I finally finished my next quarantine puzzle. It was harder than I wanted it to be and new out of the box it was missing two pieces. User error, I'm sure they fell on the floor and got swept or thrown away somehow.
School started August 11th. I am impressed with how wonderful the students are. They really are doing a great job at attending classes on Google Meet and completing the work I am assigning. We are getting to know each other and starting to be able to talk about math. The amount of planning and time spent preparing for the synchronous and asynchronous learning is unreal. It takes so much longer to prepare lessons to be delivered online. And when doing them, it also takes longer so we have to figure out which items are most important to increase student understanding. The job has become so much harder than it was in person, and as one of my predecessors at PMS used to say, "Teaching is a hard job." It was already hard! Now it often seems impossible. I'm doing the best I can and it is going to have to be enough. I created my very first Desmos activity for my students and here is my very first stop motion video showing equalities changing to inequalities and back again. The plus signs each have a value of 1, the lines in the middle are the equal sign and inequality sign.
Here in California, on top of the pandemic and a recent heat wave, we are dealing with fires and dangerous air quality due to smoke. We can't be inside together because of Covid, now we can't be outside either. It's pretty awful. Climate change is truly affecting our lives here. We can smell the smoke even with our windows closed. Air quality is actually dangerous here right now. One day this week our sky changed to deep orange and it is has been dark and grey every since. The wind is supposed to change and clear out the smoke soon. It will be nice to take a deep breath of fresh air once that happens. Here's a picture of the ash on our mailbox and a very gray sky during the day.
Hard to believe, but my baby, the youngest, Jonah is turning 18 tomorrow. We are getting Tony's pizza and Swenson's ice cream today to celebrate. He is handling distance learning very well as a 12th grader. It's not ideal, but he is learning and working hard. His teachers are doing a great job and clearly are working very hard to make it work for their students.
Next week starts the high holidays. It's always a stressful time in the rabbi's household around the holidays. This year, no hosting, so that takes some pressure off. Rabbi has memorized his first 3 sermons and just practices them every day now. They were written over a month ago. This year's theme is Covid of course. He always ties all 5 sermons together in a theme. I like to be surprised when he delivers them so I don't know anything else about them.
My niece in Manhattan, Adalia, turned 5. We had a super fun Zoom birthday party with an art project (I painted a Rainbow Dash!), dancing, and watching her blow out her candles and eat cake. :-) My brother and sister-in-law put a lot of effort into making it special for their special girl. They continue to host Friday afternoon (here, evenings there) Shabbat celebrations for the family which are a highlight of my week. I get to see them, my sister, my mom, and sometimes, Uncle Bhavvy and recently, cousin Erik which was a special treat.
My sister performed in an online play about virtual therapy. I loved it and she did a great job! Now she is performing in an outdoor set of one-acts. It's great that she gets to do theatre which brings her such joy.
Micah is doing well in Ohio. While members of his fraternity have contracted Covid, no one in his house of 10 brothers has gotten it yet. I maintain that it is a "when" not an "if," but I am happy that he has stayed healthy for a month. Yesterday he went to the zoo and realized how unfair to animals living in a zoo is. He felt that many of the enclosures were just way too small.
Procrastination of my school preparation must end now. I am going to figure out how to get my puzzle photos into this and write again another day. May all be safe, well, and healthy.
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