This is shocking. The number of cases that have been confirmed are more than double from a week ago. Granted, test kits were not readily available 'til a few days ago, but... wow. New York City numbers are growing at a really scary rate. They have so much density... I have no idea where people can go??!! Here in Georgia, the number of cases reached 800 and 26th deaths. The small down of Albany is really high proportionally to the population. Cobb County - where we live - is the 2nd highest county in the metro area with cases.
We had 1 day of nice weather, so we took advantage of it / went for a hike in the mountains. (But - a lot of people had the same idea.) Since baseball was cancelled -- we did something that we used to do before baseball took over our lives: we jumped in the car and headed to a new destination. This time, we checked out Dukes Creek Falls. The falls is that tiny little white line across the valley -- behind the kids. The hike was pretty easy. relatively flat, winding trails. There were parts of the trail that were more congested (at the trailhead @ the overlook, for example) and at the bottom observation deck area. Other than that, we were able to "socially distance" while getting fresh air and exercise. There was one moment where a woman took our family picture with my phone... and then we both realized... oops -- you can't do that anymore! I had sanitizer and we wiped down hands /phones. The woman and her family were from metro Atlanta area too and we just had a discussion about how this changes a lot of things! One thing we noticed is that not a lot has changed up north. Little stores and restaurants were open for business like normal. We looked up their county on an interactive Georgia map and they didn't have any reported cases of the virus yet.... YET. It's crazy how this is spreading... there was a lot of pressure earlier today for the Georgia governor to issue a shelter in place order and require that people NOT go out. But he did not. Even though it was more crowded than we expected, it was a gorgeous day and we LOVED getting outside. Next time, however, we may need to stick to places that we're familiar with and make sure there are no bottlenecks no spaces that are too crowded.
Sunday was rainy. We stayed indoors. One thing we did, however, was set up a "playdate" with Mercer and a friend over Zoom to practice the tool. It was funny....I had it on in the other room / Mercer pulled it up on his phone. The two boys played a video game online together but got to talk, joke around, see each other. They acted so goofy and weird. The mom and I were texting back and forth the whole time. They were so goofy, but it was cute... and the smiles they had -- at the beginning of the "hour long zoom meeting" were awesome! (Isabella piped in and you can see her reflection in the computer screen as she's waving to KJ. "I miss you" is what she kept saying over and over again. He was embarrassed, but he finally said he misses her too. We'll have to set up another playdate. Using Zoom is the new thing. Isabella's teacher set up some meeting times for one-on-one face time sessions. This is GREAT because when Isabella has been watching her teacher's morning messages.... she gets upset that the teacher can't see her wave or respond to her when she tries to talk to her. (She doesn't understand that it's a pre-recorded video link.) She was so excited to talk to her teacher and here she's showing her the lizard and crickets in her room!
One final thing that I recently became aware of is courtesy of an infographic that I have seen a couple of different ways: history of plagues and pandemics. I don't remember the swine flu (H1N1) being as bad as reported here (and in other areas that I've seen H1N1 data not so colorfully presented). Mercer was a baby - in daycare. That's our "major" medical issue in our lifetimes. We did start to get flu shots when once we had children. Maybe that was the push that we got from this pandemic about 10-12 years ago?
I had a busy day of grading and attending to 2 of my teacher-training classes last night. I didn't get to blog on "Day 4." First - starting with the numbers.... The numbers for the virus has shot up quickly. When I started looking at this dashboard - hosted on John Hopkins's website - the number of cases was around 180,000. Now - 4 days later - it is up an additional 95,000 cases and is over 275,000 cases! Georgia went from 1 death (Tuesday) to 4 on Wednesday to 13 last night (Thursday)! Italy has now surpassed Hubei China with over 4000 deaths. Those affected with the virus here in America is still a small number when you look at the overall percentage, but watching the trend, you can see where it could shoot up rapidly if measures weren't in place to try to control the spread. Restaurants are closing. Small businesses are just hanging on. Libraries are closed and they said to hold onto your books... no late fines. There's already lots of different kinds of government bail-outs... and this has been the 1st week of closure. It's just shocking to see how quickly all of this is happening.
