Captain’s log April 19, 2020
I think it is Quarantine Day 38, probably. I am guessing we all have lost track by this point. It has been a long and crazy week here at the Wolters house. From an almost 16 hour marketing marathon to homeschool frustration to wrapping presents for a certain someone’s 9th birthday, it has been quite the week.
It’s Mark writing this week’s quarantine update. I thought I could help out and share how the week has gone. I am sure Jocelyn will write up a better summary of the last week, but I thought I would give my perspective on the past week. It was full of highs and lows and tears and frustrations and love and snow and sun and well… a lot of things happened.
The Highlights
- Jocelyn filmed a cooking video! Yes, the improbable just happened. She filmed advice on making roasted leg of lamb, Greek potatoes, and Brazilian mousse de maracuja. It is for a new series we are hoping to do which is going to be a Food Friday on the First Friday of every month.
- We started Pause for the World. A fundraiser for small businesses and creators to hopefully help them financially get through these tough economic times. Who doesn’t like fun shirts for a good cause?
- I spoke for 15 hours and 43 minutes and raised $1630 for students in need at the University of Illinois.
The Lowlights
- Homeschooling is becoming a detriment to our family dynamic. Too much work, and too little guidance does not make for a good educational experience for anyone.
- Lost my voice after talking for almost 16 hours, but it was for a good cause. Though anyone that knows me knows I am not happy unless I am talking and talking and talking.
- We had snow and the kids had no desire to go out in the wet and cold, which meant a lot of bent up energy that they took out on each other, and our house. Honestly, if our house just ups and collapses, I wouldn’t be surprised. Those two have so much fun, but I just worry about the structural integrity of our home.
The Marketing Marathon
So, the biggest thing I did this week was organize and run a marketing marathon. No, I didn’t run at all. I stood and sat in front of a computer teaching my entire Principles of Marketing course from Chapter 1 to Chapter 15 straight. I thought it might take me about 12 hours, but when it was all said and done it went for 15 hours and 43 minutes. It was so much fun to have people pop on and say hi. I did it to raise money for the University of Illinois Emergency Dean Fund which helps out students in need.
The idea came to me a couple weeks ago when I was trying to think of ways to show my students that their professors still care and are thinking about them. I ended up reaching out to my university and a bunch of professors to see if they would want to put together a Business Marathon where different professors would hop on and teach a fun topic for an hour and then another professor would hop on and so forth. I was really happy to find about 12 professors who were willing to take time to take part in a business marathon, even our Dean said he would hop on. After waiting over a week to hear back from the technology people about the possibilities of them putting together a marathon I decided I would go ahead and do one on my own, then share my ups and downs and advice with them. So, this past Tuesday was the day. The marcom team at the Gies College of Business were nice enough to let some of our local media outlets know about what I was doing and we had a nice article in the local News-Gazette newspaper and the local CBS station WCIA did a nice piece on it as well. We ended up raising $1630 for the fund which I was so thrilled with as in tough times like these that we could get people from all over the world to donate was just awesome.
The actual marathon was a combination of stand-up comedy, education, fending off online trolls, and learning what I need to do next time I decide to talk for almost 16 hours straight. Some notes I have…
- Have multiple computers ready. You never know if your computer will have an issue, and my original computer decided Tuesday morning that it would not hold a charge, so last minute I had to switch to my older laptop.
- Have a partner who will help you when you have to go potty. My wife was awesome. She would bring me lunch, snacks, dinner, tea, water, drinks. She would pop in and talk to the live feed while I would go to the bathroom or need a minute to hack up a sunflower seed or two.
- Have the right drinks and snacks. So we had hot tea, water, Gatorade, and Coca-Cola. They all served their purposes. The tea and water kept my throat from giving out. The Coca-Cola gave me a caffeine and sugar boost about 4pm which I needed. And it kept me going until we finished almost at midnight. I will say thought Jocelyn hooking me up with healthy food and snacks helped a lot too. Though, next time I am going nut and seed free as they kept making me cough.
- Start early if you aren’t sure how long it will take. We told the newspaper and TV station that it would take us about 12 hours, it ended up going 15 hours and 43 minutes. Glad I started at 8am instead of 10am.
- Be ready for trolls. We ended up making onto the front page of YouTube and that brought in a bunch of people and a bunch of trolls. Thank you to my buddy Mark who was helping moderate the whole thing. He was a life saver.
- Remind the audience often how to donate and where to go. Between every chapter I would remind people where to donate, but now that I think about it I needed to remind them more often.
Overall, it was a great experience and I am really glad I did it. We raised a nice bit of money to help out my students and we got to bring attention to the U of I Emergency Dean Fund when a lot of students are truly in need.
