660 Happy” by TimberWolf_qx is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

I’m really struck by the professional and effective way that the teachers in our program took to this work.  I saw a great deal of anxiety, of course, and stress, for sure, but not really any panic.  Teachers put together resources, organized their plans, and communicated with their students in productive ways, which has led to a smooth start.  It’s comforting to have confirmation that the people I work with really are, in fact, that damn good.

I ended the title of this post with a question mark for fear of jinxing myself.  It’s only day two, after all—still plenty of time for things to go incredibly wrong.  But it’s also hard to beat a good start under such challenging conditions.