matching tracksuits

fun in threes, sometimes fours

Day 4: A Walk in the Park

Thursday 19 March 2020

We’ve been going on walks with the dog as a family every evening. It’s probably the best thing that’s come out of this pandemic for us. What we’ve noticed, though, is that a lot of other people are doing the same. Going out for a walk used to be an isolating experience: we would walk a mile, a mail and a half together and not meet a single other person. Not one.

When we went for walks at Conestee, our favorite local park, we’d encounter people, but sporadically. A couple here; a jogger there; a family around that corner. Nothing major.

Last night, however, we encountered several people along our 1.5 mile walk. Tonight, while out jogging, I encountered two or three couples out walking. This afternoon, when we were at Conestee, we saw more people there than we probably ever have.

Everyone was out. The turtles were out on the logs,

the snakes were out sunning themselves.

And people were everywhere.

“Perhaps this will bring about a change in people,” K suggested. “Perhaps we’ll all get back to enjoying the simple things in life.”

Perhaps.

Day 3: First Day of School

Wednesday 18 March 2020

The day started out foggy and stayed dreary -- it could be a kind of metaphor for everyone's mood, I suppose. But we're fortunate: we have food; we have (a bit of) toilet paper; we have money in the bank; we have a home; we have a family that's together. That's what's most important.

Today was our district's first day of online learning. There's a vast spectrum of what this means. For E, it was a 90-page packet of reading, math, social studies, and science work. He took on the reading first, making it through a fairly long retelling of Goldielocks with relative ease and breezing through the questions.

"We're not seeking to further their education," was the mantra as teachers in my school prepared for our own students earlier this week. "We're just tasked with providing work that will keep them from slipping."

That seems like a fairly succinct description of the work E got.

I helped him with some of it; K helped him with some of it; he did a fair amount of it on his own without direct help. Helping him usually just means giving a nudge when he gets overwhelmed and frustrated -- a kind encouragement, a hint. Sometimes it becomes too much, though, and we need a break. Such was the case today.

Still, we managed to work through all the challenges and completed the work just after lunch.

L had video conferencing with teachers and they went over some new material. Of course, she goes to a charter school, which means there is a bit of a semi-natural selection process involved in the enrollment.

As for my kiddos, I got a few emails, exclusively from honors kids and mostly about outstanding assignments.

"When is that paper due?"

"When can I take my makeup test?"

As for the rest of them? I'm not sure. I didn't hear from them. And I got word today that if kids are not doing the work within two days, I need to be contacting parents. That ought to be fun.

Not as much fun as our little fire this evening, but fun.

Day 2: Mockingbird at a Distance

Tuesday 17 March 2020

I spent the morning preparing ten days of at-home work for my English I Honors kids, who were scheduled to begin To Kill a Mockingbird this week. Who knows when we'll be back in the classroom -- but I'm not going to wait until we do to start this book...

What to do? Put it all online...

Day 1

Read the opening pages of To Kill a Mockingbird. The first time through, read it to yourself. You'll notice there are a lot of allusions you don't understand. Make sure you look them up. Add comments in the document that explain the allusions.

Days 2 and 3

As you read the opening pages of the novel, you likely noticed that your inner voice gradually took on a Southern accent as you read. This passages simply sounds Southern. Today and tomorrow, we're going to figure out why.

Step 1

Re-read the passage from yesterday. As you read, listen along with the SoundCloud audio recording attached.

Step 2

Look for one example of each of the following (as noted in yesterday's document):

  • Long sentences
  • Diversions
  • Dated language
  • Folksy-sounding language
  • Exaggeration/embellishment
  • Understatement/deprecation

You might not understand all these ideas. Google them and figure them out the best you can. Then go back through the opening pages and try to find at least 1 example of each in the passage. Mark and identify them by highlighting the passage and creating a comment "Long sentence" or "Diversion" or whatever you might be identifying. (I've attached another copy of the opening for you to do this on.)

