Tell us about how you’ve seen or noticed the silver lining in anything to do with your teaching/classes/remote work/life situation. The funnier the better.
Example: (Sarah Learman, CIS Staff) “I am more disappointed than I should be about not being able to work on campus… but not for the reason you’d think. Two days before the Stay Home order, our supervisor gave us permission to wear our “standard casual attire” for the REST of the semester. For 2 glorious days I had the green light to wear jeans for the next 7 WEEKS… and it slipped through my fingers. Silver lining? Now I get to do all my work in pajamas… Thanks social distancing.”
This post is part of our What’s Working Forum, a safe space for faculty to talk to one another about how we are still serving our students and the CMU community, and to share and celebrate what we are doing during this era of learning continuity. We invite you to participate in the discussion in the comments below. Use your Name/CMU Email or keep it anonymous, it is totally up to you. While you aren’t able to copy pictures into the comments field, feel free to show us what you are doing by linking out to hosted photos or content elsewhere. If you have a question, concern, or another topic idea, please contact us.
A silver lining to working remotely (and daycare closing) is having the opportunity to watch my 5.5 month old learn new things every day. During normal work days I only have 1-2 hours of awake time with her. Now, I see her all day long and have the continued joy of watching her explore her world. She also loves to help me with my work 🙂
Amanda, I think I’ve heard her “helping” you with your work during some of our WebEx meetings! Glad you get to see more of her and her explorations. 🙂
Spending more time with my kids is a silver lining for me too. Mine are middle school/high school age, so they don’t need (or want) as much of my attention as when they were younger. I really appreciate being able to interact with them more throughout the day. Another silver lining is learning teaching technologies that I hadn’t learned before.
Xantha, each morning now, I’m able to make breakfast for my youngest (he’s 8)… “Making breakfast” for him means microwaving his poptarts for exactly 15 seconds. Fortunately, throughout the day, we’re able to get him to eat things with more redeeming nutritional value. Then at 9, I go back downstairs (my home “office” is upstairs) to wake up my 10-year-old son, and 14-year-old daughter. They are NOT early risers 🙂 Kudos to you for learning new technologies in the midst of all of this. You set a great example!
I have found two silver linings so far:
1. Teaching using MS Teams: I never saw the advantages of this tool until I was “forced” to use it…now, I think I will introduce it to all my future classes, online or face-to-face. It has a lot of advantages that make it a “one-stop shop” for student interaction.
2. Practice makes perfect (or better): The more videos I make at home to post, the better I get at it. Pacing, controlling technology, it all takes a while to get it together.