Items

• 
  2021-01-22

  Night Sprints

  We have a balance beam upstairs. Since quarantine, we’ve added a trampoline and a tumble trak. All the years of vowing to have my daughter only due gymnastics at the gym has ended because she hasn’t set foot in the gym since March 2020. Even a few months ago, we were talking about having her return in the fall, but with the spike that started in October, there was no way. I want to support her the best I can, because she is passionate about her sport. Even though she is never going to be an Olympian or collegiate gymnast, she does well at our local and state meets and continuing to practice everyday (even on the days she complains) gives her that light she needs at the end of the tunnel. The knowledge that when this ends, she can return to the world of competitive gymnastics and all her friends on her team is one of the things that keeps her going. But I’m not a gymnastics coach. Until quarantine, I didn’t know what half the skills were. And we have no bars, and no vault. But there is one thing I can do - run. I figure the practice videos, (thanks Paul Hamm and Amanda Borden), the twice a week live zoom practices (thank you Kazio Acrobatics & Gymnastics, who, though not being my daughter’s gym and being 400 miles away, graciously extended their online classes to anyone in the country when this all began), and the at home training schedule of conditioning and skills her gym sent in March takes care of the floor and the beam. Bars is a lost cause, I hope some muscle memory remains for her. But the vault, which is her highest scoring event, is powered by running. I love running, and her coach used to tell me that gymnasts notoriously hate running, but it is a skill that really helps with vaulting. I figured I may not be able to do a back handspring, but I can teach my kid to run. So three times a week, I make her run. She is NOT a fan of the mile on the treadmill, but she seems to genuinely enjoy sprinting. On Friday, she was bummed because it got dark before she could make it out to sprint. So to make it fun, we figured we’d just sprint in the dark with lights. Was I secretly trying to train her to hold a baton? Maybe. Or maybe I’m just trying to keep hope alive for the kid. She’s 10, and before Covid, the longest stretches she has had from the gym is two weeks, and that is only when we go on vacation. So she basically has lived at that gym since the summer before she was 3. If she wants to continue competing, I will do anything I can to keep those muscles in shape so she can return. And if I end up training a new running partner in the process, what a win.
• 
  2021-01-25

  A Semester of Outfits

  I haven’t grown in height since junior high school, and, as a result, I have A LOT of clothes. As sort of a fun game for myself and my students, I do not repeat an outfit through the 180 days of the school year. When school shut down in March, I switched to permanently in joggers, since I no longer left the house. When we began synchronous Distance Learning in August, I knew it was really important for my mental health and to try and portray a sense of normalcy for my students to still dress just like I was going to teach in person in a normal year. Since I don’t get to see all my students five days a week due to our block scheduling format for Distance Learning, I decided to post my outfit to my class Instagram each day, as an “ootd,” just for fun. It’s become sort of an interesting keepsake of my pandemic experience. If you look beyond the outfits and into my eyes you can tell the days I was anxious, worried, tired about the rising case counts, the unknowns, the state of our country, and locally, the true fear of whether they would force us to return to teaching in person. But the pictures also capture that in between the ever rising death toll, wildfires, political discord, racial tension, Capitol riots, life had to keep moving forward. And even during a semester of turmoil, you can see a lot of pictures show joy behind my eyes... and not only when the Dodgers won the World Series, allowing me to retire my 1988 World Series shirt! A new semester starts today, we’ll see what the expression in my eyes says about the state of the pandemic and the world in the weeks to come.
• 
  2021-01-19

