Morning meeting time
We headed into Tuesday hoping to build on the positive first day of our pandemic-induced, fully remote experience for cycle five (assuming Central Texas doesn’t miraculously begin to take the pandemic seriously in the next couple of days). Facilitator Ariel led the morning meeting. Because we had a larger group he needed to balance the need to make space for people to share while protecting people’s time by not having the meeting stretch into the day too much. He started by asking everyone in the meeting to share an offering they were looking forward to over the course of the week. Half of the responses were diverse, and half were not. The diverse responses included free write, Roblox, nature journaling, yoga, bike project, bike project, a check-in with a Facilitator, and Minecraft. And six people said they were looking forward to playing Among Us, again. Facilitator Ariel then asked if anyone learned anything new yesterday. While there were some interesting responses such as there are 1 quadrillion ants roaming the earth (disputed) and dynamic IP isn’t good for whitelists, most of the learnings revolved around Among Us: Abrome Learners are too ‘big-brained’ to lose, being honest can help you win the game, Marlowe bullies me (said in jest), [Learner] is sneaky. While the goal was to keep the meeting short it started to stretch out as a couple of Learners kept jumping in to ask each other questions, set up meetings with Facilitators, or to try to organize gatherings on Discord. Before things got too out of control Facilitator Ariel adjourned the meeting and encouraged folks to communicate with each other on Discord.
After the morning meeting I had offered to tinker around with the Rubik’s cube with Learners who found it fun while we were in person, but with us being remote it just did not move anyone to want to participate. So after waiting around for five minutes I decided to do some easy administrative tasks and prepared for the 7-minute workout. I was pleased to see three folks show up for the workout, and it looks like we will have the same folks showing up each day, with hopefully some Learners dropping in from time to time. We are just holding space for the Learners and inviting them in if they choose.
Coffee and read
Facilitator Ariel followed up the 7-minute workout with a coffee and read offering, where we all grabbed some coffee and sat down to read. Much like my free write offerings the turnout for these offerings are not expected to be very large, and the only people who joined were me and Abrome’s oldest Learner. After getting a tour of all the bikes that Facilitator Ariel has in his apartment (among three people) while we brewed our coffee, we settled down to read. I was reading Curious by Ian Leslie for my Education Conversations book group conversation later in the week, the 18-year-old Abrome Learner was reading These Truths by Jill Lapore, and Facilitator Ariel was reading the Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature. The hour flew by but each of us came away quite pleased with the offering. Even though we were not directly interacting during the offering it was nice to feel as though we were in the same room, drinking our coffee, reading good books.
At noon I decided to join the Among Us offering that was so popular the day before. I joined the Learner who was hosting the offering as well as two other adolescent learners. They had to wait for me to figure out how to download the app on my tablet which had previously only been used to fly the drone, and they waited quite some time before I realized the tablet was so old that it was not able to download the app without a system update. Frustrated they asked if I could just put it on my phone, which I did. We then got to playing. While the Learners all find Among Us to be a fun game I was quite confused. I did not get the point of the game and ended up just running around trying to avoid getting killed. I realized that I could call a meeting so that we could vote to decide who the imposter was and that that was my best hope of winning any rounds. Yet I did not. I’ll give it another go in the future.
The American woodcock
Facilitator Lauren held a nature journaling offering at 1:00 p.m., and an older Learner decided to join her for it. Facilitator Lauren went on a hike just before the offering and saw an American woodcock among some prickly pear cacti, and decided to sketch the bird and share her observations in her journal.
Facilitator Lauren also had two one-on-one check-ins with Learners on Tuesday. Because we are entirely remote one of the Facilitators requests at least one check-in with each Learner each week just to touch base. Some Learners are often around and communicate, while some are only around for the morning and afternoon roundups. We also have two Learners who simply do not like being remote and do not regularly show up for meetings, either. So these one-on-one check-ins are really valuable for many of the Learners, and most certainly for the community, as we try to bridge this remote period during the uncontrolled community spread of Covid-19 in Central Texas.
At 2:00 p.m. I hosted a free write offering and was thrilled that two Learners showed up. The 13-year-old Learner who often shows up for free write during remote periods attended, as did the 18-year-old who was making the most of the offerings that day. The 13-year-old Learner chose to work on a new book that she had hoped to get published, the 18-year-old Learner did some stream of consciousness writing in her journal, and I worked on a blog post about how the problem is not so much remote schooling as it is the pandemic. After the free write was over I looked at the clock and saw that I had just enough time to rush off to a nearby park for my monthly jump in the water as part of my polar bear plunge commitment to the 13-year-old Learner. It was 70 degrees and based on weather forecasts this was as good as it was going to get. It was a cold dip in the water, but I am quite grateful to be in Austin during the winter as opposed to most other parts of the country. February is going to be rough though. I then rushed back to Abrome for the afternoon roundup.
Facilitator Lauren was leading the afternoon roundup and with one fewer attendee than the morning she decided to offer up three prompts. She asked the Learners what offerings they participated in, what the best thing they ate was, and what the best part of their day was. Because many of the Learners did not show up for any offerings they did not have an answer for the first question. But for those who did, the favorite was Among Us, with coffee and read coming in second. Nature journaling, free write, and the 7-minute workout all got a single vote, as well. As for food it ran from the healthy to the unhealthy: leek soup, bananas, dates, eggs, broth, chicken with rice, grilled cheese with turkey, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chocolate chips, ice cream, apple cinnamon Cheerios, Dino Nuggets, and Monster. The favorite part of the everyone’s day unsurprisingly included gaming for many: playing Rogue Lineage, playing Minecraft, playing Fall Guys, hanging with friends online, and playing with friends online. But there was also non-gaming favorites, as well: nature journaling, shaving all the hair off of their head, writing the first part of their new book, journaling, one-on-one with Facilitator Lauren, breathing, doing art, and visiting the greenbelt with a guardian.