Waste Not One Hour of Time

"Don't mistake activity with achievement."

--John Wooden

Now that most of us are working from home in the Coronavirus pandemic, do you feel more productive? Do you find yourself with more time to pursue your interests?

My husband and other family members have all related how much more efficient and productive their work is at home. No time and energy is wasted on preparing for work or commuting. More energy can be applied to focusing on their work and thus producing better products. This is turn leaves more time to pursue other interests and engage in quality family time. All this leads to a happier life, which makes a more productive and happier employee.

Here are some pics of my husband's Pepper Project. He is able to take some time here and there to de-stress and work on his pepper growing hobby. This is certainly something he couldn't do at the office is Los Angeles.

Is this similar to your experience with working from home? If so, do you think that many schools and corporations will continue this new way of life after the pandemic is over? Does this type of positive outcome require a particular type of personality?

Post a comment and let me know what you think!

Putting Home Into School

CUTTING OUT THE CRAZIES!

With schools shutting doors and students moving to online classes due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, everyone has had to adjust to a new way of life. With all three of my children now home and all the running around having ceased, I am reminded of some of the good old homeschooling days with my kids. Being cloistered at home, we have had to time to enjoy each other's company, finding ourselves to be more thoughtful and caring, doing the little things together, like cooking, folding clothes, painting, or gardening. 

I realized today that one of the things I missed was having the time to cook for and with my family. Since the lock-down, we have been making home-cooked meals and eating more healthily, except maybe the Oreo Balls! Making home a part of school used to be a way of life for us.

A few days ago, we made Oreo Balls as part of my son's Pi Day assignment. The food had to incorporate the word "pi" into the name, so we made Pink Champagne and Pink Pina Coladas.

While everyone is scrambling around trying to figure out how to incorporate school to our homes, this was a great example of Putting Home Into Our School. Do you have any other ideas of how home can become a tool for online learning? If so, please share!

Online Learning Policies

HERE'S A STORY:

My son was taking a high-school, online classes. Each week, the students were to complete an assignment at a website unaffiliated with their school learning platform. The assignments were automatically graded upon completion. The teacher instructed the students to send a short note, e.g. "Assignment 1 complete," through the learning platform to inform her that the work was done. She would then go to the website to retrieve and record the grade.

My son, unfortunately, missed the notification instruction. He had been completing the assignments for several weeks, receiving 100% grades and thinking that all was going well. Suddenly, he woke up one morning to see that he had five 0's in the class. He tried working with the teacher, but she would not budge, stating the policy, "Late assignments will lose 10 points each day after the assignment was due." After taking the issue all the way up to the Headmaster, my son ended up having to switch classes mid-term.

From that point on, my son could not sleep and was literally sick with worry wondering if he would wake up again, unbeknownst to him, that, "All's not well." Since this experience, we have never enrolled in online schooling again.

The problem I see is that the school assumed that "brick-and-mortar" policies easily transfer to online environments. If my son had been attending school in person and submitting assignments in class, he would have known the first day that his assignment was late, and he could have recognized and rectified and the problem immediately.

In the world of online learning and submissions, I would contend that a more appropriate policy should read, "Late assignments will lose 10 points each day from the time the student knows an assignment is late," or perhaps, "Late assignments will lose 10 points each from the time the student is notified by the instructor that an assignment is late."

Have you experienced similar challenges with online learning policies or do you know of policies that should be adjusted for online environments? If so, please share and let me know how you would change the policy!