This pregnancy and maternity leave was different.
If someone would have told you last December that your pregnancy and delivery would be in the midst of a pandemic, social and racial injustice and unrest, political protests, and a country on fire you would not have believed it. At least not to this degree.
Your family of four, waiting for the fifth, locked down in the spring, just like everyone else. Then you slightly relaxed during the summer and saw both sets of parents and family. July arrived, however, and you were told to fully lockdown again to make sure you could hold your baby after she was born.
the first week in August came and you were blessed with healthy baby girl. Your grateful hearts exploded and you soaked up each moment. An unexpected c-section, mixed in with no kids at the hospital, visitors only through video and being fully masked brought a whole new delivery experience for this third child. Your entire family did your best to embrace the madness and successfully focused on all of your blessings.
That has been the theme of this pregnancy and maternity leave from the classroom. You have managed to embrace the madness, stick together, and focus on the good. Mostly, you have focused on this tiny little girl who has no clue of the madness outside of her home. You have enjoyed the opportunity to soak up this new innocent love. You have had the luxury of a situation when you can focus on staying healthy so this new baby can be healthy, even if that means not seeing people that we miss so much. Learning to love the calmness of not running from one event to another has become the new normal.
So, yes, this pregnancy and maternity leave have been nothing but strange. But you are also extremely thankful. This pandemic allowed your family to make some pretty incredible memories with your family of four turned five. It has been a major silver lining that you never would have expected.
Going back to the classroom today is going to be harder than ever for more reasons than ever. But you are going to focus on being thankful for the time at home and the blessings you have been given. You will walk into a new classroom space created from portable office walls and be thankful that your district is doing everything they can to create the best environment. Not everyone is teaching in these hybrid rooms from portable office walls, but when asked you requested that you would like one of the new spaces created so that class sizes could be smaller and it would be easier to socially distance.
Warehouse Partitioning Systems and Portable Office Walls Are Being Used in Many Different Settings
From newly created classrooms to outdoor see through igloos for personal dining experiences there are many kinds of spaces being created during the pandemic. And while there have long been reports by the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia and other groups that estimates going modular can reduce construction cost by 9% to 20%, the incentive this year is even greater. As educators search for ways to create the safest and healthiest learning environments and restaurant owners work toward creating an outdoor space even in cold climates it should come as no surprise that portable office walls are playing a role.
Even before the pandemic, research indicates that as many as 90% of engineers, 84% of contractors, and 76% of architects use prefabricated or modular construction processes on at least some projects. These background and experiences provide a new way to look at creating spaces that will offer the country what it needs right now. Whether you are a teacher returning to the classroom after an extended maternity leave or you are an executive working from home instead of the best corner office in a high rise, it is important that you are willing to continue to make adjustments that are needed. Finding the best way to keep people healthy while you are dong your job is the new normal during the year 2020. Many times this includes creating new work and learning spaces.
