Day #167 Writing Through COVID-19: Bad Day

I am sick and tired of COVID-19.

During the summer, I found the isolation peaceful. The clearing of my calendar gave me room to slow down, #GlowUp, enjoy the tranquility of the farm, exercise, play Bridge.

But today I am stressed. 

My mother-in-law is anxious and unhappy.

My parents are confused and lonely.

My students are BORED. Who wants to sit in class, facing the front, denied group work, denied movement and interaction?
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I planned an activity involving group discussion for my Eng 9 students and used ZOOM as our format. 

FAIL.

The kids needed to move apart from each other to prevent feedback, so many went outside. But the ZOOM program demands strong wifi. When they moved outside, several were dropped from ZOOM. As they re-entered, I had to re-assign them to their breakout rooms.

Can we just say shitshow?

We salvaged a positive: In the final minutes of class, we talked about how hard it is to develop and learn new systems of interacting while maintaining distance. The students said using a chat platform (sans video) might have worked better.
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So in the afternoon when my second section of Eng 9 met, we tried an online chat program.

It was blocked by our district's tech protections.

I went to Plan B (or maybe this was Plan C, given that Zoom was Plan A) and had kids "discuss" on a shared Google Doc. 
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You don't need the gory details. Let's just say it wasn't pretty.

But even worse than the disaster of my English class discussions were the sad and bored faces of my Intro to Journalism classes today. 

My teaching style has always been interactive. In my non-COVID teaching, I tell my students they are guaranteed at least one activity each day that invites them to get out of their seats and interact with each other. 

I've had to abandon this tenet of my teaching style given the COVID constraints on my room.
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My attempts to create interactive learning via technology were rough today.
My attempts to teach without student interaction were stale and flat. 

I want normal.

Enough.
Be well.
Wear a mask.
Write.

Allison