Coronavirus isolation: Week 2

It seems like a lot of questions are coming up, doesn't it? Does it feel like everything is on the table right now? What do you want to do with your life? What were you saving until later, and do you still care about it now? In the long run, have you done what you wanted? If you could do anything next, what would it be? If you could do nothing but survive, how would you manage? (Be specific.)

Anyway.

This week we moved homeschooling time to a little later in the day, and cut it down to 1 hour so I can still complete a full day of work without it cutting into the evening.

On Monday we looked at the Feeling Wheel layout, then we tried smelling different essential oils and listening to different CDs and naming the feelings they evoked. There were some accurate complaints about lack of diversity in the music selections (I was picking randomly from a big stack that turned out to be kind of rockist).

On Tuesday we had a student-led session and learned some basic coding in both Python and HTML. I enjoyed the "lab" portions especially as we invented input prompts with Python, and created a web page about cats.

Teaching notes

Our Wednesday session was led by a different student. She explained a technique to analyze JK Rowling's Harry Potter, based on the book by Galadriel Waters assisted by Prof. Astre Mithrandir.


























Some key recommendations from the book are:

1. If JKR mentions something more than once, that's significant. 
2. If a character is interrupted or a plot development is interrupted, that's significant. 
3. Beware of characters' own explanations for events, since that's just a perspective and not reliable.

As an exercise my partner and I reviewed Chapter 13 of Book 2 ("The Very Secret Diary," in Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets) and found examples of ALL of these things, which was very exciting.

Given the success of last week's cupcake class, Thursday was another hands-on baking activity. We made chocolate chip cookies from scratch, using Mark Bittman's excellent book How to Cook Everything. First, we learned about the science of chocolate chip cookies, with help from Serious Eats. Then we made cookies, with students taking the lead on measuring ingredients, using the hand-blender, placing parchment paper, and portioning out dough. We used 3 different types of chocolate: semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate that had been pounded into chunks with a kitchen mallet, and mini chocolate chips. DELICIOUS.

Friday we skipped homeschooling so everyone could get their work done in time for the weekend. I did get out for a sunny run at lunchtime. This week I've been running faster than last week, according to my Garmin data. I think I'm using the run to burn off pent up emotions. I have also been running without headphones (like podcasts) in order to have un-mediated time on my own, in nature, just breathing and moving and being. It feels really good.

At the end of this week we learned that Vermont schools will not be opening again this school year. Our kids will be learning remotely from now until June.


To wrap up, I want to mention anxiety.

I'm proud of humans for banding together and doing what it takes to slow down the virus spread and to protect those who may not survive an infection plus helping healthcare systems try to stabilize. But something each of us must also do right now is take care our of mental health. In the past 2-3 weeks I've been feeling anxiety that's similar to how I feel around the holidays, yet in this case it feels like it's coming from outside of me as well as from within. It feels like a sad and uncomfortable message going PING in the inbox in my chest. It feels like there are waves of chaos and deep unhappiness rising and swirling around the world like smoke from a global wildfire. And I think that picking up on that is OK and natural. If it's happening to you, put your hand on your heart and acknowledge your soft, sweet self. Tell it, "This, too." Even though this sucks, it's part of life. No matter what we're doing and feeling, it's OK and natural if you feel this too. I am sending you a gentle Internet hug right now (NOW!).

Silver linings thoughts to come a different day.

Today there are 7 confirmed COVID-19 cases in my county, and 184 in my state.

PS I stopped looking at Twitter for coronavirus news because it was terrifying and fraught with drama and hate. But today I found some helpful, factual information at the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center--the tracker there is worth a look if you like maps and numbers.