Hey, everyone! I hope you are at home and well. We are on Week 3 of what seems like a never-ending self-isolating experience. The first week of staying home was terrifying for me not because of all the events that were now cancelled. It was the constant pop-ups and updates from several group chats I was in. I had to mute a couple of them daily and didn’t tell my friends because I would pop in and out when I was ready. It was tough because I wanted be with them, but the stats gave me anxiety. I was contributing to the info as well so it probably did the same to others. I think I wanted the information when I was ready for it. Every article on Facebook was about this new and terrifying virus. It was tough.
The articles, diagnosed cases, even Trudeau (as handsome as he is) updates made my heart race. I felt like every few minutes, I was checking my heart rate, though it was probably every hour. (I had some heart issues a few months ago so this was making it worse.) The only thing that made me feel better was having a schedule so much credit to Hip Teacher Dada for creating one almost immediately. He made it, posted it on the fridge, and it became a good focus for me. Finding lessons for the girls and updating our Google Classroom for them late at night also oddly made me feel better. Distractions. Busy work. I needed something to do so I wouldn’t have something to read.
I didn’t get good sleeps the first week which freaked me out. I knew I needed rest to stay healthy, but the worries and uncertainty kept me up. I had a sore throat and sneezed a few times which freaked me out. I took zinc nightly. At one point, the eldest and youngest had a low fever for two nights which TOTALLY freaked me out. One of my friend’s moms was diagnosed with Covid so I was trying to do the math. How recently did we see this family? Was it passed down by community transmission? Was she going to be okay? What about that family? It was rough. The first week was terrible.
Now we have settled into a routine and sadly this is the new normal. My new bedtime is 1 a.m. The first week I was SO exhausted and crashed for a daily nap at 3 p.m. The past two weeks, I turned to coffee in the morning and then another in the afternoon. I just power through the day surrounded by textbooks, computer, and worksheets. Most of you know, I usually drank coffee at night while marking. Now it’s first thing in the morning with brewed coffee (thanks to my hubby, sorry K-cups). We get our coffee and get to work with the girls starting at nine o’clock.
I want to go out for walks (which we did during March Break), but my husband says it isn’t worth it. He says to stay in the backyard which is making me a bit stir crazy. I was happy running on the nearby track or playing volleyball in the nearby field. I would stay away from others when walking and the kids want to scooter or bike around. They need more movement beyond what our backyard allows. Unfortunately, it seems like more and more we are confined to the limits of our yard as our mayor has now put more restrictions on movement. It’s a great idea though because I’ve walked by kids who are still gathered together playing basketball.
A few days ago, our Education Minister Stephen Lecce is telling us we need to assess the work we post. How? We aren’t supposed to assess assignments done outside of class. The first thought many of us had was that we will be assessing the parents’ work. Great, they can pass grade (fill in here). I had students who wouldn’t do the work when attending real class. I needed to help them or give them extra time. They needed lots of reminders in person. Now I’m supposed to track them when they are working from home? The students who showed responsibility in class will be okay. It’s the ones who needed constant reminders/encouragement/assistance are the ones I worry for more.
A great distraction from Covid-19 articles has been trying to make plans without my resources or much direction. We were given the go ahead to get resources on Thursday, but if we don’t feel comfortable, we can stay away. I’m not going in because schools are full of germs and I’ve been so sick this year. I had the flu knock me out twice this year and I’ve never really had it before. (Ironically, this the first time I got the flu shot in over a decade.) I did have a couple of science resources with me, but luckily Pearson has shared their science online. Google docs had a lot of my stuff online so that was good. I broke my hard drive the first day I tried to plan so that was just my luck. My resources are stuck in my hard drive and I can’t retrieve them right now. Of course this happened.
I’ve been trying to find online stuff. Some are great. Some are okay. Most are not allowed to be shared. I’m lucky to have great colleagues and friends who now post more education info than virus ones. My anxiety still springs up at times, but I just flip back to funny memes or inspirational quotes to get through that moment. Deep breaths. Text. Run. Turn on a show. Eat. More deep breaths. Lately, I’ve been binge watching The Fosters and it’s great to be distracted for forty minutes in a world that’s not ours right now.
We are still keeping up with the girls’ schedule, but it gets hard when trying pay attention to Google Meets with the staff. The other day I said to HTD, “Oh the numbers jumped to 400+a day!” He said they had that already on another day. I felt better because I missed a day of stats Phew. This is our new normal now and on the day where it’s my turn to get groceries, I get a bit excited. Sad, but true.
When we received a daily schedule from our board late on Thursday evening, I had three chat groups in the same disbelief and panic as me. Not sure if home life was taken into account because as a person now working from home, that schedule is hilarious. I have two fairly independent ones, but the youngest one needs me and it seems I’m needed online throughout the day the same time the students are supposed to be working. Live lessons will NOT work. My husband is in the same boat. It also doesn’t look like we can get through the finer details of the curriculum as there just isn’t time. Parents at home can’t be expected to drop their own work life to sit with their kids or give up their device. We certainly can’t expect parents to have a laptop per kid, amazing Wifi, printers, etc. Mental health and safety is priority. We don’t all have independent kids and parents can’t take on that task while doing their own job. It’s not realistic.
I’m not a tech wiz by any means, but I’m learning. I’m fielding questions from colleagues who are in the same boat and I’m trying my best to help. I’m also asking a ton of questions to colleagues who are patient and always on WhatsApp. (Thank you!) Luckily, my husband is pretty well versed and can assist, but he’s busy too so I don’t want to ask him as often as I need to. Luckily, there seems to be a YouTube video for everything. 🙂 I have NEVER watched so much YouTube in my life (other than Wong Fu…I will always go back to WF).
I hope that I can look back at this two months from now and laugh. I want to sit with my friends and say, “Do you remember in March when…?” I want to walk around the mall and just appreciate everyone and everything. I want to do monkey bar competitions with my kids. For now, it’s a constant barrage of emails, daily Covid numbers, and worrying about those essential businesses who are staying at work for us. Thank you, hospital staff, for keeping up with your care. Thank you, grocery store workers, for providing the food and household items, we need when we need it. Thank you, law enforcement and fire services for which you sacrifice your life everyday, but even more so now. Thanks to restaurants and delivery people who keep people fed when they are too exhausted to cook another meal after a long day. Thanks to everyone for keeping the peace, staying at home, and keeping the faith.
We can get through this together. Hang out. Learn. Live. Laugh. Let’s just stay home so that we get closer to the day where we don’t have to.
Hip Teacher Mama 