5 weeks in
Apr. 18th, 2020 06:23 pmWell, my location is currently 5 weeks into lockdown. I've seen a COVID questions meme go around, but I wanted to write more/differently, so here's some more longform questions and answers to them.
What new "social class" are you?
Hoosband and I are both people with jobs who are working from home. We have a small child who is also at home. So on the work scale of essential - zoom - unemployed, we're in the middle where we're safely employed. On the household scale of solo - cohabiting adults - parents/caretakers, we're on the side where we have too little peace and quiet.
How has your work changed? Any changes for the better? Anything you miss?
Well, my school went from 2.5x75 minute classes per week (+45 min of assigned homework between each class) to ... about half that. (2x60 minute classes on Zoom, + 20 min of assigned homework). This meant that I had to do a lot of last minute scrambling to adjust my units and I, er, kind of punted on the Cold War. :/ Not my best moment, but we'll get to decolonization in an abbreviated format after the research project. So the last month or so has been a mad scramble to do more lesson prep with less time to do it (see next question re: home life). However, since this week was technically spring break, I was able to use some time to basically get the rest of the school year prepped. Huzzah! (Well, still a little smidge of the Mongols and some of the Decolonization, but major project assignment sheets are written, and individual work day prompts have been written!)
I've actually rather enjoyed teaching Zoom classes! I've set up a Google Slides where each breakout room is a slide, and so I can "spy" on what each breakout room is talking about without having to awkwardly hop into each room. The breakout room system means that students are interacting with people they usually wouldn't in physical space, which is also a plus. Work periods where there's a more "social" breakout and a more "quiet" breakout has also been successful. The breakout rooms also force me to not micromanage discussions as much, which is good. Zoom meetings are pretty great in general, because you can kind of check out during the parts not relevant to you, and also you don't have to commute to work. I'm hoping that some of this extends beyond the lockdown -- for example, with Hoosband's work, there's really not that much they can't do from home, and that would save him 3 hours of daily commute time.
I really miss the workplace camaraderie and the hallway conversations! I really miss having a co-working space and just some casual hangout space. I also feel like there's a lot of talk about caring for the students' well being and not so much about the teachers'. Oh well, hopefully this will only go until the end of the school year.
How has the rhythm of your life changed? How has it impacted your household? Anything that is better than expected? Worse than expected?
Basically, Miss Rutabaga (newly 4 years old!) is home all the time now, and we've also lost our Sunday afternoon grandparents time, and both of us are working from home, which means ... ay. We're currently on version 4 of our schedule, which has each of us doing roughly 3 hours of child care and 5 hours of work between 8:30am-6pm (plus lunch time). It's mostly worked out thus far, but adding to that the usual 6-9pm time with Miss Rutabaga, by the time she is asleep we're both pretty much too exhausted for anything else. I feel like -- well, if Miss Rutabaga were older, then her school would actually have something prepped for her to do, whereas right now, I'm spending hours on Zoom every day with my students, but there's no one to do the same for her.
That said, a positive life change has been re-connecting with friends via the internet. For example, we started a Universalis game with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yeloson on Saturday nights, and therefore have done more roleplaying in the last month than in the last 3 years. We've also visited various friends' Animal Crossing islands, etc. It turns out that socializing via video chat ... isn't horrible??? And in fact, I think there are some ways where it works better with our schedule, since our ideal socializing time is 9pm-11pm, which is usually too late for someone to visit physically.
Worse than expected: gah, having to figure out twice as many meals. Not having enough introvert time. Not having the peace and quiet in long enough stretches necessary for grading, well, pretty much anything. Bleh. (This is compounded by the fact that I'm still teaching on Saturday in addition to normal school.) Oh, also: migraines up the wazoo due to too much screen time. :(
The Outside: How frequently do you venture out? How do you feel about it?
