Life during a Pandemic

Today I napped.  I have no idea what time I fell asleep or what time I woke up.  I ate all day, except when I was sleeping.  My students were busy turning assignments in.  I made all the assignments super easy this week, so they wouldn't have many questions.

The one question that I got repeatedly was, My kid says he is done, Can you check?  sure.  I actually used to enjoy talking to parents.  Not anymore.  I can easily go the rest of my life without talking to another parent.


I asked my students to write a funny story about Earth Day using as many of our spelling words as they could.  I think I got about 10 stories out of 28 students.  I'll be talking to parents about this tomorrow.  ho hummm.

Some students turned in one sentence.  Most of the students wrote informational essays about Earth Day.  Nice, but not what I asked for.  One kid did a nice job.  one.

The dogs have stopped asking me why I am home all day.   Bear just wants to sit on my lap all day long.  She is ridiculous. 

Rainy Yucky day

We had our weekly staff meeting this morning on Zoom.  I spent about half the day working on lesson plans for next week.  I really wanted to finish today, but these plans take forever.  I really wanted to have the weekend off.

Mom and I have been walking all over Bloomington.  Yesterday, I took her to the Arboretum on campus.  She loved it.  I hope it starts to warm up soon.  I prefer walking on warm sun shiny days.

Well I started this yesterday and I am finishing today.  It's sunny out today, so I'm planning to walk later.  But first, I'm headed to the condo to clean and organize Henry's old room.  He just left it strewn everywhere last summer.  He has some fantastic lego sets that are up on shelves.  I'm going to box those up for him.  There are race ribbons everywhere.  The boy is a mess.

Day 33ish

I always thought being an online teacher sounded fun.  Not anymore.  I would give anything to be standing in my classroom right now.  I mean RIGHT NOW.  It's 12:10 on a Thursday and I'm fielding e-learning questions.  The questions are about how to log into McGraw Hill, how do I get to xtramath, what's my password, where can I find the story.  exhausting.  I'm not getting any real questions, like how do I tell the difference between perimeter and area?  Or how is this character like the character in the other story.  I want real questions.

Also everyone is magically get 100% on everything.  And one kid answered a question using text evidence with quotations and everything.  😳. Which is strange because this kid never used punctuation in her life before this all started.....


My mom is sewing me a Cubs mask.  I'm going to wear that thing everywhere.  I can't wait.  She seems to be dealing ok with all of this.  She said she wants to go to the casino as soon as it opens back up.  I told her no way, but knowing her, she will sneak down there in the middle of the night one night.

Hayden has started running this week.  He and his girlfriend have a challenge going.  Who can run the farthest this week.   I think Kate is winning!  Henry is running anywhere from 7-10 miles a day.  He's doing great.  Harrison tried to help Hayden with his running.  He was encouraging him on the last stretch.

I tried to pull my hair back like Hayden's but it fell out.  I just don't have enough hair yet.  It's growing like crazy though.

Day 20 of the new normal

Went to Kroger today.  They have new tape on the floor telling us where to stand.  6 feet.  How is this real life?  I spent about 15 hours getting e-learning lessons together for my third graders.  I made tons of videos for them to watch.  Hopefully, they will learn something from them.  We are also going to have a zoom meeting on Wednesday.  Zoom got their act together and made it so they do not violate COPPA. 

I made a video for my students the day that Gov. Holcomb announced that we will not be going back to school this year.  Several parents called and told me that their child was crying.  I cried on and off all day.  Henry and Hayden are so upset.  I know this is the right thing to do.  I also think that having only half of the country stay at home is a joke.  Someone needs to come up with a vaccine. 

I read an article about lupus and covid 19.  Those 2 are a deadly combination.  My mom was diagnosed with lupus about 20 some years ago.  She can not get this.  I need to keep her safe.