The Fun Factors

Room 200 has a ghost town feel to it.  All our tables have been taken away so now I stare out onto a sea of little empty desks, from a computer in the front. All day, I stare at a screen, but much of the day, I'm staring at the faces of Thirdlanders, hearing their stories, helping them with their assignments, teaching them about John Lewis and Audrey Faye Hendricks and the Young Hoosier Picture Book Awards and haiku and point of view and some math too. I feel I've actually come to know these people in this weird way. I imagine where they should sit when they get back to the classroom.  I know already the kid who will need to be in the back so he can pace around.  I know the gal who will need to be directly in front of me so I can remind her about what needs doing and give her extra encouragement. I know that one Thirdlander will need moments of extra quiet and the newest Thirdlander will need some extra friendly faces nearby.

I look forward to seeing them in person soon, but I'm nervous. In one week, we'll be back in the classroom. 19 Thirdlanders and me.  It's hard to figure out how six feet of social distance can occur when we're in the room.  I suppose I can just stay up in the front and not walk about.  The Thirdlanders will have to stay put in their little desks, so why should I be free to move?   I was asked if I'd like a plexiglass sheet to be hung in front of my computer area in the front of the room. I decided to pass on that, but maybe that was a mistake?  We're going to wear our masks.  We're going to use our tablets for some assignments. We're going to use alphabetical order for our line up spots.  We're going to go outside and not play soccer or football or four square. 

It might be safe, but will it be fun? With so many physical restrictions, I don't really get why people are so pumped up for this kind of school experience, but many are cheering the reopening.  I'll keep an open mind as I always do and find the ups along the way. What else can I do? My first goal is to keep us all out of the hospital. Everything else will fall in to place as we take one day at a time, do our best, and forget the rest.

 

The Distance

 

There are things that are not too bad about the distance learning gig.  I will discuss them thusly:

1.  When I work with a small group for 20 minutes, there are no interruptions.  We just work together and I don't have to yell out to anyone across the room to please get focused nor do I have to write a health pass because someone has an itchy bug bite on their leg nor do I have to answer urgent questions from Thirdlanders who just remembered something they need to ask me.

2.  In the afternoons, kids pop in on on our Teams Meeting to work on their haiku with me.  Sometimes they stay for a long time and we get a lot of haiku writing done.  Again, with no interruptions.  It feels so weird talking to one Thirdlander for 30 minutes about their work.  Usually I have about 2 minutes tops to work with a kiddo before moving on in a harried rush. One Thirdlander was stretching out her visit with me and when I said we had to wrap it up, she said, "But I just want to be with you."  Once again, bittersweetness rears its head. 

3.  Thirdlanders are making movies for some assignments.  And though I always groan a teeny bit when I see a movie's been submitted because the movies are time consuming to watch, I end up laughing or smiling 100% of the time when I watch these movies.  The Thirdlanders are super creative and sometimes their younger sibs or their pets make surprise appearances in their productions.

That's mostly what I like about the distance learning at this point in time.  There are definite down sides, but we'll ignore those for now.  The bottom line is...going the distance is hard on most everyone. I really feel bad for the parents who I can see are juggling so much.  

Here's a random tangential aside.  We went to TC Steele State Park yesterday.  They have a new visitor center and a new admission fee.  TC Steele has always been free, but I'm happy to throw some cash their way now.  That place always brings me cheer.  Come to find out, Husbandman qualified for the senior 60 discount.  Though I'm 59 for a few more months, Husbandman told the ranger that I was close to being 60 as well, so the ranger decided to give me the discount too.  My first discount for being old.  At first I wasn't too happy about Husbandman telling my age, but as we traversed the gardens, I came to look upon the two dollar discount in a positive light. 

The Inbox

 I was at school for a hella' long time today.  But the good news is I have 3 days of online lessons all good to go.  

While I was working, a message popped up in my learning platform inbox.  It was a Thirdlander.  He asked, "Hi Dr. H.  What's your favorite thing about being a teacher?"

Honestly, getting messages like this on a Sunday afternoon isn't really my favorite thing of all time, but I played along.  Told him some stuff and then asked what his favorite thing about being a student might be?

He wrote back right away, "My favorite part of being a student is getting to know stuff about my teachers." 

This Thirdlander is AOK in my book!

The Slack

 Look, Blog.  You're going to have to cut me some slack.  Let's lose the attitude.  Doing my best, forgetting the rest right now.  I'll be back soon.  For now, it's going to be a sentence here and a sentence there.  

The first 3 days of digital school went pretty well.  New Thirdlanders are good people.