We go outside for a walk every day, and make sure to keep Social Distance. Thus far it hasn't been so bad! The restaurants that we do take-out from are all pretty good about sanitizing, so I'm not too worried. I mostly feel nervous when I go grocery shopping, because there's just not a lot of ways to protect against it, and of course half the people aren't wearing masks and just blatantly breaking social distancing. I've also run out of disinfectant wipes, so am using a homebrew, which I don't feel great about. :/
The county is currently forbidding reusable bags and containers, but I've figured out a solution to that -- I just put everything in the cart, unbagged, and then bag things when I get to the car. Or, for the corner store shopping, I just hold everything until I leave the store and then stuff it into my bag -- I figure, as long as the bag doesn't exchange hands, it's like I just have an extra large pocket.
How good are you at Plague Protection?
I'm definitely pretty conscientious about social distancing, not touching my face, and washing/disinfecting to keep outside germs from getting inside. I'm very *bad* at face masks -- I'm neurotic about moisture on my face to begin with, and the mask just makes everything worse. I basically put it on as I approach the store / populated area and then take it off once I'm done. When/if I have time, I'll try to make my own tshirt mask, which might breathe a little better.
Looking forward: What do you think you will be doing in June? July?
In my area, schools are remote until the end of the school year, which is June 19 for my school (yes, very late, ick). On the other hand, I don't know how long the official state and county shutdowns are going to last. Ideal situation: School ends Jun 19, but preschool re-opens. I send Miss Rutabaga to preschool and therefore have July to myself, allowing me to resume creative projects.
Simultaneously, I'm mentally preparing myself for a whole summer of no preschool, in which case, I will need to think more concretely about specific skills that Miss Rutabaga will need to learn.
Thoughts on your government's response?
I'm glad that our governor is making sense and doing stuff, and that his speeches are actually sensible, compassionate, and informative. I'm glad that we have a county level data dashboard, even if the 6 counties are not in alignment on stuff like masks/no masks. I'm really glad that our state and local governments are stepping up.
Anything interesting / innovative that you've spotted?
The Irish bar downtown is doing neighborhood home grocery deliveries -- basically you can order their food and/or basic groceries, and they'll deliver if it's within a 2 mile radius. The groceries are basically "ingredients that one would use to make Irish pub food", so mostly potatoes and carrots and milk and cabbage and the like, but it's still a pretty decent list, and I think it's super helpful for the local seniors. I wish more restaurants would do that!
What new "social class" are you?
Hoosband and I are both people with jobs who are working from home. We have a small child who is also at home. So on the work scale of essential - zoom - unemployed, we're in the middle where we're safely employed. On the household scale of solo - cohabiting adults - parents/caretakers, we're on the side where we have too little peace and quiet.
How has your work changed? Any changes for the better? Anything you miss?
Well, my school went from 2.5x75 minute classes per week (+45 min of assigned homework between each class) to ... about half that. (2x60 minute classes on Zoom, + 20 min of assigned homework). This meant that I had to do a lot of last minute scrambling to adjust my units and I, er, kind of punted on the Cold War. :/ Not my best moment, but we'll get to decolonization in an abbreviated format after the research project. So the last month or so has been a mad scramble to do more lesson prep with less time to do it (see next question re: home life). However, since this week was technically spring break, I was able to use some time to basically get the rest of the school year prepped. Huzzah! (Well, still a little smidge of the Mongols and some of the Decolonization, but major project assignment sheets are written, and individual work day prompts have been written!)
I've actually rather enjoyed teaching Zoom classes! I've set up a Google Slides where each breakout room is a slide, and so I can "spy" on what each breakout room is talking about without having to awkwardly hop into each room. The breakout room system means that students are interacting with people they usually wouldn't in physical space, which is also a plus. Work periods where there's a more "social" breakout and a more "quiet" breakout has also been successful. The breakout rooms also force me to not micromanage discussions as much, which is good. Zoom meetings are pretty great in general, because you can kind of check out during the parts not relevant to you, and also you don't have to commute to work. I'm hoping that some of this extends beyond the lockdown -- for example, with Hoosband's work, there's really not that much they can't do from home, and that would save him 3 hours of daily commute time.
I really miss the workplace camaraderie and the hallway conversations! I really miss having a co-working space and just some casual hangout space. I also feel like there's a lot of talk about caring for the students' well being and not so much about the teachers'. Oh well, hopefully this will only go until the end of the school year.
