School closure day 10 was Friday + a couple of things from this weekend...

The kids had back-to-back-to-back zoom meetings before and during my office hours.  I was not very productive until it was all over running between the two of them, trouble-shooting THEIR meetings, etc.  Thankfully, I only had 1 student reach out during my office hours.  I've had tons of them emailing me over the weekend)   The principal just announced to our parents, however, that there will not be grades... so we'll see how / if engagement continues!  

(There's certainly an equity issue of not all students having access to computers.)  The school system where our kids go (Marietta) is providing hot spots and technology to 700 families in order to help solve the equity issue.  The school system where I teach (Cobb Co.) just announced over the weekend that they're raising money to buy chromebooks for students without technology (they had $70,000 of the $170,000 needed as of Sunday)... again... trying to make the situation more "fair" across the board.  

But....  whew. You still can't force the kids to get online.   I had 2 people over the weekend JUST NOW ASKING about assignments and work that I've been posting about / emailing out about for 2 weeks!  This is such a crazy time in the world of education.  Heck... in the world of ANY industry!!

There's something positive that folks in our city are doing.  They started a go-fund-me page to raise money to pay the restaurants in Marietta that are struggling to stay afloat to make meals for the workers at Kennestone hospital -- the hospital a mile from our house.  What a great way to solve a problem AND help people in need at the same time!!   

Residents who live near the hospital have put up heart-shaped lighted displays (Christmas lights) to show support.

In many countries (including the US and even in Atlanta), people in high-rises are cheering the hospital workers at shift changes.  

They are also singing from balconies... doing group exercise classes with an instructor on a nearby roof or ground below.  It is really interesting to see the humanity and solidarity in this situation.  

I mentioned the hospital set-up in NYC at the conference center... well, another really interesting thing is happening to help:  one of two US Naval "hospital" ships is going to be docked in a New York harbor.  On board -- 1000 beds... operating rooms, pharmacy, oxygen-producing machines, etc.  (Not to mention the US Naval medical staff - which would offer a relief to the medical professionals that are already over-burdened and over-run with exhaustion.)   

Unfortunately, the numbers keep climbing.  Here is the latest information according to John Hopkins University portal:  





















New York's death rate has more than doubled in 3 days.  According to NY Times, they're at close to 60,000 cases and just under 1000 deaths.  They also had an infant pass this weekend due to corona.    :(    It was reported too that as a nation, the cases have doubled in 48 hours.

We are all mandated to shelter-in-place.  Our parks are closed.  It's been 2 weeks, but the governor announced that schools will be closed for a month more.  Mercer and I just watched an announcement from the principal of the high school and the superintendent (for some reason it was shared with the middle schoolers) about "IF" we go back to school at the end of the newest mandate....  the school will have to figure out how to host a prom at a venue that can hold a substantial amount of people on the fly. 

They will figure out how to hold the honor court.  They will work on commencement.  There was a *but* at the end of his announcement... talking about "IF" we don't go back on April 27th...

Looking at the way things are going across the county, I'm thinking the 2nd "IF" is the one that would happen... that we may not be going back to school...  




Meanwhile, this is how we are dealing with things:

Here are a couple of images from our 3rd week of "church" on the couch.


And I just hosted "brunch" on the porch (over Zoom) with some ladies that I would occasionally go out with on Sunday mornings.  I ducked inside to attend church, but they were still hanging on.  They just enjoyed the conversation... and they asked to do this every week instead of once a month.

It was another beautiful day, however, we did not go on a hike in the mountains... these north Georgia destinations state that they are enforcing the shelter-in-place mandates and they don't want folks to travel to their locales.  

I hosted another play-date with Mercer's friend online.

We had a Boy Scout meeting over Zoom.  They're trying to figure out advancement too.  

This is such a strange and unusual time.

On a positive note, I updated the post below with the photos and activities that happened before things started changing here.  

March 16th blog post: "It's a new day...."


We are about to start Week 3 of closure then we have Spring Break....

Here are some nice springy photos.  I have been walking some mornings with a couple of ladies from my neighborhood.   We walked up to the square and all of us were snapping up photos of their beautiful flowers.