Steven Harper's Blog, page 47

March 17, 2020

Plague School Teaching: Day One

I've noted elsewhere that during the Time of Isolation, I would run twice a day instead of just once.  When I'm at work, you see, I'm usually on my feet, and I get my minimum number of steps each day at just my job.  Now, though, my teaching day will be spent at a computer, so we have to change things up. I also decided I'll need a regular schedule. It'll keep me focused and stop me from being "on" for work all day and night.

My schedule runs like this:
7:00 AM - Get up.  (I'm sleeping in! Usually I'm up before 6:00.)
7:10 - Run for half an hour.
7:45 - Shower and breakfast.
8:00 - At my computer.
12:00 - Lunch break
2:30 - End student interaction (no more answering emails or comments)
3:00 - Log out of GC

Today, I got up, ran, showered, breakfasted, and logged into GC. None of my students had responded to the lesson materials yet. (No surprise, really.)  I checked my rosters to see who hadn't enrolled in GC yet and busied myself with other tasks.

Dinah has decided that, since I'm home, I should be her personal armchair.

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Published on March 17, 2020 08:02

Plague School Teaching: More Prep

When I got home, I switched on my own desktop, grabbed lunch while it was booting up, and hit Google Classroom.  I've never used it before, even though it's been available to me.  Now I dug in.  It has a definite learning curve.

I spent all afternoon learning the ins and outs of GC and setting up a virtual classroom space for each of my classes.  Then I planned out schedules.  English 12 was midway through a project, so they could work on that.  For my freshmen, Monday would be vocab day. Tuesday, an online reading assignment at Newsela.org . Wednesday, grammar. Thursday, a short story or other fiction reading. Friday, whatever I felt needed doing.  Media literacy I set to looking up and analyzing various TV shows and movies.  I decided to continue my normal practice of setting up lessons (lesson plans, materials, copies, etc.) for the entire week, but in this case, I would upload them all to GC under a time delay so each day's lesson would show up at 7:00 AM each morning (just in case any of my students are morning people).

It was at it all.  Freakin'. Evening.  Seriously.  By 9:30, I was still setting things up.  Part of this is GC's steep learning curve and the fact that you can't post the same lesson to more than one class--you have do it for each individual one. This is a serious flaw in GC, if you ask me.  By 10:00 PM, I finished with the last assignment and had an hour to myself before going to bed.

Welcome to the new normal.

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Published on March 17, 2020 07:41

Plague School Teaching: Prepping

Since all the schools in Michigan are closed, we teachers have been told to set up online learning. And since all the teachers and students in the Wherever school district have a school Google account, Wherever decreed the online learning would be in Google Classroom.

Monday, just the teachers went in. Most kept their distance from everyone else.  We had a little inservice session in the auditorium that gave an introduction to Google Classroom, followed by some new district policies. Because of various complications, including special education students whose IEPs are still in full force, we aren't able to introduce brand new material. For now, it's review and discussion and short writing assignments and such. Benchmark Assessments have been officially suspended.  (!!)

It ended with a Q&A. There was a lot of Q.

Afterward, I went back to my classroom and gathered up a bunch of materials to take home (textbooks, mostly).  I thought about bringing my school laptop home, but I realized all the programs I'll be using are web-based, so my laptop would probably go unused. I left it.

The halls were mostly deserted.  Lots of teachers were there, but most were keeping their distance.  I popped in to consult (from a distance) with a couple other English teachers (who kept their distance). English 12 could do this.  English 9 could do that.  From a distance.  There was an eerie sense of tension. It was a little like the feeling in the air when a blizzard is bearing down on the town, and everything is closing early.  People spoke quietly and worked quickly, ready to flee the moment they were able.  But this feeling was heightened.  We all know that in a building of 1600 students and over 100 staff members in the first county to confirm a case of corona, it's highly likely we've been exposed.  But no one is quite willing to say it aloud.

I straightened up my room, cleaned a bunch of surfaces, and left.

We're supposed to be back on April 13, what would have been the Monday after spring break.  Me?  I have the feeling we won't be back at all.  I hope we re-open in September.

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Published on March 17, 2020 07:29

March 14, 2020

Life Under the Plague

Darwin and I avoid leaving the house out of fear of the virus.  We wash our hands a lot.  I go through the house about once a day to disinfect doorknobs, light switches, keyboards, phones, pads, and other surfaces.  It's turning into a lifestyle.

We've spent the days dealing with family issues surrounding his brother's passing and with readying the house for sale. (I'm wondering what impact corona will have on that.)  We cleared out more of the basement and repaired some ceiling tiles and cleaned up. Tomorrow, we need to clear out more of the office.

I went plague shopping the day we learned corona had reached America, so we're well-stocked on non-perishables, frozen food, and toilet paper.  I missed the stampede by less than twelve hours.  The plague supply is labeled Do Not Touch--it's in case we get sick and can't get to the store.  It's also in case the supply chain is interrupted, but we don't talk about that. It's in the back of my mind, though.  I continue with regular grocery shopping, but it's harder to schedule a pick-up time--everyone wants to avoid going into the store, and they're using the store's pickup service.

