writing

When It’s Time to Step Away

Yesterday, I spent half the morning reading news.  During the other half, I read student discussion board posts.  This constant access to news and daily briefings pulls me away from other productive tasks – grading, planning, cooking, socializing.

Then, after receiving notice that K-12 schools will be closed until at least April 30, I began worrying even more about my college junior, high school senior, and 8th grader academically, socially, and emotionally.

  • My college kiddo has another year, but this was supposed to be her first summer staying on campus.  We haven’t heard if campus will be open in May or not. The uncertainty of this spring and summer – college, baseball, jobs – makes all of us anxious.
  • The senior has been furloughed from her vet clinic job.  Now she’s much more aware of her separation from normal daily senior routines and friends.  I meant to get a picture of her in scrubs as a 2020 senior tribute.  Perhaps there will be another time.
  • The athletic eighth grader has been horizontal more than vertical on some days.  Baseball has been postponed indefinitely.  We bought the baseball pictures, but it might be more to remember his team than to celebrate their time together.

As for me, quarantine jokes are starting to resemble my reality a little too closely.  My days are blurring together.  I feel guilty many evenings for not accomplishing more that day.  I see little point in dressing in real clothes.  This article about working from home provides some good guidelines.

One social media post from a retired teacher reminded me (us) that we are not homeschooling our children; we are surviving.  E-learning was intended to be short-term and not a replacement for teaching.  Children should read, do math, and be creative during this time away from the classroom.  All will be fine.  The online lessons cannot replace the classroom experience for most students, and I am finding that to be true for many of my college students, as well.

However, I cannot ignore the blessings that have emerged.  The 13-year old asked his mom and dad to play Uno with him Monday night.  He won – but that was before we looked up the real rules.  It will be a different story next time.  I’ve also heard him talking with his older sister, the one he always fights with.  She might have been listening to him explain football, something she has previously had no interest in watching, playing, or hearing about at any level.  All three of them wrestle at least once every few days.

I need more of this.  I need to step away from the digital world.  Constant news, opinions, activity ideas, quarantine memes, among my responsibilities to be online to grade and respond to colleagues and students are pulling me into a strange emotional, information overload.

It is time to unplug.  The next few days might be warm enough for some walks in between classes and emails, but I plan to schedule some longer blocks of time for me and the family to turn off all devices.  A new Yahtzee game is opened and ready.  We’ve brushed up on our Uno rules.  I could try winning another game of Monopoly.

Unfortunately, spinning the wheel on The Game of Life might hit a little too close to home.

Pandemic Productivity

What exactly is considered productive during a pandemic?  I think we need to seriously reconsider what that is supposed to look like when there is a house full people.  Even though I am perfectly capable of taking a book or a laptop into another room, I don’t. I find myself looking at statistics and watching the news.  Then I ask myself, “When have I ever watched or read more than headlines unless it has to do with an education policy?”  Now.  At this time is when.

Yesterday is a blur.  I know I read a little of Glasser’s Quality School, which my further research online has helped me discover Choice Theory’s basic needs.  Choice theory psychology states the following (copied from the website):

  • All we do is behave
  • Almost all behavior is chosen, and
  • We are driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun.
  • We can only satisfy our needs by matching the pictures in our Quality World. These pictures motivate our behavior.
  • In practice, the most important need is love and belonging, as closeness and connectedness with the people we care about is a requisite for satisfying all of the needs.

I know very little about this theory, having been introduced recently to Glasser, but I find these points interesting.  The two points I bolded are my world right now.

What does survival look like?  Survival is having food, toilet paper, and other supplies.  But it is also being able to focus on work-related tasks such as writing, planning, grading, and meeting.  I am seriously considering upgrading my Pandora to the ultra supreme version, but for now I will try the Pandora Plus free trial.

What about freedom and fun?  We have board games and cards.  Teaching the 13-year old to play Euchre was fun.  But he’s not free.  None of us are.  My son played basketball in the neighbor’s driveway last night when my neighbor gave the all clear.  He used his own basketball.  My husband paces and is thinking about going into an empty facility to his closet office.  My college daughter wanted to make plans to see a friend today.  My senior daughter works at a veterinary hospital, which still needs people to show up.

