This has been an especially hard time for Libby. She struggles to be motivated to do her school work---even when she is in school. At home, online learning has been miserable. When she found out she had been recommended to serve as a WEB leader (they are like a welcoming committee for the incoming students and they get to have their tutorial class together), she was SO excited. She worked hard on her application. She had Maren and I read over it.
She found out yesterday that she was not selected. Out of 111 candidates they took 74. She was not among the 74. They put out a letter for those who weren't accepted. "We need diversity, we need equal representation from the elementary schools. We looked at grades. We looked at teacher recommendations." I understand. I have to do this for student council too. But to see your child HOWL in misery because something they wanted they didn't get. How to explain? To explain that a little more work on school work...a little less conflict with her math teacher. A little more consistency on homework...(and if they looked at online learning participation...she definitely wasn't a good candidate.)
I had several disappointments like this when I was young (and also recently, when I wasn't hired to teach at the very school that also turned her down for WEB leader). It's actually ok. A good learning experience. But it's hard for my mommy heart to take.
I gave her a pedicure and let her cry and rant.
I put out a request on FB for thoughts and compliments to share with Libby to help lift her up.
So many sweet words poured in. So many she couldn't take them all in in one sitting.
Our stake YW president showed up with bread, bread she had been inspired to make the day before for our family. She gave Libby a much needed hug.
I know that life for us isn't hard--not in the way that life is hard for so many others.
But yesterday felt hard. I know that's part of the journey. I'm thankful for the outpouring of love that was salve for my mother heart and for Libby.
Derek's birthday celebration was surreal on several levels yesterday. We had family over for the first time, including Derek's parents. That in an of itself felt unreal. But just before they arrived, we watched live tv coverage of people looting and burning police cars in downtown Seattle. I feel so many feelings!
I am encouraged by the immediate response of the Minneapolis PD, firing the officers, and charging the officers involved with murder. The system is working. But the pent up rage (including pandemic fueled frustration) is pouring out into the streets across the country.
So in our home, birthday candles were lit--as only a few miles away, cop cars burned--spray painted with the words "murderer." This morning Derek is standing guard downtown. Trying to keep the peace under the dark cloud caused by those in his profession who do not stand for what is right.
He is not--by the way--turning 88. But this is one of my favorite new traditions. Use the candles you have :)
Well, school has been consuming my life...so busy. I am trying to quickly finish up all my curriculum and get assignments ready to post so that I can handle all the award stuff that happens at the end of the year. I am in charge of student council awards and the overall school awards. We are going to have an online Zoom "Moving On" ceremony that we need to plan too. This week I lost my mind in a staff meeting because our principal said they were going to collect the chromebooks back from kids before the end of the year...We had already announced our Moving On date, and it was after the collection date. We can't have any school after the collection date. Too many kids won't have devices! Anyway--they moved their collection to the afternoon after our Moving On Ceremony. So June 18th at 2 pm I'll be done.
We have learned so much about online schooling around here!
I am learning so much about google classroom--what works well and what doesn't (although it will still take lots of experimenting to get it right). How to get kids to see comments and make changes when they don't have email alerts (aka, email parents and tell kids to look at comments--not efficient, but it does get the job done). How to set up rubrics that are useful in google classroom (I must have a rubric...) How to play fun games in zoom at class meeting...so much.
My kids are also learning--how to get work done in record time so they can get outside for recess. My favorite Ben lesson this week was when he was super stressed about how long his assignment would be because it had 5 slash 26 parts. (Which I had to point out was actually the date--5/26).
I'm not sure that Libby did any work this week. And...that is partly on me. I didn't sit down with her even one time. My bad.
Since I last blogged we had 2 virtual spirit days. The Bad Bad Hair day got a really good response. Bad hair is the norm right now here--salons are still closed.
My hair--mid blow dry. It's getting long and the roots are so long!
Sarah's hair "wigged out"
Ben didn't want to do a Bad Hair photo, but here is a "Ben in a Zoom Meeting" photo. (This is during our biweekly afternoon at Maren's so our house cleaner can clean.)
Decades Day! She looks so regal!
