I am more and more seeing parents thinking about alternatives for their kids for the fall, some kind of version of unschooling + remote learning from the school. That won’t work for all kids, but for some, that might be a good option. But it’s all reminding me that the American school system really has […]
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I slept really badly last night, because apparently my brain had decided that I needed to plan out the first week of classes, so I kept waking from half-dreams where I was sketching out mini-lectures to cover classroom logistics, thinking about whether to do them both as video and transcripts (yes, probably). Also wondering whether
C/P from a Chicago parent. (But I’ll note that all the way back in April, I had one Black student who had already lost four relatives to Covid-19.) ********** “Reasonable people can disagree on the risk/benefit of re-opening schools. But just do me one favor please: don’t claim you’re advocating re-opening for the benefit of
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Heh. So, we realized today that it is PARTICULARLY apt to be listening to the Zombies, Run! podcast while we’re doing our morning exercise right now, because we literally dodge out of the way when other people get too close, especially the unmasked. As the narrator says, they might be infected zombies. You can’t be
What should schools do in the fall? Three years ago, I decided to run for office, the smallest of local offices, library board. I almost ran for school board instead, and, not knowing much about either, mostly picked library board because an elected official I talked to told me that the school board meetings sometimes
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So, I’m continuing to think about how we maintain student engagement in a primarily or entirely asynchronous online learning environment. This is going to be long, but hopefully helpful to teachers, students, and parents looking ahead to the fall semester. THE ARGUMENT FOR ASYNCHRONOUS Asynchronous courses are more equitable than synchronous, because they allow students
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Our local YMCA pool opens for lap swim and private swim lessons this coming Monday (as IL moves into phase 4 of reopening). For the record, Kevin and I aren’t sure whether it’ll feel safe enough for us to take the kids there, but I’m still excited; swimming is one of the things I’ve most
Hey, folks. I hit some pandemic weariness last night in a big way — ended up bursting into tears for quite a while, while Kevin and the kids tried to comfort me. The last month or so, I think we’ve been doing too much retreating into our separate electronic spaces to help cope, and I
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My husband and I have had three fights during shelter-in-place, which is more fights than we’ve had in the decade before. The first time, I went to join a friend to look at her garden. The second time, I went to join her at a garden store. Kevin didn’t understand why I would take an
Anand: “I guess I’m finally getting to the point of being sad about things we can’t do because of the pandemic.” Me: “Oh? Were you feeling sad about something in particular?” Anand: “I was just thinking that I think I’m brave enough now to try going in the deep end of the pool, and then
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