  The Happy Little Chef

  The media focuses a lot on the losses children are facing during the pandemic. And while I certainly would prefer that the virus was contained and my son would be able to attend school in person, take piano lessons with his piano teacher beside him instead of on a Facetime call, and play with a friend outside of his older sister, my six year old son is genuinely enjoying quarantine. I realize this is a privilege - we have a backyard, space, two working adults who can afford food and technology, and a live-in grandma who can help with any distance learning issues. But my son seems to be thriving in this much simpler and quieter life. We always did a lot together as a family, but we did not spend a lot of time actually at home. Now that we’ve been home together for over ten months, we have settled into this new life that involves my son helping my husband make dinner every night. And he LOVES it. It’s not as though he had never cooked before, but to be able to do it every night, side by side with his dad is an experience he did not have in our pre-quarantine life that was much faster paced and on the go. Many nights, the little chef will bring me a menu that outlines the dinner and asks for my order. He takes such pride in telling all of us what parts of the meal he was in charge of. He assures us he is both the owner and the “cooker” of the restaurant and that his daddy is his employee. When dinner is over, he asks to take my plate, and has recently become very interested in washing all the dinner dishes himself (no complaints here). I certainly long for the day that we can go back out in the world, but I feel very blessed that my son will be able to look back at this year with happiness, even in the midst of such a dire situation.
• 
  2021-01-18

  Filling the Void with Food...and Failing

  Food is the centerpiece of all of our family gatherings, even the informal ones. Before quarantine, my in-laws would drop by regularly, and always with enough food for an army. In the almost twenty years I have known my mother in law, I have never seen her without being given food - even if it’s a fresh bao she pulls out of her purse (true story - this happened at my kids’ student of first trimester awards last year (pre-Covid). I saw her for a total of 20 minutes, just enough time to watch my son and daughter get their awards and dash back to work, and that saint of a woman gave me three warm bao she had picked up on the way from a local bakery. “Pretty good” she said, which is her seal of approval.) It is hard to admit as I type this that I have not physically seen my in-laws beyond waving through the front window when they drop off homemade jook (rice porridge) since March. We Facetime with them and text, but it is not the same. That is a long time to be away from people that have a house less than five miles from ours. My in-laws are over 70 and a huge part of our lives, to lose this year with them hurts in ways I can’t describe. And culturally, food is their “I love you” - they don’t say the words, they show it through sharing food. And we haven’t had a meal together in almost a year. My husband still cooks Chinese dishes. On Monday, we had 蔥 油 餅 (green onion pancake), dumplings, Hong Kong waffle, shrimp with peas and lumpia (yes, I know, that’s really Filipino, but it’s sort of a staple in our family), and it was delicious. But there is this odd shadow that sort of hangs over our meal, knowing how much his parents would have loved to share it with us. And yes, we Facetimed them so the kids could show them how well the waffle turned and my mother-in-law said she couldn’t wait to come over and try it. The feeling is very, very mutual.
• 
  2021-01-16

  Becoming Boba Experts

  One of our family’s favorite treats is boba and in our area, boba shops are as ubiquitous as Starbucks. Even though transmission of COVID through food is seen as a minimal risk, the process of going into a tiny boba shop to order and wait doesn’t seem worth the risk for an item that is not really essential. After years of vowing to never make boba at home (too much stirring), my husband caved in and ordered instant boba online. We were skeptical - would it really taste as good as the boba shops? Would the texture be right? Making it is a little time consuming, but we were surprised that the taste and texture are exactly right, even at home. My husband, who has always liked brewing different loose leaf teas, has gotten much more into perfecting the “perfect tea.” He has had a fun time experimenting with different teas and sweetness levels, and although I miss the different jellies and other flavors that you can get at a boba shop, I have to admit I am impressed at how easily we were able to conquer making something we never would have attempted without COVID. Added bonus - over the past two plus decades, I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of plastic that is wasted with a boba drink (the plastic cups, lids, and giant plastic straws). Even with straws technically outlawed and the growing popularity of reusable boba straws, loopholes and lack of enforcement allowed most people to still use disposable plastic straws and the plastic cups and lids. When we make boba at home, there is no plastic involved, nothing is thrown away, and we use our reusable straws. An upside of COVID will be that it hopefully helps us to make small changes (like making our own boba and tea) to our lives to lessen our carbon footprints.
• 
  2021-01-14