Decades Day (he's been wearing this jacket for Decades Day for 3 years now)
My contribution to Decades Day
Ben's Science Project last week was an Egg Exploration. This week he did something with Bridges. Derek helped him, so I didn't get any pictures.
Student Council--we filmed a spirit video. And we had to film it twice because the first time it didn't film right. Ugh. I was so mad! Then after it went live, I found some more of the footage and thought of a better introduction. So the final/best version will probably be seen by almost no one. But you can watch it HERE. It's the last video on the page.
As time goes on, people are figuring out ways to have fun through zoom. Last week the girls' YW activity was to make a few short films and share them with each other. They had different tasks. At first Libby refused to work with Sarah--but I forced them to give it a try and they actually had one of the most fun afternoons they have had. I had a good time doing the quick edits.
It's the little things right now!
Okay, so it isn't captivity. And anyone who has actually been captured in any way would justifiably feel unhappy with the comparison. But it is hard to feel so limited.
This week we had some rough moments and some bright spots.
It is hard to do schooling online, both for the teacher and the students. As I look through the photos on my phone for the week, there are several where I took a screen shot of the ridiculuous things my students are asking/saying in google classroom.
Ben had so much work this week he felt overwhelmed to shutdown several times. Libby--well, not sure how much she accomplished squirreled away with a laptop.
It was also hard because "recess" with the Hardies is on hold for awhile. Not having that release time with friends every day mid-day took away some life motivation from all 3 kids.
But bright spots included doing a zoom debate with my classes. It actually worked out really well! We had about 30 students in one debate and about 17 in the other. I had them change their name to the debate stance they were taking (it was about which event leading up to the American Revolution do you think was THE event that really led to war.). We had a great discussion (especially in the first group)! Their analytical minds were at work! Many students had done the reading. And we could do a poll for the before and after votes. That was cool! They could get instant feedback.
I highly recommend that.
The interesting thing is that the results were different in the two classes. The other class was more in favor of the Boston Tea Party being the key event.
The other awesome school moment was our zoom meeting with author Degan Randall, aka Debbi Randall. I was reading aloud to them her (as of yet unpublished) book Darkspark. I continued reading chapters after the closure and posting them. The kids submitted questions and gave feedback through a google form. Then she joined our zoom meeting and answered questions and talked to them about her writing process. It was really cool! They are super excited to try designing a cover for the book.
I got a new stand up/sit down desk top. I'm not sure how standing will feel for my hip, but I need options!
Sarah enjoyed her school week, and got inspired to make Johnny cakes. We had them for dinner on Friday. While they did not get rave reviews (think dry dense cornbread cakes), it was fun to try it. Sarah is also reading Pride and Prejudice. She said she really "has to focus" when she reads it. It's fun to have her reading something that challenges her.
On Thursday evening we had a good time creating a Backwards Day video.
Ben was studying gravity. We flew some paper airplanes together. (It's backwards day--hence Ben having his shirt on backward.). I downloaded an app that can reverse video. It was a fun challenge.
On Friday afternoon I also took Ben outside for some water balloon fun because his sisters wouldn't budge from their respective couches. See, I'm trying to be a "fun mom."
Saturday morning I went running with a friend again. That was amazing except that I felt SO out of shape. Ugh. The meds do not appear to be helping my energy balance. But a chance to chat with a friend in person was awesome. Then later we had the best surprise. Erin decided to bring Jed and Rory to Maren's with their new dog Spaghetti. A chance to see friends lightened the mood for everyone. The kids spent most of the day with them. I gave Jed a much needed haircut to fix the chop Maren did on his bangs. I also went to Target (in a mask), put new strings on my guitar and enjoyed some time to self!
Spaghetti loved Ben!
This was Libby's Easter gift to me--then I gave Ben & Sarah pedi's too. The water is a gold bath bomb Libby got for her birthday. It was beautiful. But in the pictures looks a little dicey.
We came home in the evening and did pedicures and watched Support your Local Sheriff. It was a great evening.
This week we also met with Libby's eating disorder therapist. (Have I mentioned we are doing this? Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder...). Anyway, we have a plan to help her do a better job of eating. And we feel good about the plan and it's execution so far.
