We're living through a real-life pandemic. I'm thinking I should call this the Corona Chronicles or something, but I certainly don't want to make light of the situation. Life is weird right now. I don't want to be "that person" who jokes about something so serious, but we ALL need laughter when we can get it.
I don't really write much for pleasure anymore. I say it's because my job is full of stuff that it not mine to share (that was true when I was a principal, too) and my kids are teenagers who may not appreciate their lives being blasted out into the world from their mom's perspective. And there just hasn't been time. Until Corona.
When I was a kid I always had the check mark on my report card for "talks too much." Almost a year ago I drastically reduced my volume of talking when I went from principal-ing to an office job. Further reduction because of social distancing could quite possibly make me explode. So perhaps I shall write a bit for my sanity and such.
Working from home day #2.
1) Yesterday was very productive for me. I'm fielding emails and responding to questions as quickly as I can. I'm also working on projects that will hopefully have a positive long-term impact for the district, and I likely wouldn't make progess so quickly if I were doing the day-to-day work that is now put on hold with our closure. #brightside
2) It's very weird not to be on the front lines helping teachers and students in the midst of this craziness. Your kids' principals and teachers and central office staff are doing really tough mental work right now figuring out how to support their students both academically and otherwise. The teacher in me is struggling a little bit. If you have a kiddo at home who wants to write letters, send them to me by email or snail mail and I can promise they will get a quick response. If you're a school person and you need someone to help with anything at all, please reach out. I'm very good with Screen-Cast-O-Matic if you find yourself in need of that tool.
3) My instinct when I need to talk to someone is walk over to where they are and have a conversation. It's quite a challenge to tell myself I can have the same conversations without seeing the person's face in person. I've resisted the urge to get in my car and drive to the office many times over the last one day and two hours. I keep telling myself if I can do it from here I should do it from here. That's just not as much fun.
4) I love seeing everyone being creative and giving each other and themselves grace and thinking outside the box. Perhaps this will later be seen as the Great Creative Renaissance, and the arts will be forever changed because of this time. Inventions could skyrocket! Our propensity for running at full speed has been compromised, and I'm guessing we're going to learn a whole bunch from it. I'm on board with that.
5) Tucker works at HEB and is pumped about the ability to pick up lots of shifts. I think he works every day this week. I see new camera equipment in his future (he spends all of his money on food and camera equipment).
6) Keaton has completely cleaned out his room, steam cleaned the carpets, and built a new shelving unit for his shoes. My boys pretty frequently want to go to Lowes and buy supplies for projects, so my rule is that I first have to see a drawn out plan and supply list. Yesterday (with some help from his brother), he created a custom, six-foot shoe shelf for his closet. I need some shelves on the back patio, but I'm holding out that project for when he and Tucker run out of their own.
Today I resolve to drink three full Yetis of water (I should probably know that in ounces but I don't), listen to only happy music, and go for a walk outside. Here's to social distancing day two! best of luck to us all!
I don't really write much for pleasure anymore. I say it's because my job is full of stuff that it not mine to share (that was true when I was a principal, too) and my kids are teenagers who may not appreciate their lives being blasted out into the world from their mom's perspective. And there just hasn't been time. Until Corona.
When I was a kid I always had the check mark on my report card for "talks too much." Almost a year ago I drastically reduced my volume of talking when I went from principal-ing to an office job. Further reduction because of social distancing could quite possibly make me explode. So perhaps I shall write a bit for my sanity and such.
Working from home day #2.
1) Yesterday was very productive for me. I'm fielding emails and responding to questions as quickly as I can. I'm also working on projects that will hopefully have a positive long-term impact for the district, and I likely wouldn't make progess so quickly if I were doing the day-to-day work that is now put on hold with our closure. #brightside
2) It's very weird not to be on the front lines helping teachers and students in the midst of this craziness. Your kids' principals and teachers and central office staff are doing really tough mental work right now figuring out how to support their students both academically and otherwise. The teacher in me is struggling a little bit. If you have a kiddo at home who wants to write letters, send them to me by email or snail mail and I can promise they will get a quick response. If you're a school person and you need someone to help with anything at all, please reach out. I'm very good with Screen-Cast-O-Matic if you find yourself in need of that tool.
3) My instinct when I need to talk to someone is walk over to where they are and have a conversation. It's quite a challenge to tell myself I can have the same conversations without seeing the person's face in person. I've resisted the urge to get in my car and drive to the office many times over the last one day and two hours. I keep telling myself if I can do it from here I should do it from here. That's just not as much fun.
4) I love seeing everyone being creative and giving each other and themselves grace and thinking outside the box. Perhaps this will later be seen as the Great Creative Renaissance, and the arts will be forever changed because of this time. Inventions could skyrocket! Our propensity for running at full speed has been compromised, and I'm guessing we're going to learn a whole bunch from it. I'm on board with that.
5) Tucker works at HEB and is pumped about the ability to pick up lots of shifts. I think he works every day this week. I see new camera equipment in his future (he spends all of his money on food and camera equipment).
6) Keaton has completely cleaned out his room, steam cleaned the carpets, and built a new shelving unit for his shoes. My boys pretty frequently want to go to Lowes and buy supplies for projects, so my rule is that I first have to see a drawn out plan and supply list. Yesterday (with some help from his brother), he created a custom, six-foot shoe shelf for his closet. I need some shelves on the back patio, but I'm holding out that project for when he and Tucker run out of their own.
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