Captain’s Log 23 March 2020
To see yesterday’s post, click here.
Last night after we put the kids to bed Mark and I talked about what we thought today would look like. I was full of trepidation and assumed that if I was, the boys would be too. I buried the desire to start with a mimosa (not that I even have the makings for one) and instead decided to start with a fancy breakfast and some humor. I kept thinking it would be really funny to walk in to the ‘classroom’ dressed at Miss Trunchbull.
I got up early, showered and tried on four outfits before settling on one. Then I got to work on that fancy breakfast. The thing is, I am not going to the grocery very often and my supplies are limited but I do have eggs and, amazingly, bagels. Well, eggs and bagels isn’t a very fancy dish but Eggs Benedict is! I couldn’t make the traditional dish but I am the Queen of Kitchen Improv so, I quick toasted the bagels, dug out the few not rotten leaves of spinach I had left and set them to sauté. I put water on to boil, and cracked a few eggs into the pot. I cheated and did the blender method of hollandaise, which in my opinion, tastes as good as the real thing, and started assembling everything. Cooking makes me happy. My day was off to a glorious start.
The kids came down to eat at 10:15. So fancy breakfast became fancy brunch. I have learned to pick my battles. And making them get up at 7 and be ready for school at 8 when we are 10 days into Quarantine is not worth the turmoil. They ate the eggs and even the spinach but apparently there is a reason Eggs Benedict is served on English Muffins and not bagels. The sweet, chewy nature of the bagel is quite revolting when topped with hollandaise. Oh well, I am gluten free so my eggs with hollandaise and spinach were delicious! The boys said I got A’s for effort, and a really good sauce.
Mark got the boys settled in the classroom with all their things while I went upstairs and changed. I so wanted a prop but couldn’t find a ruler anywhere. Anyway, I walked in and they had a good laugh. I welcomed them to class and promptly took Caleb’s phone and Liam’s nunchucks. Cue the eyerolls, whining and arguing. And let me tell you, my 13yo can argue like a lawyer in front of the Supreme Court! But guess what, this is not a democracy and when Headmistress Mama says no phones, you don’t get a phone. So…things didn’t start off quite as awesome as I would have liked but it was pretty good.
I had printed out all the emails and lesson plans from their teachers and we got to work. The first 15 minutes were wonderful. Then came the complaints, (insert whiney voices here) this is way more work than we do in school, I don’t know what this means—read chapter 27 and answer the questions in your book, why is there so much, why do I need to know Latin roots, Google Classroom—I don’t remember my login, on and on it went ad nauseum. It was so much Fun!
I completely ignored them, letting them whine for a while, and once they stopped, we got to work again. I gave them 15 mins free time after every 2 subjects were finished and 20mins free while I made lunch. Did I say I find joy in the kitchen? I really needed to make lunch. We went back to work again, taking breaks as we finished tasks. It really wasn’t all that bad once they got past the need to moan and complain. Liam and I took turns reading aloud from his assigned book (I found it really interesting), Caleb zipped through most of his work and I kept thinking something is missing here. Well, that is because I missed an email from his math teacher. Whatever. My math skills are somewhere around that of a baboon so Dad gets to teach that subject anyway.
Pic from our safari in Tanzania.
The other thing that has struck me about homeschooling the boys is that I am headmistress, teacher, lunch lady, and batslap crazy mom all at the same time. We may need to rethink the household duties each of us carries because I can’t do it all. That also means I am going to have to live with things not being up to my standards. But really, who is kidding whom here, my floors may shine and my house may be sparkling but that only lasts as long as I am home by myself because the minute the three little pigs walk in it is a muddy-handprints-on-the-wall, jello-on-the-floor, toothpaste-on-the-ceiling kind of mess.
As to Mark, he has been filming more videos for his students and really working hard to create a positive learning environment for them. He keeps saying, this pandemic is going to define their generation, how do I help them through that? We have talked a lot about how different things will be for the students, working from home. Home may not be an ideal learning environment. These students are back home, Sheltering in Place (SIP) with parents, siblings and maybe other relatives. There is so much to consider for them, do they have enough computer time away from others, do they have slow internet, or even no internet? Are they taking care of sick or elderly relatives or younger siblings?
He is rooting for them and praying they come out of this bigger, better people.
How do you create a productive online learning environment for a class that was never meant to be online for students who never meant to take it online? Mark being who he is, polled 300 of his students before Spring Break and asked them what they felt does and what doesn’t work for online classes. He got some really good feedback. He is trying to divide each of his lectures into several short and sweet videos that students can binge watch. He is having Live office hours several times a week. He has given his students his Twitter and Insta accounts. The thing he decided is that he would extend them some grace and hope they would do the same for him because one week isn’t enough to turn a semester class from in person lecture to online and make it perfect. But he will be available to them in as many ways as he can ‘in person’. I think I won the lottery when I married this man.
Overall, today wasn’t perfect but you know what? It wasn’t awful either. We all did some new stuff. We all messed up. We all succeeded somewhere. And no one had to go to the hospital. I’ll take that for the 10th day of Quarantine and the 1st day of homeschool anytime. Now, if I could just get my dog to stop barking…
Until tomorrow,
Jocelyn