Support present and accounted for. Uni-Virginia has no idea what it's doing from what I can tell. Nobody knows who is in-person, off-campus, online, offline... It's chaos. Students are going to arrive without any idea if there are classes! And some haven't got the technology at home, so have to be on campus to learn, so now they're trying to figure out how to make sure everyone is socially distant and remote learning while still on canpus. Or taht was yesterday... Who knwos, right? Our buddy who works there has just about given up on the whole concept of sanity.

At this rate, I really think unis should just say, "OK, remote learning till second semester, and the whole laboratory thing we'll figure out". I'm hearing there's confusion no matter what the institution ----- Ohio State, which is near a friend's home, has yet to give clear information and classes technically start Monday!

All that to say... it's chaos everywhere. Hugs and purrs, Muji. YOu're not alone!

And rant away here. :-) We got ya.

There is lots of confusion out there and the rules keep changing. Keep venting here. Support and hugs.

I'm so glad that you're teaching via Zoom Muji.... I'm glad that your first day went well.... Big hug......xo

I am happy to hear that you will be able to teach online, Muji. This must be a relief? But online teaching can have its challenges.

I think many of the schools are in the same boat. However a lot of colleges offer online courses, but providing streaming for all their courses takes a lot of bandwidth. Many of our schools are closed because of the fires.

I have been teaching by zoom, Will you be using zoom, WebEx , Teams or another platform? I think Microsoft Teams is a better platform for teaching as compared to WebEx and Zoom. I use Zoom with a wide angle conference camera for teaching Tai Chi because it’s cost effective. However I have had occasional corrupted links which has caused problems when it has occurred. I am taking some online classes on WebEx and the instructors have had problems seeing everyone in their classes because of the WebEx layout.

This will definitely be a year of learning by trial and error. You have worked so hard preparing your lessons, Muji. You are a very talented person in many ways and I know you’ll do great no matter what happens. Best Wishes.

I didn't get online here at DS all day until 6pm because my community college's classes start on Monday all online and there at technical things to do. My full time weekday job uses Microsoft Teams, but my weekend minister job at my two little parishes uses Zoom. They're really similar but not the same.

I preach a sermon via Zoom for the first time Sunday morning, so this week is full of a lot of firsts. I keep reminding myself that Rome wasn't built in a day, and we're really rebuilding a lot of our social spaces in this pandemic.

Glad the changes on DS's web platform got done 2 years ago or so. They were hard to get used to, a lot of long time members quit. Getting through it then, though, means for me that DS is a constant now when so much else is up in the air technologically.

Wish me luck on Zoom on Sunday and on Microsoft Teams all next week starting Monday. Support welcome.

Good luck, Muji. Sounds like you got it under control. I know you will do great. Sending you support and wishes for a successful class,

I’m learning too. Trying to teach Tai Chi over zoom can be challenging. I have two dogs so I end up teaching from my bedroom so I can close the door in case they bark. I’ am use to teaching in an open space, so teaching in a much smaller space is a challenge, I also am use to using teaching aids such as balls, theraband bars and other things that help strengthen and help with recovery. Because my students don’t have these aids at home, My lesson plan now includes more isometric exercises My students are great and keep saying how much they enjoy class. My class is growing and my local hospital has asked me to teach a portion of pain management in the spring and have referred some of their patients to me. I enjoy teaching. and it helps me with my recovery.

Prepping today for Zoom at church tomorrow, then on to creating one "Team" per each of my 5 classes via Microsoft Teams on Monday. Each of those "Teams" has to be populated with the correct email address for each student so they have access to my live stream via our college's learning management system which we switched this year from Blackboard to D2L Brightspace. That along with the usual updating of syllabus dates to match the future new semester.

Lots of balls in the air, and my college could offer no training on any of this over the summer. All it could do was send out a printed manual of instructions on how to do it, and that didn't arrive until yesterday Friday with classes to begin the following Monday.

Thank goodness I got my textbook company's computer tech to meet with me via Zoom every Fri over the summer to teach me how to convert face to face lesson plans to online instruction. And thank goodness a coworker who teaches math at my college met with me 3 times a week all summer via Zoom so we would figure out how to do live streaming on our own before school started on Monday. I'm really grateful for a buddy at work and outside help to get ready for this big switch.

I hope that your sermon on Zoom goes really well sweetie.....

Not a very relaxing weekend with all that you have to prepare for...... Big squishy hug....

Let us know how the next couple of days goes for you?.... Will you?.... xo

Muji, you are so caring. It’s great that you give back to the community by offering online church and through your professions at the college. Like, SunCloud mentioned, let us know how it goes. Hope everything goes well. It’s too bad the college did not offer more support, but it’s great that you had the support of your buddy and co-worker. Best wishes.

I'm up extra early this Sunday morning because I have my first Zoom public speaking gig coming up this morning for a church that hired me as guest speaker so I'm in pre-public speaking more. I want to work off some excess energy before I log on with them at 10:30am.

There's nothing further to do in preparation, not technically nor in writing the speech itself. The speech's all done and the technical preparations are all laid out and set. It's just the waiting now, but as the late great Tom Petty put it, the waiting is the hardest part....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnTE1dlJCFA

Then in the afternoon on to pre-first day of school more. I'm prepared for that, too, though there's always something to tweak, something to polish. Mostly, though, the afternoon will be more of what Tom Petty said, the waiting....

"The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part"

True.

I was up until 2am last night working on my syllabus for starting school today, but I got it done. A lot had to be changed. It took 5 hours straight of work for me to rewrite everything to shift so fast from years of face to face teaching to 100% online teaching. But it's done now. I need to get some rest today.

I hope work goes well today and you can get some rest in Muji.... Big hug.....xo

It went well yesterday, SC. Thanks!

I got some rest, as you said, it was good. I'm already tired again today, though, and it's just the second day of classes. Being all online means live streaming via computer from home, which involves a whole bunch of tech issues for the first time. I guess it takes some time to get used to all of this.

I think it takes extra effort to teach online, Muji. I hope today is less challenging and goes well for you. Thanks for the Tom Petty song. I agree waiting is the hardest part. Did all your classes fill up? You mentioned that classes were going to offer them to high schoolers? Hope you get some rest. Have a good day Muji