My first true week at Michigan Virtual was a hectic relief–there were a thousand and one things going on, but I was so glad I finally knew what it would be like.

Over the summer I taught 5 separate courses with a total of only 10 students across all of them. It was an interesting experience, as I had time to get acquainted the material, the system, the students; but I knew it wasn’t really an indicator of what my First Week Of School would be like.

I think the thing which surprised me the most was the number of messages I’ve been receiving on blackboard. Not including texts, calls, or regular emails, I have received 179 messages. The last thing I did before opening this blog post was answer messages, and I now have 4 unread ones.

The sheer volume of these has made it difficult to answer them (so many are introductions with contact info, and I’ve skimmed them at best.) After all, I also have their work to grade, and their discussion posts to read, and announcements to write. I’d also like to fit in some sleep, if I can manage it.

However, the more of their messages I read the more I realize that while I have 179 and counting piling up in my inbox, they have 0. And many of them have 1 in their outbox, and it was a message they wrote carefully, and signed off so kindly.

The student who took the time to tell me in their introduction message about their excitement to be entering a culinary arts program at a local college, I had to answer. I had to tell them how wonderful that was, and that I couldn’t wait to see how they used photography from their cooking in our digital imaging work.

Another student opened up to tell me that since moving here from the Caribbean, they attended a high school in another state and struggled socially as an English Language Learner. That same student has been enthusiastically active on the discussion board, where they’ve been able to take the time to run their messages through Google translate and take part in the conversation.

One thing I was uncertain about when I joined Michigan Virtual was how I’d be able to forge relationships with students in an online context. Although I’ve always been an introverted person, and enormously preferred written communication to spoken, I just wasn’t sure how it would compare to the Face-to-Face environment that I knew.

Although the last thing I need on my plate at the moment is a new goal, I’ve decided to let no personal interaction go unacknowledged. I’m excited to get to know them and see them grow and learn.