  The End of an Era with Mickey Mouse for Californians

  Since 1988, my annual pass has made Disneyland my second home. Growing up within walking distance of the park, randomly deciding to Disneyland to hang out was a normal part of our day. Bored after school? Want to go out to dinner? Want somewhere to walk around? Popping into Disneyland was the answer. It's not just that I spent nearly every 4th of July, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, birthdays, and whatever other holiday there is there, spur of the moment visits for us are like a non Californian deciding to go to Starbucks. Shoot, when my grandparents took me to the park to play as a kid, they meant going to Tom Sawyer's island - to us "the park" is synonymous with what most people call "Disneyland." Married with my own family now, swinging into the park on the regular is still our normal. Before the pandemic, we were at Disneyland a minimum of once a week, even if it was just to go on a couple of rides and grab a bite to eat. Today. for the past two hours, my phone has been buzzing like crazy with people messaging me about the news. As one friend said "it's like our safe space has disappeared." Disneyland has always represented a safe space, a respite from stress and pain and reality. The pandemic truly wasn't real to me until March 12, when Disneyland announced it was temporarily closing its gates by the weekend. We rushed to the park, and, as you can see in my Instagram post, I naively thought we'd be back by April. Reality hadn't set in. Still, through these 10+ months of being home, knowing that we would eventually be back at Disneyland was a beacon of hope. Acknowledging that life after COVID is going to change in ways we didn't consider is setting in now. I realize for someone who didn't grow up in the shadow of the castle, this all probably seems strange. But losing daily access to the place you have been the most for the past 33 years is a sobering moment.
• 
  2020-12-25

  Garage or Roller Disco?

  With quarantine entering its eleventh month, and looking for ways to exercise when it ‘s cold or wet outside, we turned to our garage and roller blades. With 70s disco and r&b bumping, it’s not too hard to pretend we’re at the roller disco. Time to get on Amazon and get some colored lights! Anything to keep us active and having fun even as the pandemic outside these walls shows no sign of slowing.
• 
  2020-12-24

  McDonald’s At Home

  Home cooked meals have always been the norm for us, but in our pre-COVID lives of working full time, gymnastics competitions, church commitments, piano lessons, Kumon, trips to Disneyland and on and on, eating out definitely factored into to our lives at least once a week. In March, that came to a grinding halt. With COVID cases in our area high, and being fortunate to work from home, we quit restaurant food cold turkey when quarantine began in hopes that the numbers would decrease. Ten months later, with daily case rates of COVID in our county now reaching into the 1000s, restaurant food is a distant memory. It was a bit shocking to realize we’ve only had restaurant food five times since March, and each time it was dropped off on our porch for a special occasion. With the kids begging for McDonald’s, we almost caved in December when the McRib commercials started. Instead of giving in, we spent December tackling the challenge of making McDonald’s at home. Big Macs, Egg McMuffins, McDonald’s pies, and yes, even the McRib made it to our homemade menu. It’s been a really fun challenge to try and get the taste just right. Also, a very odd and strange Christmas Eve to attend Christmas Eve service online and then to eat homemade Big Macs. But then, there was something perfect about it, too. What can I say? It’s a good time for a great taste in quarantine.
• 
  2020-10-31

  Halloween At Home

  Halloween is usually a month long celebration at our house. We plan our costumes months in advance. We go to Disneyland at least a dozen times to enjoy the special Halloween treats, decorations, and to wear the insane amount of Disney Halloween shirts we own. On Halloween night, we serve at our church running game booths for the community and come home just in time to trick or treat (and usually get A LOT of candy because we’re some of the last trick or treaters). This year, of course, every single thing listed above was cancelled. With so many disappointments this year, we committed to making Halloween a celebration from morning until night. Making our own backyard carnival, the kids bobbed for apples, carved pumpkins and played Halloween soccer (okay, it was just soccer but we were in costumes!) My daughter was over the moon to have us all dress as Hogwarts students, except for her little brother who dressed as her owl. Lunch included ghost shaped chips, jack-o-lantern quesadillas, grape “eye balls,” and guacamole in a jack-o-lantern pepper. To make dinner extra special, we brought out the fondue set we registered for when we got married over 15 years ago and never opened. The kids loved a dinner of dipping into cheese and chocolate. The one thing my son repeated all of October was he wanted to “trick or treat to all the doors in the house.” Undaunted, we turned off most of the lights, put a bowl of candy inside every door in the house, and put either an adult or a dressed up stuffed animal (there’s only three adults here and way more doors) at each door. The kids were genuinely excited to trick or treat and actually knocked at every single door, and gleefully filled their bags with candy. It’s easy to focus on all that has been lost this year, but this simple, stress free, at home Halloween may have ended up their favorite one ever.
• 
  2020-07-25

  Orange County Fair at Home!

