The bright side of having my office in my kitchen is the fact that I don’t have to change out of my work out clothes, or put on mascara. I did feel a little odd when I decided to take a lunch break…I don’t usually do that…to go for a run. Ordinarily when I take a lunch break I tell my work wife, or leave a post it note on my door that says ‘taking lunch’. In a work from home situation…does one post that on Facebook… “Out to lunch”…I mean…I had my phone with me so I could respond to emails and texts, so does that make it a working lunch?
I think this must be some sort of educator complex where we feel guilty if we actually left the work at work and actually sat down and ate a meal. Most educators eat on the run, and multitask work tasks while eating. So I guess it’s no surprise that when I was taking a lunch break I also responded to two emails, and made a video to send to the teachers.
The challenge today has been finding quality resources for middle and high school students. My hat is off to middle and high school teachers who have the tremendous task of keeping teenagers engaged. I have been posting resources to the school Facebook, and e mailing links to resources and activities for my elementary kids…but I am coming up with very little for high school. Yes, yes…Kahn Academy is the best….but it doesn’t keep my kids engaged for long, and they have no endpoint with it. Not like Lexia where there are challenges and tasks.
I also had conversations with most of my staff today. I will continue to reach out to afternoon and tomorrow to make sure I have touched base with all of them via phone. This is so hard for them because they were given very little notice, and very little direction on how to prepare for this pause in learning. Insert a healthy dose of educator guilt here. For those of you that don’t have an educator in your life, teacher guilt runs a close second only to mom guilt. We all feel like we should be doing more for our kiddos (staff in my case) …but what should we do!?! This leaves us constantly checking the news for developments…(when can we go back to school!?!?) constantly scouring the internet for resources to bombard our families with, and constantly worrying about our kids.
My people are all feeling out of sorts, a little helpless, and wondering what to do to fill the time. I know, I know…we all get holiday breaks and summer breaks. The difference being, we plan ahead for those breaks and have projects around the house to work on, trips planned and things to do…including planning for the next year. Right now, we can’t even leave our houses to collaborate with our grade level partners. That leaves us with time on our hands to obsessively check the news, scour the internet for resources, and worry about the kids. Did I say that already? Sorry. See yesterday’s post about being stir crazy.