Here are some photos from day 4. One of our neighbors sent an email encouraging kids to draw / paint / color a rainbow picture and hang in their windows so that - when going for walks around the neighborhood - it's like a scavenger hunt and adds something interesting to look for. My kids were game. Both created a unique "masterpiece" to hang up... it was OK to start the day with that yesterday before starting school. We didn't go out and hunt for them 'til AFTER day 5 of "school" -- we hung 2.... and found 21 just on our street. We havne't been to the other street in our 'hood, but that will give us something else to do another day.
The ENTIRE educational system has been flipped. Most of the school systems in the country have shut down and turned to home-schooling models with parents who are at home working and juggling lessons.
On my end -- at least for the work that I'm doing -- I'd say that it's going fairly well from an engagement standpoint. I have "advanced content" kids in an economically depressed (Title 1) part of the county for the majority of my classes. By the level of responsiveness, It seems that most of them have computers or some sort of technology access. I calculated an average of 60% submittal of online assignments / connectivity of that group of kids. Unfortunately, my on-level kids either aren't as connected or have some sort of barrier. Around 10% of that class has submitted. (The advanced-content kids seemed to be more motivated throughout the school year as a trend.)
I have an online blog and site where work is posted. Some of the students have connected socially on there, except that I tried to lay down some ground rules so my school-related messages don't get buried. A couple of my students have admitted to being scared. I was able to talk to them through the platform. I'm glad to see them interacting and connecting. This group is tighter than most of the groups in middle schools... they're a cohort (STEM) and they stick together throughout most of the days / will travel together in the coming years in the STEM academy.
I don't think that any of Mercer's teachers are connecting -- at least from what I can tell. He has a LOT of school work and is doing mostly OK keeping up. He loses motivation quite a bit and wants to take a lot of breaks / argues sometimes about doing work, but I'm impressed mostly with him just plowing through. Isabella on the other hand...
She does not comply with much (sigh). She will sometimes get focused and work, but sometimes, she gets side-tracked (like the measurement unit where she got to sorting paperclips by color instead of measuring with them).... and it's hard to get her back. She gets bored with the online work and worksheets that we print out. She's also refusing to write stories. Thankfully, it's easier to get her to do math. Every morning, we cozy up on the couch and watch the morning message from her teacher. The first day -- she watched the message and was waving at her teacher. There was a cat that jumped up on the screen and she kept trying to tell her teacher about the cat. When the message was over, Isabella was upset that her teacher didn't reply back to her and she cried. :( It's hard for the little kids to understand!
Today, we logged into her teacher's live Instagram "shout out" and - again - Isabella was upset that the teacher couldn't hear her. Thankfully - she's doing one-on-one calls / meetings next week! She's also hosting small groups for socialization. I know that she is looking forward to actually talking to her teacher face-to-face!
I've been having my "office hours" outside a bunch. For some reason, however, today I was at one end of the dining table.... Isabella at the other end... and Mercer was working at the coffee table. (Normally, Isabella is at the far end of the coffee table and Mercer is at the desk around the corner.) But - I snapped a shot of all of us working. I guess we'll continue to move around until we find the right fit... or maybe we'll just keep switching it up throughout this process?? We will be trying more outdoor work, for sure, however, the carpenter bees are going crazy outside right now and Isabella keeps running inside. We'll be doing more nature-inspired things however... This is something that I just ordered this week for wrapping up one of Mercer's Boy Scout projects... raising a bug and caring for it through metamorphosis! Mercer is NOT excited, but Isabella and I are!
