Tag Archives: Coronavirus

Strange days indeed

Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed — strange days indeed

Everybody’s runnin’ and no one makes a move.

~ John Lennon

If you go back to the end of 2019 and made predictions of the future, there’s no way you would imagine the situation we are in. Imagine going back in time 5 years and taking a newspaper with you. Let’s make that 50 years, and describe something as ‘simple’ as a cell phone.

I remember seeing this commercial and marvelling at what people would have thought to hear such a prediction.

I’ve been humbled by world events recently. I tend to be someone who is confident about my opinion but I don’t feel like I can talk with any sort of authority about what the world will look like in six months. I have no idea where we will be in the fight to contain Covid-19? I don’t know what school will look like on a day-to-day basis? I couldn’t intelligently guess who will win the US federal election?

I read news articles and they are filled with bias. I often fact check things before I share them. I actually spend time calling out friends when they share misinformation. I see clever, comedic articles like this:

And I wonder just how many people will share them, thinking they are real?

There are days when news seems more fiction than reality. I foolishly thought that in the Information Age, the information available would be accurate. I think it’s funny that people used to worry about Wikipedia being inaccurate, and now it’s the first place I go to confirm facts. I didn’t think I’d regularly use Snopes to fact check articles before sharing them. I didn’t think people of authority would call news they didn’t like fake, and that I’d consider major news agencies propaganda pushers. I didn’t think science would take a back seat to bizarre, unfounded theories. If you went back in time a decade and played a clip like this one, nobody would believe this is anything more than comedy… Pure satire.

These are very strange days indeed… and I don’t see them getting less strange any time soon.

The tightrope balance of parenting

Yesterday I recorded a podcast with Dave Sands and we discussed 7 PARENTING TIPS to help navigate the challenges of students LEARNING AT HOME during the Covid-19 pandemic. This got me thinking about how different kids are, and how hard it is to be the perfect parent for a kid.

Parents hold an imbalance of power over kids, who are in a constant state of growth. With growing up comes both more responsibility and more expectation of freedom. These things do not develop at the same speed, and our expectations will often be mismatched with our kids expectations. When it comes to how much choice and freedom kids are given versus how much of that choice and freedom they feel they deserve, parents will often think of the child they were dealing with a few months ago, while kids feel like they’ve grown up since then.

Some parents navigate this well, but many struggle. Some hold on to power over their kids to keep them safe. In doing so, they can create resentment because they are being too strict. Some parents give too much power to kids too soon, and kids tend to take advantage of that power and make poor decisions. Some parents get it right with respect to some expectations, and totally wrong with others. This can relate to chores, use of money, curfews and bedtimes, use of technology, eating habits, manners, homework, and all sorts of household rules and expectations.

The thing is, that some kids need more structure and more guidelines, and some kids need more freedom and choice, an it’s a tightrope balancing act not just to figure this out for a kid, but also to recognize that what works for one kid might not work for another… even in the same household with the same parents! To give a concrete example, one kid might need parameters around getting homework done, because without that support they won’t get it done, while an older or younger sibling might be able to do homework completely independently, without any parent supervision or support. Having different rules for these kids can create tension and so can having the same rules and not providing the freedom and responsibility that the more responsible kid deserves (especially if the one that deserves more freedom is the younger of the two).

So parenting tips are something that will always be tricky to give. What works for some, doesn’t work for all. That said, I really think Dave Sands and go over some ideas that are not prescriptive, but rather they are things to think about when trying to deal with kids learning at home… no matter how you currently parent or how good or challenging your kids might be. Here are the tips:

1. Manage Expectations
2. Make a Schedule
3. Minimize Distractions
4. Learning occurs everywhere
5. Set daily and weekly goals
6. All screen time is not created equal
7. Model learning.

I think there is something of value here for every parent. Please check the podcast out, and let me know what you think.

What will it look like?

A few days ago I wrote a post This is not the ‘new normal’, and I said,

“This is not the ‘New Normal’, this is a pandemic that will come to an end. This is temporary.”

This morning I ‘met’ Dave Sands on Zoom and we recorded a podcast. We spent about an hour online together and it was great to ‘see’ him. The fact that this was not face-to-face didn’t matter that much. In fact, I’ve ‘seen’ Dave much more in the last few weeks than I have in months. The reason for this is that we’ve connected almost daily on Microsoft Teams for work, since the March break ended 3 weeks ago. But I would have loved to have Dave over to do the recording. To sit and have coffee and enjoy his company along with the conversation.

