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Saturday, March 21, 2020 I have found myself thinking about my dad a lot lately. He passed away in December after a long fight with multiple sclerosis. In recent years, my interactions with him have often been very frustrating. As the only child living in the same town, it fell to me to try to stay on top of his medical needs and convince him to take advantage of help when he needed it. He was a very stubborn man. Since his death, I think of him every day. At first, I found it mystifying. He was physically disabled by the disease, but otherwise fairly healthy until the last few weeks. I struggled with questions. "Why now? What could I have done? Did I do enough to care for him?" Then the corona virus hit, and I was grateful he was not here to witness it. As much as I focused on my dad's shortcomings in the last few years, he had many gifts. One was that he cared deeply for other people, from his daughters and friends to the nursing home employees who cared for him and
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Getting it Done

Thursday, March 19, 2020 Yesterday, I went for a run outside. I do consider myself a runner and like running most of the time. I do not like running outside when the weather is windy and cloudy and less than 60 degrees. On those days, I would normally choose to run on the inside track at my local Y. That option was not available, however, due to my area's current state of pandemic. So I ran outside. This particular run was not terribly enjoyable, but I wasn't about to skip it. I'm trying to build back up to running a 5K after an embarrassingly long time of being extremely lazy and out of shape. So I bundled up, put on my running shoes, and ventured out, determined to get in my measly 1.25 miles. At the end, I was proud that I had gotten it done. I walked three times, but each time I backtracked so that I actually ran the whole distance. It was ugly, but I did it. Part of me feels like my run could be a metaphor for teaching (and learning) right now. This is not the en
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Day One of Online School

Monday, March 17, 2020 Today, I started teaching from home. It feels strange. It is not what I would have chosen, but it is what I must do to keep myself and my students safe. I didn't really know what to expect from this. We had very little time to prepare. Not all of my students have reliable internet or devices at home. I didn't know how much parental support they would get. I started my day by putting announcements and assignments on Google Classroom. I created a brief video of myself greeting them and giving them an overview of what I expected. I tried to focus on the positive and told them that I am learning new technology that I can use next year and invited them to share the positives they can find in this whole awful situation. Then I sat back and waited, wondering if any of them would even check in to see what I had created. I got my first student question at 8:10, and they continued fairly regularly for most of the day. These kids were up and working at regular
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