Coronavirus Chronicles – Day 33

Today, I took PTO. I had scheduled a PTO day for April and May before the pandemic occurred. When I asked my principal if PTO rolled over into the next school year, she said no. I had to either take the day or lose it. Personally, I think it is wrong to not be able to roll over the day. No other school I have worked for made you take PTO or lose it. Hopefully, that policy will change in the future.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed my day off even though I didn’t leave my house. I did go out onto the porch to take a picture for my garden update. Did you just whisper that going onto my porch didn’t count? Oh okay. You’re right. Instead, I finished my IRB and submitted it. Now, it is pending review. An IRB is a document you submit to get permission to conduct research. The research I plan to conduct will hopefully be used for my dissertation. I have been working on completing all the components for weeks. Now, it is submitted. I just have to wait to hear back to see if it got approved or if I have to make any adjustments.

I also helped my sons complete their work. Although eLearning is supposed to be done Tuesday-Thursday, my husband and I are finding it hard to have our boys finish in that time frame. They have questions, and we are constantly on calls and completing tasks for work. In between tasks, I’m a third-grade teacher. I am doing additional lesson plans to help them. They both had to turn in a realistic fiction story that incorporated at least one of each of the following types of figurative language: onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, and idiom. Let’s just say that the information provided by their teachers did not help them understand what they were and how to write their own. The only one they both understood was onomatopoeia. That’s words that make sounds such as moo, buzz, hiss, etc. One of my sons was able to write a simile, but that was it.

I went onto my computer and pulled up some old figurative language lessons I had. Even though they were middle school lessons, I was able to pull out some video clips and modify the content down to their level. My son said, “You got everything on that computer.”

James working on his realistic fiction story.

Jerry enjoying a video clip about idioms I found in an old middle school lesson.

They both wrote good stories. I also stayed in my parent lane. This means I did not change everything up to make their stories perfect. I gave suggestions such as, “Do you think you have a dynamic beginning.” Dynamic beginning is the term their teachers used on the rubric. I also had them self evaluate the quality of their work using the rubric.

After they finished the work, I said go to the basement and play. I stayed upstairs and played Scrabble Go. I don’t play cell phone games, but I made an exception during this pandemic. I’m not trying to brag. Okay, yes I am. I’m winning some games and it feels good. I’m not good at games, in general, so finally I can win at something. Of course, my pride about winning was burst by my children. The saw me celebrating another win. They wanted to know why. I said, “I won my game.” James said, “What game?” I replied, “Scrabble Go! It’s a word game competition.” Jerry said, “Oh, sounds like a teacher game.” Geez, thanks, kids. They walked off and laughed. Well, I’m still going to celebrate, so there!