Easter Weekend has come and gone. The final days of the 2019-20 school year are here. While there’s still work to do, I admit my focus has begun to shift toward summer school. I’ll be teaching my class ‘The Hebrew Scriptures’ (formerly ‘Old Testament’) from June 1st-18th. While I knew this decision was coming, it’s official that it’ll be an online class. The difference is that it won’t be an emergency response online class but a class that’s to be prepared and planned to be an online class. I have my work cutout for me!
But there’s a perk to teaching summer school during this pandemic. It’s possible that by July/August things are ‘normalizing’ (what that means precisely is TBD) but it’s also possible that we’re month, even years, from the ‘normal’ many of us expect. In fact, we may never see that normal again.
Boston University may not resume classes on campus until January 2021. I presume other schools will follow. They may not remove students from campus completely but even a schedule where there are fewer days on campus means curriculum for the fall that’s different from what we did in fall 2019.
Researchers at Harvard University are suggesting we ‘might need to practice some level of social distancing intermittently through 2022 to stop Covid-19 from surging anew and overwhelming hospital systems’. If this proves accurate, even partially so, then preparing for a hybrid learning formats for a few years is necessary.
I hope that this fall I’ll return to teaching on our campus, full-time, in-person, week-after-week. If this doesn’t happen, I’ll have experiences to share going into fall 2020. As they say, ‘Hope for the best…but prepare for the worst.’
LePort 
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