  It is a huge summer tradition in our family to go to the Orange County Fair. Even when we go somewhat ironically, we always have a great time. When the fair was cancelled this year, my mom and I decided we would run the fair for my kids at our house. We went all in. We made a “photo booth” and a theme, to emulate the somewhat cheesy themes the fair has every year. My daughter made rides and games, with tickets for purchase. There was an art exhibit, and a “carnival of products” where my daughter “sold” suncatchers she and her brother made. We awarded items in our garden with fair ribbons. And, most importantly, we home made every fair food you can imagine - Orange Julius, soft pretzels, sausages, grilled corn, corn dogs, funnel cake and more. Orange County Fair 2020, COVID, Quarantined, and Closed actually turned out to be a pretty amazing day!
• 
  2020-07-30

  Plant Surprise

  At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, our area was overrun with invasive “ankle biter” mosquitoes. My students and I were constantly bitten, and I eventually bought a “mosquito repelling” plant from Home Depot. I’m not sure it actually worked, but it was a nice addition to my classroom. On March 16, my last day before we were sent home, I put my plant outside to enjoy the rain, thinking I’d be back in a couple of weeks, like we had planned. I didn’t set foot in my classroom again until July 30. I thought of my little plant often, and was sad imagining it drying out, or getting thrown away. Imagine my shock when I drove up to my classroom to grab some items from my room to prepare to start Distance Learning for the new year and seeing my beloved plant quadrupled in size! I grabbed my items from my classroom, marveled at how it was a bit like Chernobyl with everything frozen on March 13, the last date the students were in school, and went to grab my plant to safely take home. We found it had actually broken through its pot and rooted itself into the ground. My husband (who drove with me) dug it out and I replanted it in my yard. I see my plant as sort of this odd symbol of hope and resilience in 2020. Despite being put in a situation where it was expected to die, it managed to fight, grow and thrive. I’d like to think that in this year of upheaval, we’d all be able to do the same.
• 
  2020-06-13

  Art at Home

  As part of a virtual Girl Scout camp out, Karis, age 9, participates in a virtual art class to paint her version of "Starry Night." Girls Scouts has had activities every week of the summer to help girls continue to thrive.
• 
  2020-07-20

  "I Am" Poem Classroom Lesson

  "I Am" poem to be used in conjunction with the archives by classroom teachers.
• 
  2020-07-18

  Using the Archive Classroom Lesson

  Classroom lesson using the JOTPY archive. Designed for 6 -12 grade students.
• 
  2020-07-18

  Found Poem Lesson

  6 - 12 lesson using the archive to create found poetry.
• 
  2020-07-01

  Our First Trip Out

  My kids and I have not left our street since March due to the continual rise in cases. Despite an all time high and no desire to venture out, my Girl Scout troop needed their cookie prizes and the materials for our end of the year, virtual “Bridging” ceremony. I decided to drop the items on the girls’ doorsteps, wearing a mask, and not actually ring a doorbell but instead text from the safety of my car. Basically, run out, run back to the car. To do so, I enlisted my mom (who lives with us) to drive to lessen the variables for infection. Realizing my kids might want to see the world outside our street, I allowed them to ride in the car. I figured the risk was minimal because I was coming into contact with no one. Both kids have been keeping “quarantine” journals and I found their reflections interesting. My daughter was agitated that so many people we saw were not wearing masks. When we went out, our area had just been re-opened, despite a continual rise in cases. Our state has seen an 80% increase over the last two weeks and, as of today, is re-closing “indoor businesses.” My son, on the other hand, seemed relieved to see that McDonald’s still existed and had an open sign. He told us he was happy everything was “in order.” It makes me wonder what he thought was happening beyond our street. I did stop to take one picture, of our local playground. I was so surprised that every park we passed had the playgrounds roped off. It makes sense, but was eerie to see. I don’t foresee us venturing out again soon.
• 
  2020-06-30