How has the rhythm of your life changed? How has it impacted your household? Anything that is better than expected? Worse than expected?
Basically, Miss Rutabaga (newly 4 years old!) is home all the time now, and we've also lost our Sunday afternoon grandparents time, and both of us are working from home, which means ... ay. We're currently on version 4 of our schedule, which has each of us doing roughly 3 hours of child care and 5 hours of work between 8:30am-6pm (plus lunch time). It's mostly worked out thus far, but adding to that the usual 6-9pm time with Miss Rutabaga, by the time she is asleep we're both pretty much too exhausted for anything else. I feel like -- well, if Miss Rutabaga were older, then her school would actually have something prepped for her to do, whereas right now, I'm spending hours on Zoom every day with my students, but there's no one to do the same for her.
That said, a positive life change has been re-connecting with friends via the internet. For example, we started a Universalis game with
yeloson on Saturday nights, and therefore have done more roleplaying in the last month than in the last 3 years. We've also visited various friends' Animal Crossing islands, etc. It turns out that socializing via video chat ... isn't horrible??? And in fact, I think there are some ways where it works better with our schedule, since our ideal socializing time is 9pm-11pm, which is usually too late for someone to visit physically.Worse than expected: gah, having to figure out twice as many meals. Not having enough introvert time. Not having the peace and quiet in long enough stretches necessary for grading, well, pretty much anything. Bleh. (This is compounded by the fact that I'm still teaching on Saturday in addition to normal school.) Oh, also: migraines up the wazoo due to too much screen time. :(
The Outside: How frequently do you venture out? How do you feel about it?
We go outside for a walk every day, and make sure to keep Social Distance. Thus far it hasn't been so bad! The restaurants that we do take-out from are all pretty good about sanitizing, so I'm not too worried. I mostly feel nervous when I go grocery shopping, because there's just not a lot of ways to protect against it, and of course half the people aren't wearing masks and just blatantly breaking social distancing. I've also run out of disinfectant wipes, so am using a homebrew, which I don't feel great about. :/
The county is currently forbidding reusable bags and containers, but I've figured out a solution to that -- I just put everything in the cart, unbagged, and then bag things when I get to the car. Or, for the corner store shopping, I just hold everything until I leave the store and then stuff it into my bag -- I figure, as long as the bag doesn't exchange hands, it's like I just have an extra large pocket.
How good are you at Plague Protection?
I'm definitely pretty conscientious about social distancing, not touching my face, and washing/disinfecting to keep outside germs from getting inside. I'm very *bad* at face masks -- I'm neurotic about moisture on my face to begin with, and the mask just makes everything worse. I basically put it on as I approach the store / populated area and then take it off once I'm done. When/if I have time, I'll try to make my own tshirt mask, which might breathe a little better.
Looking forward: What do you think you will be doing in June? July?
In my area, schools are remote until the end of the school year, which is June 19 for my school (yes, very late, ick). On the other hand, I don't know how long the official state and county shutdowns are going to last. Ideal situation: School ends Jun 19, but preschool re-opens. I send Miss Rutabaga to preschool and therefore have July to myself, allowing me to resume creative projects.
Simultaneously, I'm mentally preparing myself for a whole summer of no preschool, in which case, I will need to think more concretely about specific skills that Miss Rutabaga will need to learn.
Thoughts on your government's response?
I'm glad that our governor is making sense and doing stuff, and that his speeches are actually sensible, compassionate, and informative. I'm glad that we have a county level data dashboard, even if the 6 counties are not in alignment on stuff like masks/no masks. I'm really glad that our state and local governments are stepping up.
Anything interesting / innovative that you've spotted?
The Irish bar downtown is doing neighborhood home grocery deliveries -- basically you can order their food and/or basic groceries, and they'll deliver if it's within a 2 mile radius. The groceries are basically "ingredients that one would use to make Irish pub food", so mostly potatoes and carrots and milk and cabbage and the like, but it's still a pretty decent list, and I think it's super helpful for the local seniors. I wish more restaurants would do that!
