My Own Genius Hour: Spring Break

Showing posts with label Spring Break. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Day 12 - Sun and Warmth

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Suddenly, spring has arrived in Illinois!

Oh, the people out and about - I don't think we've EVER seen so many people out walking and enjoying the sunshine! The temperature got up to 58 degrees today.

As for us, we got on our bikes for the first time this season. We tooled around, checking out a new part of the park district path and heading to the post office to deliver a (possible pen pal) letter to a local group home. We stopped to stretch at a skate park near our home that had a few visitors... most of them keeping six feet away from each other.

We also went for a drive (with the top down - yeah, baby!). Signs on churches said things like, "God will bring peace when you go to pieces" and "You can still pray at home." There were also positive messages on banks about "tough people" and "overcoming obstacles." (I took pics, but they didn't come out.) We waved to everyone, and many waved back. Dogs are really enjoying their humans home to walk them! Mom and Dad even took a drive to Fort Sheridan to sit on a bench by the water for an hour. Perfect.

New advertisements started yesterday... One from the CDC with symptoms and who to call, a couple from Burger King introducing their app for delivery or pick up, and one from Michael's with pick up or delivery service on their website.

Challenges from educators are popping up like crazy!

Principal Kaese's second challenge is to design an airplane and see how many sidewalk squares it flies.
Paul Bogush is sharing challenges from students for teachers - full of humor.
My friend Karen went on a scavenger hunt with her daughter around the neighborhood, put on by the teachers at her daughter's school!
Heck, my husband has his own challenge - the "Chair-A-Day" challenge. He says, "There's one seat I don't sit in for the day. Makes me look forward to sitting on it tomorrow. I've only done this because of Corona, you know?"
Yesterday I celebrated "Socks Never Worn Before Day." (Schoology socks I "won" at an edcamp!)

Today's vibe was much more positive than the previous eleven days... The sun and warmer weather made a HUGE difference.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Two Favorite Tools After a "Break"

When I decide to take a break from Twitter during extended breaks from school, I have two saving graces that help me get back in the swing of things - slowly. I used to just start over from scratch - that's a good method, too! However, when I have a day or two during break where I feel I need a shot of my PLN, these tools help me believe I didn't miss anything. I secretly know I've missed a ton, but the "really good stuff" will come back around eventually! With these two tools at my fingertips, I don't experience FOMO (fear of missing out), and break is as close to a break as I can get. (Now I have to figure out how to eliminate nighttime dreams about school!)

TweetDeck
I've already written about how TweetDeck saves me time and energy - making me more efficient - when I want to use Twitter on my laptop. When I come back from a week off of Twitter, TweetDeck saves me once again. (If you haven't read this post, please do so now, or the next two paragraphs will have you wondering what I'm talking about!)

Before break: I make sure to shorten my "first" list (those educators I do not want to miss each day). I temporarily move some of these wonderful educators to a "first 1" list or other silly name. This list, too, is locked, so they have no clue they're being put to the side for a week. Really, EVERYONE is put to the side for the week, so it doesn't matter! Note: I often update lists using Twitter.com - I find it easier than using TweetDeck. After break, I can easily add these people back. Too many people in my "first" list after a long break gets me overwhelmed when I come back. I want to avoid that feeling!

To keep from being overwhelmed even more, I often just look at the last five tweets from each of my other columns, and then "clear" them so that I have a blank slate once again.

Feedly
I used to use Feedly to keep up with student blogs. We are not blogging (yet?) this year for various reasons, but I use Feedly to keep up with other educators' blogs - usually on a daily basis. Here is a very detailed post from Sylvia Rosenthal Tolisano (@langwitches) about how to keep up with student blogs through Feedly. You don't have to get that organized!

Before break: I just make sure I'm caught up with what was in Feedly before I leave. What's great about Feedly is that all the posts you "miss" will be there when you get back - no matter how long you're gone! Just keep hitting the checkmark at the top of the page until you've seen them all. I love browsing and weeding out the posts I feel I really need to read after break. It goes by quickly on Feedly, as I have them categorized.

See how the organization helps you keep tabs without being overwhelmed:

Here is how Richard Bryne (@rmbyrne) uses Feedly...

I hope these two tools help you eliminate FOMO. How do you keep up after taking a break to be with family? Let me know in the comments below - we can all learn from each other. We truly need to take breaks during our breaks!