Welcome to Pandemic School
Week 3
Day 14 – Sunday, March 29, 2020
Last night was interesting to say the least. We were under a Tornado Warning for an hour or so. Radar indicated that our house was not likely to be affected by a tornado, and we were fine. However, Henderson, KY to our south, and Newburgh, IN to our east were hit by what is assumed to be a tornado. This morning I saw pictures of a friend’s house that had sustained significant damage. All people and pets were physically fine.
The most interesting part for my family was the TV coverage of the event. We only reliably get reception for one station (25 and ABC affiliate) whose location is in Henderson. They realized they were likely in the path and mentioned it. A few minutes later, they lost their live video feed. We could hear the audio and they put up a “we’re having technical difficulties” screen. When the video came back, they still didn’t have control over their radar… just as the tornado was approaching Newburgh. The heavy sighs of the meteorologists said it all. Growing up in OKC, the TV stations’ back up generators had back up generators… It’s different there.
I’ve been having and remembering weird dreams this week. Maybe I’m just waking up at the end of a REM cycle more often, or maybe they are just weird dreams that wake me up. Friday night I dreamed about very weird contact lenses (with steering wheels) explained by my financial planner. Last night’s dream was more sad than weird, I suppose. I dreamed that my school’s principal was moved to a “different opportunity”. Later in the dream, it was announced that our school would be closed, and students and teachers would move to other schools.
Yesterday the temperature warmed WAY up and I ended up turning on the AC for a few hours. The storm brought in a cool front and we’ll likely need the heat tonight… I probably should have mowed the grass yesterday, but it was so humid. Today is cooler and very breezy, so the grass (at least in the front) ought to be dry by noon.
We spent way too much time playing Animal Crossing yesterday, and that probably shouldn’t continue at the same rate for too long. However, we are coping with the grief of what is happening, and I suppose we should be gentle with ourselves.
Newburgh tornado path
Day 15 – Monday, March 30, 2020
Spring Break (ha) is over, and now EVSC teachers have two weeks to get things together for 18 days of e-learning , presumably MWF from April 13 to May 22. Officially, we could still go back to school May2, but that seems unlikely.
Today (and tomorrow), I signed up for an hour of access to my office at school to take care of everything that needs to be done in person. It’s a little stressful to think about. I signed up for both days in case I forget to do something today. We are allowed to have ten bodies in the building at a time. Honestly, not a lot of teachers have signed up. My scheduled time is 9-10am, and last night the anxiety kicked in (it will be fine).
Elijah has to “check in” with his 1st period teacher a 9am, so I’ll be waking him up in a few minutes. He likes to have a lazy start to the day. Goof around, take a shower, goof around, eat breakfast, goof around….
Yesterday, I mowed that lawn (front and back) but I didn’t mow the swamp that’s at the bottom of the hill behind my fence. It might be a little drier today since it was so windy yesterday. Today, I plan on edging the yard. That might take two days because the two rechargeable batteries I have aren’t enough to get everything done. I have to decide whether to start with the highest need, or the most visible.
We grilled for the first time in 2020 last night, but it was too windy to eat outside. That made for a nice change, and also meant there were fewer dishes to take care of.
I felt like yesterday was actually a productive day, which was a nice change from the previous couple of days. Maybe, having school stuff to get done will be helpful. This week I have two WebEx meetings on my schedule for annual IEP meetings with parents.
I also plan on picking up school lunches for the kids today. On Mondays we can pick up two breakfasts and two lunches (per kid), the same on Wednesdays, and Friday one breakfast and one lunch. Kind of an interesting way to cut down on interaction and still provide meals.
I got to see my school for an hour!
I finally got access to my hand sanitizer!
Time to grind wheat into flour
Not quite two days worth of school milk and juice.
Animal Crossing
Ethernet cable
Web conference set up
Day 16 – Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Normally, March is my favorite month of the year. It’s my birthday month, spring shows up, and things turn green and flowery. This year, a global pandemic was announced on my birthday. Spring is still happening, and spring in Indiana is beautiful (if allergy inducing). Farewell to March!
Elijah had a busy school day yesterday that included two back to back Zoom class meetings. While he got up at 6:30am, he didn’t get in the shower until 3:45pm. He’s got to figure that part out (too much goofing around in the morning).
We picked up school lunches yesterday. We got there right as they started serving, but the line was LONG. We ended up in line right behind my friend, Melanie and her daughter. My kids were pleased with their corn dog for the day’s hot lunch. The second lunch for today is an Uncrustable. Breaskfasts are a muffin for one day and a Pop Tart for the second. There is milk, lots of milk, and some juice boxes. Leah was thrilled with the juice boxes. We might go back on Friday, but I think we’ll skip Wednesday.
