An Idea and a Plan

I have two daughters at home: Miss 12 who is in Year 8 and Miss 18 who is at Uni. Miss 20 is in Wellington and currently is in the hospitality industry. Each child has been disappointed by the changes in the last few weeks, Miss 20 had her Uni graduation cancelled and work, Miss 18 cant do BJJ  and has had her learning go online, and Miss 12 has had all her sport cancelled. But due to their experience with Christchurch earthquakes a while ago now, they are disappointed but understand. The older two are also glad that we have power and most importantly working toilets! 

Miss 12 is annoyed that I am a teacher and she said she is going to enforce  the new school holidays dates!  Which made me think that it is important that over the next few weeks she doesn't see me as a teacher but as a mother who is helping her. In my opinion, while teachers are providing learning opportunities to the students at no point do we want the parent/s/caregivers to feel that they have to be 'teachers'. 

For our mental well-being when in isolation  I know that routine is important and social contact via online tools is also important. I've asked Miss 12 to think of at least 1 fun thing she wants to do each day, something to look forward to. With social interaction I was thinking of having a virtual pancake dinner with my family for my birthday that's coming up. I also thought I would create a virtual quiz for the nieces/nephews and my children to join in on. 

Yesterday, I realised it had been a few months since my last post. This could be a good time to get more into a routine with my blog! I thought I would try to blog most days with the following content whilst at Level 4 Covid19 shutdown:

• Some things that may be useful related to learning, 
• Something of interest to me in education
• How Miss 12 is doing with her learning, some thoughts from her 
• I have been slowly learning photography and thought the next four weeks could be helpful in this. To hold me to account I will post 1 photo (but not today as I'm currently in my pjs having morning coffee whilst I write this blog!)

 Here are some useful online resources

Science

Nano Girl : Has an amazing website with all sorts of Science stuff for students, parents and teachers. Nano Girl has a podcast and after each episode there is a video. She also has some great resources for explaining Covid19 and some experiments with soap

History/English

I saw this on the History NZ teachers FB page: We are currently living through a historical moment and someone has created a good task for teenagers around primary/secondary sources and keeping a diary of the current pandemic: Eye Witness to History

PE

The Body Coach is creating Youtube Videos P.E with Joe and these I think are coming out each day. A way for students to keep active and burn some energy.

Link to: Govt website for Covid19