Coronavirus Remote Education and Dancing 

Day Three March 22, 2020 SUNDAY

This is so FRUSTRATING!!

I was up until 3am last night getting things ready for tomorrow and I still feel so unprepared. After 5 hours of sleep, which is about right for me, I just couldn’t stay in bed any longer, I got up, put the laundry together and off to the laundromat I went, only to find out that they are closed for 4 days. That was really unusual, she rarely closes. I just hope that she is okay. So I got some bagels at the Black Seed, which is right next to the laundromat, and headed back to my humble 5^th floor walk-up apartment with my dirty laundry, had breakfast with my spouse and wanted to start working on this blog before I do my morning exercise and generally take care of myself.

Remember the number one rule: Take care of yourself first. Kind of like paying yourself first before you pay others, which I have always been really bad at, so I am trying to practice self-care to be ready for what is ahead. It is like when I was out of work for 7 months and decided to go to yoga classes to help ease my anxiety and center myself. Doing my morning stretching and dancing helps me to prepare for the day. I guess tomorrow I will need to get up at my usual 5:15am time to get myself ready for the day.

Which brings me back to my frustration. 

Yesterday, I video chatted with the theater teacher at my school to make sure all of my online programs were working correctly. We tested things out, exchanged ideas of what to assign and how to post them. She said something really interesting about feeling like an island.

As an arts teacher (music, theater, art, or dance) we are often the only one in our building that does what we do, which already makes you feel like an island in your school. Having to do all of this from home with mostly new protocols has intensified that isolation. I would imagine that everyone is feeling that right now. That is why it is so important to touch base with other colleagues no matter what they teach. Exchange frustrations, successes, funny stories and then go for a walk to give yourself time to absorb it all.

So I am going to stop blogging now, prepare myself for the day by doing my early morning exercise and self-care routine and then I am going to come back and tackle assignments, getting in touch with parents(I still have over 80 students out of 525 that have not responded to my e-mails), posting online, contacting my college students (which has its own set of stresses), going to the grocery store, taking a walk around the neighborhood (there is something soothing about the lack of crowds on the street, we live in a very hot and popular neighborhood), maybe even take some used clothing over to the shelter around the corner. And hopefully I will be ready for tomorrow. After all “tomorrow is another day”…..

For my adult students at MPHC and from elsewhere, I am working on getting a video up of my stretch class for you to be able to access and use at home. Hopefully in the next few days this will be ready to go.

Until later....

The Dancing Jedi