I remembered Daylight saving - which is amazing as I can't remember what day it is! In
Had another day away from my laptop - I must say it is quite nice to do that, I don't do it often. I played Talisman, finished the jigsaw puzzle (Wasjig5) - I am going to run out eventually, but it's fun at the moment and is a nice break from having a screen in front of me all day. I did yet more sorting of lemons - lots of juice and sliced lemons in the freezer now!Had a look at a clip about training for dragonboating - wish I had a paddle here at home, I could do some work in the pool and keep fit for that - keen to get back to training, missed the last couple of weeks and can't get to the erg at the moment. Soon. Please soon.
I have 172 unread emails now - hmm, better get onto those tomorrow. I feel I need to get organised and into a bit of a routine, but also trying to take some time for myself and making that happen for now.
I spent some time this evening trying to get Hangouts working with relative on their iPad, eventually turning to Zoom as the iPad wasn't up to date enough to install the Hangouts app - ah the joys of technology.
Finished Wasjig 5 today -
Keeping in contact with others is such an important part of my day. I chatted to a colleague at the park today (from a distance) and it was so nice to be able to see someone in person. I don't think we realise how much we need that.
Monday 6 Apr
Needed to get some work done this morning so spent a few hours on my laptop. Finally cleared some emails and got some planning done. I'm trying to get some work done each day but some days I just can't seem to find the energy. Although we are home and technically on holiday there are so many things to do to get sorted and prepared for next week and I feel sometimes that I am a first year teacher all over again!
I had some time trying to start a new jigsaw, got all the edge pieces out but couldn't sort them into a full frame - eventually my son came to the rescue and changed my sideways seagull to it's proper location at the top of the jigsaw! My brain is obviously not working as well as it should today.
The usual walk and some more Talisman (including being turned into a toad yet again) and the afternoon disappeared quite quickly. Had to call the vet as one of the cats has a skin problem and it has flared up again. Had to email photos in then I will get a phone consultation in the morning which is a good way of getting around the contact issue. I'm sure they will just pop her on some more prednisone - she's been on and off it for years.
We had our Boma Education Fellows call this evening. I spent quite a while in the afternoon trying to get my bluetooth to work. I have a great connection with my phone where I can hear very well - it sends the sound directly to my hearing aids and sounds like it's in the middle of my head, helps heaps with hearing on the phone, but my computer was not having a bar of it. On my Surface, which I use all the time I couldn't get a good connection even to listen to a YouTube clip, it kept cutting out. I might have to do some digging into that. Anyway, I went onto my school laptop and managed to get the sound working with YouTube, but then when I went on Zoom I got nothing. Sigh. I was running out of time yesterday but today I'll check the settings on Zoom and see what I can change to get my hearing sorted. I do find it really difficult at the moment, everything is online and my hearing just isn't quite good enough to catch everything. I realise how much I lipread in situations like this and lagging on the video does not help! It is so good to chat with like minded educators from around Canterbury. I find it really stimulating and although I was tired it did help me work out a bit more towards where my project will lead me this year. You can read about the latest meeting on my blog when I get it finished. Another chat online after that then early to bed. I must say it's been nice going to bed early and just reading for a while.
Tuesday 7 Apr
My personal email count is up to 182. I have been putting this off for a while and I think today is the day. I cleared my work ones yesterday so I think these are in for the cut. Many are genealogy sites and newsletters to read so could take me a day or two!!
The vet called this morning and has prescribed some cream and some prednisone so I had to go out and collect that so I braved the supermarket as well. I must say we are really lucky where we are. I walked in straight away, no queue and they had everything on the shelves that I wanted, including plenty of flour and toilet paper!! Lots of things had limits on them, but you don't need that much for a normal shop. There were a couple of people there not worrying about the distancing but on the whole people were really great and thoughtful. I am thankful I am not in a crazy supermarket space.
Another chat online to a colleague - always good to talk pedagogy and ideas. I do enjoy conversations that make me think and challenge things.
I fund the subject matter of my online course this week really interesting, and not so easy - it is about social connection and kindness. The kindness bit wasn't so hard but the social connection is a wee bit tricky right now! I'll be doing another blog on this soon.
My usual walk and yet another game of Talisman (where I didn't get turned into a toad but was killed a couple of times) and then time talking to a relative who is fairly anti any tech but trying to get sorted on messenger to keep in touch with some people. I didn't realise Facebook was now requiring a photo to access your account or to make a new one. All he wanted to do was be on Messenger, but that requires FB. I suggested his group use Whatsapp - much better option as you can add people by phone number and they don't have to be on FB. Wow. Been a learning curve for me too today.
Trying to get my Boma blog done today but not feeling the vibe - I do have to be in a writing mood to write up my notes and I have another online meeting tonight for the MIE Experts so may wait and write it all up tomorrow. I seem to be only able to do a few hours solid work each day at the moment. My brain gets tired I think.
Wednesday 8 Apr
Finally got my Boma blog done today with a bit of sidetracking into some great educational resources. A couple that I have read before came back strongly to me. The first being Ann Milne's Colouring in your virtual white spaces - reminding us to be thoughtful of our Māori ākonga in this time. The other was looking at different ways of doing things with tech - Using TikTok for Maths. There are so many cool things happening out there it's hard to keep up and I can certainly feel overloaded with information some days!
I decided not to go for a walk today, not because of being lazy but to give my toe a bit of a break. I damaged this last April (broke toes and snapped a tendon) - a year ago today in fact and have been waiting for a specialist appointment to hopefully fix it. My appointment was for April 2nd. So, as you can imagine, it got cancelled. I do feel a bit gutted after waiting all this time and now there is no date in sight for the forseeable future. And quite rightly so. It's not urgent, I can walk when it is strapped up, it's just a nuisance that I have to have it strapped all the time to hold it together. The skin was a bit yuk yesterday, getting a bit raw with the tape, so I've taken the strapping off for a couple of days. But I can't walk far, hence no walk today. Back into it tomorrow when I tape it up again. I missed the walk today though. It's nice to get out. I think I have realised I miss any time and space to myself. There is no time, apart from my walk, that I have no-one around - even there there are other people walking. Having space to do whatever I want in whatever way I want is nonexistent at the moment. I really feel for those with young children, it must be super hard right now.
Every time I get near a bunch of super motivated kaiako I learn so much! I went on a quick chat today taken by one of our MIE Experts Nikkie Laing. She was talking about how to do really pretty and useful infographics in Powerpoint and Google slides. I'll add the information from it on to the end of my MIE blog from last night (hopefully Ill finish that tomorrow. I get so excited about new things, just reminds me again of my love of learning - and how that links in to the VIA character traits I got with the course I'm doing. It all links up and I love that stuff!
Had an online chat with some neighbours today - we were all feeling the lack of personal contact and I remembered seeing on the news last night about the group that meet out on the street to do a workout each day, and the other group that just go out and walk around, have a chat and then back inside. We are all craving that human contact I think. It will be interesting to see how things go as time goes on. Another good discussion was with my son. He plays Borderlands online and told me about a cool new game inside Borderlands that is mapping the gut microbiome. You can read more about it here. It's really interesting connecting gaming with Science, I think it's an awesome idea. He reminded me of Ender's Game as well - a great read if you are looking for one.
Can't believe it has been 2 weeks already. Lots still that I want to do for my holidays!!! Plus lots of work to do so going to be a busy Easter. Oh, and I'd better clear those emails - still haven't done it....
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