How are you spending your lockdown time?

[stoutdude04]

 

ours is 7:30-2:10.

 

We go 8 to 4.

 

So is that all instructional time? I have last hour prep, so in my non-coaching seasons I can leave at 1:10 as long as I’m not needed to sub.

 

8 to 830 is before school prep.

830 to 845 is morning check in/routine

845 to 10 is math

10 to 1015 recess

1015 to 1130 snack/reading, grammar, etc

1130 to 1215 lunch/lunch recess

1225 to 125 various prep time from pe, music, art, library, etc

125 to 2 writing

2 to 315 I teach math to the other 3rd grade class and they get SS, science, handwriting with my colleague

315 to 335 is 'study hall' where we give them time to get homework done/ask for help

335 to 340 is check out

340 to 4 is after school prep

 

So yea, our schedule sucks. That's an elementary schedule too. I think it's awful. Our day used to be shorter and ended at 307. The kids are usually checked out by 230-3ish.

 

Edit: just to continue my rant, we have 5 in service days before school starts and we do not get any days off during the year. When students have off we still have to go in for in service days. This includes going in after conferences where we stay until 730-8ish. Now, theyve also added 24 hours of professional development that is required or you get docked your hourly rate. The issue there is those 24 hours are spread over multiple days because the courses they offer are all 2-4 hours.

 

We've had massive staff turnover the last 2 or 3 years. Oh yea, they also just cut our retirement benefits and put us into 3 groups based on experience. Basically screwed anyone that wasnt able to retire within 2 years and really screwed those with 10 or less. I was at 9 years and had planted my family here.

[homer]

I got a big a$$ Kitchen Aid mixer three years ago and have never used it. Today I make bread.

[pacopete4]

I got a big a$$ Kitchen Aid mixer three years ago and have never used it. Today I make bread.

 

Hilarious. Ours is 5-years old and we made cookie dough with it yesterday.

[homer]

I got a big a$$ Kitchen Aid mixer three years ago and have never used it. Today I make bread.

 

Hilarious. Ours is 5-years old and we made cookie dough with it yesterday.

 

Ha! I had to pull it out from under the sink to make sure I actually had a bread dough attachment (well first I had to look up what a bread dough attachment looked like).

[DHonks]

 

We go 8 to 4.

 

So is that all instructional time? I have last hour prep, so in my non-coaching seasons I can leave at 1:10 as long as I’m not needed to sub.

 

8 to 830 is before school prep.

830 to 845 is morning check in/routine

845 to 10 is math

10 to 1015 recess

1015 to 1130 snack/reading, grammar, etc

1130 to 1215 lunch/lunch recess

1225 to 125 various prep time from pe, music, art, library, etc

125 to 2 writing

2 to 315 I teach math to the other 3rd grade class and they get SS, science, handwriting with my colleague

315 to 335 is 'study hall' where we give them time to get homework done/ask for help

335 to 340 is check out

340 to 4 is after school prep

 

So yea, our schedule sucks. That's an elementary schedule too. I think it's awful. Our day used to be shorter and ended at 307. The kids are usually checked out by 230-3ish.

 

Edit: just to continue my rant, we have 5 in service days before school starts and we do not get any days off during the year. When students have off we still have to go in for in service days. This includes going in after conferences where we stay until 730-8ish. Now, theyve also added 24 hours of professional development that is required or you get docked your hourly rate. The issue there is those 24 hours are spread over multiple days because the courses they offer are all 2-4 hours.

 

We've had massive staff turnover the last 2 or 3 years. Oh yea, they also just cut our retirement benefits and put us into 3 groups based on experience. Basically screwed anyone that wasnt able to retire within 2 years and really screwed those with 10 or less. I was at 9 years and had planted my family here.

 

Elementary is a different beast....I could never do that. We aren’t required to spend a minute on campus before or after our classes. Our off days during the year are all holidays, but school is closed for us those days, too

[stoutdude04]

Yea, our only days off are holidays as well, but the kids get random days throughout where we do more PD.

[BrewCrewForever]

Working from home. Wife home with the kids doing the home school stuff. Nightly time outside for walks with the dog and playing catch. Go to store when needed. Getting the house clean, doing laundry. Currently watching 2018 NLCS Game 1 on MLB.tv. Good times.

[3and2Fastball]

Playing a lot of Strat-O-Matic Baseball

[hawing]

Lockdown? What lockdown?

 

My library and our archives are closed to the public but we're expected to report. Our building houses other agency functions, most of which wouldn't typically bring more than 10 people at a time together. SO the building is open to the public in case anyone wants to utilize those functions.

Anyone can wander in, use the restrooms, etc.

 

As far as I can tell, I'm there primarily in case the phone rings, or in case an email inquiry comes in that requires collections access to answer. Which barely happened last week. It's important to my supervisor that someone be here for that function.

 

There are six librarians who take turns covering the reference desk. Three have school kids who are now at home, so their attendance is uneven at best. The librarian who had agreed to cover Monday-Thursday afternoons just announced on Friday that her doctor was advising her to stay away because of the health threat. (She is older than 60.) Another librarian over age 60 who is set to retire in July has kept coming in but mostly just works on stacks projects. She has spent most of the last year loudly reminding us how eager she is to retire, so that doesn't surprise me much, and the stacks projects are useful. Our supervisor is pulled in all directions all the time, so we rarely see her. That leaves two of us, and reference isn't what I'm trained for. But someone with keys has to be there until 5:00 to lock the doors that no one but other staff are supposed to go through.

 

We can request work-from-home time by filling out a Department of Administration three part form in which we state our plans down to the hour. It's a "short term telecommuting" form which was designed for up to two weeks of use. It's painfully inadequate for this situation, but I imagine DOA needs to exert its control somehow, and this is how they are doing it.

