22 January 2022

Years ago, and I mean Y E A R S – Dwight and Margaret were newlyweds so it must’ve been 1950-ish, they moved into a new home. They had each other, two twenty-year-olds; Dwight’s sisters and brother, Chuck, Sheila, and Mary; and, their own baby, Linda. 

Unpacking and unloading, Mary overheard the neighbors call them, “A family of children.”  I know this because Dwight told me and I promised to keep and share his memories.

Now, 70 years later, I have a family of children, too.

Each year, I have about 150; I’m a teacher.

Teaching concurrent enrollment courses with Utah Valley University puts the magic in learning. 

In terms of family, the last two years have been, in particular, FANTASTIC – even in a pandemic. About half of my students are repeat performers meaning they were in my AP Lang class as juniors. It is easy to include the newbies in in-jokes and build a class culture because there is already trust.

Last week, as my students presented their slide presentations, I pulled them up on my computer that was projecting in Canvas, our online classroom management system where they were submitted. Some did not have hot links in the submission.

For those, I copied, dragged my “mouse” up to “EDIT,” “COPIED,” then “PASTED.”

My students were shocked and somewhat horrified.

“You don’t use COMMAND C and V?” they shouted and questioned.

“I never really understood it.  Why V?”

Jess said, “Velcro.  It stands for velcro.”

Someone else, “Seriously?”

Jess, “No.  But, it makes it so you can remember it.”

For the next presentation, the entire class walked me through it.  

I’m now a COMMAND C and V-er thanks to my family of children.

This morning, I was thinking about all of the things my mom can’t do with technology and I realized that I’m just like her.