And then, \u201cBANG!\u201d like a starter gun, we\u2019re off in a flash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hurry, hurry. Rush, rush. No time to think. Just do. No time to ponder or worry. No time to reflect or ruminate. No time to consider whether we\u2019re ready. It\u2019s too late. It\u2019s here. We\u2019re out of the blocks. Now it\u2019s just mayhem and early-morning madness. Something akin to normalcy, only not quite normal. The \u201cidea\u201d of normal in an UN-normal world. And the truth is, it doesn\u2019t matter. Because who cares: It has already begun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And you better hurry, hurry. Rush, rush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yep, it\u2019s school time again. School time in the age of the pandemic. \u201cFake-summer\u201d is over, and the looming fall stopped looming and dropped out of the sky like a sack of textbooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It hits particularly hard in a house like mine that runs the education spectrum. My wife teaches pre-school. My daughter just started high school, and for now is taking the remote route online. I work at Flagler College, where part of my gig is teaching journalism students. Throw in the fact that we think the dog has a side hustle lecturing about French romantic poetry with an online course and it\u2019s a world of education in the Thompson household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a summer of planning and worrying and speculating and trying to sort it all out, we\u2019re all suddenly thrust back in it, just like that. And it\u2019s kind of anticlimactic really. The starter gun just went off and we threw up our hands one day and said, \u201cOK, I guess we\u2019re running!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GO!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re learning all types of new things as we go. Cleaning regimens. Talking friends through WIFI failures. How to follow those one-way signs up stairwells. (Why don\u2019t I just follow the arrows?!?) And maybe most importantly: How masks are quite the impediment for fast talkers like me who are very animated and wave their hands around a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I learned this the hard way in my Publications Workshop class the first day. I was explaining this and talking about career goals and doing my erratic hand movements like I\u2019m trying to fend off a jumbo jet coming in for landing. The Cuban genes that control my mouth take over and cause me to speed up my words into one unending run-on sentence devoid of any punctuation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But to fuel this torrent of blabbering thoughts, I am required to draw in vast quantities of oxygen like a hungry engine desperate for more combustible material. In normal times, this isn\u2019t an issue. O2 is typically easy to come by. But add a mask to this mix, and the air doesn\u2019t come quite as quickly as I require. Worse, the tremendous inhales I employ cause the fabric to deflate in dramatic fashion. It vacuum-seals to my face as the rush of air is gulped in. The elastic bands strain around my ears, and I worry the whole mask will pull loose and slip down my windpipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I race through a bunch of words, then take a gigantic gulp of air, then race through a bunch more words, then take another gigantic gulp of air, then (because I\u2019m nervous I\u2019ll now inhale my mask!) I absolutely tear through some words and then \u2026 suddenly \u2026 I\u2019m not sure I feel so good. Because I\u2019ve got this idea in my head that: \u201cHoly trachea, Batman. I think I\u2019m starting to hyperventilate!\u201d Which, for some strange reason, has the remarkable effect of causing me to speak even faster and gulp even more air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And because I never DON\u2019T share the thoughts that pop up into my brain, I say to my students, \u201cHoly trachea, folks. I think I\u2019m starting to hyperventilate!\u201d This causes eyebrows all around the room to raise up above their own masks. Because, you know, they didn\u2019t sign up for this! Normal teachers don\u2019t do this. They know how to breathe in a mask. It\u2019s not that hard! And talk like a normal person \u2013 not someone who has been hooked up to a car battery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I start to wonder, if you hyperventilate in a mask, what\u2019s the protocol? Do you take off the mask in order to breathe into a paper bag? Is there a CDC recommendation? I share this entire stream-of-consciousness with my class and they just look at me like, \u201cBoy, it\u2019s going to be a long semester with this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s a pandemic, and we\u2019re all trying to figure it out. Trying to understand this new normal. It\u2019s a big adjustment. A huge one. All about adapting and rolling with the punches. Learning new tricks and trying new things. Doing the best you can, and hoping all of the prepping pays off. My hats off to the teachers all across the country, and the world, who do this all day \u2026 every day! I just have the one workshop class. But they\u2019re really in the thick of it. Pre-school to college. Learning as they go. Driven by a passion for teaching, and making a difference in the world. Having to overcome fear of the virus, and these uncertain situations, in order to be there for people who need them. And are no doubt struggling with it all themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s incredibly noble, and inspiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s remarkable, really, and makes me even more thankful. My hat goes off to teachers because I\u2019ve learned quickly how hard this all is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No time to think. Just do. No time to ponder or worry. No time to reflect or ruminate. Just hurry, hurry. Rush, rush. Do the best you can while trying to make some bit of difference in the world. (And hopefully, don\u2019t talk too fast that you hyperventilate. I think I better go practice or something.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And then, \u201cBANG!\u201d like a starter gun, we\u2019re off in a flash. <\/p>\n
Hurry, hurry. Rush, rush. No time to think. Just do. No time to ponder or worry. No time to reflect or ruminate. No time to consider whether we\u2019re ready. It\u2019s too late. It\u2019s here. We\u2019re out of the blocks. Now it\u2019s just mayhem and early-morning madness. Something akin to normalcy, only not quite normal. The \u201cidea\u201d of normal in an UN-normal world. And the truth is, it doesn\u2019t matter. Because who cares: It has already begun! <\/p>\n
And you better hurry, hurry. Rush, rush.<\/p>\n
Yep, it\u2019s school time again. School time in the age of the pandemic. \u201cFake-summer\u201d is over, and the looming fall stopped looming and dropped out of the sky like a sack of textbooks. <\/p>\n
It hits particularly hard in a house like mine that runs the education spectrum. My wife teaches pre-school. My daughter just started high school, and for now is taking the remote route online. I work at Flagler College, where part of my gig is teaching journalism students. Throw in the fact that we think the dog has a side hustle lecturing about French romantic poetry with an online course and it\u2019s a world of education in the Thompson household. <\/p>\n
After a summer of planning and worrying and speculating and trying to sort it all out, we\u2019re all suddenly thrust back in it, just like that. And it\u2019s kind of anticlimactic really. The starter gun just went off and we threw up our hands one day and said, \u201cOK, I guess we\u2019re running!\u201d<\/p>\n
GO!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[576,577,561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-nutshells","category-coronavirus","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2132,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}