Adventures of a Teacher Summer (Summer Institute Day 0 — July 10)
Tomorrow I start a 5 day teacher institute through the National Gallery of Art. I am pretty excited about it based on the pre-reading and modules we’ve been asked to do. The institute is all about using art to help with social-emotional skills and to unlock a student’s understanding of their own thinking. Pretty cool.
Normally, an institute like this is not virtual and brings together educators from all over to meet and learn from each other and the instructors, but things being what they are, this one is all online. After the last school year, I could not bear to spend another week in my attic on Zoom. So, I decided to treat myself to a few days out of the house at a cheap Air BnB in Dupont Circle in DC. Just a few miles from where I live, but a place to concentrate and just get the hell out of my house for a few days. I haven’t talked to anyone since I left my house except for the guy who made me a sandwich at Prego and Larry at Larry’s Ice Cream (I am not sure it was Larry, but I’m going to believe). It’s glorious.
When I arrived, I went down to the Safeway to pick up a few things — you know, just the essentials. My goal was to purchase just what would fit into my backback, and I was not going to miss my first goal of the institute!
Obviously, that was exhausting, so I showered (it’s approximately 7 million degrees with 199% humidity in DC today) and watched an episode of The Knick on Hulu. (I recommend The Knick if you love gruesome fake surgery and period costumes (and I know you do!)). Then, I finally tackled the last pre-institute task which was to watch this YouTube Video to learn how to fold the inside pages of something called an “accordion journal” that we will be making first thing tomorrow. First, though, I had to struggle with the fact this this video is clearly numbered “2. Basic Fold — Unfolding Practice: Accordion Book Project”. Where is video 1? Was I supposed to skip it?
I persevered.
The instructor in this video is very laid back, but also makes this all look enjoyable and simple. And it is, but when I set out to get my paper folded, it became a full-body workout — struggling with the large roll of Kraft paper that had a strong desire to stay rolled. I had to employ my Birkenstocks, my phone, and the a chair in the AirBnb to assist me.
As of now, Harry Potter (supplied by the rental) is helping to flatten the pages overnight.
When I was watching the video, I realized I forgot to bring any kind of headphone, earbud, or speaker for the Zoom sessions. My Chromebook is great in many ways, but the speaker is VERY lacking as I found during my year of online teaching when I would physically pick up the computer and hold the speaker to my ear trying to hear the one student who offered to talk to me during the 60 minute class (turns out she was only trying to tell me that I was on mute). Anyway, the air conditioner in the place is pretty loud, so I was going to need to get something to amplify the Zoom Voices.
I headed down to the CVS on 17th and P. This is my old neighborhood from 1995–97, and walking along 17th street, not that much has changed, unlike many neighborhoods in DC. The sidewalk cafes and restaurants were filled with people drinking, laughing and sweating. We are all lucky to be humans on this planet. I have more to reflect on this topic probably, but not now.
At CVS, I was pleased to be able to purchase some small Bluetooth speakers, which I prefer over sticking things in or over my ears. Then, a short walk to Larry’s Homemade Ice Cream for a scoop of mud pie (highly recommend). Then, back to the apartment.
Here, I cracked open the speakers, linked them up to my phone to test them out, and found they are not just audio, but also provide a rhythmic visual light display. I assume this means that they are speakers for the hearing impaired?
I mean, I guess it is a fun feature, but only if you can turn it off, which none of these buttons seems to do. There is a hole in the side that is labeled “TF” which I can only assume means “The Fuck?”. I mean, these babies don’t stop their light dance even if you stop playing music through them. They HAVE and off/on switch, but you get either music and light or nothing.
So I guess I’ll be watching my speakers for the rest of the evening.
This was day 0. Curious about tomorrow? Read the Day 1 Blog!