I got to go to my office at school for an hour yesterday morning, and boy did that fly by. I’m pretty sure I got everything done that needed to be done and brought home all the things I should have. I also got my two bottles of hand sanitizer. I’m not really a fan of the stuff, but when I leave Aldi, I really want some in the car.
Today, I have a WebEx meeting with the speech therapy department. If I missed out on getting something a work, I have another scheduled hour that I can go back this afternoon. I also have a WebEx IEP annual meeting this afternoon.
We will test our bandwidth today since Elijah has a Zoom class meeting at the same time as my WebEx… I know I can call in to my meeting, if there are issues, I may choose that option for one of us. (I just remembered the 50 feet of Ethernet cable we have, so we won’t be on the wifi).
I did not get the edging lawn work done yesterday, but I did get the framework set up for an online classroom.
making potato soup
Good bye March!
Hello, April!
Staff meeting
Day 17 – Wednesday, April 1, 2020
April Fools Day! Hannah commented that there probably wouldn’t be too many pranks today… It already feels like we are living in an episode of Punk’d, so she may be right.
I had two WebEx meetings yesterday, and I think I’m getting this video conferencing thing down. It is strange how a meeting at 9:30 and another at 2:00 can pretty much consume the entire day. I did still read, play Animal Crossing, and make dinner. So, I think the work/life balance is okay, lol.
To make things interesting, a property assessor is coming to my house today for my re-finance, and the bank wants an interior appraisal as well. I guess they really want to know what it’s worth.
I have a WebEx staff meeting this morning. We are supposed to wear our Red For Ed apparel. I do enjoy actually seeing and talking to adults.
I feel like maybe we’ve hit our stride with dealing with this Stay at Home thing. We just keep doing what we are doing.
Facebook ad
My part of a teacher collage
Day 18 – Thursday, April 2, 2020
How is it already Thursday? Tomorrow, I have to pick up a prescription for Hannah, so I decided to order Wal-mart Grocery pick-up in the morning as well. I’d prefer to pick out my own groceries, but I think Evansville is going to be hit pretty hard soon. I’d like to interact with as few people as possible, thank-you-very-much.
Yesterday’s WebEx staff meeting went well, but we sure are a quiet bunch with everyone’s microphones muted. You really, really have to want to talk to unmute yourself.
I spent some time gathering items to put on the collective speech therapy webpage, and emailing classroom teachers to find the best way to contact individual parents. My students are pretty hit or miss with the whole “virtual learning”. The school is going to mail paper packets to students without Internet access, but there’s no accountability for getting any of that work done. I shudder to think of all the regression that will happen before we get back to school.
Leah has been exceptional at working on her Reflex Math every day with little to no prompting from me. So far she’s done at least 10 minutes 7 days a week for that past 10 days.
Elijah has had some struggles getting information from his teachers. They are starting a new system tomorrow, and whatever they’ve been using wasn’t sending emails in a timely manner yesterday. Only two (out of 20ish) students received the Zoom invite for German class, though they eventually got it passed student to student to a few more. He received his Zoom invite for Geometry 2 minutes before class started. We didn’t know he was on a conference call, and Hannah interrupted him… and he missed important information. Hopefully, the new system will work better. I’m thinking that we may need to write out scheduled web conferences on our white board to maximize bandwidth, if nothing else.
The property assessor came yesterday for my mortgage refinance. He tried his best not to touch anything, and I Clorox wiped all the doorknobs and light switches after he left.
I have an IEP web conference this morning. I need to get ready for that. Then try to get Cisco Jabber set up for contacting parents.
I watched the fifth (of ten) episode of Picard last night, and it’s getting really good. I highly recommend it for any Star Trek fan.
Leah got so bored that she organized her bookcase by color!
Day 19 – Friday, April 3, 2020
The governor closed schools for the rest of the school year yesterday afternoon. EVSC has 18 virtual days to conduct and then we’ll be done for the year. Somehow this news is shocking even though it was fully expected, at least by me.
I have a Wal-mart grocery pick-up time this morning, so that’s pretty exciting (it’s the little things). I need to pick up an Rx at Schnucks as well (why do they have no drive thru?). I’m glad Heather gave me a couple of fabric masks now that they are changing guidelines for mask wearing in public. I honestly might have a panic attack while wearing a mask… I hate them. When I had Hannah, they put an oxygen mask on me and I felt like I couldn’t breathe!