There really was so much good in this week! I am helping to get our neighborhood pool ready to open once we hit Phase 2 (hopefully June 1).
Onward and upward!
Every day this last week I put "blog" on my to-do list. And every day was too jam packed. Life is just so surreal right now. I have been working hard on teaching, creating lessons that take forever to create because you have to make a little video about how to do this or a video about how to do that. Then you have to respond to all the questions because students didn't actually watch the videos I made. It takes a lot more thinking to plan each lesson. And assess each assignment. Anyway, I could go on about this but I won't. Anyway, this time is showing the reality for me that teaching will expand to fill the time I give it. And both last week and this week--that was a lot!
Last week:
It was ART day for Student Council on 5/1, so I wore my paint clothes to help students pick up their bags of stuff from their desks. I did that Thursday and Friday mornings. It felt so good to get out and do something helpful.
I created signs both days.
I also made homemade pizza dough. Okay, so we ate pizza 3 times last week. But it was 3 different types. 1. Safeway thin crust frozen pizza, 2. Homemade pizza, 3. Costco pizza. Variety is the spice of life, right?
On May 1st, we did a drop of of dinner for Grammy's 73rd. We are getting good at the front yard singing!
Then this week, one reason I felt so busy, is that I was also trying to cram 5 days of teaching into 4 days, because Friday and Saturday I attended (virtually) the LDS Storymakers workshop. It was on my 20 for 20 at attend a writer's workshop. I wanted to do this because I do love writing...but I wouldn't even know where to begin if I wanted to write a book. The workshop was also going to be killing 2 birds (or more) with one stone because I was going to travel to UT to go to the workshop with my mom--and be with her for Mother's Day! Well, corona changed that. BUT--I will say that it was awesome to be texting on the side with my mom and attending workshops while taking down the last things in my classroom (Friday) and cleaning here at home (Saturday). It was also so easy to pop out of a class that I didn't like (which only happened a couple of times). Many of the instructors pre-recoreded their main message, so then they could be there on the chat answering questions throughout the presentation. That was amazing. I learned so much! It was like drinking from a firehose. I have some ideas about what I could write. But I'm going to let them sit on my back burner for awhile and see if I feel moved to write this summer. I have a long list of books I want to read, both books about writing and mentor texts about great writing.
One of my favorite classes was a BYU professor called Writing Essays using borrowed forms. He actually had us do some fun writing using a couple of online tools. This one above was like magnet poetry with word banks from famous writers.
This one was a pangram writing tool that would show you how many of the letters of the alphabet you had used in your writing. Super fun. He challenged us to create a haiku using each letter. I didn't make it. But what a fun exercise. For sure assigning this to my students for journalling.
Really this workshop just made me want to teach creative writing! (And we found out that there is going to be a 25 teacher RIF this week...so that will create a big shuffle. Who knows what I'll be doing next year...maybe just that?)
One time suck this week was trying to figure out what happened to these banners I ordered. I had to go to 3 different post offices until I found them. But they look great, right?
Lazy Stuffie Day for Student Council this week.
We discovered that 4 square is a good family game--except when dad gets too competitive and Libby is too hungry. (Wednesday night ended with me giving Libby a pedicure to help her calm down after 45 minutes of crying.)
Libby organized a "choir" and they performed for Maren and I.
Norton Family Chats are amazing on Monday Nights. Leanne has new hair (hair salons in CO are open!)
Geneva is on the mask making bandwagon! It was a reason for her to finally get out the new sewing machine we bought her for Christmas. Twin masks! (I'm still not wearing one when I go out unless I absolutely have to. It is so hard to breathe and so uncomfy--ugh.)
This Friday was Ben's "Movie Theater." Sonic the Hedgehog. After the movie started Maren and I went up to drop off birthday cards to Alayne. We sat in the backyard, 6 feet apart, and enjoyed each other's company for a few minutes. It was lovely.
Anyway, two weeks in a nutshell. Lots of movies watched (by the kids). Lots of time on the computer for mom including school work, MP Swim Club board meeting, Staff Meetings, etc.
Here's to staying safe and slowly reopening life (please)?