This afternoon my wife and I joined another couple in their back yard. We sat apart, respecting ‘social distancing’ norms. We brought our own cups and drinks, and left after only touching the chairs we sat on. No handshakes, no hugs, no communal snacks or drinks. This was our first social gathering like this in about 2 months. It was wonderful to connect.

This is not the new normal, but I wonder what the new normal will look like? Will we be less likely to greet people with hugs and handshakes? Yesterday I saw a girl and her dad at a crosswalk. The young girl looked like she was about 4 years old. She got off her bike and ran to press the crosswalk button… with her elbow. Will we ever look at things like elevator buttons, public handrails, and door handles the same way?

Part of me thinks that things will eventually return to a normal that resembled what it looked like in 2019, but part of me wonders about social norms and practices, and how these will change? Will we bow to greet someone rather than shake their hands, hug, or fist bump? Will restaurant workers preparing our food all wear masks? Will we carry hand sanitizer everywhere we go and use it constantly?

We are months and months away from any kind of normal, but when that normal arrives, how many norms and social practices will have changed as a result of Covid-19 pandemic.

I declare a news free day

I need a break. The fact is that I’ve never been a fan of the negativeness of the news. Before the pandemic I rarely watched news on television, now my wife watches the evening news and I join her. I hardly ever searched for daily news articles on my phone, now I check my Flipboard news 2-3 time a day, and I follow the stats of the Coronavirus.

Before this pandemic hit, I used to keep abreast of what’s going on in the world by checking out the trending hashtags on Twitter. Most of these are fun, but if a big world event happened then I could search that hashtag for a link from a reliable source and get caught up.

Today I’m doing none of that. Today I will enjoy a day knowing that the world will get along fine without my attention. Today I will permit myself to be blissfully ignorant to what’s happening beyond my work day and family time.

The news can wait… I’m taking a break.

Ps. Here’s Some Good News that I watched a few days ago… this I could get used to watching regularly, after my break today.

Just for the fun of it

I came across this video and it made me smile.

With people spending more time at home, I think creative little challenges like this aren’t only fun, they also bring us together. It reminds me of a motto from a comedy channel on TV that was, “Time well wasted.”

Challenge accepted!

This is not the ‘new normal’

Note to educators:

This is not the ‘New Normal’, this is a pandemic that will come to an end. This is temporary.

We need to be positive. Communicating that this is ‘normal’ is not encouraging to students or parents. 1/3

* This is an opportunity to try new things.

* We are learning at a distance only until we can work together again.

* What a pleasure it is that we can still see each other online.

* Aren’t we lucky to be living at a time when we still get to share experiences digitally! 2/3

Let’s face it, the term ‘New Normal’ is going to be tossed around a lot outside of education, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t construct positive vocabulary and language around these unusual times, in our digital classrooms, and in our communication home. 3/3

That is a thread of 3 tweets that I shared yesterday, and I want to add a little perspective:

Imagine being a grade 12 graduating this year and it was your last high school play that got cancelled, or your final season of Track and Field, or your graduation dinner-dance.

Imagine that you come from a single parent home, your parent works 10 or 12 hour shifts, you have siblings that you don’t get along with, and your daily escape to school is gone.

Imagine that you are 6 years old, and you can’t have a play date, can’t use the playground, and can’t spend time with your grandparents, who usually visit you every weekend.

Imagine any one of thousands of scenarios where your routines, your friendships, your family structures, your family financial well being, and all of your extra-curricular activities are disrupted.

Now let’s just call this the ‘New Normal’… No.

COVID-19, schools closing, and ‘social distancing’ have taken so much away from our kids, let’s not take ‘normal’ away from them too.

Wealth, privilege, and charity

The challenges ahead are easy to understate and misunderstand. Things are still likely to get worse before they get better with respect to covid-19. Even when things open up, the virus will still likely plague us until there is a vaccine. Many jobs will not return, and the prospects for many will include requiring financial assistance, and/or abandoning mortgages that can no longer be afforded.

