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Educating in the Era of COVID-19: Day 4

Today’s lesson: lesson planning can sometimes take much, much longer when you know you won’t be present with your students to guide them. I’m preparing my students to read through the Arrest, Trial, and Crucifixion Narratives of the Gospels. In previous years, I had the ability to read with them so I could clarify things but this year that won’t be the case. Therefore, my ‘scripting’ (as my wife calls it) has had to be far more in-depth. And that doesn’t even include the videos I plan on recording this weekend where I’ll read through these passages so they can follow along with me.

On the other hand, I can’t complain. Basically, I get paid to study the Gospels, think about the Gospels, and write lessons about the Gospels. Not a bad gig!

This year I’ve been cosponsoring our school’s brand new Philosophy Club. Today at 4 PM (CST) we’re supposed to have a club meeting via Google Hangouts/Meet put on by our student leadership. Should be interesting! I think it’s great that our students want to continue to see each other and interact with each other. Honestly, I’m glad they miss one another. I’m glad they miss school. As it has been said many times: you never know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

Day 3
Day 2
Day 1

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Educating in the Era of COVID-19: Day 3

Our school has a daily chapel. Sometimes this chapel features a unique tradition: one of our seniors gives a talk to the whole community. Obviously, there won’t be any chapels of this sort for a while, though our seniors will be recording videos of their talks that will be shared. One of the young ladies in our Residential Life program wanted to practice before doing the ‘official’ recording, so one of our ‘parents’ set up a Zoom meeting. A couple dozen or so of us signed in, applauded, muted our mics, listened to her talk, and then unmuted to applaud again. It was a heart-warming experience and the talk was great.

This is an example of the small things humans are doing to make things better during these trying times. It may seem irrelevant to some that people signed into Zoom to watch someone practice a talk but it meant the world to this kid. And it was important for our community as we seek to find practices that will normalize what we’re experiencing.

Today, I’m ‘meeting’ with my classes via Google Meet. While I’m leaving time for them to ask questions about their online classwork, my main concern is to ask how they’re doing and how they’re using their time (not to berate them about time-management but to make sure they’re connecting with family and friends and finding things to keep them busy). So far, it appears that it’s like a weird hybrid of summer break and homework, but they seem to be doing well and that’s what matters most.

Day 2
Day 1

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Jon D. Levenson on the paradoxes of Abraham and Sarah

I know I’m decades late to reading Jon D. Levenson’s 1993 classic The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity but I’m glad I’m finally reading it! In ‘Chapter Ten, “Let me not look on as the child dies”‘, Levenson makes some enlightening observations about the paradoxical characters of Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah in the Book of Genesis. I want to share a few of them from pages 84-85 based on Genesis 12.1-3:

For Abram to be made into “a great nation” is, in the course of nature, impossible, at least if he is to remain in faithful monogamy with Sarai…For the man curse with a sterile wife to “be a blessing”—indeed, a universal byword of blessing—is equally preposterous. Yet “Abram went forth as the LORD had commanded him” (v 4), breaking with family and homeland to start—against all odds—a new family in a new and yet undesignated land.

These paradoxes are wonderful. Abram seeks to become a great nation by leaving his family. Abram will be a blessing, though he and his wife can’t have children. Here’s another excerpt:

The man without a country will inherit a whole land; the man with a barren wife will have plenteous offspring; and the man who has cut himself off from kith and kin will be pronounced blessed by all the families of the earth.

His comments on Genesis 12.10-16—when Abram has to go to Egypt soon after arriving in his promised land because there’s a famine and then gives Sarai to the Pharaoh in order to avoid trouble—are eye-opening as well.

The man to whom a land is promised is in exile; the man who is to beget a nation is without a wife; and the man whom God has promised that he will curse whoever curses him now takes extreme measures out of fear for his very life. And yet, just as our conviction seems confirmed that Abram has staked his life on an unrealizable, nay, absurd promise, we hear that “because of [Sarai], it went well with Abram,” and he acquired a massive estate (v 16)—evidence that the blessing, however diverted, has not been canceled.

These are examples of why I enjoy returning the the literature of the Bible again and again. They layers, even just narratively, are many. They’re profound.