Leah is excited that today is Friday, but I don’t know how it’s any different than any other day. Well, we will get pizza from somewhere, maybe Azzip again since they bring it to your car and you can order online.
Yesterday I drained two laptop batteries while working. Sure, I could have plugged them in, but logistically difficult. In our virtual IEP meetings, we are all using two laptops, so we can view IEPs and see the people we are talking to. I guess it’s a good thing that most of us have that personal technology to use. I really can’t imagine trying to do that on just one device!
I’m just about ready to send mass emails to parents (calling/texing some first to tell them to check their email) with log in information for their kids… It’s crazy! Next year, I’m going to get virtual classrooms set up early on so virtual assignments can get pushed out for snow days or whatever craziness we have next.
A couple of days ago, I was pretty sure that Oliver had stolen a pair of my socks, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. This morning, he had dragged them out from wherever he’d hidden them. I found a sock with a hole in the toe and rolled it up into a “sock baby” for him to play with. That was 10 minutes ago, and he appears to have already lost it somewhere.
Elijah’s school starts their new tech system today, Schoolology. I hope it’s easy for everyone to learn. It will be really nice for Elijah to be able to find his assignments and web conference schedules in one location. Also, the teacher’s email system had been down for two days, and the information they were sending was often lost in the ether. That was pretty stressful for him.
I have my last web conference of the week at 11am. Working from home is different than I expected. Hopefully, it will get easier (more scheduled) soon!
I was able to successfully wear my contacts for the first time in nearly three weeks! I’m not sure if it was the break from contacts or the new (two week) lens, maybe a combination of both. I’m glad I’d gotten a new pair of glasses this year because the previous pair was from Jan 2009 (I picked them up right after the big ice storm). I haven’t gone three weeks in glasses since 1998! I’m happy to be able to wear my regular sunglasses.
*** Back from Walmart/Schnucks/Aldi… First off, there are WAY too many people out shopping at 9am. I did grocery pick up at Walmart. The app wouldn’t let me check in, so I had to call (the horror!) to check in. I pre-opened my trunk, and I let the employee sign the device for my order, so very little human interaction there. At Schnucks, I went directly to the pharmacy, used hand sanitizer, had to sign (yikes) the credit card machine, and used more hand sanitizer (theirs, not mine). Went to Aldi which had only been open for 20 minutes, avoided all the people to get the two things Walmart didn’t have (American cheese and butter??). I did NOT get a cart, but put everything in my shopping bag. The cashier scanned and then placed everything back on the belt for me to re-bag. I had to touch the credit card machine AGAIN for my PIN. Back to the car, gave a lady a quarter (I don’t need your change, thanks!!) for the cart, more hand sanitizer before driving home. At home, I unloaded the trunk, took everything out of bags, put the bags in the garage (for at least 3 days), washed my hands, put things away, cleaned the cabinet off, then wiped down all the doorknobs I’d touched. It’s not perfect, but is about all I can do…
Hand sanitizer
Spirit day
Teacher collage
Pizza night!
A cozy if not exciting Friday night.
Day 20 – Saturday, April 3, 2020
Here we are wrapping up our third week of Pandemic School with no end in sight. Yesterday after my shopping trip, I had a WebEx meeting with a committee of speech therapists. We are working on creating a department wide webpage with therapy materials, ideas, and videos to share with our students and their parents.
After lunch, I got to work, but accomplished very little. Around 2:30, I packed it up and called it a day. I played Animal Crossing until dinner. We ordered from Azzip because it’s close and they bring the pizza right to your car. It was amazing!
Our dinner conversation was pretty hilarious. Elijah is all about nostalgia from his younger days. They used to play a game called Pet Pals on the Leapster, and he recently found a ROM of the game, but there’s no emulator to play it on. He was sad about that, but we listened to the theme song and the kids talked about things they remember about that game and other Leapster games. That lead to talking about shows they used to watch like Ni Hao Kai Lan, Blues Clues, Team Umizoomi, and of course My Little Pony.
After half an hour or so of talk about My Little Pony, we turned on Netflix and watched the first 3 episodes. After that, the kids mostly scattered and I watched Onward, the new Pixar movie that went straight to Disney +. It was better than I expected, and left me teary eyed at the end.
This morning, I did yard work. I mowed all the grass and did all the edging I could before the two weed eater batteries died. I will finish that up tomorrow. I’m doing laundry which is always my Saturday chore, but the rest of the day will be spent doing relaxing activities like reading, crossword puzzles, maybe part of a jigsaw puzzle, and Animal Crossing.
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