Prepping for in-person

A decision was made: In-person school starts for all students March 15th. Half the students who choose to attend will come in M/W and the other half Tu/Th. Any day (and anyone) not in school on a school day will attend online. Freshmen will have a chance to come in one day the week before to get used to it before the older kids join them.

Fridays will still be virtual for everyone. Which will continue to make things like holding office hours in the parking lot while Shane's at the dentist a possibility! Carrie was at Physical Therapy and I wasn't about to cancel again or shirk on my work.

After I drove Shane home, I went straight to school. I'd signed up for a classroom tech set-up once the in-person decision was made.

And of course, a couple weeks later the school system decided to rework our Friday hours and moved PLC meeting times to when I scheduled my tech set-up!

I wasn't about to reschedule. I started my PLC meeting on my laptop as I walked in to the building. You could call it 'tight' timing, but I call it 'masterful.' My team members got a virtual tour and Brooke even 

made me find a tall, rolling chair to stash in her room before I got to my room. 

Kelly, a librarian, was waiting and then the PLC team asked her a bunch of questions before I adjourned the meeting for the day. 

It was a little surreal being back in the room. There were old dates and scribbles on the board. The Tiny Island challenge for 3/12 was up and I'd written "Konigsberg bridges" as a reminder from where Scott and I were talking about a famous discrete math problem. 

Kelly gave me a USB dock, a webcam, and a set of speakers. 

There are a few tricks like "Leave audio" so that the computers in the classroom don't echo my real voice with an electronic one for the in-person students. Another librarian, Heather, joined the meeting from home to simulate people talking in the class while I talked with someone virtual in a breakout room.

I'm not overly worried. I'll adapt. I'll probably know exactly what I want to do by the end of the school year, and then I hope I'll never have to do it again! Ha!

It felt a little surreal being back in the building. The walls were all the same, but the desks were all arranged in a pandemic approved manner.

No group work for now. I'm going to stick with my same general plan as virtual school since everyone will be virtual at least half the time and there's the chance we could get sent back home. 

The Superintendent originally wanted in-person learning to resume on March 1st. From what I heard, they pushed it back due to manpower concerns. Too many teachers didn't want to return. We're all being required to pick up some extra 45 minute duties in our planning period (hall duty, bathroom duty, etc), but "It would've been over double if they didn't push back two weeks!" I would've returned to work without a shot, but it's sounded like I've been in the minority on that one for a while.

Speaking of shots, I was due for my 2nd dose of the Pfizer vaccine. There was a huge line of people when I parked at 1:30 PM!

It turned out that was the Moderna line. I had a longer check-in process, but was able to go straight in and get my shot once cleared. I read Wheel of Time for 15 minutes and was driving home (During a division PLC meeting as timing would have it, heh).  

Did I have any side effects? Yes, but mild. My body started to feel 'heavy' by 5ish. I didn't notice as much while I was bustling to and fro for barn chores, but it was there again when I stopped. Overnight, I had chills. It was the sort of night I know I must have slept, but it felt like I was awake for hours and hours. The 'heavy' followed me into Saturday and I even took an hour nap. I still did chores, but I felt like I was moving slow.

Sunday, I was back to normal....and hopefully COVID-proofed for going back to school!