On Tuesday, February 9th, I woke up and looked at the latest Covid-19 indicators for Austin and saw that we were perhaps only a couple of days away from breaking into risk stage level four territory, at least according to daily hospital admissions. While most people focus on the downward trend I hope that they still recognize that we are in a worse place in Central Texas than we were at any other point in the pandemic other than at the heights of this wave and the summer wave, and that just because numbers are improving does not mean that community spread is not still taking place, nor that any single person who gets infected can seed a future superspreader event or even host the next mutation of the virus. That’s why we handed out N95s to our community, and that’s why even if we were to go to stage level four we would still be outdoors in small cells, mask up near each other, and have one cell of higher risk Learners remain remote.

Facilitator Lauren opened the morning meeting by reviewing the community awareness board and then asking for announcements. A Learner jumped in and said that the city had just moved to pandemic risk stage level four, which means we can be together in-person again! People acknowledged that they saw the post she shared in Discord. I was shocked, as I did not think the city would move to stage level four quite yet, especially considering we do not know if Super Bowl parties may have served as superspreader events here in Central Texas. Nonetheless, it was pretty exciting news and I immediately began to draft an email to families to let them know that we would be in-person the next day!!

Back in the meeting, Facilitator Lauren’s prompt asked us what is something that we are excited about as we go back to in-person, and what is something that we will miss being remote, or are nervous about. The answers about what we were excited about were joyful: being with you, drawing, painting; seeing all of you and being in a cell with Facilitator Antonio; spontaneous conversations; bike rides and painting with Facilitator Lauren; playing outside; hanging [out]; getting back into a cycle or routine again; seeing friends; being Cuddle Buddies Ivan and Ingrid; hang out with each other again. One person passed since they will be remote even in stage level four. And the young Learner who said he was excited to paint with Facilitator Lauren assured Facilitator Ariel that he was still his homie. Cute because he’s an eight-year-old. There were fewer responses about what we will miss about being remote or are nervous about: the cold; no more coffee and read or free write offerings; no access to video games; playing Minecraft; being able to work on my [digital] art all the time; being at home; missing offerings; no more Among Us. Of course gaming will still be an option, just not the preferred option for most when we are able to be with each other outdoors.

After the meeting I sent off the email to families saying we’d be in-person. Then I checked the weather for the next day. Oops. The weather was taking a turn for the worse and it seemed unlikely that we would be able to actually meet. When there is lightning we stay indoors. I immediately sent a follow up email saying that our meeting was dependent upon weather conditions, and that it did not look promising. What a downer.

Immediately following the morning meeting (that ran a few minutes over because of the excitement surrounding being able to be together again) I had two consecutive one-to-one check-ins with adolescent Learners, while Facilitator Lauren had a check-in with a young Learner. In my check-ins we focused on being back together again, and both Learners said they were happy that this remote period was coming to an end. One of them even said they were hyped. After the check-ins I moved right into the 7-minute workout with the usual crew, crushed it, and then we gave each other high fives before going our separate ways.

Except I joined Facilitator Ariel for coffee and read, which has been a super relaxing and enjoyable offering that I wish some Learners would show up for. While I am not anti-gaming, I do wish that Learners would spend more of their time reading. To be fair, I did not read when I was growing up since I developed an aversion to it because of mandated reading in school, and maybe that is what is happening for the Abrome Learners who were formerly schooled. Nonetheless, the Facilitators have no problem modeling how enjoyable and enriching self-chosen reading is, and hopefully the previously schooled Learners will catch the bug.

At 12:00 p.m. a Learner hosted his Among Us offering. He lobbied for folks to show up for the offering at the morning meeting, and on this day none of the Facilitators could join because we all had conflicts, so we were worried that none would show. Surprisingly, two Learners did show. At the same time Facilitators Ariel and Lauren both had one-to-one check-ins with adolescent Learners. The former check-in blew past the allotted time for the check-in. Different Learners need different levels of attention during the check-ins. Some check-ins only last five minutes, and some need to be cut off.

Facilitator Ariel then went to a park in central Austin to meet up with a recently enrolled Learner who has not found much benefit to the remote experience during stage level five. Like last week, Facilitator Ariel was able to connect more with the Learner in a short time in a park than in all the meetings that the Learner may have been able to attend in-person, if he would have attended in-person. The Learner said they were excited to be in person soon, and Facilitator Ariel agreed.

At the same time Facilitator Lauren was leading a yoga offering that would have the same number of Learners attending as my free write offering the following hour—zero. We cannot wait to be back in-person! I then had another one-to-one check-in with an adolescent Learner as did Facilitator Lauren. Afterward Facilitator Lauren had a support call with one of the guardians of a Learner to discuss some of their struggles with their non-Abrome child who was enrolled in a local progressive, conventional school. When talking to families about the struggles their other kids are having with school we do our best not to slam on the school and their schoolish ways, although it is hard, but Facilitator Lauren did the best she could.

The afternoon roundup was started at 3:30 p.m. by Facilitator Ariel. He reviewed the practices, opened up for announcements, and then we each shared one way we can carry over practices we’ve had during this remote experience back into the outdoors: setting alarms to keep myself on-time; practicing saying “let’s focus” when conversation goes astray; actively listening; actively listening; commit to actively listening; actively listening; not talking over other people; meaningfully participate in meetings. All great practices and it is clear that actively listening is striking a chord. Unfortunately, only nine people showed up for the afternoon roundup. Did I mention we cannot wait to be in-person again?

After the after action review by the Facilitators I got ready for my Agile Learning Centers book group discussion of Progressive Dystopia, the book that I was reading during the coffee and chat. The book has quite harshly exposed the shortcomings of so-called progressive attempts to humanize and turn an oppressive system into one of liberation, particularly for Black students. Many folks argue that we must work within the established systems if we want to free children, and I’ve long argued that power won’t allow that to happen. Progressive Dystopia shows how right I was, and how futile attempted liberation through oppressive systems is.

After the book group was over I began to pack for our first day of in-person since December, weather permitting!