Is it really only day 4 of the school closures? Today the lift felt heavy. It’s not actually my teaching day, but that doesn’t alleviate feelings of responsibility: to my students, their parents, and my colleagues. And then to top things off, our Google Classroom has decided to stop loading the stream. Students starting commenting that their lessons had disappeared and soon after a parent emailed confirming that they could no longer see anything past March 17th.

My immediate response was panic. How could our lessons go missing? We had put so much work into creating them. And while I, too, could not get my stream to load, I could see the lessons/activities in the classwork section, Phew! Our district Ed Tech Coordinator is working to resolve the issue, soon I hope.

So instead of student responses today, I found myself in hours of video conferences. All were worthwhile, but they add up to lots of time sitting in front of a computer. And that is exhausting. I am really glad that I selfishly took some time when it wasn’t raining late this morning for my daily beach walk.

I rushed down the beach, feeling the cool breeze in my face as I noticed the mounding white clouds in the distance. The tide wasn’t low yet…I couldn’t wait til then, there were video calls scheduled during that time. (And as it turns out, it was raining then too!) I came across a group of sandpipers dancing in the surf. They raced in toward me with each wave and headed toward the water as the water receded. I danced with them, my camera low, trying to catch them in motion.

Taking time for myself is essential during these stressful times. I need that walk on the beach more than ever: the time to let my mind wander, to breathe deeply, to appreciate the beauty of nature, and to move my body. I found a bit of a second wind. I know I’ll need another walk tomorrow to refill that wind supply!