Today was the first day of the second semester of my grad school program. That’s a heck of a sentence. I’m taking two masters-level classes, working part time for one of my professors, homeschooling all four of my kids, and trying not to fall apart. With dentist, doctors, and various therapy appointments… I have described this situation like this: “my calendar looks like I tried to sweep confetti out of the carpet with a fork.”
Again, I find myself endlessly thankful that my partner has a pretty flexible work schedule and a can-do attitude. However, even if he takes someone to an appointment, I’m still not free to get something else done. Someone has to be available to to kids as much as possible, to help with their school work and keep them on track.
So far, I’ve also been lucky enough to be able to do all of my work from home; but that’s about to change. I’ve done a huge amount of background research on soil respiration over the last few months, and secured access to three green roofs in the city. It’s coming time to schedule visits to the roofs I’ll be studying, so I can figure out how they might compare to each other, and to more typical green spaces in cities, so I can formulate a solid research question. Of course, that leads into actually collecting data on the roofs, which seems like it’s going to require all kinds of scheduling miracles.
It might not sound like it, but I’m quite excited about all of this. I’m just worried about how it will work out under the current circumstances. If you’ve been reading this blog, I’m sorry I keep saying this… I didn’t expect all of this pandemic-related chaos when I applied to grad school.
Since Christmas break, the two younger kids’ Montessori has been even less helpful than before. I talked with the principal before break to explain that the “synchronous work” isn’t something we can do. Both Montessori kids have ADHD, and one also has ASD. They aren’t good at the sitting in front of computers while a teacher talks at them. In fact, the virtual classroom situation was extremely upsetting and disruptive to both of them. But I also explained that we love doing the “asynchronous work”, when a teacher posts instructions or worksheets we can do away from the computer.
To be clear, this was not, by far, the first time I had had this conversation with people at the school. I had already talked to all of my kids’ teachers, and various other school employees about this problem. Still, I thought that talking to the principal would maybe help. Instead, there are no longer any truly “asynchronous” assignments available. What is expected to be done asynchronously now consists of something like, “remember the directions I gave you during our video session” which leaves us with nothing.
So, I’ve given up. If they’re providing nothing my kids can do, then we will just do nothing (for the Montessori). Keep in mind that I have an entire curriculum planned out for them and they’re tracking the expectations of their respective grade levels just fine. I’m just tired of having to ask nicely for people to consider giving written instructions for my kids when I’ve already reached agreements with teachers about how we’re approaching pandemic schooling.
On a happier note: I formed my thesis committee, and it includes one of the professors I worked with when I wrote my undergrad honors thesis! I’m excited to have both new and familiar people to guide me through this. I’m also excited to have a half female, half male committee, because I know it will be easier for me to believe I can succeed if I can look to other women who already have.
Just over a year ago, I was presenting my undergrad thesis, explaining the plant success and soil nitrogen gradient I found on one of the green roofs on which I’m about to study soil respiration! It’s still amusing to look back and remember that when I started my undergrad, I was confident I wanted to study bats as disease vectors. Then, my Bio 2 professor changed my path with his inspirational passion for plants. Then, my new-found love of botany lead me to my first research project, assessing plant success on the university’s green roof… which lead to questions about the soil. Now, I might just be a soil scientist. Oops.
Other important updates I’ve probably not mentioned in other posts:
- Cub turned 8. His party was postponed substantially while we waited for a weekend when we could have everyone here. It’s weird to think, he’s been able to walk since just after his first birthday… and I’ve been trying to get him to stop running in the house ever since.
- We adopted a dog. His name is Zuko. He’s an adorable stumpy-tail cattle dog mix and he’s always looking for attention. He also seems to be very attuned to people’s emotions, which I love.
- I stopped taking Adderall because the nightly crash ruined my sleep. I might try something else eventually, but I can’t really afford to chemically mess with my brain right now.
- We’re currently taking a break from the remodeling. The office is complete, the bedroom separation for the twins is complete. The back room (where the TV and the gym equipment are) is complete, except we need to paint. Next up is the master bedroom. I am not looking forward to that bit, but it needs to be done because the attached bathroom had a leak into the wall between the shower and the bedroom that caused some mold and decay.
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