End of Semester Update: Made it through!

Well, it's been about 8 weeks since my last post. Then, it was spring break, and the university was making the quick transition to remote teaching. Now, the spring semester is over. In some ways the last two months have been a blur--they've felt both long and short. I always have a bit of trouble unwinding at the end of a semester, but perhaps it's harder than usual right now, partly because I've been working from home, partly because we don't have a big trip to look forward to (we did, but it's cancelled), and certainly because there is so much uncertainty about what will happen with classes in the fall. Also, I don't have a summer admin contract this year (unlike the last 3-4 summers), and I don't yet have an approved budget to pay for our placement testing. The problem is that testing requires quite an investment of time from me in order to coordinate and oversee, as well as some hours from my colleagues to evaluate student placements. So, as I said back in March, I'm trying as much as I can to focus on things I can control rather that those I can't, and just go ahead and take the next clear step, one at a time.

Thanks to my photo-a-day project for this year, I actually have some pics to document what's been happening (nothing brilliant, but the point is to capture everyday life!).

My desk at home--
glad I had a space to create a makeshift office! 

My work computer, during a session with tech support

makeshift file cabinet (the stuff under the shelf...)

As far as the semester goes, it does feel like a huge accomplishment to have finished my classes! I know I'll need some time to reflect and process everything, especially if I want to learn from the experience and use it to develop some more intentional online pedagogy (which I do, but I'm also kind of exhausted, so I might need to disconnect for a bit before I'm ready to take that on). Overall, I feel proud of what I did, and some of my strengths, like being very organized, helped me pull it off. But it was really stressful and demanding, too, and most of the time I felt like I was just barely a step ahead of my students. Fortunately, my students were fantastic through the whole transition. They kept up with the work with very few requests for extensions. There was only one student who got overwhelmed and fell behind, but even then, was able to pull off a major effort to catch up in the final weeks.

So I feel a lot of gratitude about the whole experience: I had access to the space and technology I needed, plus confidence in our course management system (Canvas), good training in pedagogy (despite a lack of actual online teaching experience), and super attentive students. It wasn't the semester I expected, but in the end, I feel confident that my students learned what they needed to from these classes. There were certainly some things that we abandoned or ways the priorities/emphasis shifted (especially in the ESOL class), but still--they learned a lot! (And so did I).

Just today I got access to the official course evals, and I was so pleased to see they were positive. I also asked my students to fill out a separate survey with my own questions specifically about the online experience, so I'll be sorting through those soon, too. I hope to learn more specifics about what worked and what didn't from their perspective. I also signed up for a couple of online workshops offered by our Center for Faculty Excellence this summer. One is about building community in online classes, which is something I find especially challenging (it wasn't such a big issue for me this spring, because we started online after already having established community in person). And I have a couple of colleagues with lots of online teaching experience who have offered to talk through ideas with me, which I think will be really helpful. But first, I think I need a bit of a break.

A picture of my course management system
after I finished grading. For weeks prior,
this was an endless list of grading to be done.

Our main outings these days are walks around the neighborhood, though we have ventured out to our town's nature preserve and garden park a few times. We have also gone to the drive through at our favorite local ice cream place, the Sundae Station (they've been so busy!). I managed to get doughnuts from Stimmel's before they temporarily closed in March (we sure hope they do open back up...no word yet). I'm doing all the errands, but keeping them to a minimum. I've been shopping just every other week instead of weekly. That's been a bit of an adjustment in planning, but I think I've worked out some of the kinks.

at Wintergarden preserve

Simpson Garden park...just missed the daffodils!

flowering tree at the park

from Sundae Station

the best doughnuts from Stimmel's

what our fridge looks like
after I shop for 2 weeks...

The public library was closed for most of the last two months, only just recently reopening for curbside pick up, so we have been shopping around with subscription services for movies/tv. We had Netflix for March and April and just started Disney+ and Hulu about a week ago. Usually, I'm perfectly content with my antenna TV and the library, but it's been fun to have something different, and to check out some of the exclusives for each service. Happily, I love my Kindle for ebooks, and our library's digital collection has been as great as ever. I've also taken advantage of some of the other content that's come out specifically since the pandemic, like the free showing of Jesus Christ Superstar on YouTube and some Disney animation videos.

my drawing of Mickey Mouse

three sketches of Olaf from Frozen

Pascal from Tangled

Minnie Mouse

Socially, my regular dinner group, Common Meal, decided to keep meeting by video call on our every-other-week schedule. So that's been nice, although I certainly have missed the potluck part! We usually take a break for the summer, but maybe we'll try to keep it going this year (since no one is really travelling or anything...). I've had lots of video meetings for work, and some texting with out-of-town friends, plus some Cook family video chats and weekly calls to Mom and Grandma as usual. So I haven't felt too isolated, but I might need to get more intentional now that it's summer.

Mark and Cook family on Zoom

Around the house, Mark has done an amazing amount of cleaning out and reorganizing in his office and practice room. I haven't been able to keep up with him, but we did tackle our hall closets and storage closets together, and I went through the bathroom cabinets and my books and clothes. I really need to do the kitchen, which will be a big job, and a few other areas. For a while, Goodwill stores in our area were closed, so we had giant piles, bags, boxes of donation items all over the place. But they reopened a couple of weeks ago, along with our recycling center, and I took a totally full carload to drop off. That felt pretty amazing! (Plus, our Goodwill was doing curbside unloading--just pull in, pop the trunk, and they take it from there!) We don't have tons of extra space here, but things are possibly more organized than they've ever been (well...except the kitchen!).

in the middle of the closet project...

Mark's bedroom closet

Mark's practice room

Mark's practice room again

hall closet, now filled with percussion stuff

my bedroom bookshelf

Mark and I also decided to upgrade our patio furniture, since we expect to be spending more time out there than usual this summer. Our online order has caused us some headaches, but we did end up with a very nice looking and comfortable set. The weather since we got it has been totally gloomy--cool and rainy--so we haven't really used it yet, but I expect to be outside much more once we get some sunshine!

new patio set--we love the ottomans which slide under the chairs!

I think that's about all as far as updates. I haven't forgotten that I still need to post about our January WDW trip (which feels like ages ago already!). I'll get to it one of these days--should be easier with school out! Meanwhile, take care and stay healthy!