We're going to raise caterpillars through the metamorphosis stage and release at the end as butterflies! This will give us something to track and - hopefully bring some beauty into the world~
This is our new norm. Week 1 of closure done. Some bumps in the road. Some "wins." Staying safely isolated at home....
Todd went grocery shopping this morning before he went to work. Honestly - I've never been so relieved to see that he brought home toilet paper! That is what we will run out here in our family. It's been a joke on TV as of late that stores are out of toilet paper, but, it's a real scare! Today went better - again - than day 1, but that is because I didn't get much of my own work done outside of my "office hours." I focused, again, more on what Mercer and Isabella were doing rather than grading or completing my personal classwork (which I have an assignment due tomorrow)!
Today was a bit nicer of a day too. I spent my entire time for my "office hours" outside on the front porch. Something that has happened with my students: they are using my online blog as a place in which to post, connect and communicate with each other. I have been monitoring their conversations (as much as I can)... and there are a couple of students who have posted that they're scared. :( I have tried to reassure them that they're young... they need to be smart about their interactions... they need to wash their hands, etc. But it is interesting. At one point, Isabella came to join me. (Here, she got side-tracked by sorting paperclips after working on a "measurement" worksheet.) Her next project was to look at castles and build with blocks. She has little phonics worksheets and writing assignments as well as some online math work.
Mercer's work isn't quite as cute. He and I spent the afternoon transitioning to Boy Scout work. We're going to use this time to knock out a couple of things we tried to get done during school / baseball / etc... but could not. Stay tuned. There will be some photos of those activities. It has been hard to keep both of them on track and focused. I promised an outing this afternoon. We took some toiletries and a bag of canned goods to the local homeless shelter -- where our children got to see that there were homeless children living at the shelter. There was a play area fenced off toward the back of the property. We had a conversation about this. I know that there are children without homes, but it was still a shock to see them there - playing. I took a bottle of hand sanitizer with us and we went to a park with a cool playground that has some tech built-in to the equipment to make a game out of climbing up and over the thing. There weren't any kids when we went out - but a toddler and a little boy came later. Everyone kept their distance and we kept sanitizing. It was good to see Mercer and Isabella running and laughing. (We've been taking nightly walks around the neighborhood but it's just not the same.)
The pandemic has grown more... hitting almost 200 cases (197) in Georgia today and 3 additional deaths for a total of 4 here. I didn't realize that 'til watching the news tonight. I've NOT been plugging into the situation during the day because the kids are around and I don't need it on all day / all night! The latest thing on the news: there are now curfews in Fulton County (Atlanta).... 9 pm - 7 am. Wow.
Here's a cute photo to leave you with. (I came in to this - she was supposed to be reading a book, however, they were hugging!) <3
The anxiety I had yesterday from the logistics of communicating with students / parents and providing tech support / etc went down quite a bit. I did start answering questions before my "office hours" but did not tackle too much school-related work in the afternoon. After office hours ended, I also had my first "face-to-face" meeting with my team over zoom - an internet connectivity tool. In general, we have all gotten along quite well. We lingered on the zoom call for a bit even after our science team meeting (joined by the science coach for the school + the principal) was over. It was almost like "what have you heard?" "what's going on over there?" "what's happening at so-and-so's school?"
At our house, things were a bit calmer because I did not get as much of my own work done. But - it sounds as if that is OK. I did more hands-on things with Isabella today.... which was helpful for her. (we did an experiment that her Mile teacher (gifted) sent.... which also led to another experiment and making of slime.). According to our principal, the "not getting as much of my own work done" is apparently OK. The rushing to finish grading" which was originally due today -- was put on hold. She's not sure how grades will be tallied since some of the systems schools had closed just before the end of the quarter. People were keeping their kids out of school just before the end of the quarter too.
End of year testing has been suspended. It's not happening. (which is pretty major) But - unfortunately, there are people who are also talking about other things that are not happening such as prom, graduation, etc. It really stinks for those kids who earned their rites of passage.... and that is possibly not coming. I'll post more updates soon. (Isabella didn't want Jenny the penguin's picture to be published.... but... she gave the penguin several baths.)
