Day 15 Slice of Life – Al Raja School: 120 Years Old

Our school is 120 years old this year. Al Raja School was the first private school in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We’ve been using the 120 years as a theme throughout the school year in celebration of this milestone. Today, though, it just was a sad reminder that the students are not in school.

We were going to have a carnival two weeks ago, and one of the activities I was responsible for was the 120 Museum. We had a little room that would be decorated with collections of 120 items. The students were just bringing in items when school was cancelled for a month due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Today as I was spring cleaning in my classroom, I looked at all the items and took a few pictures. Recently we got word that the carnival will be cancelled altogether this year.

Some of the items that would have been in our 120 Museum.

I posted a video explaining today’s lesson on what would have been our 120th day of school, a day we had planned to celebrate. I wore my shirt that had 120 ponytail holders sewn on, but the day wasn’t celebratory at all. I was a bit sad and lonely in my classroom.

The lesson today was about our project 120 ARS Stories, a book we are writing. Students are turning interviews into stories today, at home. They had done the interviews of siblings, relatives, teachers, and others affiliated with our school.

Can you see my 120 ponytail holder shirt?

I cleaned off our bulletin board, removing students One Words for 2020. Now the bulletin board is ready for new creations that they will bring back after our break. I can’t wait!

 

 

Day 14 Slice of Life – Experimenting with a New Theme

So, it’s been a week since my comment section stopped working. It is a glitch on that theme from Edublogs, but they are working on it. 

It was unfortunate timing to come during the Slice of Life. My blogging over the past few years has been really sporadic, so there were many weeks and months when I wouldn’t have noticed a problem with commenting. This month, however, my sweet new friends in the Slice of Life challenge noticed right away and let me know. It is good to be back to blogging and trying Slice of Life with you all. 

Today I tried a different theme, something that will allow the comments to work. I haven’t changed the theme for years, so it was probably a good thing to explore.

I changed it, but I think I liked the Before theme better. However, I’ll live with the After theme for a bit and see if it grows on me.

Hopefully, the commenting works better on this one!

Do you have an opinion about which theme you like better?

Before
After

 

Day 13 Slice of Life – A Friday of Rest

Today I needed a day to not work on videos or other school-related issues. Of course, I peeked at my email. If there had been an important/urgent one from a parent, I would have responded. However, I didn’t get any emails from parents or staff members. Hopefully they are all at home resting today too. They need it.

Here are some things I like to do for rest:

  • Write in my journal – Day 73 in #100DaysofNotebooking
  • Cook or bake – today it was making a huge pot of soup with a new recipe from Washington Post “Greek Lentil and Spinach Soup with Lemon
  • Learn a Bible story – today I’m working on Jesus’ resurrection
  • Read – today a few chapters in Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos
  • Take a long walk – today to pick up an Ethernet-to-USB connector

That last one is so I can start working again tomorrow!

I still need practice at this resting thing.

Day 12 Slice of Life – Finding Wifi

So, I used 8 gigs of data in two days at home. It’s this Virtual Learning Initiative, not the usual suspect (watching political talking heads).

My husband was glad when I left home to go to school to finish making my videos for next week’s lessons.

They had already given the teachers student wifi access so we could work on our own devices to create screencasts and other videos, but the wifi didn’t reach to my room in the elementary department. That’s why I preferred to do the work at home.

Today, I tried again at school. I started working to edit my video using Screencastify, and it stalled. It was my first attempt using the editor, so I don’t know if it was slow Internet or the editor itself. When I tried to add a second clip, I failed miserably and somehow lost the almost-finished edit.

I carried my open laptop down the hall looking for a better connection. I stopped in a supervisor’s office to a welcoming sofa and snack, but no wifi. I stayed long enough to get a snack, but then was on my way again. I headed down the hall to a high school teacher friend’s room, but she was having a department meeting. Next stop, balancing my laptop and crumb cake, was at the IT Office, where Rey set me up with a new wifi connection, the best in the school, he promised.

I kept walking toward the office until the wifi bars brightened and signaled a promise that this task would finish before the sun set. I found a place to sit in a lonely staff lounge, quiet and the wifi worked–undoubtedly the best in the school.

After a couple hours, I finished editing and uploading the two videos for next week’s lessons. Then I went home, where it appears I have a few GBs of data for another day.

Day 11 Slice of Life – Emails from Students

I got an email this evening with an image of a picture book, and a note, “By accident I had came into this story.”

Me: I don’t understand. Is that a problem? Was it a good book?

Student: No, it was not my level. And in every page it had five words only.

Oh, finally, I figured out why she was telling me this. Today’s extension assignment had said:

Extension. Read on Tumblebook Library while logged on to the Tumble Tracker so I can see all the good books you’re reading.

The conversation continued:

Me:  Oh, I see. No need to worry about that. I enjoy reading picture books myself! Feel free to read all the books you want on Tumblebook Library. I will never say that a book was below your level and you shouldn’t read it. OK? Read away. If you open one, and you don’t like it, while on the Tumble Tracker, it’s OK. You don’t have to finish it. Enjoy!

Student: Thank you so much teacher. And goodnight.

Sad, that after this many months I haven’t helped her internalize my message that she can read whatever level she wants to read in my class.

It reminded me of this recent tweet.

Day 10 Slice of Life – Not Giving Up Hope

Bahrain has been fighting this virus with all stops out–cancelling the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix to spectators is one of the latest. Today the Bahraini Parliament voted on whether to cancel school for the rest of the year. I was happy to hear the report that they are not yet giving up hope for the school year. I pray we will be back to school this year. I miss the students so much, and I’m sure they will tire of virtual learning.

The world has a common enemy, and we will win the Coronavirus battle.

Proposal to extend suspension of schools until end of academic year rejected.

 

Day 8 Slice of Life – Problem Solving

Today was our first day back at school. It was so great to be together. It’s so important to have face-to-face time to figure out kinks in programs that are new for all of us with this virtual learning initiative. My day of grading online assignments, meetings, and learning new skills was sandwiched between trouble-shooting sessions.

This morning started with some teachers needing to learn to share their Google Docs so parents can view them. Some came into school this morning to a long lists of emails from parents requesting access to the Google Docs the teachers thought they shared the night before.

Tonight I was on the phone with someone, making a screencast of how to create an assignment in our school program. Same thing–parents sent lots of emails. “Where is your assignment to upload my work to the E-Locker?

We got it done, and now I’m going to bed.