There was supposed to be school today. A quick recap:
Friday, Governor Scott said schools would remain open.
Sunday night, he changed course and said schools would close of Wednesday, March 18th, until at least April 6th.
Monday night, the Orange Nightmare came on TV and "suggested" to avoid groups larger that 10, and "suggested" that schools close immediately. So school was cancelled today, and it until at least April 6th, but probably longer.
Today marks day 2 home with the kids for me, since I stayed home with them all yesterday even though there was school. Friday I had a low grade fever, and we are playing things safe until we figure out what the fever was, if anything. Of course, even though my students got back from France 10 days ago, they won't test me. Even with that risk factor, we currently only have the capacity to test 76 people a day in the ENTIRE state, so forget about a test unless you are critically ill, or about to have a baby.
So...day two of our new reality. Day one was mostly checking a flurry of emails from school (high school teacher here!), creating sub plans for tomorrow, figuring out what the heck distance learning for my students might look like, and making snacks, so many snacks. Why do they want so many snacks?
Yesterday my 9 year old came up with a great daily schedule, which we posted on the wall. We were so proud, but then I realized we only had about an hour of academics (1.5 hours if you count reading!) and 2 hours of screen time. Well, everyone is saying to take it easy on academics this week anyway, so we are giving it a go.
My some miracle I managed to get them all to the table for some academic time this morning! The 9 year old did math and some writing, the 5 year old mostly doodled but wrote one sentence on his picture of his weekend, and the 4 year old drew pictures and wandered around the house asking questions and demanding things. (upload picture)
After failing at snacks yesterday, I managed to get a little ahead of myself and actually bake banana bread today, and with the extra banana made chocolate peanut butter smoothies for afternoon snack (I know! I will take that win for today!). But don't worry, we are Annie's Mac and Cheese for lunch.
Honestly, we had a great day, but I know things are about to get really, really hard. As a teacher, I am coming to understand that I am going to be expected to work from home, and provide distance learning for my students. I am going into work tomorrow (fever is now gone!) to see what they tell me to do and make a plan, but I am very worried about trying to run online platforms for my 5 courses (French 1-AP) while still homeschooling a kindergartner, 3rd grader, and preschooler. Right now it seems like I can barely get through an email without interruption, and that is with 2 hours of screen time a day...
And I'm trying not to worry that our local supermarket is out of bread, flour, yeast, potatoes, chicken (to say nothing of toilet paper which has been gone for over a week now), but it is hard not to feel this new apocalyptic knot of dread in my gullet. That maybe things are about to get a lot worse. That maybe the shortages they promise won't happen are about to happen. We have enough for now, and I am incredibly fortunate to be promised a paycheck even during the school closure, but it is hard not to wonder what is coming our way.
And oh! I ordered a new chromebook today! We only have 1 computer in the house, a cheap-o chrome book from which I do everything. Yeah, so the kids can have more screen time while I hopefully do this work from home thing...
And I placed (one last?!) order on Amazon, hoping to get a few more things before they shut down. I'll let you know if it ever actually arrives!
Lastly, if your looking for a day 1 post, I didn't write one. Day one can go eff itself, it was chaos and stress and confusion and messes and yelling. Maybe my collaborators will add more, but that is it from me for now!
Tuesday, March 17th
US cases: 4,226
VT cases: Either 8 or 14, depending on how you count (8 Vermonters, 6 flatlanders who snuck in from Jersey and NYC and brought it with them).
Friday, Governor Scott said schools would remain open.
Sunday night, he changed course and said schools would close of Wednesday, March 18th, until at least April 6th.
Monday night, the Orange Nightmare came on TV and "suggested" to avoid groups larger that 10, and "suggested" that schools close immediately. So school was cancelled today, and it until at least April 6th, but probably longer.
Today marks day 2 home with the kids for me, since I stayed home with them all yesterday even though there was school. Friday I had a low grade fever, and we are playing things safe until we figure out what the fever was, if anything. Of course, even though my students got back from France 10 days ago, they won't test me. Even with that risk factor, we currently only have the capacity to test 76 people a day in the ENTIRE state, so forget about a test unless you are critically ill, or about to have a baby.
So...day two of our new reality. Day one was mostly checking a flurry of emails from school (high school teacher here!), creating sub plans for tomorrow, figuring out what the heck distance learning for my students might look like, and making snacks, so many snacks. Why do they want so many snacks?
Yesterday my 9 year old came up with a great daily schedule, which we posted on the wall. We were so proud, but then I realized we only had about an hour of academics (1.5 hours if you count reading!) and 2 hours of screen time. Well, everyone is saying to take it easy on academics this week anyway, so we are giving it a go.
My some miracle I managed to get them all to the table for some academic time this morning! The 9 year old did math and some writing, the 5 year old mostly doodled but wrote one sentence on his picture of his weekend, and the 4 year old drew pictures and wandered around the house asking questions and demanding things. (upload picture)
After failing at snacks yesterday, I managed to get a little ahead of myself and actually bake banana bread today, and with the extra banana made chocolate peanut butter smoothies for afternoon snack (I know! I will take that win for today!). But don't worry, we are Annie's Mac and Cheese for lunch.
Honestly, we had a great day, but I know things are about to get really, really hard. As a teacher, I am coming to understand that I am going to be expected to work from home, and provide distance learning for my students. I am going into work tomorrow (fever is now gone!) to see what they tell me to do and make a plan, but I am very worried about trying to run online platforms for my 5 courses (French 1-AP) while still homeschooling a kindergartner, 3rd grader, and preschooler. Right now it seems like I can barely get through an email without interruption, and that is with 2 hours of screen time a day...
And I'm trying not to worry that our local supermarket is out of bread, flour, yeast, potatoes, chicken (to say nothing of toilet paper which has been gone for over a week now), but it is hard not to feel this new apocalyptic knot of dread in my gullet. That maybe things are about to get a lot worse. That maybe the shortages they promise won't happen are about to happen. We have enough for now, and I am incredibly fortunate to be promised a paycheck even during the school closure, but it is hard not to wonder what is coming our way.
And oh! I ordered a new chromebook today! We only have 1 computer in the house, a cheap-o chrome book from which I do everything. Yeah, so the kids can have more screen time while I hopefully do this work from home thing...
And I placed (one last?!) order on Amazon, hoping to get a few more things before they shut down. I'll let you know if it ever actually arrives!
Lastly, if your looking for a day 1 post, I didn't write one. Day one can go eff itself, it was chaos and stress and confusion and messes and yelling. Maybe my collaborators will add more, but that is it from me for now!
Tuesday, March 17th
US cases: 4,226
VT cases: Either 8 or 14, depending on how you count (8 Vermonters, 6 flatlanders who snuck in from Jersey and NYC and brought it with them).
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