Oh, I hope you weren’t expecting that title because I work magic on Zoom, although I can understand the confusion. I titled this blog that way because apparently the one skill that I have honed the most during “distance learning” is my uncanny ability to say something that will cause my students to drop everything and disappear. Poof! Gone! Abra Stinking Cadabra! Lesson Over. To be fair, they are kindergartners, so this also happens through no fault of my own quite frequently, but I think my current record for keeping everyone on screen is six minutes. I know that as educators we are lifelong learners and that this moment in time is just another opportunity for us to grow as people and develop our skills as digital citizens as well as classroom teachers, but would someone please tell me why saying the word “bunny” would cause a child to run screaming from the room. And no, she has no previous bad experiences with bunnies, nor does she own a bunny that she was suddenly worried about, and no she didn’t even return on screen excitedly holding her stuffed rabbit. In fact, the world will never know. After five long minutes, she simply reappeared on screen without a word and got back to work. Whatever happened in that five minutes will forever remain a mystery. So yeah, things are great. Can’t wait for Week 10 to start! And yes, that is tea in Mister Adam’s mug. What else would it be at 10:15 in the morning?
I am kidding, mostly. I have an amazing teaching team and we are back to clicking as well as we ever did in the physical building, so at least I am going through this with people I respect and enjoy. Sarah’s fifth grade team is even more impressive, and now we are in the final push of assessments, report cards, and wrapping up the school year without seeing our students in person, so it won’t be a boring three weeks.
The girls are surviving. They both miss seeing their friends, but also like some parts of learning this way. Add in the hormones and we have lots of tears and lots of laughter every day. I just wish I knew which one was coming next.
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| Social distancing birthday. A rare face to face moment for Hannah and friends. |
Big picture, we are doing as well as we can be, and better than many folks around the world. Brazil is a big country and there are many places where things are going very poorly. Brasilia is probably one of the best Brazilian cities to be in right now. Our governor took serious steps early and we are not seeing the same problems of full ICU Units, lack of tests, and shortages of basic supplies other places are experiencing. We fully know that could change quickly, but right now, it’s a good place to be, healthy or sick.
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| Warm post-run churros not ten minutes after a downpour ended. Top notch timing. |
And there are some things we are enjoying. Lila and I run almost every day, and she has worked her way up to running six kilometers. It’s fun to see her reconnect with something she loves, and I’m lucky to be able to do all that running with her. Don’t get me wrong, the age old family tradition of bribery is still in full effect. Instead of candies in cross country ski tracks and gummy worms hanging from tree branches on hikes, we have graduated to running for milkshakes and churros and biking for acai and ice cream. But yep, it still works. It is amazing how far those two will go for a yummy treat. We also have a near daily routine of heading outside to the field next to the apartment to play after school. The official games include frisbee, volleyball, soccer, or basketball, but the other daily game is to see who can attract the cutest puppy. We keep our distance in one little corner of the field and still end up with a fairly regular stream of canine visitors who run over to say hi to the girls each day. It is a funny routine of pet the dog, clean your hands, pet the next dog, clean your hands, but it is a heck of a lot easier than trying to tell them not to pet them. And now that the girls have made it clear that they don’t mind, the owners just wave and say hi, and we get fresh air and puppy time, which is a pretty positive combination with which to end the day.
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| Bike ride ending at an ice cream shop, shocking I know. |
As I imagine most folks are dealing with, the summer we had planned is not going to be the summer that we have, but we are figuring that all out the best we can. Our two choices are remain here in Brasilia and hope that we can eventually do some regional car trips in July, or fly back to Bend, quarantine for two weeks, social distance there for a month, and then fly back for two weeks of quarantine here before school starts again. Even as I write that, the idea of spending twenty four hours on four or five different planes there and back, plus spending a month in quarantine does not sound great. Really, we have been social distancing with everyone in the US since last July, so we were really looking forward to time in person with friends and family this summer, but we are not at all confident we would get that even if we came home. Honestly, our “dilemma” is such a first world problem, and even though it is on our minds, we are fortunate to have such good choices.
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| The field outside our apartment, quiet on a very rare foggy morning. In fact, our first foggy morning since arriving. |
Random thought. If your family needs a show to watch together, try Brooklyn Nine Nine. Funny on a lot of levels, and the rare show we all are excited to watch.
As always, be safe, be happy, and be well,
Adam, on behalf of Sara, Hannah and Lila