So when people like Jack Dorsey donate:

“$1 billion, or almost 30% of his net worth, to first fight the coronavirus and then help the causes of girls’ health and education, as well as experiment with universal basic income.” (Source)

This is amazing to see! And he isn’t the only one. Bill Gates is leading the charge to find a vaccine. Athletes are donating to food banks. Oprah, Rihanna, and Bono, three people so well known that they only need one name, have all stepped up to make significant donations to help during this crisis. Beyond that, countless middle class people are supporting their communities in their own way. A local archery club is donating lessons in exchange for food bank donations. People are making masks and hospital caps to donate. Some people are even doing things like paying their hair salon stylist after cutting their own hair. People everywhere are finding ways to be charitable. This is wonderful to see, and rewarding for those that are being charitable as well as those receiving charity.

But I wonder about the ultra wealthy and their total contributions. How many people with more than $100 million in the bank are really doing their part? It’s easy to be blind to your privilege, to not recognize that what you take for granted is what others cannot. I think that many of these wealthy people only see the billionaires ‘ahead’ of them, and not those with less doing more. And as for the billionaires, well they have no excuse.

It saddens me that people who are the most privileged do not have the charitable hearts that so many less privileged people do. The wealth inequity in our world is grotesquely skewed and now more than ever is the time for the privileged wealthy to do their part. Will they?

It’s a marathon, not a sprint

After today, I’m going to take at least a few days off from posting about school, remote learning, social distancing, and Covid-19. I need to take a break from writing about these things daily, but will admit it’s hard when that’s mostly what’s on my mind. The reality is that these things aren’t going away any time soon. We are in this for a while.

Despite that, the last two weeks have felt like an all-out sprint. There are so many things that need to get done and the days have disappeared into busy blurs of activity and exhaustion.

This can’t be sustained over the marathon we have in front of us. We. Need. To. Slow. Down. This four-day weekend couldn’t have come at a better time.

No, I won’t be taking all four days completely off. But I will let go of work for a couple days. I will continue to exercise and take care of myself. I might be a little lax on my good eating habits. I will sit in front of the television. I will read. I will get outside.

Most importantly, I’ll remind myself that there are more than two and a half months of school left… If I’m going to be my best, it will be because I remember that I’m needing to be my best over a marathon of time, and not just for a short sprint.

Assessment vs Testing

One of the interesting things that has arisen out of remote learning, due to the covid-19 pandemic, is that the idea of having supervised testing has become problematic.

This isn’t just the case for teachers new to online learning, I run the district’s online school and until now we have relied on supervised tests to ensure there is some consistency in work handed in. For example, a student might only hand in high quality essays because of considerable tutor support, or even intervention, and that would show up when the student does a written test in a supervised environment. Note: this isn’t just an issue with online learning, anyone can have a tutor help them ‘too much’, but rather it’s something that any teacher might have to consider when they can’t see who is doing the work.

Math is a challenge in the same way. Homework can come in that is 100% correct, but without help at home a student might only have enough understanding to achieve a 60% in a supervised test. But then again, maybe they can get over 75% based on understanding, but time limits and test anxiety make the test itself a less than ideal demonstration of understanding in a subject.

I’m making two points here:

1. Supervised tests have been used to ensure integrity of work.

2. Supervised tests create a less than ideal environment for ensuring understanding of learning.

So where does that leave teachers, teaching remotely, when it comes to assessment of learning, without opportunities for supervised testing?

One suggestion is to focus more on competencies rather than content. My online math teacher would typically spend over 10 minutes marking a single test. What if, instead of marking this test, she watched a student video of that student teaching her how to solve a challenging question? What if an English teacher watched four or six students debate a topic, while other students followed along, note taking in a public, digital discussion forum? What if students did a timed problem solving challenge where they all got to collaborate, but they had to put their answers into their own words?

What if we assume that students will get support, have access to their notes, and can’t be fully supervised, how does and should that affect our assessment practices?

I don’t know

I tend to be a confident person when sharing my opinion, and that can be both a strength and a weakness. But recently I’ve been struck with a pretty big dose of “I don’t know?” Especially around the future of the pandemic we are facing, and when things will start to look ‘normal’.

When will the peak happen?

When will schools and most stores open again?

When will sporting events and concerts start again?

I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.

Will social distancing in some capacity linger for months going forward?

Will COVID-19 resurge next flu season, before a vaccine is created?

How normal will the new normal be?

I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.

What I do know is that we all have to do our part. I know that this experience would have been a lot harder if we couldn’t communicate with loved ones digitally. I know that worrying about things we can not control is unhealthy.

It’s not helpful to dwell on the unknowns and one thing seems clear: Even the experts aren’t sure of the best course of action right now. Considering this, it’s ok that I don’t know either.