During the second lockdown we, education students, were obligated to teach our host class on zoom. The way it worked was we would make very descriptive lesson plans, we would send them to the host teacher and the pedagogical advisor lesson plan and we would teach it on zoom. There are a lot of positive sides to teaching from afar but like the upsides, there is a surplus number of downsides. One very cold, gloomy, and grey day I was woken up in a panic because I had heard my air conditioner turn off and my phone lit. I thought to myself "OH NO THERE IS A BLACKOUT!!!". I rushed out of bed and checked the mainboard to see if the problem was only in my own personal house or if the problem was in the whole neighborhood. I was saddened by the fact that the problem was unfixable since it was in the whole entire neighborhood. One of the main problems where I live is that if there is a blackout there is also no phone service. I had no way of notifying the host teacher and the pedagogical advisor what had happened. It was a long five minutes until I was able to hold on to a little bit of service and then I rushed to inform all that I was not able to teach. I was so annoyed, frustrated, and sad because I had made a very fun, rich, and good lesson and I realized that I wasn't going to teach it that same morning.
In addition to this incident, I MUST have coffee in the morning, yet I am not addicted. I just need coffee to wake up and to function throughout the day. After finding out that there is no electricity and that I won't be able to teach my lesson, it came to my knowledge that if there is no electricity so obviously, I can't use the electrical kettle to boil water for my coffee. You can imagine the despair I was in due to the unfortunate sequence of events. In addition, I couldn't turn on my stove because my oven and stove are run on electricity. Thankfully, I had a little bit a cell service and I contacted my friend to whine and complain to her about my situation. She listened attentively and showed me a great amount of sympathy but then told me that I am an idiot. I was amazed to hear that because she had just consoled me about the situation I was in. She told me that every stove that works on electricity can easily be turned on by using a match while turning the match. I tried it and it worked! You can imagine the happiness in my eyes when I boiled the water and took a sip of my hot, yummy coffee!!!
On the other hand, I'm a pretty optimistic person (most of the time) and I can find a few good things regarding my situation. I was thankful to have friends that could give me advice. I was also thankful for having a warm place to stay and that I wasn't ben rained on. Oh, and I was thankful for Netflix!
I loved the way this starts out as one of those 'horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad days', and then, suddenly, a good cup of coffee turns everything around.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post-Deniella. It is interestingly written, describing a situation we all sometimes face during life. It is really annoying and frustrating. It always seems that it happens exactly at the most inconvenient time. Indeed, the optimistic side in it is that we learn than not to take the things we have for granted, appreciate them, and find joy in them. I loved how you described you drank and enjoyed your coffee after some time of anger and frustration.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the most important lessons we have learned as teachers from the Corona virus is that we can't be in control of everything all the time. Sometimes you just need to sit back and let things happen (like power cuts)
ReplyDeleteHi Daiella, I loved the "Long five minutes", I'm glad someone else has noticed this flexibility issue, sometimes time seems to stretch, sometimes it shrinks. There is a saying in Hebrew כל עקבה לטובה, next time you prepare a good lesson make sure your coffee is ready on time :-)
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