I also decided that if I'm stuck at home and mostly sedentary, I'm going to run twice a day instead of just once.  Today was Day One of twice-a-day.  I'm also making a concerted effort to go outside for at least a few minutes every day.

There are movies I really want to see.  But no.  We were supposed to host a poker game this week. Canceled.

We've become short-term hermits.  If Darwin weren't diabetic and in a higher risk group, I don't think we'd be so wary, but he is and we are.  A part of me says, "Just let me catch it and get it over with," but I know that would be beyond foolish, so I keep up the plague mantra of washing, disinfecting, and avoiding.

The biggest problem came up with the passing of Darwin's brother.  Shawn lived in Arizona.  There'll be an autopsy (it's doubtful he had the virus, but they want to find out what happened), after which there'll be some kind of service.  Darwin said he wanted to go--wanted both of us to go.  This made me . . . unhappy.  Air flight would put Darwin right in the middle of a big disease vector. What if he got sick while he was in Arizona and couldn't get home?  What if =I= caught it and gave it to him and he didn't make it?  What if we got to Arizona and then all travel was banned, so we couldn't get back? I was sick with worry over the whole idea.  I finally told Darwin how I felt about this, and he at last agreed not to fly, though there's the possibility of driving there. (It would be about nineteen hours.)  We'll see.  Meanwhile, no air trips, and I'm relieved beyond belief.

Today, we braved the plague and went to a sit-down restaurant. We planned to bring some disinfectant wipes for the table and chairs and menus, but we forgot them. When we arrived, however, we found one of the servers hosing down the bar with a spray bottle, so some of our wariness faded.  Still, after we ordered, both of us dashed into the restroom to wash our hands, and we avoided touching anything but our silverware during the meal.  A waitress we know often stopped by our table to greet us, and when she touched my shoulder, I flinched. 

How long will this be the norm for us?

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Published on March 14, 2020 21:26

Closed Due to Plague

The governor has closed all the schools in Michigan due to COVID-19. I was figuring it would happen, though it happened much faster than I thought. Originally, I thought they'd close the schools a week before and a week after spring break. Then two cases were reported in Michigan, one in the county where I teach.

Word whipped around the school.  Everyone was a little on edge.

Me, I'd already activated the Plague Alert System. At the beginning of every class, I went around with my big bottle of sanitizer and required everyone to use it while I watched. I told them that if they left class for any reason, they needed to use sanitizer when they came back, even if they swore they'd washed their hands while they were gone. Every day during first hour, I sprayed my classroom tables with bleach cleanser and had my students wipe them down. Multiple times per day, I sanitized the door handles, the light switch, my keyboard, and other surfaces.

One particular student scoffed loudly and pointedly. This was overkill. It's a media over-reaction. It's just the flu. I told him that his comments in no way reflected actual science. I also said that my husband is diabetic, which puts him in a high-risk group.

"I refuse to let you give the disease to me so I end up passing it on to him and risking his life," I said. "You're a low risk, and that's nice. But you aren't the only person in the world. So use the sanitizer."

This particular student left to use the restroom later that class. When he came back, I pointed him toward the sanitizer. He refused to use it. (By now, you could see that the rest of the class was ticked at him.)  I reminded him firmly that he was required to do so in my classroom.  So he pumped some into his hand, then flicked it back off.  At that point, I ordered him to leave.  He stormed out, vowing never to return. (I later learned he went down to see his counselor to demand a change in his schedule. She refused.) The rest of the class sighed in relief.

Meanwhile, the superintendent announced that school would be closed for Monday only. Teachers would come in to learn how to conduct online lessons in case we had to close school long-term. I thought this seemed a little . . . conservative.  The virus was here, clearly had been here for quite a while. Why were we staying open?

That was Wednesday.  On Thursday, Governor Whitmer convened a hasty press conference at which she caught everyone flat-footed by announcing all schools would close for three weeks, beginning Monday.  I shouted in surprise. Michigan was, I believe, only the second state to close schools state-wide. As of this writing, eleven other states have followed Michigan's example.

Friday, schools were open for the final day, but our little family was dealing with some more bad news: Darwin's brother Shaun had died unexpectedly in his sleep.  He was only 48.  Darwin was shocked and broken-hearted.  He was in Albion when he got the news. I asked him if he wanted me to come down there, but he said he was coming back to Wherever that evening.  He insisted that I didn't need to call in for Friday, but when he arrived at our house that evening, he was in no state to be left alone, so I made arrangements for a sub.

For good measure, I kept Max home, too.

I kept an eye on what was happening at school through email and texting.  The governor's announcement had caught everyone off-guard, and the schools were scrambling to figure out what to do.  In the end, the superintendent announced that teachers would have a shortened version of the staff development workshop for online learning and then be released to conduct classes off-site.

I have the feeling we're going to closed for longer than three weeks.

