Covid Diaries Week 2

My second week of isolation diary. This one is a bit shorter! Working from home whilst also being a stay at home parent was a bit of an adjustment, and we found ourselves quite tired at the end of each day, hence the lack of writing.

Saturday March 21st

Today was a busy day. I’m conscious of trying to get my first online lesson done, so that I can share it with the other teachers on my course on Monday. I’m spending a lot of time on layout, which I know doesn't have to be perfect, but if I put the time in now then I should have a nice template to use throughout the course.

It was nice enough to play in the back garden today. My parents are self-isolating after returning from Florida but the kids were able to talk to them through their bedroom window. We played a version of hot/cold where either Ella or I hid some balls around the garden, and then my mom had to direct the other person around to find it.

Monday March 23rd
It snowed this morning! I hope this is the last snow of the year, but maybe that is wishful thinking. My 10-day iPhone weather forecast is showing temperatures between 6-12 degrees starting tomorrow, let’s hope it stays that way. It will be much nicer staying home when we can play outside regularly.

I’ve managed to get into a bit of a groove with meal planning. We try to decide on lunch and dinner over breakfast. One of those meals will be something substantial and the other something quick, like toast and avocado or something out of the freezer. If I can I do some meal prep in the morning, otherwise I start making dinner at 5pm while the kids are colouring at the table or watching TV. Today we had a nice moment of calm while I was making dinner and the kids were colouring quietly at the table together. (And yes, Ollie was still in his PJs at dinner time!)

I was back to work today, although obviously from home. I’ve set myself up in my dad’s office and we are using Microsoft Teams to have staff meetings and teach our classes. Ollie stood at the door and cried during my first staff meeting, which was heartbreaking. Hopefully the kids will get used to me working from home as the weeks go on.

I finished up my first online lesson, which I'm sharing with the other grade 9 math teachers. I'm very happy with the layout of my template. I've tried breaking the 80 minute lesson into different sections: group work (which the students will do through the "channels" function on Microsoft Teams, some videos for new content and examples, some teacher talk which is when I will go over questions from the previous lesson, some independent practice, and an "exit ticket", which asks students to self-assess  against the lesson success criteria and do one multiple choice question from the lesson.

We use the Class Notebook function in OneNote for all this, which we were already using regularly at our school, so at least that will be consistent for our students.

Today we got confirmation that schools are going to be closed for longer than the two weeks announced initially. I don’t think anyone is surprised. We don't have a date for going back yet, probably because it is impossible to predict. One silver lining is that at least I don’t have a long commute anymore! Getting up between 6-6:30am (when Ella wakes up at the moment) feels like such a luxury.

Wednesday March 25th
This:

Friday March 27th

Well that was a busy week! Getting into the swing of working from home has taken time, but I think by Friday we had settled into it all somewhat.

We started teaching online on Wednesday, and it all went surprisingly very well. It took me a while to plan my class, but the template I created was very well received, by both the teachers I shared it with and the students. We are following our regular school schedule, and using Microsoft Teams to video call our classes. When I’m not teaching I’ve been connecting with some students that I was regularly meeting with at school, as part of my role as the Learning Strategist (Special Education coordinator). So far they seem to have adjusted to online lessons very well. Some have even told me they prefer it. Less distractions for some, I’m sure. It will be interesting to see how they get on doing this for a whole term, as it looks very unlikely that we will be back in school by the end of the year.

Because Andy works with younger students they are not having a whole school day, just shorter online lessons that they can join live, or watch at a later time depending on what suits the family. This week was a lot of work getting things set up but I think it will be less moving forward.

We had some really nice spring-like weather this week. Yesterday it was 10 degrees and sunny in afternoon, it felt so nice to be outside. Ella and Ollie even had a little picnic.

We’ve been having cocktails most evenings around 5pm “with” my parents, who are still in isolation. Most of the time it is a white wine spritzer, but I bought some sparkling cucumber tonic which I thought we could use to make gin & tonics this week. I feel like we need these little rituals to break up the day and have things to look forward to.

Like everyone else, we are using the app Houseparty to connect with friends. Andy’s friends in the UK have been on it a lot, I think it is the most he and I have seen of them in years! So that’s kind of fun.

Today we made a schedule for the first time and it worked really well. It was pretty basic but it was good to have clarity about who was working when, and who was taking care of the kids. I’m trying to stay off my phone when I’m on kid duty. It’s been hard to stay off the constant stream of news coming in, plus I feel like I’m texting with friends more now that we don’t physically see anyone. But I know both Olle and Ella are so much happier and better behaved when I’m present with them.

My favourite new activity with Ella right now is doing Zumba kids on YouTube. SO MUCH FUN. Seriously, I love it more than her I think.

And of course this week we went on many local walks around the marsh. I'm thankful for this little bit of nature by our house. It's a lot nicer than just walking through suburban or city streets.