Day 15 - Two Weeks!

Today marks two weeks of working from home.  The first week, I finished Friday afternoon completely overwhelmed, as I had attempted to do everything I'd ever wanted to do but never had time to do.  Well, guess what!  I still don't have enough time to do all the things I want to do!  Over that first weekend, I reorganized my work priorities down to taking care of my students and supporting them and their parents as best I could and finishing my school-based practicum for a certificate as a literacy specialist, which isn't very school-based anymore but I'm expected to finish in a few more weeks anyways.

During the second week, I actually began to teach a little.  Out of 23 students, two families responded to my invite for daily lessons.  During that first lesson, which was horrible, I realized that I needed to establish a positive working environment in this new online setting.  I needed to focus on engagement and attention, even if it meant abandoning my usual lesson routine, otherwise, no learning would ever occur.  So we switched gears, read fun stories, started playing more games, and as the lessons went by, I'm able to sneak in a little more learning.  These are all good lessons for me.  I have always wanted to incorporate more games into my teaching and now I'm forced to.  It's also pushing me to expand my use of technology, which will both transfer to my teaching in a live setting someday, and be useful if I ever want to tutor online.

But it's been tough.  I don't really like being on a computer all day, which is mostly why I haven't posted for some time.  I do a "hard stop" at 3pm, shut down my computer (it needs to rest way more than it ever did!), and don't open it until 7:45 the next morning.  I avoid any and all computer related tasks on the weekends as well.  I've never before had such a clear separation of work and home life.  This is good, I suppose, but I do like to use the computer of other things as well, like looking up recipes and foraging tips and communicating with family and friends.  For me, the practice of gratitude has never been more important.  I am grateful that not only do I have a job, it is a job I find interesting and meaningful, even if it's changed for now. 

And I'm grateful for living in such a beautiful part of the country!  I'll leave you here with some photos and video from a fantastic run/hike we did last Saturday up into some blueberry fields.