Isolation 7

Tuesday 14 Apr
A busy day today - got a lot of work done this morning as well as listening to Ann Milne's Facebook Live event on Colouring in the white spaces. She was great to listen to and it was good to be challenged. I have some notes, but most of it is covered in her book and the downloads you can get from her site. I did some baking over lunch time, listened to a talk from the DisruptEd community. Claire Amos was talking to students about their experience so far. One of the main things they had to say was about us as kaiako should be patient, flexible and provide support and care, but keep pushing for high achievement - warm and demanding. It was good to hear some student voice in all of this - we so often read and hear about kaiako, but not often from those we teach. It should be the other way round...
I went out today to collect some things from the chemist. It was the farthest I had been from home in weeks (sideline here - I had to look up to see if it was furthest or farthest, found a cool site explaining it to me - I never have (or is it have never!?) been good at grammar). It was odd to drive that far and just a strange feeling to be out and about. Part of me felt guilty I wasn't at home, but the other part was excited to be out. I wonder how it will feel once we all start driving to work again. I am quite enjoying working from home - I can do things in my own time and it's ok to be writing resources in the evening, or first thing in the morning. I'm interested to see how things will go tomorrow when we are technically back at school.
I used a comb today. I know that sounds normal for many people but being honest, I haven't used one for years. My hair is normally short and I can just run my fingers through it and it's done, but I was meant to have a haircut the week of lockdown and it didn't happen. So here I am. Longer hair than I have had for years, and having to use a comb! Lucky I found one at the bottom of the bathroom cabinet otherwise I think that would have been an essential shop before having to go online to my students in the morning!
More work this evening just finishing some bits on my Google Classroom for tomorrow and then went over the notes I made from the webinar this morning. Love learning.
Got a bit excited chatting to some of the cast from Hair which I did in April 1998 - nice to catch up and go through photos. A bit of a walk down memory lane. We are looking at having an online catch up this weekend - that should be entertaining!
It's great to see TVNZ having online learning starting today. I see it is planned for one month so far - for Years 1-11. Some great content. I remember Suzy Cato with my children - she did some cool science things and we had her DVDs. Brings back good memories. I hope lots of people let their children chill out and watch TV. Nigel Latta did a great talk on Seven Sharp last night about letting students just chill out. If you didn't see it, it is worth a watch on TVNZ On Demand. Thanks Nigel for putting a bit of reality into the mix. I think all teachers should watch it too - stop trying to put a huge amount of content onto students right now and just let them be who they are. Provide for those who want it and chill out for the others.
It's funny though, I sometimes feel totally overwhelmed by all the resources out there. I can't imagine how our ākonga are feeling. I just need to switch off quite often to stop all the information from circling around in my head. I love learning and I love all these resources, but sometimes I just wish there was just one thing, not lots of options. Is there such a thing as too much choice? I think there can be and right now there seems to be a plethora (is that the right word for it - let me just google that - you wouldn't believe how many words I google for my blogs) of choices. Hard to find my way through them all sometimes, hence using my page and site to try and filter them out a bit and go back to what I want to see.
Time to get off a screen and sleep - big day back at work tomorrow. It will be an interesting one.

Wednesday 15 Apr
I'm tired. That was crazy mad today for the first day of 'school'. There were lots of emails and messages flying around and then I had quite a lot of calls as well. I feel shattered and it's 4pm. I need to work on a better way to manage all the things coming at once and know that I can't do it all immediately. Maybe I only look at email once an hour or something. But I want to be responsive and quick for ākonga when I can. I had to remind myself to take a lunch break and go for a walk and I must say my butt hurt from sitting down for so long - I never sit that long at kura or at home. Not sure about this working from home thing!! I did manage to get some good resources out to ākonga though and the conversations I had were really productive so that's a positive. It will be interesting to see how it settles over the next week.
One thing though, it was nice to have my morning routine back, although I actually enjoy the drive to work so I did miss that bit. But it was good to get into the routine and know I had to work today. One of the ākonga I spoke to this afternoon said she had just got up - I hate to think how hard it is going to be for some of them when we finally get back to physically going to school.
Part of me feels guilty that I haven't done anything on the course I am doing - but in all honesty I had those few days of blah and now I've been flat out with work. Once I get back into the routine and how I'm going to manage things I think it will settle and I can get back into doing things in the evenings.
I enjoyed reading this article by Enrique Dans today and love this statement:

"From now on, we must prepare for life in a world where a vaccine for COVID-19 is going to take a long time to arrive, which means a great many restrictions on how we used to do things. For a long time, classes will be at half capacity, many students or teachers will be forced to self-confine, attendance will be irregular, and many methodologies we used before will no longer apply."

I then followed him on Twitter and had a look at his website and read a few more of his blogs. Some thought provoking stuff! Then I read a blog by Punya Mishra on The Value of School. I'm always fascinated by other's thoughts on school and what we should be assessing, but I think his comments on the different roles that schools play is really interesting. I could go on

Thursday 16 Apr
I need another picture. I'm not sure what I can add in here - I can't let me blog go out with just a comb! I'll have to think about it - maybe something entertaining...
Better day today for work. Got a little more organised and not trying to deal with everything at once. A few less emails and messages help! I think we were really trying to find our way around yesterday, so settling in a bit today. I have found getting up and walking around a bit more today has helped as well. Just moving rather than staring at a screen is quite beneficial. I really don't know how people do desk jobs. I also don't know how teachers with their own children are coping - I know how busy I am, must be madness in their house.
I read lots today but am a bit tired to post - maybe tomorrow...
I did get my veges today from The Mad Acre - wow - what an awesome box of veg. I would highly recommend it if you want your veges delivered. - Ohh - a pic I can use!!
An interesting discussion today about what Level 3 might look like. It will be very interesting to see what will happen. Meanwhile - it's time to post this.