Today was Day 3 of working from home. I’ve been splitting my time between finalizing grades from last quarter and getting lessons ready to start next week.
I’m really enjoying certain parts of it. I get to sleep in later than our regular time. I have a 10-second commute, from bed to desk. I usually make a detour to start the kettle going for coffee. As far as work itself goes, I can go to the bathroom whenever I want! I can go get more coffee without thinking about it.
Even when I’m working directly with students, I feel like the pace will be more relaxed. I’m giving them virtual labs to practice concepts and skills with. They’ll have a few days to work on the first one, so they can work during a schedule that works for them. I’ll be available to help with questions, but overall they’ll be working at their own pace. They’ll be trying to answer their own questions. We’ll have online discussions when they get stuck. We won’t have to solely cram information into 45-minute nuggets. They’ll be able to work at a speed that’s more organic for them.
These are things I’m pondering into the future. There’s a ton of data that shows that in-person learning is more effective than screen-based. And the #1 indicator of how much a student will learn is the relationship with the teacher. But how can we take this model into the future when we meet again after the CoVID-19 crisis? Could we have a system that is more organic for both teachers and students? I think the answer is yes, but how to do it is a really big question.
Working from home has some negatives too. A lack of physical activity is one. When I’m at school, I’m on my feet nearly all day long. I sit a bit during my planning and during lunch, but that’s it. I don’t even have a real “teacher desk” in my room. It’s more of a standing desk I use so I can control PowerPoints when I use them.
Another is the lack of facetime with people. When I was in school, I’d often take 10 to 15 minutes of my planning to just sit quietly and veg out. The sound and busy-ness were overwhelming, so I’d need a break. My planning was after four back-to-back chemistry classes, each with over 30 students in them. That’s 120 students before lunch!
Now I’ve gone a complete 180. Considering I live alone and am trying to socially distance myself, even from my neighbors, I feel a bit lonely. I’m surprised to say that, because I’ve lived alone so long. But I’ve also been working in education in some form for all of that time, so I’ve always had heavy interaction with people. Being a bit of a hermit after work makes sense when you are around so many during the day. Now, I’m feeling the strain of being on my own all of the time.
And it’s still early, despite what Trump may say. Considering the choices the U.S. leadership is making, this crisis is probably going to extend for months. We’re at 65,000 cases right now. #3 in the world.
Another negative is being a little too close to my kitchen. I’ve been stress-eating. Once I get rid of the sweets in my kitchen, I shall not replenish them. To compensate for crappy eating, I’m making efforts to do physical activity each day. Yesterday I went rollerskating for the first time in a long time. Today I went on an 11-mile bike ride.
I really hope they limit bike rides when they do a lockdown. I need to be able to do something to burn some of this stress. And I don’t ride with anyone.
So, I’m looking forward to “seeing” my students again on Monday.
I can’t find a suitable image I like pertaining to this post, so here’s a multimedia piece I finished last night. It’s an 8″x10″ piece. I really like how it came out.
Music Therapy is probably very similar to education when it comes to in-person vs. screen, but we, too, have had to adapt. Some have already been doing telemedicine and their businesses are thriving.
Not ideal, but we can make it work!
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