Day 12 - California Reopening Plan - Phase 3
Administrators…
10:00-12:00 - For the first time in three months, I do not have to let the dog out! L.’s art studio is open and she has to teach a class at 8:45 a.m., so she takes care of the dog. It is wonderful.
I drink my Hydroflask and read The Missing Teacher. At some point, I get my coffee and then return upstairs to keep reading. L. comes home and tells me how “art in the Covid era is going.” This was her first day back and it was interesting. The kids are masked and sitting 6 feet away from each other and they can’t. touch. anything. This makes them better behaved. I’ll be subbing in a couple of months so I use her art studio as a test case, i.e., a microcosm of the classroom.
12:00-2:00 - I get dressed in my Covid-19 uniform and L. hooks up a Beats speaker that I ordered so I can use it to listen to my Ipad podcasts. I come downstairs and eat a piece of the bread I made yesterday. Note: this is NOT the sourdough “starter” that everyone has been making since the Covid-19 quarantine. Not hungry today. I read more of The Missing Teacher.
2:00 - 3:00 - I’m ready to do a cardio workout, but similar to a couple of days ago, the downstairs TV isn’t working. There is audio, but no picture, for my DVD. I work on the cables for a long time, like L. did the other day, but nothing works. I don’t want to wake up L. from her nap to help - she sleeps all the time anyway. I’m really frustrated and feel like crying, but I don’t. How am I ever going to fix this problem? Whoever I call will have to take the TV off the wall to repair it and that will be expensive. There is also something wrong with the refrigerator water line, which also needs to be repaired, and I’m not sure who to call for that. I’ve mentioned this in some of my previous posts, but I can’t believe that I am going through this pandemic alone, that I have to handle everything myself. I know that people have it much worse, especially if you’re POC, but sometimes I feel a little sorry for myself as I go through life on my own. It gets overwhelming.
3:00-4:00 - To take my mind off things, I go into my study and read online news. This might sound counter-intuitive, but it really is a distraction, albeit an upsetting one. I check Money Diaries comments and everyone is extremely pissed that Refinery 29 is discontinuing the diaries; however, a lone commentator notes that “UK Money Diaries” is still in play. I check and she’s right! So are “Canada Money Diaries.” This’ll do. I bookmark both websites on my Ipad and feel a little bit better.
4:00-4:30 - I bring my Kathy Smith [I’m dating myself] DVD collection upstairs and do a HIIT cardio workout.
4:30-5:00 - I read a UK Money Diary. It’s pretty good and serves as a substitute for the US Money Diaries. This millennial is quarantined in Scotland and her husband has Covid-19 - it’s interesting.
5:00-5:30 - I do a “lower body workout” using the blue ray in my room for the DVD workout. L. leaves to go to the park with R. so they can watch Wall E on her lap top.
5:30-7:30 - I finish The Missing Teacher. I think the book is self-published and it’s written in a somewhat amateurish way in that there are numerous typos, especially in the last half of the book, like she or one of her friends gave up on editing, BUT, I really liked it! This is a memoir about a young teacher trying to teach at a Waldorf school and being bombarded by political, bureaucratic bullshit, as she becomes the target and scapegoat of the other teachers in an attempt to appease the stupid parents. The highlight of the book: “in order to protect the innocent”, names were changed to woodland creatures, like Mrs. Bluejay, Mrs. Rabbit, Mr. Worm, etc. It’s so funny! AND her students are named Acorns #1, #18, etc. An evaluator who comes to school to ‘sit in’ on her class is named “Old Woman” as in the witch from Hansel and Gretel, according to her description. An especially shitty administrator is named Mr. Skunk.
7:30-8:00 - I take the dog for a walk.
8:00-9:30 - I make a vegetable, rice, salmon stir fry for dinner and report to my office. I send an email to B., debunking some of the “fun facts” he sent me from a conservative asshole who wrote about the lack of racism in this country.
-One of my last high school students emails me an extra credit essay. I grade it and see that he misses the point of the prompt. He gets a 10 out of 20 - I scan it to him, with my comments and post the points. It raises his grade from a 60% to a 63%. Grade = D
-While I’m grading the paper, the high school administrator, who was MIA the entire semester, even when she was physically present in February and March; who never responded to my emails inquiring about the kids; who refused to respond to any of my questions, emails me and demands Final semester grades. It’s 10:00 p.m. Leave me alone.
I explain, in an return email, that Community College #2 actually extended the due date to post semester grades to June 22 - has there been a change that I’m not aware of? I forward her the announcement from my college that addresses the grade extension. She emails back immediately, stating that she knows the college is on a different timeline, but when will I post the grades? She needs the grades so she can post them to the students’ high school transcripts.
I don’t understand the urgency - school just ended yesterday - and so I ask when the high school teachers posted their grades. Again, she responds immediately - mind you, this is someone who answered NONE of my emails throughout the entire semester - stating that high school teachers posted their grades yesterday, the same day that school ended, and by the way, when am I going to post the grades? I can’t quite believe her audacity… Also, I find it odd that ALL grades were posted the DAY the semester ended??? Is that how it is for high school, because it’s certainly not like that for community college.
9:30-11:30 - I planned on posting grades next week as I have plenty of time before deadline. Instead, I check Canvas and create the grade list, then go to my Community College #2 faculty account and post the grades. I print them out and scan them to her as an attachment, saying nothing in the email itself - I hope she gets the message. No wonder I liked The Missing Teacher so much…I shut the Canvas site down - it is closed to my high schoolers and they can no longer access it - and the semester is officially over.
12:00 - 1:00- I have a glass of champagne to celebrate - not really, as I drink champagne routinely - and update my blog. As J. Lo would say, “Another one in the can.”