#educums

Week 2 of Con Ed has been a mix of OH-MI-I-HAVE-3-ZOOMS-TODAY-AND-A-VIDEO-TO-EDIT-AND-UPLOAD-BEFORE-8AM-TOMORROW-EVERYONE-LEAVE-ME-ALONE!!!  and I-AM-SO-BORED-EVERYTHING-IS-CAUGHT-UP-WHERE-IS-EVERYONE-I-WANNA-HANGOUT!

PS: When I mean “everyone”, I mean my cat...I live with a cat. Not allowed to see anyone else....just my cat.

At times it seemed like Week 2 went by in a flash and yet lasted 6 years....cabin fever is setting in.  

I wanted to through digital beanbags at my counterpart PE teacher this past week! She is a youngling! Oh boy is she a youngling. The 5th Grade PSStaff were on a Zoom last week and a discussion about students who were not attending homeroom zooms or math zooms or whatever zooms and what do we do about attendance and participation and do we keep track and should district officials be knock, knock, knocking on doors to check up on students....you know ConEd stuff...

I’m sitting there quietly, checking my Canvas analytics page to see if the same students who were not showing up for other classes were at least looking at the music class page.

Aaannnd then the Youngling opened her mouth....God-sigh-Bless-sigh-her...

So, I don’t do class zooms. I push out content through YouTube as I don’t have a homeroom. I prefer using YouTube so students can look at Music Class lessons at their leisure, after all other math, reading, written language, science etc, is done. We have a highly restrictive time allocation for all education during ConEd.  Elementary level gets maybe an hour of “instruction time” everyday with the new rules. So, I embed an unlisted link in a Canvas announcement with an explanation and “SHAZAM!” Music Content viewable at the students’ pleasure and leisure! 

Youngling during this one zoom pipes up: “Should we (Music/PE/Art) be tracking student who don’t “try” in our classes....?

I had to school my expression so hard after she asked that.  Grrrrrrr....I wanted to scream “WTF!?!? SHUT UP!” at her but...you know Zoom Meeting, I was on camera at the time....siggggghhhh.....

The Classroom teachers have a shared document on the cloud drive so people can see who’s coming to which Zoom.  The Related Arts are not privy to that for whatever reason and dang it, truthfully, I don’t want access. I wouldn't NORMALLY have access to stuff like that, so what is the point now?!?

Principal says “Yeah, you should be probably tracking that...”

*FACEPALM HARD*

Well, better late to the party than never...

Least we got an invite to the party...finally...I guess?

Wait...crap...more work, more screen time, more ass asleep in the chair time...damn.

So, I take an extra couple of hours, study the analytics, and come up with a way to communicate Music Class Attendance Records in succinct manner by creating a Table in a Pages Document (Word for people who don’t speak Apple) that can be updated and emailed weekly to the boss.  It doesn’t take very long, just another stupid thing I wouldn’t normally have to do....

Youngling calls me today ranting about a different Zoom meeting we attended and discussed how to do grades and final grades for the year and so on.  She thought grades were going to be one way, but now they've changed, but what do we have to do with our lessons instead to give a grade....

Good Lord Youngling, calm down, take a breath...this is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s probably gonna change again....breathe

She asks me about attendance and I walk her through what I figured out in abstract ideas.

Youngling: “Can you send me a copy of your attendance document? I need to see how you’ve done yours?”

Me: “Ummmm....It just a pages document with a table...not hard...”

I’m not a good share-er right now.

All the while I'm thinking: Look, Youngling you just had to open your mouth IN THE FIRST PLACE...now figure it out!  We are doing the same thing...flying by the seat of our pants...roll with it...problem solve.

In the Meantime, trying to keep things in context....

People are sick

People are dying

People have lost loved ones

People have lost jobs

People have it way worse than I do.

My life is not in crisis...it is inconvenient, not in crisis.

Rant Over, appreciating what I do have, and movin’ on! 

I just looked at my class lists for the new school year and it freaked me out! haha. My classes are pretty large (they’ll still shuffle and balance them, I know, but also, my class can only accommodate 34) and I don’t know any of them, and I’m nervous! AHHHHHH

Good thing there’s still quite a bit of time until school starts so I can prepare. 

Hey Educhums! 

i have to present a math game in my grad class this coming Wednesday. I don’t teach math, and I’ve been googling around/asking math teachers in my school, but you guys have great ideas so I thought I’d crowdsource here as well.:

Do you guys know of any fun math games that are easy on the pocket materials-wise?

4 year old student: I can’t wait for my birthday then I will be in my brother's class. Me: Next school year you will be in that class. 4 year old: Yeah and then I can say “bitch." 

 Me: Ummm, no. That is not a word for school.

4 year old: What about “shut up?”

So earlier in the year on the #educhums tag there was a post about what’s in your “emergency kit”, listing things like “mints, aspirin, deodorant, etc” and I also saw a similar post on Reddit as well. And one of the items I saw that I thought was kind of poignant was this…

Blank birthday cards.

So over the weekend on my Sunday target/coffee run, I got 3 of the generic 99¢ happy birthday ones.

Today, start of lunch (the only time I am on my phone from 7-2), I check Facebook.

It’s teacher down the hall’s birthday. He’s having a rough year. Non proficient seniors are tough in the wrong hands. Wrote him a card.

Texted me after school that it was the best part of my day.

It reminds me of a shirt I saw the other day. “I never dreamed I’d grow up to be a super adorable teacher. But here I am. Killing it."