  Three Months without Fast Food

  Fear of COVID-19 has kept us from ordering any restaurant food, even take out or delivery, since March. Then, during the second week of June, my kids won a contest at (virtual) Sunday school where the prize was the children’s pastor delivering dinner of the kids’ choice to our house, and my husband’s work gave everyone Grub hub credit for their virtual end of the year party. Worn down by hunger, I relented and we got McDonald’s (for the kids’ prize) and Cali Tacos (from Grubhub). Not having either for so long, we may have gone a little overboard with our orders. It did take 20 minutes before we ate, because I removed all the wrappers wearing gloves, transferred the food to plates, threw all trash outside, and washed vigorously hands before we ate. It’s been two weeks, so I’m hoping it was safe. It’s a strange experience, we were used to having 85 Degrees or Starbucks at least once a week. It’s like when I was a kid and restaurant food was a special treat.
• 
  2020-06-08

  No State, No Regionals

  My daughter was having the gymnastics season of her life in 2020, placing in every event at every meet, and even reaching #19 on America’s Top 100 for vault for her level. One of the last places we went before quarantine in March was a gymnastics competition and I remember being uneasy at the crowds and the fact that the girls used the same apparatuses and equipment throughout the day. No one else seemed concerned, and when I asked if State Championships were still happening, everyone looked at me like I was insane. Of course, two weeks later, everything shut down. She has now been away from gym for over three months - the longest she’s been without her coaches since she was 3 - and both State Championships and Regionals were cancelled. No word on whether there will even be a 2021 season. To keep up the morale of the team, her gym sent information about a virtual State Championship, where gymnastics could submit videos from previous meets and judges would watch and score. I submitted without telling her, because I wasn’t sure what to expect. When she received medals and a champion t-shirt in the mail because she scored 1st All Around for her level (first in every event) she looked happier than she has since quarantine began. It’s not USA Gymnastics sanctioned, so it doesn’t “count,” but to my daughter, it is as real as any in person meet and was exactly what she needed to have closure to what had been an amazing season. We don’t know when she’ll go back - her gym opened three weeks ago, but with numbers rising dramatically in our area, the risk isn’t worth it for us. Competitions are fun, and my daughter loves her sport and is extremely dedicated, but a healthy and alive daughter is way more important to us than medals in a coffin.
• 
  2020-06-29

  Virtual Racing

  As a runner, a personal loss for me was my racing season. Though I’m not an elite runner, competitive running is a very important part of my life. In April, I discovered a virtual 19K, which I entered and completed, and thought the coronavirus medal was an interesting artifact of this experience. In May, as racially motivated murders became part of the public consciousness, I was happy to see one of the organizations I race with (Rock It Racing) was hosting a virtual “Rock it for Justice” race. No awards were given, participants were asked to wear black while running and all donations (including from purchasing shirts) were given to the Equal Justice Initiative. I signed myself and my 3rd grader up, and it was a great conversation starter for talking about issues of race inequity and incarceration with my daughter. On a lighter note, the AP Read (for scoring AP exams) was done entirely virtually this year. A “lazy marathon” was held for Readers who ran, biked, or swam certain distances during the 9 day read. It took me 2 days to hit 26.2 miles!
• 
  2020-05-09

  Virtual Girl Scout Meeting

  When the stay at home order was called in California, our Brownie Troop was planning for an overnight experience that weekend that had to be cancelled. Then our local Girl Scout council announced the closure of all activities through the rest of March. As the weeks progressed and it became clear all of planned activities would be postponed, we switched to a virtual platform as an experiment. During our first meeting, we just played games over Zoom, because we weren't sure how valuable and fun it would be virtually, but were pleasantly surprised how much the girls liked it. Over Mother's Day weekend, we held a virtual meeting where we had the girls make a COVID-19 virtual capsule, as well as make a Mother's Day craft for an important woman in their lives. We dropped off the supplies to each girls' house (no contact) and facilitated making the craft over zoom.
• 
  2020-05-05

