Today is my 109th day being at home after the Ministry of Education asked the children and teachers to not come back to school the next day. That was 25 February 2020.
I reach over, grab the pencil in my darkened room and scribble a message on the notepad. Email Fatima’s mom about the Flipgrid video, send Zoom link to Ali, write minutes and share with team, reply to Flipgrid responses. Later I see the words are barely decipherable, piled on top of each other, but I’ll figure them out. It’s one of the puzzles of this day, and I know it’s something I need, so I keep working to break the code. It’s worth it to have my four o’clock in the morning questions in the dark. The dark room is due to the black poster board taped to the windows in our bedroom. Otherwise, it would be bright in our room by 4:30 a.m. My notes would be easier to write, but my sleep wouldn’t be as good. The darkness means I can usually go back to sleep for a while.
Get up between 5:30 and 6:30, shower, dry my hair, put on a little bit of makeup. (Because there are always videos to make!) I tear off the wee-hours to-do list from my nightstand. Sit at my computer. Read emails, do the things on my list. Sip the tea my husband brought me. By 7:00 a.m., my husband is out the door to his job. I start recording my feedback videos for students. By 8:00 a.m. I’m on a schedule of making sure I’m available for emails, What’sApps and phone calls. The goal is to answer within 15 minutes on all emails.
So many distractions, though. I record a few replies on Flipgrid. I see an email of a parent needing information on a late assignment. I ask if I can start a Zoom meeting to explain something to the child. Then I get a phone call from my VP about something I need to do before our meeting tomorrow. So many things to juggle and balance, and they all happen as I’m anchored to my dining room chair. How can I have continual work for 8-10 hours a day with hardly a break and never finish? At least when I’m working at school, I get to get up and go to recess or teach a class to students with skin on. I go up and down stairs, eat lunch, page through real papers and books, go to real meetings with people. Everything is not all digital.
This continues until 2:00 p.m. Then I can be off duty! But I’m not, there is always something more, always more emails and more feedback to be given and more videos to make and more and more and more. I never stop working at 2:00.
Ah, but I don’t work every moment. Between emails I plop the no-knead sourdough into the flour-covered bowl for a two-hour rest/rising and set the timer for 1-1/2 hours. When the timer goes off, I turn the oven on to 550 degrees F and set the timer for 15 minutes. Then I put the pan in the oven, set it for 15 more. When the pan is hot, I dump the bread into it, cover it, and put it back in the oven. 30 minutes more, remove the cover, 20 minutes more, remove the hot loaf of sourdough and turn off the oven. Every time the timer goes off I jump up and do something for a minute or two. It’s become a routine that I rarely mess up. On my first loaf of sourdough, I failed to set the timer for the last twenty minutes. I left it in for over an hour more until it got to dried-up-brick stage.
When my Fitbit reminds me to take 250 steps in the hour, I try to listen. If I notice the subtle notification and I’m not in a meeting, I get up and walk. I get a drink of water. I think about lunch or dinner and what I’ll be making.
At noon, I check my personal email, hoping Suleika’s prompt is there. I read through it and think about it for a few minutes. Then I get back to work.
Two of the things that sustain me during this virtual learning are taking opportunities to be creative in the kitchen and write on my blog. These are life-givers and helps the monotony.
Today is Saturday, Day 109 in Bahrain, day 74 of The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. The prompt is by Cat Hollyer. She tells us to “Think about a day where you felt a range of emotions—things like joy, boredom, contentment. Summarize your day through the lens of one of these emotions. Then, choose another emotion, and summarize the same day again.”
I remember those days! I feel guilty for being finished with school so long before you this year. I remember feeling all those things. It’s my bet that when you’re not tethered to the technology and school is out – you’ll still want to be connected to your students. And maybe you’ll find a way.
Thank you, Joy! I’m thinking about making a goodbye summer Flipgrid to give last good wishes and perhaps share what we are learning over the summer. We’ll see. Maybe we will all need a Flipgrid break!