Journal

Wait. You wake up... when?

I find it fascinating how quickly routines can be built as well as how quickly routines can be broken. I’m sure most educators would agree with me as summer breaks begin around the country and many of us are discarding the school year daily routine in favor of autonomous chaos (at least for the first week off). I think this year especially, with the intensity and challenge of virtual/hybrid learning, we are all excited for a change of pace.

But in New York City, school continues all the way through the end of June. While I’m in quarantine I am virtually teaching, so I’m still in need of an organized day in order to get to work and do it well. So here’s a rundown of the routine I set up for myself in quarantine. Bear in mind that the times given below are in Alaska Time, whereas my school runs in Eastern Time (four hours ahead).

My Daily Routine

3:30-4:00 Wake Up

4:00-4:30 School Day Preparation I really enjoy working in the morning, so when I’m in New York, I typically arrive at the school an hour before the school day starts. Now that my day starts so early, I’m unable to use all that time (without making it so that I wake up at an even more obscene hour of the night). Most of the preparation that I do in the morning is making sure all the pieces required for my virtual teaching is working: my slides are ready and have been imported to my iPad (which I present and use as a whiteboard), all of the assignments are ready to go and are scheduled in Google Classroom, and any other online activities that I ask my students to use are functioning properly.

4:30 - Morning Meeting The morning meeting is the official start to my school day, as the head of my school gives announcements and reminders for the day.

5:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. School Day My school day is pretty long and is often filled with meetings alongside teaching classes. This week, I’m focused on making sure everything is prepared and ready as I will not be teaching once I’m up in Toolik. Alongside the preparation for my content courses, this also includes making sure all of the school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) students are on track to begin the process of their Extended Essay--A 4,000-word research paper they complete as part of the program.

Afternoon: Daily Walk, Dinner, TV, and Social Media While waking up really early is a little annoying, the enjoyable part of it is after it ends, I’m completely free! Normally, I take a daily walk around the trails by the lake (see my May 15th Journal for pictures!). I’ve been a little more adventurous lately and have also walked over to Creamer’s Field–a historic dairy farm-turned Waterfowl Refuge.

I often vlog about my walks on my public teacher Instagram account to engage my students in my experiences. Today, I even used my afternoon to film and post my first ever TikTok showcasing all the field gear I received yesterday from Polar Field Services. If you're interested in seeing it, you can follow me on either platform, @theentropyreport. Thank you to PFS for supplying the gear!

The rest of my evening consists of eating dinner, finishing any work I have to do, and watching TV. In my group chat with Jeremy and Sarah, we often let each other know when there are interesting shows on TV. Between all three of us, we've got the National Geographic/History channels, HGTV channels, reruns of The Office, and my personal new obsession of niche reality TV shows (Below Deck Sailing Yacht, anyone?) covered.

8:30 p.m. Bedtime An early rise means an early bedtime, and mine is so early the sun is still out in full force! Thank goodness the room I'm in has good blackout curtains.

Quarantine Question

Being in quarantine has reminded me how important it is to distract yourself when you're stuck in (what seems like) never-ending boredom. Some people use this time to work, some like reading books, but perhaps most common, especially in hotel rooms, is watching TV. So, what are you watching these days? Any recommendations for me?