Category: COVID-19 Times

I was hoping to blog more during the COVID pandemic, but I just never got around to it. Just getting through each day and navigating all of the issues that have gone on with this time was a full-time job. It seemed like each day that we could stay at home was another day that we avoided the virus. I tried to mainly save all of my time that I needed to go outside the house and go all on a single day.

Then in the Fall we started back to school virtually and everyone was freaking out about how we get this done. I’ve been designing my classes for being virtual for years and aside from having to adapt to the students doing everything on an iPad, we could do all of the assignments that we would typically do. The biggest stress for me was the constant pressure to go back to in-seat, even as we were seeing COVID cases rise, hospitals filling up and the deaths increasing. Luckily our School Board did the right thing and kept us out until January.

Now we’re back to Hybrid so that we can maintain social distancing and also so we can manage the new behaviors of mask wearing. There is already a push for full in-seat, but hopefully, the District holds off until we can get vaccinated. The cases are going down, but there are new variants of the disease on the way and I’m not sure if the testing numbers really represent the actual cases.

Technically we’re “back-to-school” again today. I have been somewhat disappointed in the response to online learning that our District has chosen. It seems like we have given up for the rest of the year and are only marking time until the end of May. We could be doing much more to help our students with digital learning opportunities. I understand that they were hit with this without much planning, which means that many teachers were not prepared for how to handle this remotely. But this is perfect example of if we were using the technology that is readily available before this crisis, this would not have been such a hard transition.

Part of the problem is what I have been talking about for a while now and that is that using iPads as the main source of a 1-to-1 computer strategy falls far short when it becomes the only device that students have access to. If we were using laptops or even Chromebooks, it would better facilitate a work-at-home solution for students. We also need to move away from the philosophy of packets, worksheets and other forms of papertocracy that limits the ability to use technology to enhance student learning when not in the classroom. Making a worksheet a PDF and loading it into an LMS is not digital learning. Students need to learn to find useful information, how to utilize data, and how to create content, these are the skills that will enrich them moving forward.

If this crisis has taught us as educators anything, it’s that technology is an extremely useful and powerful tool for education and should be embraced and not shunned.

Yesterday we played another online board game, Settler’s of Catan, and it was great. I realized that I really do miss my students and wish we were back at school right now. As usual, it’s not the day-to-day teaching that my students or I will remember in the future, it is these special times when we are doing different things that we will remember most.

We found out today that we will be putting in our grades already for the end of the year which tells me that we are preparing to finish out the school year. We still need to continue with the online learning and keep in contact with our students but we will just putting in whether they are passing or giving them an incomplete. So if any student is passing, there is no benefit to them continuing with any content. My biggest fear is that if we do go back to school in May, it will be impossible to get them to do anything.

Later today Rebecca had a Zoom for kids to do some art work and Maya and TJ had a good time doing that. It was interesting to see how a virtual art lesson would work, but it did. There were some prerequisites, everyone needed to have some basic art tools. Rebecca also sent some examples of how to draw in email.

We spent the rest of the day playing Minecraft and that was very relaxing.

Today and yesterday for that matter has been just another couple of days. I spend the morning on the computer, grading school work, communicating with students and working on other school stuff. Then in the afternoons I work outside. Lately working on getting the Strawberry, Blueberry and Raspberry gardens ready. I come in at night dead tired and then just crash watching some old TV on the Pluto app.

In between I’m keeping the kids on task, putting out fights, and tweeting. I’ve also been 3D printing more masks for the kids, and keeping everything running around the house. Joan has been neck deep in her own work and keeping from going crazy with the kids underfoot.

Today we were told to take a break for the rest of the week from online classes. I guess parents had complained that their kids were getting too much work and the District would like to reorganize how they want to do this online learning. What everyone needs to do is restructure their content so it is asynchronous and can be done at any time. That way the students can work on as much or at least as they need to and won’t feel so overwhelmed.

I sent out an email to my students and parents and let them know that they were doing great and not to get too upset about the work. My only expectation is that they get most of it done by April 27th when we go back. They can work on my stuff or their math or whatever and just stay on task and keep going.

The past few days I’ve been taking it easy as our “Spring Break” comes to an end. On Saturday we spent most of the day playing Minecraft. On Sunday I spent most of the day working outside on the pathway under the clothes line.

Today was our first day “back-to-school”, which in our case was online. I had a handful of kids sign into Schoology and start working on some of the assignments. A few others just had some questions. Mostly I worked on the Yearbook in the morning. In the afternoon I did some gardening and enjoyed the outdoors. Unfortunately I’m starting to build a list of items that I need from the hardware store so that I can continue gardening in the future. I’m not sure how being able to pick things up will work though.

Yesterday we also had a scare when one of our neighbors told Joan that she was really sick. We were afraid that it was the COVID-19 and then we started thinking about all of the contact that we had had with her or her kids. Then we started thinking off all the contact that we had with others as we went to the store or other places. Luckily she got tested and it wasn’t COVID-19, but it has made us more aware of keeping distant.

Last night we had some sever thunder storms move through and it woke me up so that I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep. It also made for a muddy mess this morning. I had ordered more pavers from Lowes which we picked up in the morning. I also picked up some window weather stripping which I planned on using on my COVID-19 mask. Again, we tried to minimize the distance and the amount of time we spend with any people which wasn’t too hard. After we got home, I unloaded the truck and finished working on my COVID-19 mask.

The rest of the day I pretty much spent my time getting some lunch and then getting set up for my next Zoom Board Game. This time I was able to have a dual monitor setup which allowed for both people who we were joining us having a screen to themselves and thus it made it seem like we were actually playing with them. It’s still difficult to get across the layout of the game and for people to get involved in the game. I videoed it this time and would like to spend some time tomorrow editing this footage and see how well I can make it into a video.

