Hi Class. I’m writing to you after a bunch of technical problems I have had over the Spring Break. Thanks for your patience. My own computer crashed. And it also looks like the Assignment I posted before spring break didn’t get posted.
On to business. Only a handful of you attended our Zoom Planet meetings prior to Break, and only a handful of students did the diary reflection assignment which we discussed in Zoom (Diary of a Wimpy Kid/ Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl) and in the video I made for you on March 27. I know times are tough right now — for all of us. That said, let’s re-boot. I am giving UNIT II an updated NEW DUE DATE: April 19 in the hopes that we can get back on track.
And here is a short video in which I discuss the assignment:
And finally, I am available to discuss and help you on Zoom. You can reply in COMMENTS to this post and tell me if you are available at 12PM or 3:30PM on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday of this week. I will create a Zoom meeting URL and invite you to join.
This Assignment is graded. Your grades will be posted in Private to OpenLab.
Good Morning, Class. I am checking in with you to say that I am here for you today and tomorrow. Do you have questions on your assignments? Are you lost or lacking motivation? I will be at my “desk”** from 9:00 AM to 10:00AM checking my OpenLab and emails and also from 1:00PM to 2:00PM.
(Also, I will be setting up Zoom Office Hours for the semester going forward. I will write that in a separate post.)
**My “desk” is actually two pieces of plastic from Target stacked on top of each other.
To be ready for this meeting you should have already: posted an extended Diary excerpt by now; and have completed and posted your reflection/summary.
You should also have read all the posts of all the other people on your planet before the meeting starts.
Uranus from Wikipedia
Discussion Points: Everyone on your planet needs to read everyone else’s posts and be prepared to discuss them. We want to talk about how we are shaping our diaries so far. What are the main tones or themes? How can we analyze them as a piece of writing and not just for content? How did we analyze the diary we chose to read — and, did it help us?
Additional discussion point to bring to the meeting: a skill/personal interest/hobby/art/goal — something you are working on during this period of time (not school work). If this makes you cringe, then you are probably doing it right. If we don’t have time during our first Planet meeting — very likely — then we will do it during the second one.
You should already have read a post about meeting with you in small discussion groups that I’m calling “Planets.” Respond in the COMMENTS section here and tell me which meeting you are attending. I will write yet another POST with more important info. For now, keep reading:
Zoom. Meeting ID is 942-407-5048. Meeting should last about 20-30 minutes. If more than 3 people respond I will hold the meeting. I don’t want to exceed 6 participants each if possible.
Good Afternoon, Class, and welcome to this recess period. This is a good time for us to talk and take stock of the work you’ve done thus far and discuss how to move forward. I am setting up Zoom meetings over the next few days and will be inviting you. My thought is: if I group you into smaller circles, rather than one big class circle, we can all focus better, and have better discussion.
Image of the planet Venus from Wikipedia.
15-20 minutes each session
4 or 5 people at a time
each small zoom circle is going to be called a “planet” so I can keep them all straight.
I am looking for your reflection/summary assignments today, Monday! Those will be referred to in our group discussion. So please get them to me.
Looking forward to “seeing” you all soon! I will send you another post with parameters of the meetings.
MARCH 25, 2020 – CARROLL GARDENS, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK CITY
1:00PM
I wanted to be at my computer and on OpenLab this morning at 8:30, but I didn’t sleep well last night because I was worried. I read the NYTIMES and saw about a thousand emails from school administration, and I got confused and upset. I got back to bed around 5:45AM.
My brother is sending me inflamed emails and texts, telling me that I must get out of NYC and live in a hotel for 14 days someplace near him, and blaming me for allowing my son to live in NYC (as if there was any other choice I had. His school closed).
I have weird habits. I don’t put groceries away right away. I sort of let them sit for a bit (24 hours or more), because I am afraid of touching them when I come back from the supermarket. I still haven’t put my son’s laundry away that he brought from college. that’s it, below.
I haven’t been hoarding — just going out every day or two for my/our basic needs. What do I do if I buy eggs? I have to put them in the fridge. I still buy fresh produce, and I wonder if this is wrong somehow.
Now that the reports are out that over 30,000 people in New York State, I am getting upset about hula hooping. It’s what I like to do every day. I stand by myself. I don’t go near people in the park (it is an ugly park, with only a baseball diamond on an old cement and asphalt surface. No grass, anywhere). Well the hula hoop touches the ground, and I pick it up. It touches my jacket. I wear cloth gloves while I hula hoop. How safe can I be? I feel like it was wrong of me to do it. Now I am scared of anything. I don’t have alcohol or Clorox wipes. I tried to buy them, but no place had them, and Amazon said it couldn’t deliver before May if I ordered them.
(These are new hoops I haven’t used yet, made for me this week. They are still sitting outside the door.)
My Pastimes/skills/ and this Pandemic Season
I used to go to a dance session/cypher every week. Now that’s stopped. I was hoping to perfect my moves during this time. I practice a form of dance called “popping” or “animation.” People group it with hip-hop, and yes, it comes from a similar tree, but its philosophy is different. During the first week of my sheltering it gave me a lot of comfort. “My moves can get nice!,” I thought to myself. “Now, I will practice — and even San Jose Strut better.” (That syle is hard. I totally respect it. It is kind of a sub-set of popping…but different. The west coast has proprietary dibs on it, but I have followed a few people I really respect in that style, and have even met one: Money B. and have studied a bit with another: Africano.)
This is a typical night at my popping session that I recorded on my iPhone a while ago:
Maybe this give you an idea of what it’s like. My heart is heavy right now, to be honest, and I don’t feel like practicing.
This is Africano demonstrating San Jose Strutting at a workshop I did a couple of years ago, also recorded on my iPhone:
Is there hope? I want to get back to this. I need to. I think that skills and stuff that makes us feel valid and that life is purposeful are even more important right now.