I was not expecting to post today. But - it seems like a milestone day today. Today was the 1st day of "Closure" for us. The reason is apparent without having to even say: the Coronavirus has spread to the United States from overseas.... at an alarming rate and everything in the country.... everything in the world has been changed. This disease wasn't even on the radar of most people here in the US until a few weeks ago. It started in China and - at this point - over 80,000 people in China have been infected with the disease. It made it's way over to the US and we started hearing about it in February.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
December 1, 2019
Wuhan, Hubei, China
At this point, school systems have shut down while parents & students are all working at home together in an effort to distance themselves from others! March 16th was the 1st day of our closure for the county where I work and the city where our kids go. Our first day that the kids and I worked together didn't go so great, honestly. (I was busy over the weekend setting up an online system for my students to use. I'm just figuring this out myself. Unfortunately - throughout the day - I noticed that a bunch of students were NOT using that system put in place and were, instead, asking me lots of questions... all while I was trying to monitor what my own kids were doing at home!) It was a bit stressful especially during the first half of my "Office Hours" duty. I was not at school much of the previous week - as it turns out - Isabella and I were sick at the beginning of the week. (Cold / Flu symptoms) She and I missed last Monday, but I couldn't even talk so I went to the doctor. I was prescribed antibiotics and - after a couple of days - I began progressing / getting better. I went back to school on Wednesday which was a pre-planned half-day at school... and on Thursday, everything changed! The 1st school in our system had students test positive on Wednesday afternoon and the superintendent told our principals that a temporary shutdown was likely. When we all went to work Thursday morning, we had a "standing meeting" to discuss this. I did not get to hear what was said, however, as one of the other teachers and an administrator whisked me out of the meeting... cornered me... and talked to me about going home. My immune system was already "compromised" and they knocked into my thick skull that I needed to take care of myself. I did not need to risk exposure to the virus. WOW. Thursday morning was a little scary -- processing everything -- but in the end I was just bowled over by their concern. I talked to the principal of the school before I left and she said that I should take everything I need in the event schools were going to close. When I went back to gather my belongings I was trying to convince the students in my room: "everything's fine." "I'm fine." (although I was reeling with emotion inside) I grabbed the class pet... all the while saying "everything is OK, kids!" On Friday (March 13) we were told that our school closure would go on for at least 2 weeks. However... during our first day of closure... there were news reports recommending 8 weeks of this "social distancing" to help "flatten the curve" of patients needing medical attention. These are but a few of the new terms that are now the norm.
In my next post, I'll have some photos of the kids and will try to provide more of an update since the last blog. But - I wanted to get this penned today in order to document this life-altering event. Back to "Day 1" - Isabella's teacher provided a cute video for the 1st graders to watch. While watching it with Isabella, she kept smiling and waving at the screen. At one point in the video, the teacher's cat jumped up onto the arm of the chair and Isabella kept trying to tell her to look at the cat. The teacher was walking us parents through how to access all of the online systems they have in place. Amazingly - even though there are like 10 - 12 steps to access one thing or another - Isabella has it figured out! She knew all of the steps... all of the passwords. Mercer's work was a little more straight-forward... just access one blog (although one of the teachers didn't have anything posted, rather, sent an email later in the day). The kids mostly self-guided their work -- with lots of breaks in between subjects. I have a "master schedule" so that I can maintain my office hours and they can use it to check off / make sure they're staying on track, but there were snafus. Mercer watched more videos than I hoped. Isabella had a couple of melt-downs throughout the day and refused to do some of her teacher-assigned work. I am trying to catch up from being out last week and grades are due... so I'm a bit stressed right now. But - it was day one. We survived the hurdle of online set-up. We tried to define spaces in the house where different people could work at different times. The weather hasn't been great the last couple of days. We only got outside for a limited amount of play and our nightly family walk around the neighborhood. I did resort to introducing my kids to an online program I've used with my students in the past: Code.org -- I figured that they wanted to be online, may as well learn a skill. It entertained Mercer for a little while. Isabella was sooo into it. It was almost insatiable. She only wants to code now! (That was a WIN.) whew! It is a different time. I'll post some good news / smiling pictures soon. Be well. *********************************************************************** *********************************************************************** This SHOULD have been posted before the Coronavirus posts began, however, the virus posts were unexpected... and - when starting posting - did not know how things would go! At the end of February, our baseball friends who like to entertain hosted a "daddy-daughter" dance at their house. And, because they have a son Mercer's age, they invited our whole family. Here are some cute photos from that event. We had little notice. Isabella picked out her outfit (she LOVES this ballet "dress" that she picked out from a thrift shop 2 or 3 years ago / it's made the blog before as she dresses up in it when she wants to feel fancy!) It used to be too big.... now it fits.... but we'll have to find another soon.