 

I filed the form last week and planned to be in the library roughly half-time, and working from home or taking leave the rest of the time. That was before the afternoon person's late week announcement that she basically isn't coming in, indefinitely. So I have no idea what's expected or desired of me at this point.

 

What I'd like to do is just have the governor (I'm not calling him out to make this political - he's literally the person who can change this) close nonessential agencies to staff so I could focus on just the WFH and leave time issues. I see video clips of him telling Wisconsinites to stay home and stay safe, and I kind of want to yell at him.

 

Complicating matters for me is that my anxiety disorder most often manifests itself in terms of health anxiety, and I've got a 60+ diabetic SO at home besides. So I'm on edge most of the time lately. I do have some better living through chemistry keeping me most of the way together.

 

(In contrast, for whoever is still reading, the SO is a UW-Madison employee who was encouraged to work from home. He only had to verbally tell his supervisor his general plans for what he hoped to accomplish at home; she said Okay, and that was that.)

 

Anyway - I've got it much easier than many, and I'm grateful my work unit is closed to the public, but I'd much rather hole up at home.

[nodakfan17]

Day 10 of Lockdown:

 

I finally let my young son mix his Play-Doh colors together ... just don’t care anymore.

[MrTPlush]

Day 10 of Lockdown:

 

I finally let my young son mix his Play-Doh colors together ... just don’t care anymore.

 

Someone was kind enough to get my almost 4 year old playdoh for Christmas. He loves it and it may be the most stressful thing he insists on playing with. One of them is pizza themed and he always insists on cutting the pizza before it goes in the little box. A part of me dies every time that little wheel smashes a line into all the colors. I then spend 5 minutes trying to separate it best I can.

 

Speaking of mixing things together someone gave me this scented putty for Christmas. One day we were both playing with one and he was like, "Here Daddy let me show you something." So I hand over my putty and he instantly slaps them right together...they were attached like super glue. If anyone is wondering cinnamon eucalyptus is not a very good scent, they were much better on their own.

[jerichoholicninja]

Day 10 of Lockdown:

 

I finally let my young son mix his Play-Doh colors together ... just don’t care anymore.

 

That was my morning today. Almost all of my son's Playdough is already mixed together but he had three containers that weren't. I wasn't paying attention to what he was doing and then I saw he had dumped all of it into a big pile. I was about to do something about it and then figured it wasn't worth the stress. My mother in law brings him Playdough every now and then and it last about 30 seconds before all the colors are mixed together.

[pacopete4]

Local golf course allows you to walk and play before they open for the season. Holes are still cut, no flags, but that honestly helps me as I just try center-center and usually it works better than pin seeking. Anyways, I’ve went out and walked 9 a couple of times already. Just wish it would warm up 10 degrees so I wasn’t freezing while doing it.

[et bbal]

De-cluttering/de-hoarding the house. Found some 25-30 year old baseball preseason magazines. Now I am sidetracked reading those. One had Greg Vaughn as the number 3 minor league prospect.

[thebruce44]

Today I am finally taking a breadth and feel somewhat caught up. I run a program that protects critical utilities in Illinois and SE WI so I've been extremely busy as we transitioned all office base personnel to work from home and had to outfit field personnel with software to be able to conduct virtual meetings. Its almost a relief to have Shelter In Place orders nearly active in both states. This is the new normal for the foreseeable future and hopefully the change will stop and we can get back into a routine.

 

I hope to be able to take advantage of not having a commute soon by spending that additional time with my 1-year old daughter and having lots of video calls with my parents (who are both in pretty bad shape health wise).

[nate82]

If you have free time and want to learn some new skills for a job Udacity is currently free for 30 days.

[nate82]

If you have free time and want to learn some new skills for a job Udacity is currently free for 30 days.

[GAME05]

The boss just randomly scheduled me for a couple vacation days next week.

 

Me: "Wait, but that's not 40 hours for the week."

 

Them: "You're the first person who's ever complained about being offered time off."

 

I kinda don't really have the vacation days this year, but since I just moved I've still got a good bit of organizing and unpacking to do. Although I guess 'explore the town' is out of the question.

[GAME05]

The boss just randomly scheduled me for a couple vacation days next week.

 

Me: "Wait, but that's not 40 hours for the week."

 

Them: "You're the first person who's ever complained about being offered time off."

 

I kinda don't really have the vacation days this year, but since I just moved I've still got a good bit of organizing and unpacking to do. Although I guess 'explore the town' is out of the question.

[nodakfan17]

Day 26: I caved and dressed my son in his Halloween costume this morning, per his request. Just don’t care.

[RobertR]

I busted out the Ingmar Bergman box set.

[TURBO]

Binging HBO's "Boardwalk Empire."

 

So good.

[Baldkin]

I have been trying to get outside, for at least a walk around the block, every day.

 

I'm lucky enough to still be full-time-employed, so I do work 8 hours a day, albeit from home.

 

I've been doing yoga, and a foam roller routine almost daily, and I've learned three things:

1) My shoulders are weak as heck.

2) My hamstrings are about a foot too short

3) My calves are actually made of concrete.

[madbad2000]

I have been doing a lot of yard work. Being in Alabama, this period has coordinated perfectly with the spring weather. So lots of landscaping and projects we wanted to do have been expedited with the extra time at home. Normally the wife would have the weekends booked with kid activities. Patching and staining the deck this weekend hopefully.

[stoutdude04]

Watching a 1 year old. Playing online poker with friends and some video games late into the night. Oh yea, setting up lessons and grading too.