Day 13 - Los Angeles lifts its vaccine mandate. A vax card is no longer required.

Hiked Golden Oak Ranch today…

and spent the rest of the day working on my Canvas shell…

4/12/22. Tuesday

6:00-6:30-It’s so early…I don’t want to get up.

6:30-6:45-I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog, but she’s out of it and doesn’t stir…until I start warming up my coffee. Then, she jumps off the couch and comes into the kitchen to say good morning. We go outside and I stand around drinking my coffee, waiting for her to go potty. Return inside and coffee for me; cheese for her. I go upstairs.

6:45-8:00-Shower. I sit in the shower, drink my coffee, ice my eyes, and listen to The Daily. Lotion. Light make-up. I put on my hiking uniform: tank top, hoodie, sleeveless vest, cargo pants, black tennis shoes.

8:00-8:30 - It’s Spring Break so I don’t have to report to the high school today. I drive to Golden Oak Ranch and eat my scrambled eggs in the car.

8:30-10:30-This hike kicks my ass! I’m so exhausted after climbing this straight incline that I could lie down in the dirt and go to sleep right here on the trail. Having said that, I still manage to be in the group of five who are leading the pack, BUT I’m out of breath on this one. Also, it is so windy at the top of the mountain that my eyes are tearing up and I’m afraid I’ll be blown over the side. One of the ladies says, “The skinny girls need to watch out!” [insert smile emoji here].

10:30-11:00– The hike is over and I drive to Starbucks for a peppermint hot chocolate. I eat a tangerine from my tree as I…

11:00-12:30 - …sit in the parking lot and work on my bullet journal.

12:30-1:00-Home

1:00-2:00-and I eat the artic cod that I made on Monday for lunch. I read Women in the Picture.

2:00-3:00 - I take the dog for a walk.

3:00-10:00 -I go to work (enter my home office).

The Accelerated Spring Session for College No. 2 starts in FOUR days and my Canvas shell still isn’t ready. I work steadily for the next EIGHT hours because it’s crunch time and I need to set it up STAT. I binge listen to EVERY episode from a podcast called Sent Away, about wayward teenage girls who are sent to Utah facilities, usually by their parents, to “get their mind right”, with disastrous consequences…and death.

I have to build this shell from scratch because I don’t have an 8-week template on file that fulfills Distance Education guidelines. Creating a class on Canvas is similar to building a website and it’s a horrible waste of my UNPAID time. I complete the following tasks:

-I create a Home Page, then make a 2-minute audio file and upload it to said Home Page in the Canvas shell. Then, I transcribe the audio file I just made, per ADA guidelines, and post the transcription right under the audio file.

-I create 8 Module headings, with dates that correspond to the Syllabus for each week.

-By this point, L. has spliced-and-diced almost every Core Class lecture, editing the out-of-date material, but this was for College No. 1. The new lectures have yet to be loaded into the Canvas shells for College No. 2, so I drag 15 lectures into 8 Modules.

-I post separate links for 15 Goggle slide Chapters into 8 Modules.

-15 Chapter Review Quizzes are, in fact, pre-loaded in this template, but the due dates are from last semester and need to be revised. Each quiz has 3 separate dates that must be updated, i.e., 45 new dates need to be posted…by hand.

-Each quiz needs an ‘intro’ paragraph in accordance with Distance Education guidelines, explaining the assignment and providing directions. The directions are the same for every quiz so I’m able to cut-and-paste the guidelines into the opening paragraph for 15 quizzes with only slight edits.

-7 Video Quizzes are already loaded in the new template but, as stated above, the due dates are incorrect and must be updated. 3 separate dates for 7 quizzes equals 27 new dates that must be manually posted.

-These 7 Video Quizzes also need an intro paragraph, but the paragraphs are different in that they must provide a description of the video first, before providing the instructions for taking the quiz. I’m able to cut-and-paste most of the Video Quiz descriptions manually, using intros from other, past Canvas shells.

-I check the links for ALL the documentaries and podcasts to make sure they’re still streamable.

-Unfortunately, 3 Video Quizzes need to be rebuilt entirely, by hand. This means I have to input every question and the corresponding four multiple-choice answers by hand. 10 questions for 3 quizzes equals 30 questions that I need to manually input. Each question has 4 answers. Four answers for 30 questions equals 120 answers that I need to manually input.

-I create 3 Discussion Board assignments.

-I take a short break and have some of my orange-infused chocolate. L. bought too much junk food yesterday and I have some of her chips, too.

-I record the Audio Syllabus, complete with background music, and this takes an hour. While I’m recording, I make corrections to the actual Syllabus.

-I post the regular Syllabus and the Audio Syllabus to Module No. 1.

-I create a Welcome email for the students with directions for accessing the Canvas shell.

-I “publish” the Canvas shell and the course is LIVE!!! As soon as I publish the shell, I send the Welcome email blast to the enrolled students and attach the Syllabus and Audio Syllabus to the email.

I don’t get paid for any of this. My salary is based and calculated on 3 hours of lecture, per week, per class. That’s it! Time spent doing ANY other activity related to teaching is not included in the salary calculations. As most teachers know, there is sooo much additional work required OUTSIDE of the classroom that is necessary to teach a class (grading papers is one small example). If you recalculate our salaries based on the additional tasks we’re required to complete, teachers/we/me end up making pennies on the dollar. There are no ‘billable’ hours in this profession to ‘forward to the client’ or our employers and nobody cares that in most cases, a teacher will work a 6/7-hour day, only to return home and work an extra 2/3 hours on classroom tasks, data compilation, grades, etc. I call this “side work”. If teachers are NOT completing their side work after they get home from school, then the side work is held over for the weekend.

I used to do my ‘side work’ during my 8-hour shift at my state job. At least I was on the clock and earning a salary for class prep, although it was a different employer who reimbursed me. But, hey, it wasn’t my personal time and I was getting paid while I worked on extra tasks. Now that I’m retired from my state job, I’m acutely aware of how much personal time and energy this takes out of my life, with no financial compensation, whatsoever. I. don’t. like. it.

10:30-11:30-I spent almost the entire day creating my new online class. What a waste of my time!!, but at least I got a hike in. Kitchen duty and I pack my lunch bag and ready my coffee

11:30-12:00 - Nighttime routine. Bed.