Day 11 - LA County Dept. of Public Health mandates indoor masking and OUTDOOR masking at large events

In a classroom again…nobody follows the rules

8/26/21. Thursday

8:00 –9:30 -  I’m up and a few minutes later I crawl out of the tent, enter the house, and start my shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up. Wipe down the bathroom.  Pack all of my stuff. Load my car.

My body doesn’t feel like its been run over this morning after sleeping on the new mattress.

9:30-11:30 – B. arrives with Starbucks and we have patio coffee. I leave.

11:30-12:00 – Driving

12:00-12:45 – Home and I unload my car and start a load of laundry.

12:45-1:45 - I have some of the sloppy joe mix that I made a few days ago and read Bus 57.

1:45-3:00 - I check email at College No. 2.  The high school liaison cc’d me on an email blast that she sent to the students informing them that I would be emailing the Syllabus to them no later than tomorrow, FRIDAY. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem EXCEPT I erased the AUDIO Syllabus because it had the wrong start time. I record the AUDIO Syllabus all over again. L. isn’t here to air drop it, so I will have to ask her when I get home from school tonight.

3:00-5:00 – The AUDIO Syllabus was my top priority today, so I’m relieved that it’s finished.  But, now I need to do class prep and tighten up this week’s Module for both my ONLINE and FACE to FACE students. I check email at College No. 1 and respond to the students.

5:00-5:30 – Where did the time go?  I change my outfit, load all of my supplies and my lunch bag, and leave.

5:30-6:45 – Driving

7:00–10:00 – In the classroom and the computer has been switched out with an “all -in-one” monitor. I have a “slide advancer” but the USB port in the new computer doesn’t recognize the software for the first 15 minutes.

What can I say about this class?  It’s a Core Class and nobody wants to be there.  I’m still teaching in a closet and I feel completely expendable.  

The Chapter 2 Module is my longest lecture – over 2 hours with a 15-minute break and a 30-minute documentary – and I really hate this segment, but there is so much to cover I can’t reduce the lecture length.  Believe me, I’ve tried. Having said that, the football players in the back of the class start asking questions about the material and other students chime in. I’m shocked.

I’m double-masked and lecturing for this length of time is hard. Additionally, I’ve started developing pain along the right side of my jaw, even on off days.  I think this might be a residual effect from trying so hard to enunciate my words behind layers of cloth.

Although I break the students at the 1½-hour mark, I don’t really get a break because I have to immediately check in with my ONLINE students to make sure they’re on track with the rest of the class. I have just 15 minutes to field questions, via email, put out fires, and “publish” the next module for them. It’s very stressful.

When it’s time to play the documentary, I pull up the link and discover the speaker doesn’t work. It worked last week, but not tonight, probably due to the fact that the computer was switched out. So, as it stands, the speakers are out in both of my classrooms which means the students can’t hear the documentaries, although they can at least read the subtitles.

10:00- 10:45 - Class dismissed. I spend this time updating attendance and sending a chastising email to those ONLINE students who failed to sign in on the Discussion Board at 7:00.  Textbooks still haven’t arrived for many of the students – recall that our publisher has mandated that instructors use the most recent edition, when the book doesn’t exist.  Apparently, Covid is the culprit and the reason for the publishing delay.  I extend the due dates for the Inquizitives because how can a student take a chapter quiz when they can’t read the chapter?

10:45-11:00 – The walk to my car is creepy and isolated. Although we have on-campus security, there is no police presence whatsoever.

11:00 – 11:15 – I’m almost out of gas so I drive to the closest gas station which is a Chevron charging $4.75 a gallon!  I put $10 of gas in my car and leave.

11:15-12:00 a.m. – Driving.  I text L. along the way, pleading with her not to go to sleep yet because she needs to air drop the AUDIO lecture into the Canvas shell for my high school students. L. says okay.

12:00-12:30 -  Home and I hit up L. for the air drop before she goes to sleep. We complete this task and then I enter my office and send an email blast to my high school students with the AUDIO Syllabus and the Word document Syllabus attached. They’ll have it bright and early tomorrow morning.

12:30 – 1:30 – Kitchen duty and I pack my lunch bag for tomorrow and lay out my biking clothes. I ready my coffee and my mini-biking bag.

1:30-2:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed. I set my alarm for 8:00