Welcome to Inkreadable’s 100th post, dear readers! Thank you for sticking with me for 100 weeks!
This past week, dear readers, was spent transitioning to a fully online world. Well, mostly. I still go to the park (I haven’t found a virtual way to attend a park yet), and I still make sure to go to the grocery store. I am not one of those people who has stocked up on millions of rolls of toilet paper, nor do I stock up on anything really. I think that’s because I don’t have the space to stock up on anything anyway. But the rest of my life, is definitely all online.
VIPKid’s starting to look like it did before Coronavirus. That is, I have a lot of holes in my schedule. And it’s funny because the kids are still inside and they say they haven’t gone out. At least not for long periods of time apparently. Many of my students are telling me that they go to the park for about an hour and they were face masks when they go out. I wish we could wear face masks here but we can’t find them. And even if I could find them I probably wouldn’t buy it anyway. I’m one of those people who believes that the people that need access to masks are the people in the medical profession. I also think that China has taken social distancing to the next level. Nobody is going out. There is no maintenance of a one and a half meter distance because there is no need. Nearly everything has been delivered to them. Anyhoo, this post was about Zoom and VIPKid has always used Zoom as a platform, but it’s easy because they do all the bells And whistles for you.
What has proven a little bit more difficult is trying to figure out Zoom in the context of the English Center and how to use it for group classes. I found myself in the ridiculous position of having to train other people in Zoom last week. It’s laughable, I know. Me, the least tech person in the world, leading a class of 11 teachers on Zoom. Let’s just say the classroom management was ridiculous. and I do hope that my class of four to six is much easier to manage than the 11 teachers that joined the meeting. The English Center has provided a paid membership for us so that we can have our classes, since the free version only allows a 40 minute meeting length. My classes will be 8 classes of 2 1/2 hours, And two classes at the normal two hour for the Pre-intermediate starting on 24 March.
On the personal side of my life, the Writers Group is already online or at least virtual as it’s kind of counterproductive to sit there and listen to people type, but the American writers group that I founded is fully online and I have been invited to participate. Unfortunately, I can’t really manage the time zone as the meeting from 1 o’clock to 3 o’clock in the morning my time. I suppose I could go to sleep early and then wake up for it. But I’m not sure I want to do that. Even Weightwatchers here in Amsterdam has gone online and we are having our English language meeting on Saturday mornings at 10, but virtually of course on Zoom. That was an experience this past weekend.
All in all, it hasn’t been bad for me, and while I’m a little cabin feverish, I’m not going stir crazy. Yet.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
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