Pause for the World
As one fundraising event in a week was not enough, we also launched the Pause for the World campaign. This initiative will help small businesses, organizations, creators, anyone that needs help during these tough economic times. Organizations or people can sign up and when they use their links to sell shirts they raise $10 for every item sold.
We saw so many businesses and artists in trouble we tried to find a way to help them out. We have only been going a couple days, but we have raised almost $1000 so far. We are donating our $10 per item to our local Meals on Wheels as there are a lot of families that are going to need help in our community. If you want to grab a shirt or sign up for your business you can visit www.pausefortheworld.com to find out more.
Live Feeds Galore
We had a couple fun live feeds with our favorite fellow travelers on Wednesday and Saturday. I also taught live classes on Thursday. So it was just a live feed YouTube kind of week.
Liam’s Birthday is This Week
So, Liam was upset when the pandemic started that he would not get to have a birthday party with his friends or with his family. Over the past few weeks he really has shown me that he is growing up. He is at the point now that he knows it would be a bad idea to have a party and get all the family together. It is always a wonderful thing and a sad thing when you see your children “move on” to another stage of their lives. He is becoming more aware of others and their needs. I was proud of him for that. He also thinks that since there is a pandemic he is not getting any presents, so tomorrow should be fun. We had picked up his birthday gifts before the shelter in place started, so little man will have a nice surprise when he heads down for breakfast on his big day. Any parent can tell you the emotions we all have has our kids get older and those birthdays have very different meanings for the kids versus the parents. I am writing this so as not to think about it myself.
And now it gets a bit more real…
So, you made it through the nice stuff. And honestly this was a great week for helping people out and it was just an awesome week. But let’s be honest, we are all at our wit’s end with the quarantine and shelter in place. It is getting harder and harder to get the kids to focus on their homeschool work. It is getting harder and harder to get the kids to go to bed at a reasonable hour. How do you say, go to bed you have school in the morning, when it is actually easier if the kids sleep in and give me a few hours to work every morning? It’s tough.
Switching my classes to online classes has been OK. I have been giving students YouTube videos from www.youtube.com/professorwolters and some quizzes to go along with it. For my advanced class I have been teaching live on YouTube a couple times a week. But honestly, teaching online is not the same as a face to face class. Having your students there in front of you inspires you to teach, when you are staring at a computer screen or a camera it is hard to determine where students could need help or when students are lost. I miss having that interaction with them.
My capstone course has some excellent students and they would ask me excellent questions in class that would get me thinking more deeply about marketing and business. Now, I may receive one or two comments a week and those are asking for references or just a clarification on a topic. It just isn’t the same. And I realize this is an incredible situation we find ourselves in and to all those teachers and educators who had to switch from a face to face class to an online only class in one week I say AWESOME JOB! Developing an online class from scratch is very different than having your class switched to online from one week to the next. I think we all should realize that online education is NOT what is happening right now. We are all just getting by until the end of the academic year. Once that is over then educators can focus on the fall and developing a real online educational experience. I know I have learned a lot about what would make a real online course versus this “online” education we are all going through now.
Right now, as a parent I am frustrated with the online education that students are getting. Some students are getting grade A online education. Teachers and professors using Zoom or YouTube Live to give classes and help students learn. Other students are getting some worksheets and assignments. Other students are completely at a loss because their families do not have the resources to do online classes. It is just a horrible time in education. One good thing is that the first month of the school year where all the kids do is review what they learned last year will be used to actually teach students.
I know I can teach my 7th grader math, but what about that single parent with a junior in AP Calculus? Or the family with both parents working trying to make ends meet. Not every child is getting an education right now, and I am not sure if all educators realize that. I know my kids feel overwhelmed with the amount of work and self-education they are going through. I know I feel overwhelmed at times trying to be a good professor to my students, run all the YouTube channels, homeschool the boys, and try and find five minutes to chat with my wife about life. This has been an incredibly hard time for so many people, families, kids, I feel like when this is all over everyone needs a vacation from being on pins and needles. It reminds me of a slogan from a mental health awareness campaign I saw. “It’s OK to not be OK.” And I think that just knowing that can help get through these messed up times.
Sorry I am not Jocelyn
I know Jocelyn is a very eloquent writer. Her prose are incredible. Her way of summarizing the day/week/quarantine really hits home. I am not Jocelyn to say the least. This is the lamest quarantine write up out there, but it is out there. We are all trying to figure out what tomorrow holds, when honestly, we know what it holds. Another day of trying to get the kids to do their homeschool work, get our own work done, and keep a smile on our face and stay positive, because each day is a day closer to when this is over.
I hope you and your family are healthy and safe where ever this blog finds you.
Mark