Teaching

Day 1 of Online Learning

Oh my god. I’m exhausted. But! I had 100% attendance. Every kid showed up to my Zoom meetings. They participated in the Flipgrid and Padlet activities. We survived.

That’s only half the story, though. I had 3 kids in my apartment who wanted snacks and games and butt wipes. David and I have 3 common periods where we both had to be “teaching.” That about pushed me to the edge. Our whole home life needs to be revamped. Routines, organization, schedules. Ish is about to get REAL. I lost my temper too many times today.

We started with daily chore breaks in the day and that has to get formalized.

We need a snack drawer they can access on their ownw.

We have to make a schedule for each kid each day because they have their own Zoom class meetings and one-on-one check ins.

We need 4 offices, one for David and I, one for Calvin, another for Matilda. We can hear each other and our microphones pick all the noise up.

Our wifi doesn’t reach everywhere (see previous paragraph). So, I spent most of the day in kitchen.

We did not build in enough move breaks.

I have officially lost my planning and preparation periods. Those are now filled with cooking, cleaning, snacking and butt wiping. This perhaps sucks the most. There is no quiet period at my desk getting work done. Not unless I let the kids watch TV all day. I had two kids in two rooms doing two different math activities. That was one of my free periods today.

The win of today was that the kids had 1 hour of screen time in the afternoon. Everett had a book reading to him during the period when David and I both taught. It reads and turns the pages. Calvin did lunchtime doodles with Mo Willems.

I’m totally spent. I’m both relieved I survived and stressed for tomorrow and the future of this. I am every emotion at once. People have been so nice today to ask if there’s any way to help or anything they can do. Do they want to come and parent my kids? Teach all my classes? No? Well, I guess I’ll just have to do it all better and more efficiently. [Lays face on keyboard.]

My workspace in the kitchen. That’s a Zoom call with my advisees.
This was the rough schedule we made today. It was not enough! We weren’t able to totally stick to it and it wasn’t specific enough. But the paper calendar with check boxes was a good idea. We just need more specific times and planning.
This Pete the Cat book was reading to Everett and turning the pages.
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems

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