Distance Learning in York, Maine

Distance Learning in York, Maine

☘March 17th, 2020☘
Day 1

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This is usually a day filled with green sights and excited children searching the school for the mischievous leprechauns.  Did their contraptions catch those naughty green guys?  Will those shamrocks bouncing up and down on the ends of that headband be a distraction to anyone?  Who left glitter all over this classroom floor?!?!

Instead, the student and staff body of York schools have been set up at home for distance learning for the first time.  Staff had two days to create lessons for all students, kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Being a staff member at two K-4 schools and a mother of a middle schooler, I will be a part of lots of online learning.

This has all felt very surreal to me, as I'm sure it does to others.  Knowing I would be home this morning, one would think I would fall asleep without much of a fight.  Not last night!  All I could think about were the disappointments so many are facing, but then I also began to consider the opportunities that distance learning could bring to the York school community and the families involved.  While this situation may create many hardships, I am going to try to focus on the positive and share things as I discover them.

Waking up this morning, Jakob came into my room to chat before we headed downstairs.  Our discussion was based on how strange this was, but we were eager to get started.  I so appreciate his determination.  We headed downstairs and got our area set up and ready to go.

Jakob worked on Science, Math, ELA, Social Studies, German, and Engineering.  The teachers all posted their assignments using Screencastify and WeVideo, so the kids were good to go.  Luna even got in on the action.  I think Jakob could get used to this!

For myself, this morning was a lot of "getting ready" stuff.  Emails, texts, google chats, were all lighting up.  I also worked on two ideas that popped into my sleepless head last night.  This blog and also doing some read alouds for students.  Jakob is excited to be a part of that as well.  Stay tuned.  Thanks to Eric Lawson for continuing to field all of my questions.

Today's Discoveries

• Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems
• Live Virtual Storytime with Pete the Cat Creator, James Dean via Instagram (@petethecatofficial) at noon.
• Narwhal and Jelly have two facebook events set up:
• March 18th at 2 pm https://www.facebook.com/events/19078592224208/
• March 20th at 5 pm https:///www.facebook.com/events/1856341974500700/

A side note:
After being so preoccupied, I realized at 3:00 that I totally forgot about cooking the corned beef for dinner!  Luckily, I have an Instant Pot.  Ninety minutes for the corned beef and 5 minutes for the veggies, and we are good to go.  Phew!

We ended our day with some exercise in the basement gym.  Not too nice out, but we needed to move.  Be sure to take some time for yourselves every day.  We will feel better for it!

We are all in this together.  Email me, text, call, chat, any mode will work.  Let's focus on the light at the end of the tunnel.

A few words from Jakob:
Today was fun, and school was easier than it usually is, which makes sense for day one. I played outside at the end of the day after it rained to get the energy out of me. I tried to do my school work as early as I could, and I got everything done an hour early. My cat snuggled and broke my Mom's puzzle a lot, but she was good for the rest of the day. I relaxed and played games like Bop-it and Simon.  I'm hoping to help my mom with her read alouds tomorrow.

Stay safe and well,
Amber and Jakob☘

Yes, we remained in our comfy clothes all day long!