Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Teach from the Beach

Ever since we have started working from home we have been tempted to relocate temporarily and carry out our virtual duties from somewhere fun and beautiful. Today I finally got to try that model out. 

On the day before Thanksgiving Break, no teacher plans a serious lesson, and with the added complication of only teaching one of our two block days, my plan was to log on, take attendance, and direct the students to a light activity, leave the call, and enjoy the ocean view from my window. 

It didn't exactly go that way... the beach house where are staying is lacking robust wifi; so much so, that the only place I had a reliable signal was next to the router. So I scooted a tall kitchen stool over to the nearest chair in the living room, plunked my lap top onto the seat and spun it around to face me. At 7:45 in the morning, the sun rising over the ocean created a glare on the screen, so I pulled the blackout curtains, placed my iPad on my knees, held my breath, and joined the call.

And everything went just fine!  Neither the ambient conversation of my non-working family, nor the barking of four dogs impeded my instruction, (although my empathy for the kids who work in such conditions every day increased a hundredfold) and I knew at the end of every class that I?

was still at the beach.

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