Also, I made her a "corsage" out of a fake rose received from a student at valentine's day. She was really proud of it when we explained what a corsage was and Todd placed it on her wrist. :)
In early March, I took a day off of work (which started a lot of missed days - explanation below) so that I could attend a meeting with Mercer's teachers and school personnel. He has been having some issues in school - mainly ELA - and he received testing for some learning issues. They did some initial observations and identified some things, so decided to do a full set of testing. At the meeting, they did say he has "extremely low processing speed" however he was 1 point away (1 POINT, ugh) from receiving any special services related to this such as "extended time" on tests. This is something that we will obviously have to watch throughout his school career and - hopefully - there are some ways that we can help him in the coming years to help him work through this. Obviously we just want what's best for him. Since I had to apply for a sub for that morning, I decided to take the whole day and go on a field trip with his class. I've taken plenty of field trips with my students, but I had never been on a field trip with my own kids! And... before he gets too old/ too cool for mom... ha!
We went to the Center for Civil and Human Rights. I've always wanted to go. (I'll still have to go back -- ON MY OWN -- because I was more concerned with keeping up with students than enjoying the exhibit. I took this photo to "document" who I was responsible for. Ha!
I was very impressed with the museum. And - this piece of artwork in the lobby is one of my favorite pieces there. This museum - which I was not aware of until I went - is focused on bringing about awareness of ALL types of prejudice.
I bought this t-shirt at the very end as I was moved by the message. I've worn it a couple of times not really thinking about it, but have been stopped and a stranger stopped to tell me about a time they were a victim of prejudice based on their sexual orientation. :(
In looking back on this day, I'm thinking I could have picked up a "bug" on this field trip!! Makes sense... riding a bus with 60 other kids I'm not used to / don't know!
The next day was our anniversary - March 7th. Because of ALL of the rain we had previously, baseball's "Opening Day" was postponed. They had their procession onto the field of all of the teams, then they had a presentation of the 12 year old awards -- recognizing those kids who had played their ENTIRE baseball career thus far at East Marietta.... ever since tee-ball.
Funny how the group of 7 year olds can't quite stay still for the team photo before the procession....compared to the group of 12 year olds (Mercer's team, below). ha!
Isabella's team is the Copperheads.
Her coach is a woman -- I think the first for the league? And there are 2 other girls on her team. This year, they can't form an all-girls team because at the level she's at... they do a draft. The assistant coach is Isabella's previous coach - which she is really excited about.
Mercer's coach is the coach for the All-Stars / the "travel" team. Todd is an assistant coach.
Here is is getting his award at the end of the procession of all of the teams.
Mercer has pretty much played with all of these guys at some point throughout his career there. For the last year or two, Mercer has been looking forward to receiving this award.
And, I know Todd is proud. :)
After Mercer and Isabella BOTH had opening day games... THEN we went to a different ball field for a tournament that Mercer's "travel / tournament team" was playing in... So - this is why he's in a different uniform.