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Educating in the Era of COVID-19: Day 2

Yesterday, Google Classroom revealed to me that my students have received their assignments and some of them even completed them already! Most of my classes receive their assignments today. Our school has divided up the week so that students receive materials on different days based on what class period they would’ve been studying that topic. So, for example, my 3rd Period students received their classwork (which doubles as homework!) yesterday since Periods 1-3 receive materials on Mondays and Thursdays, whereas my 4th-7th Period students (I teach 3rd-7th) all received their materials today and will receive more on Friday.

This morning I used Google Meet to conduct a virtual Advisory. It was good to see my advisees. They seem to be doing well. Most of them shared a basic report: it’s super easy to get all their work done, but they miss being with people. Welcome to online learning, students!

To protect us, and our students, my employer requires that we record our online sessions. Google Meet’s recording option is simple. I imagine the same is true of Zoom. Additionally, this allows me to post the video for advisees/students who may have missed the ‘live’ event.

Today I’m lesson planning for my ‘Religion in the United States’ course. My students will learn about the Latter-day Saints and the Adventists this week. Next week, they’ll be introduced to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Pentecostals. I tie these groups together in a few ways. First, they’re all expressions of Christianity that emerged in an American context. Second, they’re all shaped by the glow of the Civil War and world as it was around the turn from the 19th century to the 20th century. Third, each group is ‘restorationist’ in nature, claiming to have found something about the earliest version of Christianity that had been lost and needed to be recovered. Fourth, each group emphasizes the Second Coming of Christ in some way whether it be the very identity of the Latter-day Saints, or the predictions of William Miller for the Adventists, or the mystery of the 144,000 for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or the restoration of ‘apostolic power’ during the ‘latter rain’ for the Pentecostals. I’ll miss discussing these groups in person, in class, with my students. They’re all fascinating in their own right. I just hope my students still get a basic understanding of these movements, their founders, their distinctive identities and such, in spite of being limited to the virtual classroom.

Day 1

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Educating in the Era of COVID-19: Day 1

These are strange times. As an introvert, I’m handling this whole ‘social isolation/social distancing’ mandate quite well, but I do miss the classroom and I do miss teaching my students. So, what has this first day on the online job entailed?

Well, our administration has asked that we upload content to our students on different days of the week depending on what class period we would’ve taught that class. This means only one of my five classes received content this morning. This means I’ve received a couple emails asking where the work is. In some sense, I take this as a compliment, being that it’s only 11:27 AM. They must’ve been ready to do my work!

This weekend I recorded introductory videos on YouTube that I posted in my Google Classrooms. I tried to mix a bit of an overview ‘lecture’ with instructions on how to do the online assignments. The videos were about 23-24 minutes long. I worry this is too long since YouTube reports an average watch time of about 4 minutes right now! But if I break up my videos with one being content-based overview and another being announcements, my guess is that the announcement videos will be watched and the content-based videos ignored completely (by many…though by no means all).

I’ve tried to keep my videos light. I’m not editing them or adding fancy sounds and graphics. Not sure if that’ll impact anything.

Usually, my Advisory meets on Tuesdays, so I’ve invited my advisees to an optional online advisory via Google Meet. The goal is to create some normality. Hopefully, those who join will be able to see friendly faces and realize we’re in this together.

Yesterday, I sent my advisees a Google Form asking them to answer the following questions:

  1. Are you ok/feeling healthy?
  2. Do you have a computer with Internet access?
  3. Have you heard from all of your teachers/checked onCampus (our online hub) for instructions for all of your classes?
  4. Do you feel comfortable using online technologies such as Zoom and Google Meet?

Several have responded. Most of them are doing well. Introverts like me may be fine but I worry about some of my more extroverted advisees and students. I hope they’re connecting with their friends online. I even hope that they’re connecting with people via online gaming. I just want them to be connecting with others. Strange how many of the platforms I worry distract my students from learning are now means of communication I hope they’re using!

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Epistemology and COVID-19

I’m searching for an accessible article or video to share with our school’s Philosophy Club on the topic of epistemology and COVID-19. I see a lot on the topic of how to act like a Stoic during these times but nothing on why trusting experts is not antithetical to being a critical thinker. I’ve got to imagine that someone has written on or created a video about this topic by now.