My senior.  I know she had no plans to attend prom or other senior functions.  Those types of social events make her uncomfortable.  But what else is she missing just by not being in the hallways and classrooms at school?

Basic needs.  In the meantime, the world has toppled upside down.

My first online version of a face-to-face class is this afternoon.  It will be the first of several weeks until the term ends in May.  On the first day of class in January, students shared what they were looking forward to this semester (not necessarily in my class).  One student was excited about a study abroad trip to Italy.  A few students are preparing to graduate in May.  I cannot make that trip happen or ensure commencement will look or feel the same if it is planned for a later date.

What I can offer is belonging.  We are together in this struggle to complete classes, but it’s about all I have in me right now.

Exploring Tools – (Quite a) Blogging Challenge

Dam of Kerspetalsperre

Black and white picture of the Dam of Kerspetalsperre. http://www.flickr.com/photos/102769624@N02/46789657202/ Markus Trienke via Compfight

The Edublog Personal Blogging Challenge has pushed me to generate more words and design more content than I have in quite some time.  Oddly enough, I needed the step-by-step structure to break the dam that was holding back my creativity.

Step 7 challenged me to rethink whether I collect or curate resources.  Learning how to embed codes on my blog site has encouraged me to be more conscious of my audience and how that audience might explore the resources I have bookmarked in Evernote or uploaded to a Mindomo map.

The intentionality of setting up a blog and writing posts has not escaped my notice as a teacher.  Selecting a theme, finding widgets, embedding codes, and designing pages before ever generating a blog are all parts of real-world communication.  I changed my theme at least three times in two days before deciding on a crisp, clean look.  I did not want too many or not enough widgets.  And what if my Evernote files are of some interest to someone?  I added those links to a Padlet to find out.

One of my rediscoveries was Mindomo, which I used for several projects some years ago.  I found my old maps and then upgraded the account to add more.  I embedded the code for one of my resources on Teacher Inquiry on my research page and hope to update the map in the near future.

Being Inspired

View to paradise

This is a view of a large lake at sunset. The photographer is at the rocky edge facing in the distance the outlet of water between two rolling hills. Katrinitsa via Compfight

There is something inspirational about water.  This picture aptly title “View of Paradise” invokes a feeling of peace and tranquility.  I find myself in a state of mind to write more reflective and, perhaps, whimsical posts quite different from the current realities of winter.

Walking to my car last night after the first class of the new semester made me realize that I’m kind of okay with not having a window in my classroom.  Perhaps we focused more intently on the lesson because we could not see the drizzling sleet outside.  We were analytical and purposeful in our writing and discussions.

What environment do we need for the most productivity?  But then what kind of productivity do we demand of ourselves?  Is it okay sometimes to pause so we can look for the perfect inspirational picture?  The compfight plugin allowed me to browse Creative Commons images with ease.  I hope the caption will convey enough about the picture for a screenreader.

If my goal is to write routinely, then no matter what the end product is I should feel productive.  Yes, blogging by following steps outlined by a team of professionals has helped me tap into a fountain of words that I’m thankful still exist after so long a dry spell.  I also plan to share these tools with fellow teachers and teacher candidates, particularly steps for accessing and using images and copyrights.

So as I continue with the blogging challenge and find my footing as a writer, I add this picture to remind myself of our own getaway.  My picture of the setting sun at Rough River Lake in Kentucky will be my inspiration.

This view of Rough River Lake was taken beside a dock with the photographer facing the nearly setting sun. Fall foliage can be seen on the trees surrounding the large lake.

Blogging Challenge: Widgets

I have taken up the Edublog Challenge for Personal Blogging.  This, as I see it, falls into my page of research.  Though not as formal as what the university requires, I see value in exploring these avenues of thinking, especially if I can be motivated to generate more writing.   This challenge has definitely helped me tap into a flow of writing that had plateaued and all but stopped during the fall semester.

In learning more about widgets, I can see how useful they can be – and how much they can add to the busyness of a blog site.  Of course, I want people to be able to share my blog posts.  It would also be nice to know how many people have visited my site and where they are located in the world.  I’m still working on these pieces because, again, it is easy to cram too much into a blog site, which will make it less reader-friendly.

I’m interested in feedback on the site and the widgets.  What do readers think are the most interesting items on a blog site?