When a fellow teacher told me that Governor Whitmer was going to speak at 11pm, I shrugged my shoulders and went to bed – we would have school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was wrong. I woke up to the announcement<\/a> that schools would, in fact, be closed effectively immediately – for THREE WHOLE WEEKS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, I did my best to keep any school-related questions to a minimum, realizing that the one thing we all had in common was just the massive uncertainty we were all grappling with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n (My friend\/colleague, Ms. Kubicek, shared her thoughts<\/a> after the news broke.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I tried, and failed, to keep other questions at bay: <\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of students, at-first, reacted to school closings with the same glee as when a snow day is announced, but, try-as-I-may, i could not find any glee – only dread. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As always, the internet provided its usual blend of information and distractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having been in the red<\/a> all week, I did not have the opportunity to “prepare” by going to the grocery store earlier this week, so come Friday *PAYDAY* – it was “too” late: Right or wrong, I would not sacrifice my sanity\/mental health by subjecting myself to the chaos of panic. (Don’t worry – I won’t starve.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n And speaking of mental health<\/a> – I have serious qualms about the next four weeks. Human beings are social animals. Isolation is not natural or healthy. I don’t know about you, but I clocked a lot of hours on Saturday on my phone, and that is NOT how I want to spend the next four weeks. My anxiety has already physically manifested itself in stomach and back pains. Don’t get me started on what being hug-deficient is going to do to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I tried distracting myself by planning for the remote learning which will start on Monday – but the absolute anxiety about not being able to reach all my students overwhelmed me. (Shout-out to the students who helped by re-posting my plea on their IG stories, Snap, and iMessage.) I will not waste time being angry at myself for not knowing how to do cooler, more engaging stuff online – but rather focus on the practicalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan for today is to make a schedule for myself, one that includes eating right, going outside, movement, petting my cats, planning for remote learning, and minimizing time on my phone. <\/strong>The Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents recommends creating a schedule<\/a> in order to make the most of kids’ time<\/a> during these school closures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are like me – it’s hard to wrap your mind around things unless you understand the WHY<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. Here it is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n You know who I am staying home for? The Zahraa Alasadi<\/a>s of the world. And you should too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks for reading. – Mx. Sabbagh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last night was the first night where I lost sleep about what’s going on in the world. Thursday seems like a lifetime ago, when students…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dw8stlw9qt0iz.cloudfront.net\/8helUHVPvP20LeKbM_SlMzQnfMw=\/2000x2000\/filters:format(jpeg):quality(75)\/curiosity-data.s3.amazonaws.com\/images\/content\/thumbnail\/standard\/0cea5417-e0f8-405c-f3f1-08216346cbe7.png\")
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GRAPH from U of M depicting the urgency of taking action to stop the spread.
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