March 2020

On Saturday March 7, my mom and daughter and I attended a middle school performance of "Frozen'. In this picture, my daughter and her good friend pose after the show. We sat in a full auditorium of people watching the middle schoolers perform. The show was excellent and I am glad we got to see it and the students were able to put on the play. Many plays in other schools and districts did not happen after this date. Thinking back to the crowded lobby and sea of people without any type of masks or social distancing feels like a completely different world than where we are today.

On March 9th, my amazing student teacher came back to visit our class. She was with us from September-December and the students missed her so much. I snapped this picture right before we left for dismissal. Everyone is joyfully hugging. Again, just a week later, a scene like this would not be possible as social distancing entered our vocabulary.

On Tuesday, March 10th, Melanie Meehan did a Google Hangout for teachers who participated in an inservice I ran where we studied her book Every Child Can Write. It was hard to figure out the technology! I didn't realize that in just a few weeks from now I would be conducting almost every professional task through Google Meet. I wrote a blog post about the experience here.

Megan wanted a house party for her 7th birthday. I initially tried to discourage the idea. I thought it would be easier all around to have her birthday out. She wanted to have a few friends over and have a Paris Poodle theme. March is notoriously busy for me- blogging challenge, report cards, PARP responsibilities and of course Megan's birthday. A home party meant a lot of planning and work, but it was what she wanted so I went with it. It ended up being serendipity in a way- the weekend of her birthday- March 14-March 15, everything started shutting down.

4 girls came to our house to celebrate Megan's birthday. 2 were sick and couldn't come and 2 did not feel comfortable coming in light of the pandemic. 4 came and the girls painted, played with their new stuffed poodles, had cake and danced. It was one of the last times my daughter would be with her friends for quite some time. I wrote about the party here.

At Megan's family party, we knew everyone was starting to feel nervous about Covid-19. Our "appetizers" were prepackaged snacks that were sealed. We had hand sanitizer everywhere and the kids spent most of their time outside even though it was March 15th and chilly.

Schools were closed by March 16th in all our Long Island districts. On March 18th, Megan wrote letters to cousins and friends. We were already starting to miss interacting with others.

Bike riding would become important to us during quarantine. In these early days, Megan still had her training wheels on and Alex mostly rode in the parking lot of the school.

I really missed my students, my classroom and "real life" while March stretched on and on at home.

Wrote about missing my students here.

Meanwhile, my laundry room really missed my mom, our "Laundry Angel" who helped me keep up with the laundry during the work week. During quarantine, without "Naya's" laundry assistance and navigating the new demands of remote teaching, laundry just piled up....

On March 27th, Alex and Megan and I went on a walk to look for "signs of spring." We found so many. More time together was challenging at times but also really lovely at times.

We started this book as a read aloud. We loved the teacher, Mr. Kermit and how the book was told from different points of view.

By March 28th, the kids were LITERALLY climbing the walls.