I also wonder what anti-sanitizer guy is thinking.

I'm actually a little . . . lucky here, if that's the right word.  For the next two weeks, my English 12 and Media Literacy students are working on their senior projects, and they were going to be in the computer lab all that time.  So they'll basically be doing at home what they would have been doing in school.  I only have to figure out how to introduce my freshmen to THE ODYSSEY online. Hmmm . . .

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Published on March 14, 2020 20:58

March 11, 2020

The Plague Arrives

Late last night, we got word that COVID-19 has officially arrived in Michigan.  Two cases--one in Wayne County (Detroit) and one in Oakland County (where I live). I knew it was coming, but still, it was a "shit just got real" moment.

I'm also hearing that the Oakland County patient has children in my school district, though not at my school.

This morning, Michigan State University announced that ti's closing at noon for six weeks.

And the next step is . . . ?

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Published on March 11, 2020 08:58

February 29, 2020

Plague Shopping

Darwin and I went plague shopping last night. We bought a couple-three weeks worth of non-perishable and frozen food, medication, and household supplies in case we get quarantined and can't leave the house.

Darwin was at first reluctant to go. It was late, we were both tired, we could go tomorrow morning, etc. But I insisted, and he gave in. I was glad we did it when we did.

We went last night (Friday) at 9:00 PM, and the store was nearly deserted. We filled one and a half carts. Certain areas of the store had already been hit:

--no hand sanitizer in the entire store
--all the disposable razors were gone (which struck me as weird)
--the medication shelves were half empty
--there was a special display of anti-flu medications

When we finished, we discovered that the only checkout option was the self checkout--not very feasible with the amount of groceries we had.  So I tracked down a manager and asked for a regular checkout.  After some dithering, they opened a lane. Right after we started in (with the cashier scanning and me bagging like a madman), two more people with full carts got in line behind us. Clearly the store needs to leave a checkout lane open later at night, yeah?

We hauled everything home and socked it away in the garage freezer and in the basement. If something does happen, we're good. And I'm extremely grateful that I have both the money to buy this stuff and the space to store it all. If nothing happens, we can live off it for weeks.

This morning, I woke up to learn that three cases of COVID-19 have shown up on the west coast, none of them related (as far anyone knows) to travelers from China.  As a result, I'm predicting that this weekend, the stores will be mobbed.

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Published on February 29, 2020 10:02

February 27, 2020

Comics Pride

Now that I've denigrated comics, I have to tell you that this page makes me tear up. I can't tell you how much it would have meant to twelve-year-old me. It's why representation matters.





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Published on February 27, 2020 08:00

Clear It Out! With Autism

During Snow Day #1, I announced to Max that we were cleaning out the main storage closet in the basement. This spring, we're selling the house in order to downsize, which means everything possible has to go!

Max sighed at first, but finally got into it. We pulled a lot of stuff out of the closet--school pictures, photo albums, Darwin's genealogy notes, letters from German friends from the 80s, old video games, even a VCR.  We sorted piles into keep, dump, and donate.

But the biggest pile was the board games.

When Darwin and I got married, I brought with me a decent collection of board games. But Darwin had dozens. They took over most of the closet. Clue. Trivial Pursuit. Monopoly (two copies). Sorry! (two copies) Talisman. The Simpsons. Uno. (three copies) Scrabble. Express. Iron Dragon. Dungeon. Battleship. And more, more, more.

We don't play board games really anymore.  So what to do with all these?

I called Aran and asked if he wanted any of them. He did. Kala wanted a couple. I wanted only Iron Dragon. (I'm a big Talisman player, but I have it on my iPad now and don't use the physical version. Same for Monopoly.) 

This still left more than 40 games.  I didn't want to throw them away.  I'm not up for selling them on eBay. I thought about Goodwill, but . . . meh. There had to be something better.



And then I remembered--the Living and Enrichment Center, a new community center for people with autism, has opened up in Northville, not far from here. Aran, in fact, has in intake with them next week. They run a bunch of activity slots, including video game night, an RPG night, an anime night, and a board game night.  Games, you see, are an excellent way for people with developing social skills to spend time together--the game gives you something to do when you can't think of anything to say, and it gives you something to talk about.

I called them and asked if they wanted a pile of gently used and new board games. They said they definitely did!

So we'll be dropping those off soon. I'll be glad to know the games will get some use by people who can really benefit.

And now the storage closet is nearly empty.





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Published on February 27, 2020 07:37

More Breaks!

Yesterday we had a slow-motion blizzard. The storm didn't dump a bunch of snow on us all at once. Instead, it was a steady, relentless sifting. Wherever Schools closed, not because the roads were bad, but because they would likely =become= bad. Snow day!

Late last night, Max (who just put a new set of tires on his car) went out for a test drive. He reported the roads were awful, despite the snow plowing. He predicted the schools would close tomorrow, too.

At 4 AM, my phone buzzed. Snow day number two!

I made chocolate chip waffles this morning, just because I could.

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Published on February 27, 2020 06:38