Step 3

Try to write a short paragraph using these techniques. Try to sound Southern in your writing. You can write about whatever you choose, but you must do your best to sound Southern. Write this at the bottom of the opening pages doc (see above).

Day 4

Finish reading chapter 1 and read through chapter 4.

Day 5

The story is told from Scout's viewpoint. It is written in the first person. This means that Scout uses the pronouns I, me and the possessives my, mine to refer to herself. She does not confine the narrative to things that she has directly experienced - for example she recounts stories from the history of Simon Finch and repeats what other people tell her.

Later in the novel, she will make comments about how reliable other people's accounts are.

How reliable is she as a narrator? With your learning partner, discuss how reliable she is as a narrator. Is she believable? Justify your response with a good explanation about why she is or is not reliable.

You'll discuss this on Moodle. Make sure you respond to at least 3 other people as well, and make sure at least one of them is not in your period.

Days 6 and 7

Atticus says that you never really understand a person “until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Summarize the events in the novel that lead to this quote. In a separate paragraph, explain why you think climbing inside someone else’s skin may be a difficult task for Scout.

  • Summarize the Radley history. What can you infer about their standing in the town. What's so spooky about them.
  • What does scout's first day at school reveal about her personality?
  • How might scout have seen things differently if she'd walled around in others' shoes? Whose shoes should she walked in?
  • What do you see in the interactions with the Radley house/family that the kids might not see?

Answer one question per day in a well-written paragraph, then respond to 3 other students' ideas.

Days 8 and 9

Read through chapter 8 (i.e., finish chapter 8).

Day 10

Small towns thrive on gossip. A sensational trial like Tom Robinson’s will only add to the talk. Several of the older women in the novel categorize other citizens by social standing, heritage, etiquette, and manners, yet they rarely mention true moral or ethical values as the criteria for judging someone’s character. As a way to evaluate your own feelings about these characters, place them in rank order from the most moral to the least moral. Then write a paragraph explanation of why you placed him/her in the two extreme positions.

  • Mr. Dolphus Raymond
  • Miss Maudie
  • Aunt Alexandra
  • Reverend Sykes
  • Judge Taylor
  • Bob Ewell
  • Mayella Ewell
  • Heck Tate

Discuss your ratings with 3 others by responding to their ratings.

In the evening -- something altogether different...

Day 1: Achievement Gap

Monday 16 March 2020

There was one overriding concern at today’s faculty meeting: we have to do everything we can to make sure that this national emergency does not expand the achievement gap any more than is inevitable. We spent the morning talking about how to prepare materials for students to work at home with one underlying assumption: vast numbers of kids won’t do anything during this time. The “high flyers” will do everything we give them; the middle-of-the-roaders will do some of it; the ones who need the most help will do the least.

“They don’t even do much work when we’re hovering over them” was the common refrain.

So as we embarked on our planning this afternoon, working to create ten days of material for students to work on while we’re closed, we kept that in mind — a frustrating project, planning materials that we know will most likely not be used by kids who really do need to use it.

And the common refrain during that planning process: “We need to go ahead and plan for the next ten days because there’s no way we’re coming back at the beginning of April.”

We’ll cross that Rubicon when we arrive at its banks…

The Beginning of Something Big

Sunday 15 March 2020

Perhaps it was because almost no one went to church this morning: Papa is still not feeling confident enough in his strength to risk it, L was sick, and K was worried that E would be too tough to control and keep in the same line she was planning for herself at church: touch nothing, nothing at all.

Perhaps it was the simple anticipation of an announcement we all knew was coming. “My guess is they’ll try to get through the next couple of weeks, then send everyone home for an early spring break,” K said last week. “Or at least through next week — it is a short week with Friday being a scheduled teacher work day.” Still, with all the alarm over the potential of this pandemic, we knew an announcement would likely come this afternoon or evening.

At any rate, when the announcement came at 2:30 that the governor would have a press conference at 4:00, we knew what was up.

