I attended Northern Michigan University, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, for my undergraduate studies. It is a beautiful, yet isolated, place, within walking distance of Lake Superior, and because of its isolation, there was always a concerted effort while I attended to have a very strong student affairs program with lots of concerts, performances, movies, […]
Category Archives: COVID-19
This has definitely been the year of constant adjustments–to our expectations, relationships, employment situations, and understanding of time. Thanks to COVID, this Thanksgiving in the United States was markedly different than those in the past, that is for sure. I am grateful that I had a few extra days to decompress, eat yummy food, rest, […]
Hello! One of my daily class norms so far with teaching virtually this crazy school year, has been very old school: I say ‘hello’ and call roll. By this time in a usual school year, I know my students enough to take attendance by simply looking over my classroom and double checking a seating chart […]
Wow! Last evening, I logged into WordPress, my blog hosting site, where I have had my blog for 8 years, to continue this post on triggers, after an exhausting week–which compounded an extraordinarily tiring, exhilarating, crazy, engaging, and stressful first month of virtual teaching. WordPress had been warning that they were changing up their whole […]
I had goals going into this year. To read. To write. To see and reconnect with people. In January and February, I was on track. I didn’t read my 8 ‘a-book-week’ books; but I read 4, as well as lots of articles and blog posts written by others. I did manage to jump into writing […]
Last week we had a super intense storm, which blew in and out very suddenly, with lots of wind, thunder and lightening. As I was securing our deck while the wind kicked up–bringing chairs and lighter plants inside, putting more solid things down low–a lightening bolt flashed and struck a power line in our alley. […]
I was late to picking up the Sudoku fad, but when I tore my ACL 11 years ago, had surgery and went through months of PT to regain (nearly all) of my range of motion, I started playing. It was perfect to help me deal with the time I was sitting waiting around for a […]
Last week, I mentioned that I tried therapy during my early years of teaching in Chicago; however, I didn’t stay with it long because I didn’t feel my concerns were being addressed. Basically, my therapists were leading me to look at my life as if there was something severely wrong with it and with the […]
I was raised in the American Midwest by parents whose definition of being punctual is to show up to a gathering or obligation (or for a weekend visit!) at least 20-30 minutes early. When I worked part time as a high school and college student, being on time was showing up at least 10-15 minutes […]
Check your PTSD people. Last Monday night I had a totally different direction mapped out in my head for this week’s post. I had read a column over the weekend about an author’s ‘likes’ so far during the pandemic and I myself attended a really upbeat Coping with COVID Zoom session on Monday evening where […]
