Life of the Party

      I’m super nervous and excited at the same time. It will be good to see their faces, but not seeing them face to face will be different. I spend a majority of my evening yesterday planning and practicing. Here we  come Google Classroom!   I’ve used it in the past, but never at this scale. 

      I have begun the journey of exploring the materials for level 2. Ummmmm I think this training will be more beneficial for teachers. I can see how this is applicable to teachers. Have any of you completed this yet?  Please reach out to me if you have any input.      This school year holds so many unknowns and getting ahead on remote learning tools could be crucial. I wish fellow teachers would post their ideas and expectations, but that would be a perfect world. 

      I spent days studying for the educator badge via Google. Wasted time always gets on my nerves. Being so goal oriented is my fault, but wasting time on their behalf makes me almost angry. Their online modules for training didn’t actually line up as well as one might think.   I passed the course and got the badge, but now I’m wondering if it was even worth the time. For teachers who are new to the Google classroom and its tools this would be beneficial. Google classroom has been around long enough that educators should be proficient enough without having to go through training.   Vent over! 

      Good afternoon all!  I wanted to update you all about this up coming school year. I’m both excited and nervous to face my students next week. We are doing complete remote learning via Google classroom. This is a new step in my teaching career because I have never taught an online class. To say I feel consumed by the stress is putting it nicely.        I uploading my first video today and died when I heard my southern accent blast through my speakers. Oh the joy of being from the South. :).  

        As a society we face yet another challenge. I do not pretend to know all the answers nor do I even know an immediate answer. I have chosen to log off mainstream social media for a few days to let the storm pass. I cannot condone reading my fellow peer's responses to this tragedy. The small mindset of  the few seem to be over shadowing the overall thought process of the vast majority.        Sitting in the diner listening to locals complain about #BLM really made me angry. As I stated before, I do NOT know all the answers, but opening your eyes should be one. We live in a small sheltered community and many people seem to be living in the past. The progressive era must have missed this slice of "heaven", as many people refer to it.  I gave the old men an evil stare, paid for my food, and silently hoped they would choke!            

     The rich black gold of composting is worth all the work that I put into it!  Doing our little part to keep some biodegradable things out of the landfill is what I have turned into a hobby. I have implemented some raised garden beds this season. Putting them together was a complete mess in itself. Apparently, you need to read the directions first...  The wooden ones were back-ordered, so I decided to go for the metal ones. They are supposed to last longer.       I will be sharing some photos of my progress in the next few days. This is a new adventure. I also thought about creating a flower bed too. Any ideas?  I had some sprouting potatoes in my compost bin that I promptly moved into the raised garden bed. The dark green plants look really healthy and I plan to keep it that way.       I used some old cinder blocks to build the flower bed, but I didn't like the color. I looked around in some of dad's old boxes and found ...

We spent a few hours today exploring the mountainside. It was great to be out and about.  I didn't expect it to be so cold! I wore and tank top and shorts. This small hike is worth the effort! I hope we go back when the fog has subsided. I bet the views would be beautiful. 

   I can't believe its May already. Where has the time gone? These endless days of working from home have really thrown me for a loop. Some of my students like to work late hours so I stay up and answer their emails. I wake up around 9:00 and do the same thing again. I do not even check the calendar to see if it's a weekday anymore. I just check the emails. 

       My county has decided to open its borders and guess what?  We now have confirmed cases of COVID 19, so I'm pissed. People around me have been practicing social distancing and staying home. The unknown is what drives me crazy. With all these additional symptoms that the CDC added makes me think that they don't know much about it either. We do not have regular television, so I do not get to see the nightly local news and they do not include their entire show on the online stream option. I need information!         Looking back, I will bring you guys a laugh. An elderly lady in the store sprayed me with Lysol because I sneezed. I wonder where she got her information? 

      This topic has been looming over my head for days. It's the basic essentials that are missing from the shelves in our one grocery store in town. We use bleach to clean and to wash whites. What kind of person would actively need that many bottles/jugs of bleach? Walking down empty isles was very informative. They said to buy what you need, not hoard everything! I can somewhat understand stocking up on food, but bleach and toliet paper?       The missing items have also driven up the prices of what is left. Supply and demand. There is a huge demand for things right not, so those who can afford higher prices will be fine. What about all the workers who do not have income coming in? What about the individuals who live on a fixed income? They cannot afford to go out and buy their regular stuff that has been inflated.