Once that happened, I jumped on the computer and loaded up my book request queue to get some books from the local library system before everything shut down for good. Everyone else is hoarding toilet paper. I want to make sure I have something to read.

After that (and only after — priorities), I began checking my work email regularly. Finally, this: “The Governor has just announced all schools in South Carolina will close immediately in response to COVID-19. As you know, we have been preparing for this eventuality.”

What will we be doing? Is this vacation? Of course not, nor should it be:

At this point in the closure, teachers must be available during normal working hours throughout the closure to respond to student questions beginning Wednesday. Teachers are paid for this time and are required to be responsive and accessible via electronic means. […] During the closure teachers should catch up on paperwork, data entry, grading, or electronically delivered professional development. This will also be a great opportunity to plan for accelerating lessons upon students’ return.

Yet how much actual learning will be possible during this time? I have students who are motivated to work only when I’m standing over them, and one or two who don’t even work then. What will they do during this extended period of distance learning?

We’ll find out tomorrow.

Funerals

Saturday 14 March 2020

We went to Rock Hill for Papa's sister's funeral this afternoon, the "we" being E and I. L was sick; Papa was too weak; and K had to stay back to keep an eye on everyone. It's been a tough eighteen months for Papa: two sisters and his wife passed, and the final heartbreak was his decision not to go today.

As E and I entered the funeral home, I reminded him of our plan: "Remember, no hugs or handshakes. We don't want to take anything back to Papa." Was this coronavirus-related? Not so much, but still -- with an incubation period of several symptom-free days, it is best to extend precautions a bit further than one naturally would.

After the graveside service, my cousin D said he was going to head over to grandma's and grandpa's grave.

"We'll tag along," I suggested. The last time the Girl had a tournament in Rock Hill, I'd spent a good bit of time wandering through that cemetery, which was across the street from the sports venue, looking for this grave.

And this one, just beside it.

The uncle for whom I was named whom I never met.

"He was a lot of fun," my cousin D, nearly twenty years my senior, shared. "Larry would always make you laugh, always make you feel better."

Exploring

Friday 13 March 2020

Virus

Thursday 12 March 2020

And like that, everyone is living with the effects of a pandemic. The Girl's tournament this week will almost certainly be canceled, and we aren't going even if it isn't: our club owner made an executive decision that no Excell teams will be playing there. USA volleyball recommended the cancellation of all tournaments, but the tournament organizers didn't cancel. "I put the girls' safety above everything else," he said in a team meeting this evening after practice. "The NBA has stopped playing; universities have virtually closed down; schools are closing. It's just not responsible to go." And we all shook our heads in agreement.

It also puts into question our summer trip to Poland. It's still three months away, but who knows how this will play out.

It's gotten me to thinking macabre thoughts, though, about a potential pandemic a few years in the future that seems inevitable. A pandemic that, if it comes to pass, will have been completely preventable. The permafrost is melting due to rising temperatures, which in turn are due to our shortsightedness, past and present. Trapped within that permafrost are microbes that have been locked away from immunological history for millennia. When they get out, what will happen? In my mind, the worst-case scenario would make the present fears about coronavirus seem like the naive good old days.

Always the pessimist...

Shooting Still

Wednesday 11 March 2020

Still Shooting

Tuesday 10 March 2020

The kids have grown positively obsessed with shooting in the backyard — the Boy, his bb gun; the Girl, her bow and arrow. They really have no interest in trading.

Today’s adventure: find the arrow that ricocheted off the fence post and soared into the wild. (Slight exaggeration: it didn’t go more than thirty feet away, and was never in danger of landing in a dangerous way.)

The Girl fired it; the Girl found it. I would have half-expected her to give up sooner than she did. She’s dealing with frustration better than she was a few years ago. But she loves jumping as much as she always has:

The discovery of the day: the bbs bounce right off the archery target.

We could pick them up and reuse them, just like the arrows…