First dispatch from home - Coronavirus closes schools and changes life as we know it

Donning protective gear before going shopping.

It's been 11 days since all schools in Massachusetts were closed by Governor Charlie Baker, as a new form of a virus called COVID-19 made its way to the U.S. from China, infecting nearly half a million known people as of this writing.

In an effort to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus, the governor issued a stay-at-home advisory and closed all non-essential businesses.

As a high school teacher and parent of two girls under six, my days have been spent trying to provide enrichment activities for my students while also trying to fill the role of my daughters' teachers. And this is in addition to performing our normal household tasks. As my wife is also a teacher, she's in a similar boat, feeling the pull and tug between our kids, her students, and our regular roles as parents. It's been a challenge.

As we work to deal with this new conception of domestic life, folks in the medical field are taking on the Herculean task of helping those afflicted with the virus amidst a shortage of basic protective gear and necessary medical equipment. And a host of people, ranging from police and firefighters to grocery store clerks, postal deliverers, restaurant employees, and utility workers are trying to keep the basic tenants of civilization going despite the ever-growing risk of infection.

Given that we'll be out of school until at least May, I figured it would be a good idea to start documenting my thoughts and experiences during this unprecedented time in some kind of formalized way. I plan to invite my students to do the same.

Fellow educators like Kelly Gallagher and Kevin Hodgson have created some suggestions for journaling here and here. With schools unsure of how to proceed with remote instruction, I can think of nothing better than encouraging students to create written records of this time which could serve as primary source documents for the future. In my opinion, this is not the time to be doing packet work or trying to do what we normally do virtually. Nothing about this time is normal, and we should lean into that, rather than grasp vainly at old paradigms in hope they'll give us the meaning and structure we're looking for.

A friend posted the following list of questions on her Facebook page today. I feel they speak to what's important at the moment.