It's August 13th, 2020 and I am sitting in an empty classroom, playing some random 80s new wave Pandora playlist. I play the music because I don't like sitting here in silence. It needs vigor and energy and when I am here by myself it just doesn't have the same feel as it does when school starts and my classroom is full of both familiar and fresh, new faces.

In reality, there are so many aspects of what I am doing right this very second that are pretty much what I always do about this time in August. Typically, I work on plans, stop to hang up posters, answer emails, and create content for the year ahead. I may head down the hallway to see if any of my colleagues have popped in. I love to hear about all their summer adventures, what they did with their families, and what they are excited for in the coming year. I want to know how football is going, when we are all gathering next, and clarify the first day schedule. Obviously there are parts of that which aren't part of the conversation this year. But mostly it's me, the music, and my thoughts about my returning students and preparing to meet a new group of kiddos that will be coming my way for their first year of Spanish. The wheel that was my educational experience as a public school teacher turned that exact same way, for 13 years.

There is a very popular saying in the educational realm. "Don't reinvent the wheel", is what we were told in our theory and methods classes. That wheel, the wheel of our educational and professional experience, that despite changes, has remained so traditional and constant for decades and decades. Chances are, what you are trying to do has been done, or something like it has been done. The plethora of theories and methods that have been developed over a century plus have provided teachers with plenty from which to pull. Are ideas changing? Is technology changing? Are methods changing? Sure, and they certainly have more than ever over the past two decades as technology use in the classroom has blossomed significantly. However, the wheel remains constant for the most part. Students come to our classes, we work to build relationships, we educate, we assign independent work, we assess through tests and projects, every spring there is a big standardized test or two that messes with the entire schedule for a few days or a few weeks. We look forward to our days off, our winter break, and the glorious three months of summer.

For as long as pretty much any of us has been alive, that is how the educational wheel has turned. While many things have changed, the basic idea has remained the same. School is a place where we learn, where we socialize, we may make our first friends, we may experience our first heartbreak. It's where we realized we love reading, or math, or Spanish, or cooking, or painting, or journalism, or welding, or theater.

This year I am sitting in my classroom thinking about reinventing the wheel. It was something, for so long, we didn't need to do.

And now we do. It is like we are in an imaginary room with boxes stacked upon boxes. Each box is different. Some are empty. Some have a million parts that don't go together. There are spokes, different types of tires, axles, inner tubes, chaotically sorted into random places. From these boxes we are taking parts and pieces and trying to reinvent something that has seemed so basic and simple for so long. We think we have built something that will work as a passable wheel, at least until we can go back to the wheel we always knew. Then someone comes along and says, "You can't use that part for the wheel. I'm going to have to take that. Try again". You take out that part, which was a pretty essential part to the wheel, then you sift through the boxes and find something else that might work, only to have that wheel not pass inspection either. Not to mention this is a prototype wheel so it's one that no one is really familiar with and everyone is a little apprehensive about using, and on a time crunch to boot.

So here I am on a random August Thursday, feeling both completely normal and somewhat lost at the same time. Thinking about the wheels we invented to try and insure public health and safety while seeing the people we want to see the most - our students. Realizing the last wheel we put together is the wheel we are using, and it's the wheel none of us really wanted.

But then I think, what if this had happened 30 years ago? 20 years ago? There would have been nothing we could have done. There was hardly internet, let alone zoom or Google Meets. It took 20 minutes to check an email sometimes! Closing schools in the interest of public safety would have looked completely different than what we are able to do now. We are lucky to live in this time and place that allows us to teach in real time over a computer, if that is what needs to be done to limit the spread of this virus. We have so many more capabilities than we once did - and it's one of the only reasons we are able to reinvent a wheel at all. That perspective gave me a little bit of hope today.

Public educators are working, and working hard, to take care of your sons and daughters. We are inventing, and re-inventing, ways to ensure that your sons and daughters get the best education possible. We miss our old wheel. We want to meet your kids. The thought of this classroom pictured above staying empty is heartbreaking and a little scary. It's nothing I ever thought I would see in my time as an educator.

But then I think to myself, it won't be empty.

There will still be silly stories I get to tell in Spanish to my students.

There will still be me, asking students about their weekend update.

There will still be all of us, jumping, yelling, clapping, and singing "Feliz cumpleaños".

There will still be learning.

There will still be energy and vigor.

There will still be laughter.

There will still be joy.

There will still be all the most important parts of the old, trusty wheel, built into the one we are reinventing. It's the people, the relationships and rapport, that have always held any version of the educational wheel together.

So this reinvented wheel? Those essential parts we still have are what will hold this reinvented wheel together as long as it needs to be held. And we will be okay.