Day 72 of AY20-21: Check-in and Change-up day

Friday morning came and I checked the pandemic numbers and they are getting no better, but at least they seem to have plateaued, even if temporarily. It’s pretty apparent that we are not going to have any hope of meeting in-person as a community in January and I seriously question whether or not we will be able to meet in-person in February. I am thankful that we are in a community of people who take the pandemic seriously, but I am so disappointed that so few other communities are doing the same, leaving us doing the right thing be being entirely remote, while all the local schools continue to bring students, teachers, and staff indoors.

The morning meeting on the last day of our second week of the fifth cycle of the pandacadmic year had light attendance. It seems as the remote experience is drawn out that some of the Learners are less eager to get out of bed and log in, even though we have a most reasonable 10 a.m. meeting time. At the morning meeting we pointed out that in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, that we would not be in session on Monday. So we discussed ways that we might be able to focus on supporting our communities, serving others, or engaging in racial justice.

Next, Facilitator Lauren led her first remote Check-in and Change-up. The awarenesses raised during the Check-in were that sometimes people were not showing up for all the meetings, and people sometimes complain about the length of the meetings. While all Learners agree to stick around with the Check-in to propose awarenesses, sticking around for the Change-up is optional. The Change-up is where we decide whether or not an awareness should be added to our Community Awareness Board, and then we identify the relevant needs for the awareness, and come up with practices that we will use to co-create the culture together. Three of the Learners stuck around for the entirety of the Change-up, which felt good. The six of us decided to add both new awarenesses to the board, with two new practices for each awareness. We also decided that we felt good about the awareness of keeping an eye and an ear for weird creatures.

The Check-in and Change-up is the longest meeting of the week, so we jumped right into the 7-minute workout as soon as we adjourned the meeting. The usual crew showed up for the workout, and afterward we had a short discussion about how the workouts have been treating us. We are all doing well.

After the 7-minute workout I jumped right into the daily free write where an adolescent Learner once again joined me. I said I would use the block of time to work on a blog post and she said she was going to continue writing her book. 50 minutes later we checked in with each other to see how we were doing. I told her how I was just trying to keep putting out recaps of the days at Abrome during this pandacademic, and that the daily free write would help me do that. I then asked her how her writing was coming along. She told me that her writing was going really well, and that if she keeps writing regularly that she believes she can meet her goal of finishing the book by June!

Next up Facilitator Lauren was hosting an exciting offering called kitchen fun. Facilitator Ariel and an older Learner decided to join in on the offering, although they showed up mostly as spectators. Facilitator Lauren was in the process of making two types of biscuits—vegan cheesy garlic biscuits and cinnamon walnut raisin biscuits. Facilitator Lauren said that the former turned out disgusting, but the latter were pretty good, especially when they were slathered in almond butter. And although the Learner who showed up planned to be a spectator, she did eventually leave her room and head to the kitchen.

Facilitator Ariel hosted an online gaming offering which has not drawn in as many Learners as expected. When Facilitator Ariel was on he did see that the newly enrolled Learner who has not been showing up for any meetings was online playing a game, so Facilitator Ariel sent him a message. Unfortunately the Learned did not respond. We will continue to hold space for the Learner in the hopes that he will drop in at some point while we are remote, so that when we come back together in-person he will feel right at home.

There was a much better turnout from the Learners for the afternoon roundup. Most of our time in the afternoon roundup was spent in reflection via rose-bud-thorn, except it was for the week and not the day, and the bud was forward looking focused on the coming weekend. The roses for the week included reading and writing, working on my bike, natural dyes, I got a job!, played Tradelands, breathing, playing Minecraft, got a couple new projects to work on, getting my phone fixed, playing Among Us, getting a lot of work done on my book, finally completed Jurassic World Evolution, playing a creatures game on Roblox, and I got a lot of music work done.

The thorns for the week included not enough outdoor time, not enough players for Among Us, the final products in natural dyes were not great, not having much to do today, dungeons bot doesn’t work, not breathing enough, playing (too much) Minecraft, didn’t go out enough, not being able to talk to an important person in their life, we cannot be in person because of Covid-19, I’m getting sick, I drank a big smoothie and feel bloated, having to stop playing video games, and not going outside much.

Looking forward to the weekend the buds were the info session and open house scheduled for Saturday, playing soccer, spending as much time outside as possible, getting dungeon bot to work, breathing, playing Minecraft, working on the new projects, having my nana over, natural dyes, having a plan to publish my book, eating pizza tonight!, and going to Houston. One of the Learners then asked if we could do gratitudes to end the meeting. We adjourned the afternoon roundup and invited folks to stick around for gratitudes. The Learner then expressed that she was grateful for “going down a better path in life.”