Highlight Reel:
- Monday
- Great BCcampus Baking Challenge: Cake Week. I don’t bake, but it’s a pandemic, so. Also, it’s an online baking challenge, so my plan is to aim for form over substance. I hit Pinterest and was inspired to make a spun sugar birds nest. Here are shots of my process and final product.
- Liberating Structures S/Lowdown sessions begin – SO great to connect with the global LS community and get more experience of doing/adapting LS for online (I’d share the link but these sessions seem to be sold out!). At BCcampus we are offering live online sessions on how to facilitate live online sessions in the higher ed context – we’ll start with basics and then probably move into some of this other stuff. Since everyone is pivoting online, it seems like a good time to help people offer the best sessions they can and avoid the temptation of doing their 3 hour face to face class as a 3 hour webinar. NOOOO….THINK OF THE STUDENTS, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!
- Tuesday
- a bunch of online meetings. Grateful for this beautiful gift from one of my favourite people that arrived by mail:
- Wednesday grateful for a walk with a colleague who lives near me. And a bunch of online meetings.
- Blursday. Every. Day. Is. Blursday
- BCcampus online drop in: Today’s topic: assessment. These online sessions are incredible – we get 60-100+ people in every session (!!), we host them in BlueJeans with educators from all over the province. Our backchannel is in MS Teams, and it’s a lively backchannel as we cheer each other on, and make rapid plans to tweak/adjust on the fly. I can’t get over the generosity and collaboration going on within our team, and among folks from all over BC. It feels like we need to keep doing them, and we are hatching new ideas/topics to try and keep pace with where people are, and where they will be between now and September. Accommodations ONLINE for students who need them is a challenge and a concern as technologies to support accommodations are often not available at home.
- Online Games through Jackbox at BCcampus. VERY fun and well hosted by our Selina and Moira.
- Online drinks with the Women’s Circle, who are an unfailing, endless well of awesome.
- Friday
- Meetings in Teams, BlueJeans, Zoom, Collaborate. My Macbook Air is all gasping, “I…can’t…do…this…much…video…stuff…”
- 3-Stop Online Pub Crawl: BCcampus peeps, SCETUG peeps, and then some randos in a fun new app, Houseparty
And (an)other thing(s)
- “All The Single Ladies (…all the single ladies…)“. Sorry, Beyonce. So, this week I see and hear quite a few peeps being driven a tad mad by spouses and kids underfoot, as everyone is trying their best to work/learn/be at home. I see you keeping your cool as kids burst (or lurk) into your “home office” in the middle of meetings. I see you managing the double madness of our new work reality plus your home reality. But, alas, that’s not what *I’m* doing. I’m living this weird time alone (sorry to my 2 cats, #thankeffinggodforthosefurrybastards), and the timeline on it is getting longer and longer and longer… This week I’ve had conversations with a couple women who are also navigating this ever-lengthening pandemic alone. On the dark side: what if we get sick? No really: what. if. we. get. sick? Like, “can’t breathe” sick? There is a) literally no one here to help and b) no one you would ask to help (beyond maybe lobbing stuff at your door and running away). On the light side, is this the right time to start online dating? LOL. Seems like a global pandemic is an excellent way for a very LONG pen pal-style exchange with no expectation to meet for an awkward coffee date. And – bonus – you can evaluate how they handle a crisis (what is their risk tolerance? how informed are they? where do they get their news? what is the nature of their employment? hobbies? who would they rather hang out with – Dr. Henry or Dr. Tam?) . Sometimes it’s all absurd and manageable, and sometimes loneliness starts to close in…thank GAWD there are SO many things to DO, DO, DOOOOO! (baking, cleaning, decluttering, organizing, rearranging, wiping, making, watching, digging, mowing, planting, learning…) so we don’t have to feel our feelings! Snort.