Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Finding a New Rhythm/Ein neuer Rhythmus muß gefunden werden

Working on "Dance History"
Charlotte arbeitet an ihrem Kurs "Geschichte des Tanzes"

We have had two exhausting days.  It started with our college canceling on Monday morning the three days of classes we were still supposed to teach due to the first two virus cases in our county.  We were encouraged to meet with the students if they had questions, but not in a classroom setting with many people.  I did meet with two students: one had to make up an exam, the other handed in some homework.  Peter had more students he had to meet and also a candidate for a history position coming in.  Then other things got canceled: ballet, art, home ecologists, etc.  The library called to say they were going to close, but I could still pick up my reserved books.  Then all stores in New York except grocery stores and the pharmacy announced they were closing.  We only have one grocery store in the next village, one dollar store, and one pharmacy, so the store closings did not really make any difference here.  We tried to make the best of it, picked up our books at the library and also checked out two big bags full of videos and books from the college library.  The college library will close to the public on Wednesday, but we can still make appointments with the librarian, if we need something.  On top of that, we are all scrambling to turn our classes into online ones and I am back to dealing with Moodle.  I always use Moodle for videos and certain files, but I normally don't use it for grading, uploading files, homework, etc.  Only when I was in California and London and taught my German students via  a hybrid course, I had to use it more extensively, but not exclusively.  Now I have to use it much more than I would like to do.  It eats up so much time!

Jonathan and Charlotte are already doing all their online work, but it is a struggle.  Professors from their colleges are also struggling with changing their courses to online so suddenly.  Jonathan just finished reading Max Weber ("Politics as Vocation") in German for one of his courses  He chose to read it in the original, which is not an easy choice.  I am very proud of him!  Charlotte has a live ballet class first thing in the morning.  She is doing that one in our bedroom via videos with the other students and one of her teachers.  So our house is a school, a college, and a studio by now!  Also, both of them got e-mails from their colleges that they have to go back immediately and completely move out of their dorms.  So far, they had been sent home for two weeks, but that arrangement got changed.  So tomorrow, Peter will drive Charlotte back to get her stuff.  She will have to skip her classes in order to do that.  Jonathan will have to get his things on his own.

 Jonathan is giving lessons!
Jonathan gibt Ballettstunden!





He is very confused.  So many changes here. 
Er ist sehr verwirrt.  Alles ist so anders.    

Jonathan und Charlotte machen schon ihre Kurse online, aber deren Professoren haben es auch noch nicht alle geschafft, die Kurse so schnell in ein anderes Unterrichtsformat zu verwandeln.  Jonathan hat gerade Politik als Beruf von Max Weber für einen seiner Kurse gelesen.  Die Studenten haben das Buch natürlich auf Englisch gelesen, aber er hat es auf Deutsch gelesen.  Ich bin ganz stolz auf ihn!   Charlotte hat jeden Morgen einen Ballettkurs, den sie im Schlafzimmer macht.  Ihre Professorin unterrichtet per video live.  Unser Haus ist nun nicht nur Schule, sondern auch College und Ballettstudio.  Beide haben heute auch Emails von ihren Colleges bekommen, daß sie sofort zurückkommen müssen, um aus ihren Wohnheimen gänzlich auszuziehen.  Sie waren erst nur für zwei Wochen nach Hause geschickt worden.  Jetzt müssen sie aber alles ausräumen.  Peter und Charlotte fahren morgen zurück und daher muß Charlotte ihre Kurse ausfallen lassen.  Jonathan muß alleine fahren und seine Sachen holen.  

Our college has not had any Coronavirus cases so far, but four students are in isolation and are being tested.  Charlotte's college has one confirmed case, Jonathan's has none.  Now I have to go back to my online preparation for German!

Unser College hat bisher keine Coronavirusfälle, aber vier Studenten sind unter Beobachtung und werden getestet.  Charlottes College hat einen Fall, Jonathans noch keinen.  Jetzt muß ich wieder meinen Deutschkurs weiter planen!  

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Our picture book for the day was Saint Patrick.  
Alles Gute zum St. Patricks Tag!  Unser Buch für den Tag war Saint Patrick.  

Paid link


12 comments:

  1. Much love to you, you and Peter must be exhausted. Love the photos of Mr J teaching his Dad some ballet, we've got to look for the joyful moments in each day haven't we? Xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much, San. Yes, we are so tired and each day there are new restrictions or changes to what we have been doing. At least, I managed to have the next two weeks up and running for my students. Well, I still have to record myself reading some texts, but that should not take so long. We are required to have at least the next two weeks organized by Monday. Yes, it was very funny when Peter joined in with Jonathan!

      Delete
  2. Hello Eva, I love the photos of Jonathan and Peter :)

    Oh, I wish you luck with your online courses. I know it's frustrating. Korrina is doing an online Japanese course which isn't too difficult I think because it's only a few students, but Emily has a course at NYU with 60 students, and it's too easy for them to lose focus.

    Kudos to Jonathan for reading the Weber original. I can imagine that is not easy.

    I empathize with Julius. All these changes! Dance class at home! College at home! We love homeschooling, but maybe not this much?!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peter can be very funny :). Putting deadlines in place for those online classes (with penalties) is really important. I am trying to pretend we are still in class and have kept the same deadlines for submitting work. I hope that will keep the students focused. I am also e-mailing them regularly about their work and try to grade things as soon as they upload them. Thus they see my feedback and involvement right away. I bet organizing big lecture classes like Emily's are much harder to manage. Probably frequent quizzes would help a bit.

      I am always pleased when my children make an effort to use their German without pressure from me. I was so afraid their German might fade when they leave home, but it has not happened so far.

      Well, we are getting used to all these "at-home" classes. I am just afraid that our floor might not like all the sudden action. No pointe and jumps are allowed in the home classes! That would probably result in a broken in floor.

      Delete
  3. P.S. Charlotte has a very cute friend looking over her left shoulder :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I found him in an antique store a few years ago and found him so cute!

      Delete
  4. Liebe Eva, finde ich aber toll, wie er Papa im Ballett unterrichtet! Stay safe, Bernice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, Bernice! Wie geht es Euch? Ja, jetzt muß der Papa auch tanzen lernen . . . Hoffentlich bleibt Ihr gesund!

      Delete
  5. Meine Güte, was das für ein Chaos ist wegen des Coronavirus. Aber es ist gut, dass bei Euch so schnell Maßnahmen beschlossen werden. Das sieht doch schonmal ganz gut aus, was Dein Mann an Ballett gelernt hat. :-) Julius kann ich verstehen ... Cookie ist auch ganz verwirrt. Oder sieht sie immer so aus? Ich bin nicht sicher.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ja, Peter macht große Fortschritte :). Bald kann er auch auf die Bühne gehen. Vielleicht ist es bei Cookie eine Mischung.

      Delete
    2. Vergiss nicht, ein Video zu drehen von Peter auf der Bühne. :-D

      Delete

Welcome and leave a comment, if you like. I look forward to reading your lines.

Willkommen auf meinem Blog. Über einen Kommentar würde ich mich sehr freuen.