Month: April 2020

Lockdown – Division or Solidarity?

~ Linda ~ 3 Comments

COVID-19 Pandemic – We’re All In This Together!

Week 6 is ending here. The week flew by as my colleagues and I dealt with posting lessons and checking work via Seesaw. A couple weeks ago we didn’t even know what that was. I am very proud of us for supporting each other as we learned this pretty much by ourselves (easier for some of us than others!).

I have been mostly focused on keeping up with my flock of little people and trying to make things less onerous for their parents, but I also am keeping an eager eye on the news. It seems to me we are about to enter a period that is going to be more difficult than the isolation stage.  As we all hunkered down, stayed home and learned new ways of working and keeping in touch, we had a common purpose. Now we hear of this country relaxing restrictions and that country doing something else. Even within a region, these stores can re-open but those can’t.  I anticipate all this causing division and discontent.

Now more than ever we need to be pulling in the same direction. We all want what is best for our parents and grandparents, our friends and families with weakened immune systems, the self-employed and those who have lost their jobs, the healthcare workers on the front lines… But we have never been in this situation before. No one knows what is best, yet. We can only take things one step at a time.

Let’s all pull together. This will be easier for some than others, depending on our situations, but let’s try. And maybe we can learn how to handle similar situations better, should there ever be a next time.

 

Lockdown-Spring Break Events

~ Linda ~ Leave a comment

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We are now in the fourth week of lockdown, but also the first week of spring break. The days all sort of meld together, but I am taking a break from checking school emails. While I don’t have to contact students during these two weeks, I do need to learn how to use Seesaw so I can add lessons, see the work students post and make comments. And I need to learn this by myself. Technology and I are not the best of friends at any time and I would not have chosen it as a partner in my isolation. But I have no choice. We will be forced to get to know each other.

In other news, I have been doing quite a lot of window gazing of late, notably while eating my breakfast, looking out to see what is not happening in the neighbourhood. All the window watching has led me to window washing. This is not my favorite spring cleaning task… if such a thing exists. I don’t actually mind the washing but it is such a messy chore. However! I am now in possession of three microfibre cloths bought at an H2O at Home party in the fall. By golly if they didn’t make this job quicker and entirely drip free!  Hooray!  But the best part – now I don’t have to clean windows again for a while.

Lastly, I have had a Stay Home revelation. Rather than grump about what I don’t have (a yard, for example), I need to look at what I do have differently. Therefore, I looked at the little balcony off our narrow kitchen which up until now has been storage space for brooms, mops and recycling (metal, glass, compost). I looked and I saw…potential. This is a balcony! I said to myself. It needs to be treated as one! The fact that it is just wide enough for one folding chair did not hold me back. Nor did the fact that it only gets a sliver of sun high up on the wall first thing in the morning. I made room for that one chair!  I got rid of a few things. I shoved all the recycling to one side. I washed the floor (yuck!). And I sat on my balcony with a cup of tea. Right now that ability to sit outside for a minute is what counts.