  Girl Scouts Virtual Experience

  With all in person Girl Scout activities cancelled or postponed, Girl Scouts has been hosting virtual experiences for girls. In this one, Karis (Brownie, age 9), participates in a Q & A with a female astronaut. She was excited to have her question answered, as well as to learn how toilets work in space.
• 
  2020-05-15

  AP US History Exam Celebration Social Distance-Style

  The day of the AP exam is usually a huge celebration, where I decorate the room for a giant pre-party, with every kids' name on the wall, cupcakes, brownies, balloons, confetti - the works. It is always a surprise for them - then we take a picture in our matching t-shirts, they go test, and afterwards (around lunch), they come back and we have a post party. This year, this could not happen. I made each of my 175 students a TikTok, and then we had a zoom after the test. The celebration is usually one of my favorite days of the year, as it is so important to me to celebrate my kids' achievement, regardless of what the score says in July. It feels so empty not having that moment together.
• 
  2020-05-30

  Exercise in Quarantine

  One of the main constants during shut down has been the ability to still work out. My barre studio has gone above and beyond, converting their in class studios to daily virtual classes over zoom and continually checking in making challenges to motivate everyone to continue to stay healthy, even at home. My daily barre class has become an important part of my day, where I don’t think about work responsibilities, parenting, the state of the world or anything else that can become overwhelming. And my muscles have never looked better!
• 
  2020-05-26

  Coronavirus Piñata

  For my son’s drive-by birthday, we wanted something fun for people to do as they drove by, but without exiting their cars. We decided it would be fun to have people try to “beat the virus,” so I made a Coronavirus piñata. After the birthday parade, the birthday boy and his big sister finished it off. To keep any guests from thinking it was a traditional piñata, with candies and prizes inside, I made sure everyone knew that the piñata was where I put some of his birthday presents (in this case, legos).
• 
  2020-05-26

  COVID-19 Birthday

  No one loves birthdays more than my son. When it became clear that he wouldn’t be having a birthday party, or taking his traditional birthday trip to Disneyland, we planned a surprise birthday parade for him, and invited guests to try to break a Coronavirus piñata (from their car window). We were overwhelmed by the amount of people who came - we do not live close to our friends/family, and we had people drive over an hour (in Southern CA!) for a five minute parade where they had to stay in their car. We were most touched that even his Kindergarten teacher (who lives 30 minutes away) came by. The birthday boy wore a special homemade Mickey Mouse with a mask shirt that said “turning 6 in quarantine, still celebrating with Mickey.”
• 
  2020-05-24

  JOTPY Archive High School Assignment

  This is the assignment given to my high school juniors at GGHS in Southern California to facilitate their interactions with the archive. Assignments with the #gghsapush hashtag should be related to this assignment. GGHS serves approximately 2300 students, and has an approximate demographic breakdown of: 50% Latino, 39% Asian, 7% White, and 4% other. 66% of the student body is identified as socio-economically disadvantaged, and 23% are identified as English Learners. #gghsapush
• 
  2020-05-08

  Kindergarten Virtual Field Trip

  My son participates in a virtual field trip with his kindergarten class to the San Diego Zoo. His teacher was new to a lot of these technologies, but when she learned that school would be closed for the remainder of the year, she made an interactive plan for her students to make sure learning and community were still there. My son spent at least an hour following his class "field trip" at the zoo. They have these field trips every Friday. #distancelearning
• 
  2020-04-29

  Warning to People Trying to Park in Local Neighborhoods to Use Peter's Canyon

  OC Parks closed the parking lots of their county parks, and encouraged people to stay at home and visit parks within walking distance. However, warm weather has led people to drive to parks such as Peter's Canyon to hike. Police attempt to keep these people away by forbidding parking in the neighborhoods surrounding the canyon.
• 
  2020-04-28

  Classroom Lunches Over Zoom

  Before COVID-19, Garden Grove High School seniors Tran and Chris would eat lunch with many other students in their teacher, Kathryn Jue's, classroom. Trying to maintain some normalcy, students and teachers still meet for lunch a few times a week over Zoom just to check in and see how everyone is doing.
• 
  2020-04-23