I also need to work some more on the yearbook and start getting my next Schoology Unit’s loaded for our next two weeks worth of assignments. I’ve also volunteered to help with 3D printing some face shields in conjunction with the Career Center, so, we’ll see how I can get all of that organized and working.

Finally, I’ve been getting my Doctor Who videos organized and loaded onto the Plex server. I would like to move the whole Plex server to another computer that I have gotten set up, but I need to see if it powerful enough.

The weather finally cleared, the sun came out and we actually had a pretty nice day today. I took advantage of the weather and started laying some of the pavers that I had bought last week. I’m expanding the path in the back yard so that it covers the ground under the c clothes line, that way we can put the wash out without getting muddy. I still need more pavers so I ordered more and will pick them up at Lowes tomorrow.

I also had to clean a clog out of the 3D printer, which was a pain. That old filament is just no good, so I’ll probably just get rid of it. Eventually I got it working with some newer filament which is working a lot better. I’ve decided to get a new 3D printer for myself, one just like the one I have for school since I really want to start 3D printing stuff again. These newer printers have a bigger print bed so I can make better stuff. The types of filament are also a lot better and come in a variety of styles so you can really make a lot of cool stuff.

Finally I set up another Zoom Board Game for tomorrow with one of our students and one of our teachers so that should be really fun. I hope to get it set up so that it works better this time and we can perhaps see each other better.

Today I finally got a COVID-19 mask that works really well and is easy to print and doesn’t require a lot of assembly. It still needs some kind of rubber gasket around the edges so that it will make an airtight seal and some kind of filter system, but I’m very happy with the way it turned out. I spent a large chunk of the day trying to figure out what I can adapt for a gasket and I think I’ve been able to find a rubber hose at the hardware store that I can cut and glue on. As for filters, the Internet is recommending two layers of cotton t-shirt material will capture about 60% of any kind of viruses which, while not as good as an N-95 mask which captures 90% is still better than nothing. This will even be better than the regular elastic masks that many people seem to be making and using.

After this one turned out so well, I started trying to make one for Maya, which requires that I scale it down a little since she has a smaller face. She wanted a blue one so I got out some old filament and started to try it. I started having all of the same old problems that I had early on with 3D printing, mainly the build not sticking to the bed for the entire build. I finally got it working to a point where I think it will come out okay, but we’ll see in the morning when it’s done. These things take about 6-7 hours to print. Tomorrow I plan on finding some rubber hoses of the right width and seeing if I can fashion a gasket around the edges.

The weather today was much improved over what it’s been for the last week. It has warmed up and didn’t rain. Hopefully we can dry out a little so that I can start working on some of my outside projects. Because the weather was so nice we decided to go on a long walk around the neighborhood, so did everyone else. We ran into more people on our walk than I have come across in a week of driving to various stores. So much for the Stay-at-Home Order that Columbia has instituted.

Because of that order, the CPS has extended our time off until April 27th. While it’s the right call, I was almost ready to start getting ready to go back. I’m beginning to feel like we won’t be going back at all. Kids are starting to settle into the online learning and the District is figuring out how to manage things like getting food and fixing tech issues for students so we may be out for the duration. At the national level, the President is pushing for everyone to go back in a week or two but all of the health scientists are saying that would be a huge mistake and that we need to stick it out for another 4-6 weeks at least.

Finally, I put together a list of kids that I think may want to try online board gaming since I didn’t get much of a response so far. I sent them all an email so we’ll wait and see what kind of response I get. I’m hoping that its just because they are actually taking a Spring Break from school and not checking on anything that this is why I haven’t gotten a bigger response.

The first week is gone and I’ve gotten a lot done, but I keep thinking about how much more I have to do. Today I started 3D printing another mask and I also found a different version to print so I let my 3D printer go all day. I going to try and assemble it tomorrow once I have all of the things I need put together, like a hair dryer and glue. The other version won’t need that kind of assembly, it will just print the way it is. I just need to see if it will print correctly without supports.

Today we also had our first Zoom Board Game. Gus joined TJ and myself and it was a fun time. It lasted about an hour and except for some issues getting started it worked out pretty well. The next time I plan on setting up a dual monitor and having the two players screens showing at the table, like they were there. It will be a very similar setup to what Leo Laporte does on TWIT TV. I need to get some more kids interested but I know some that I can contact and they will probably be okay with playing.

Finally, I’m starting to get all of my Doctor Who episodes together and onto my Plex Server so that I can watch them when I want. It’s still hard finding all of the episodes that are out there but I’ve been slowly collecting them and getting them on the Plex Server.

Tomorrow, hopefully the sun will be out and it will stop raining so that we can go outside for awhile. It’s starting to feel like we haven’t been outside in a whole week, which has been more or less true.

Today was mostly spent getting the 3D printer from school hooked up, leveled and starting to print one of the COVID-19 masks that a company has shared on the Internet. This is where the power of the Internet and technology comes into play and let’s everyone with a little bit of skill create almost anything.

The mask that I finally printed didn’t quite work right but that was because I had not read all of the instructions. I was confused how some rigid plastic was going to be able to be bent into a face mask that could go over the mouth and nose:

But I later read that you needed to use a hair dryer and some glue to finish it up, so I’ll try again tomorrow since it takes about 5 hours to complete.

I also set up an online board game for tomorrow at 2PM so we’ll see how well that works out. I haven’t heard back from any of the students so I may need to contact them through the Zoom app since that is where all the students seem to be communicating.