Todd, Isabella and I left him there during his 2nd game that night so that we could go out to an anniversary dinner at a swanky restaurant up on Marietta Square that is one of Atlanta's top 10 restaurants. A friend of ours watched Isabella and some of our baseball friends dropped Mercer off at home after the 2nd game ended. (It takes a village!) The next morning, Isabella and I both woke up sick! I with chills and coughing... Her with a little fever and coughing. She and I literally laid on the couch all day -- missing the 2nd day of Mercer's tournament. I was still not feeling well the next day (and I couldn't talk at all), so I went into school, got some things prepared for subs... and went home / went to the doctor. I had some sort of bronchial infection (I guess) and got a round of antibiotics + steroids. I had a note to stay out of school 'til Wednesday. Isabella was at home with me (or Todd while I went to school / while I went to the doctor). Tuesday, she was getting better... but I still had no voice. Still not feeling well, I reluctantly went to baseball that night because Todd was coaching Mercer's team while Isabella had her game. I went...and in the end... was glad I did: moments after Isabella and I walked over to his field after her game ended... Mercer hit a GRAND SLAM home run out of the park! (One of the runs ended up not counting because the player before him -- in his excitement -- didn't technically touch the bag.) But - it was still so exciting. His team was down before this hit... which brought his team to a 15-14 lead. They held the other team to no runs in the bottom of the same inning and won the game! There's a tradition - I think it's happened 3 or 4 times now - where the dad of the kid (who sort of looks like Mercer) and I go behind the fence and look for either his son's home run ball or Mercer's home run ball. There are prickles and thorns... but it's a good tradition / we happily go into the thicket to retrieve the ball! :) This was Mercer's (and Isabella's) last baseball game before the virus broke out here and things were cancelled. The first Coronavirus case in Cobb County was reported earlier in the week... which resulted later in the week as the 1st death in the state. Luckily, Wednesday was a half-day at school... (grading was due soon, so the school system gives us a half-day to help) so I did not have to talk much. And... Wednesday is the first day that the Coronavirus was reported at a school in our county. Things were all-a-buzz that this particular school would be closed for cleaning starting immediately. That next morning, we had a "standing staff meeting." The principals of all of the Cobb County schools must have had a conference call Wednesday night because Thursday morning, we had a "standing meeting" before the day started where they were talking about the closure of the one school and alluding that other schools may be following. I did not get to hear much of the meeting because of on my colleagues pulled me into a corner and "demanded" that I go get tested (since I was having respiratory issues earlier that week). I didn't feel that this is what I had - not that there were any tests available at the time anyways. (People are allowed to get other things, ya know!) It upset me / scared me... and my 6th grade principal came into the conversation. She suggested that I was compromised and should go home so that I wouldn't get it. I felt cornered... but... heeded their advice (after trying to figure out what my students would work on -- again -- on the fly before their test the next day)! I did leave after talking to the principal and the school nurse. It took me awhile to really "hear" what I was being told.... I need to take care of ME or else I'm no good to anyone else. Happy to say - I'm fine... I still have breathing issues and DID go see a pulmonologist as a follow-up who suggests that I have adult-onset asthma. So... I guess I'm still in a "high-risk" group and need to be more careful. :(
We had 1 day of nice weather, so we took advantage of it / went for a hike in the mountains. (But - a lot of people had the same idea.)
There was one moment where a woman took our family picture with my phone... and then we both realized... oops -- you can't do that anymore! I had sanitizer and we wiped down hands /phones. The woman and her family were from metro Atlanta area too and we just had a discussion about how this changes a lot of things! 
Even though it was more crowded than we expected, it was a gorgeous day and we LOVED getting outside. Next time, however, we may need to stick to places that we're familiar with and make sure there are no bottlenecks no spaces that are too crowded.
