Week Four of Distance Learning

Rather than an article summary, I decided to write a short note to all of you today.

For me, time is simultaneously moving fast and slow—with March being the longest month I ever lived through while at the same the same time I can’t believe we will begin Week Four of distance learning next Monday!

If you’re like me, you keep hoping to hear some positive news that the COVID-19 pandemic is abating, yet it just keeps getting bleaker and bleaker. We’re all waiting patiently for that first indication that things are beginning to turn for the better.

This week I watched the first few episodes of the wildly-popular documentary Tiger King on Netflix. For me, the show’s oddball characters and  bizarre, surreal story line is an apt metaphor for the confusing, chaotic world we’re currently living in. I find myself ending a lot of my emails not with the standard ‘sincerely’ but with comments like ‘the weird keeps getting weirder.’

Technology has become an even more ubiquitous part of my life. Sadly, I’m 24/7 on some tech device—be it video conferencing or responding to phone calls, emails, texts, etc. I’ve always been a sound sleeper but over the past month have been waking up in the middle of the night to check my phone for whatever new development will occupy my time come morning. I’ve typed and said the words ‘synchronous’ and ‘asynchronous’ so many times over the past few weeks that both Microsoft Word and Google Docs finishes those words for me.

When I’ not on a tech device, I make sure to get outside and exercise daily. I am definitely more appreciative of this therapeutic time to exercise my body as I try to unwind my brain.

But most of all I’m proud of all your work and effort in supporting our students, parent, and colleagues. We may not be at physical school but we’re all doing beyond-the-call-duty efforts on the virtual front!

I’m sure you heard Governor Kemp’s announcement that Georgia public schools will be closed for the rest of the 2019-20 school year. While Trinity has not made the ‘official’ announcement yet, being closed for the rest of the school year is our probable reality. I’m guessing we’ll make the official announcement after Easter.

The admin team has reviewed the calendar of events for April/May and will reach out to individuals or teams regarding to what extent we will be able to provide some sort of virtual experience for our students.

For us the present remains uncertain but I recommend you look toward some future time—maybe this summer, maybe next fall, maybe even a year from now—when predictability and normalcy will return.

I can’t wait to see our students and all of you back on campus, at drop off, in the hallways, in the Dining Hall!

Finally, here’s my corny joke of the week:

My favorite time on my grandfather clock is 6:30.

Hands down!

Joe