Journaling during Covid-19 - Entry 3

 

(See this post for some background if this is the first entry you're reading in this series.)

The Core Questions

1. What did you do today?

• had a productive phone call with the teacher who arranges credit recovery options for students; got 3 students (and one parent) connected with the Google Classroom for credit recovery and got some resources shared with me that I'll be using to help them recover a course they didn't pass with me last quadmester; emailed all the students and parents involved to let them know what's going on
• continued to get parents/guardians of my current students connected with our Google Classroom, in order to feel I'm doing a better job of connecting with families this time around
• visited the school building to pick up a bunch of personal items I'd left there before spring break (including the last of the candy stash I had there) and put away some delicate equipment left out after a lab a few weeks ago (lest a caretaker or someone else accidentally knock it over)
• texted with a couple colleague friends; got one connected with my dentist
• looked up some students' IEPs
• ran afternoon class: first time doing attendance via Classcraft with this group, as well as some of its "random events"; shared some of their Flipgrid intro videos with the class (random idle chatter resulted, and that is GOOD for building class community); further reminders/review and clarification regarding tomorrow's diagnostic quiz; put them into breakout rooms for about the last 10 minutes to get more team names developed (plus one team had an imbalance of Classcraft character types to work out). New amusing team name this quad: pHirst.
• booked appointments (dentist, chiro, massage) for May and June
• took the youngest for a short drive - I like doing this after work to break up the day a bit.
• played the ukelele a little ("My Lighthouse" by Rend Collective, "What if I Stumble" by dc Talk, "Ukelele Anthem" by Andrea Palmer). Made a post on Facebook challenging a friend to a duel of "My Lighthouse" next Saturday, so I guess now I have to keep practicing.

2. What did you enjoy?

My 4-year-old now has a Prodigy account, but they don't have activities for kindergarten kids, so he's trying stuff intended for grade 1 students -- he has to ask for help, but if I ask him the right kinds of directing questions he can figure some of it out, and he seems to be enjoying it! It's cool seeing my kids' little brains develop :).

Also enjoyed my ukelele time.

3. What did you find difficult?

Being at school felt difficult this time. I thought I'd accepted that I don't think we'll be returning to face-to-face classes this school year...picking up all my personal stuff from the building and moving some of the more delicate lab glassware to safer spots had a resignation and down-ness to it I hadn't expected.

My youngest destroyed the last of the candy stash I'd brought home :(. He poured water into the jar that had the last of my cinnamon hearts in it...by the time I discovered this, they'd pretty much dissolved. (I kicked myself later that I should have tried drinking the concoction that resulted, but I thought of that too late...and that might have been too much even for me anyway :).)

4. What has changed?

I took the time today to retry some products for curly hair. Still lots to learn about letting my natural curls do their thing but enjoying what we accomplished today anyway :). Would I take the time to do this if it weren't for the covid shutdown (i.e., when more people will actually see the results)? I guess we'll see, whenever it ends...

I wrote most of this post after class today rather than in the evening. It's good to have a "pause point."

The Stretch Questions

5. What are you grateful for?

I am so glad I was able to help my colleague get connected with a dentist I know she can trust at a time when she really needs one.

6. Which changes do you want to keep?

I've brought my exercise mat back home from work (one suitable for practicing breakfalls/etc.)...I'm hoping a change can be making more workouts happen at home. If the rain would let up, I could use it in the backyard...

7. What are you scared of?

Not really feeling scared. There are some things that will be background concerns for a while, but as I can't do anything about them right now I'm not giving them the emotional energy of real worry.

Very minor thing but part of me resists posting this now when some of the evening is still ahead of me and things could still happen that I could comment on -- so what? I can always mention anything of note when I post again tomorrow(?). I'm going to post this anyway.

8. What has stayed the same?

Still loving Classcraft :).

9. When did you last laugh?

Still not sure about this one, though I do recall one of the baristas at my local Starbucks amused me with some of his banter recently (lines he's used with me before and which he also used with the car in front of mine, but still amusing).