  Too Many Delivery Boxes Become a Time Machine to Escape COVID-19

  My son sits in a time machine he and his sister made out of the influx of delivery boxes that now arrive frequently with social distancing. He instructs guests to the time machine to choose a time "before or after the virus" to visit.
• 
  2020-04-24

  When Grandma Becomes the Teacher

  Having two parents working full time as a high school teacher and a university director, my kids now rely on their grandma, a retired teacher, for classroom instruction. She does most of the day to day communication with their teachers, keeps them on a daily schedule, plans activities, and fixes lunch. Without an intergenerational household, my kids' daily schooling would be near impossible.
• 
  2020-04-28

  When Planning Distance Learning for the Week Means Walking 14 Miles

  Missing walking around my classroom, I converted a treadmill into a walking desk to do my nightly planning for the distance learning for the week for my high school students. The planning resulted in me walking 14 1/2 miles, probably far more than I have walked around the classroom in one day.
• 
  2020-03-16

  Daily Calendar for First Three Weeks of High School Closure

  Daily calendar for students, posted by their AP US History teacher. The calendar was supposed to cover the three weeks of school closure, with the assumption that school would resume on April 13, which did not happen.
• 
  2020-03-28

  Time is Meaningless When Working from Home

  When a high teacher and university director begin working from the same week their elementary school children begin having school from home, it becomes clear the middle of the night is the best time to get work done. *Original video, posted on Instagram Stories
• 
  2020-04-12

  Easter Egg Hunt Indoors

  My kids, being unable to attend the yearly Easter festivities and egg hunt at their church, hunt for eggs hidden as a scavenger hunt throughout their house. Their church's children's minister, wearing gloves and a mask, left a bag of stuffed eggs, toys for Easter baskets, Peeps and other things for families to use on the doorsteps of each of the families that were part of the church to make it easier for families to be able to celebrate the holiday with their kids at home. *Personal video
• 
  2020-04-01

  UCI Admissions Gives Informal Reassurance to Local High School Students

  On April 1, the UC schools announced their plan to accept pass/fail grades and AP scores from Spring 2020, as well as make the SAT/ACT optional for students applying to the UCs in Fall 2020. With many rumors still circulating, Bryan Jue of UCI Admissions made an informal video for Kathryn Jue's high school students explaining to them the updates. *Original video shared on Instagram
• 
  2020-03-23

  Quarantine Push Up Challenge

  Early into stay at home, Quarantine Challenges began circulating social media, with the push up challenge being especially popular. Users were encouraged to "do 10 and tag 10," meaning post yourself doing 10 push ups and tag 10 more people to continue the challenge.
• 
  2020-04-14

  Committing to College Over Instagram

  Kathryn Jue and Ellen Galindo, both teachers, were planning to celebrate their high school students' acceptance and commitments to college. However, with schools closed, this could not happen in person. This captures the moment their student Tran submitted her SIR to UC Berkeley, with both her teachers, and her classmate Albert, online with her virtually to celebrate the moment.
• 
  2020-04-03

  New AP Test Rubric Tik Tok

  In March, the College Board announced all AP exams would be at home, online, 45 minute tests. April 3, they released the details of each exam. Attempting to present the redesigned rubric in a way more engaging than just explaining the new rubric, Kathryn Jue made a Tik Tok explaining the changes for her 11th grade AP US History students.
• 
  2020-04-22

  Competitive Gymnastics At Home Workout

  My daughter, age 9, does conditioning with her gymnastics team over Zoom, as USA Gymnastics has canceled meets indefinitely and the local gyms have closed.
• 
  2020-03-12

  Disneyland Main Street After Closure Announcement

  The night the closure of Disneyland was announced due to COVID-19, the candy store on Main Street had an uplifting message for guests passing by. The picture was easy to take, as the park was already uncharacteristically empty.
• 
  2020-04-19

  Distance Learning TikTok for AP US History

  TikTok made to remind AP US History students to not miss their Zoom, and to remind about the changes to the AP Exam due to COVID-19. Disseminated via Instagram to students.