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Date is exactly
2021-02-02
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2021-02-02
Hesitancy in Nature
A comic strip about Covid-19 -
2021-02-02
Exotic Pets and Reptile Gain Popularity in Australia
According to the article, Australia is experiencing an increase in exotic pet popularity during the pandemic. With people having more time and resources, the demand for pets, in general, is on the rise. The fear of reptiles exhibited by Generation X is not there in younger generations, so demand for these cool and unusual creatures is on the rise. -
2021-02-02
With museums shuttered, Paris churches are 'well worth a mass'
As France has continued to deal with lockdowns, one bright spot for the French people is that most of the churches remain open. These churches are serving, for many, as a source of art and culture as museums and theaters have remained closed. Despite the fact that many of the Catholic churches in France are missing some of their most historic items, the interest in the art and architecture of the cathedrals has been renewed during the pandemic. -
2021-02-02
Southern NM County Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine for First Responders Including Sheriff's Deputies
This article discusses a recent mandate from the Dona Ana County government, which is seated in Las Cruces, New Mexico, that orders all its first responders to submit to vaccination. To my knowledge, this is the first such mandate in the United States, and it illuminates the relative lack of control first responders have over their lives once they enter their respective profession. The order is likely to be contested, particularly when such requirements have not historically been a condition on employment, The order reads in part, "Being vaccinated is a requirement and a condition of on-going employment with the County due to the significant health and safety risks posed by contracting or spreading COVID-19." The order applies to all paid personnel in the county's law enforcement, fire, detention, and medical professions. -
2021-02-02
Coronaland
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. This installation on St. Charles Avenue honored “Saint Dolly” and her $1million donation for the COVID vaccine. Of all the House Floats, it was my favorite! -
2021-02-02
Coronaland
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. This installation by a member of the subversive Krewe of Tucks is “Don't procrastinate. Vaccinate!” on Camp Street. -
2021-02-02
Coronaland
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. This installation shows “Don't Panic -- Chewy's Guide to da COVID Galaxy” on Camp Street. -
2021-02-02
Inadequate Sick Leave Jeopardizes Canadian Health Workers and Patients
Due to inadequate medical supplies, lack of vaccines, and inability to slow down the spread of the virus, the pandemic rages on. To make matters worse, over half of Canadian workers lack sufficient sick leaves, which contribute to more outbreaks and the dangers of contracting COVID-19. -
2021-02-02
The Unexpected Digital Benefits of Distance Learning
When I first saw our Distance Learning schedule, I was actually relieved. When we were still thinking of re-opening back in August, the Hybrid schedule they proposed was atrocious. I would be able to synchronously (live instruction) teach a student for only 2 hours a week, the other three hours would be asynchronous. The powers that be told us “you have to just deal with the fact that you won’t be able to teach everything you usually do.” Of course, these are the same powers that be who expect the kids to pass their AP tests, and tell us that state testing (which is still happening regardless of the opening status) is “high stakes.” Contradictions, much? So, the Distance Learning schedule, which allows me to see a student three times a week, for 3 hours and 20 minutes of live instruction, was a vast improvement. Still, block scheduling? The very idea of block scheduling sent chills down my spine. Even in college, I opted for M, W, F classes because I do not sit still long enough for the 1.5-hour classes that were on T/Th. And how would I digitize an entire course? I was lucky to have already “flipped” my classroom about five years ago, when I recorded all my lectures and assigned them to watch on YouTube, freeing up class time for discussions and document analysis. But how would I do gallery walks, document analysis, Socratic Seminars, etc. digitally? Could I? Now with a semester of Distance Learning under my belt, there have been some huge advantages to being forced into this completely digitized world. First, digitized documents are amazing. So much of my course is document analysis. With digital documents, the copies aren’t blurry, the kids can zoom in if the font is small, and thanks to Google, they love to highlight and annotate the heck out of them. And Jamboards have been a godsend for collaborative analysis. I am debating whether I will ever go back to paper document analysis. Online tests have also been a game changer. I always steered away from online tests, due to fears over test security. Test days were big affairs in my class. The kids would put all their items, including phones, on the counter. I would go by each table and make them turn out their pockets to ensure no phones. I liked to joke that test days were more serious in my class than going through TSA. Because the students sat in tables of four, there were four forms of the multiple choice test and 20 versions (4 versions per period, for five periods) of the short answer portion of the test. The end of test day left me with 180 Scantrons, 180 short answer questions to grade, all with different forms, plus their notebooks, which they turned in on test day. I had to let that kind of control go this year and jump headfirst into online testing. And I am so glad this happened. It was the push I needed. The world of online testing has improved remarkably since the ten years ago that teachers at my school began to move toward it. It is SO EASY to grade and to make different forms with the click of a button. The multiple choice grades automatically and the short answer, I click the points and it pushes to the gradebook. A task that took me four hours now takes me 30 minutes. I know while the kids are at home, there is nothing to stop them from having notes on the side or on another device, but honestly, with tests that are based on historical reasoning skills, I don’t really care if they are looking up the name of an act, event, or person. I am more interested in if they can effectively use that information to support their argument. When we’re back in person, I can ensure they don’t have their phones and that Go Guardian is on to keep them from opening other windows. Without Distance Learning, I would have never made this change. Writing has also dramatically improved due to technology. I always made my students write essays by hand because the AP exam makes them write them by hand. However, with the AP exam going digital, I can now, too. It is incredible to see how the quality of writing has improved through typing. It is terrible to think that students in previous years may have been less successful on the AP exam simply because they did not formulate ideas as well with pen and pencil as they would on a computer. Block scheduling, too, has been surprisingly smooth. It is so refreshing to have time to analyze documents and follow it up with writing and peer editing - all in one period! Of course, I will be fine to return to our 55 minutes classes someday. I still don’t sit still well. Will I keep the course entirely digital when we are (hopefully) back to a normal year? Probably not everything. I miss the kids having a notebook that we build throughout the year, and will probably return to our traditional notebook for in class activities. BUT I am happy to never run a Scantron again! -
2021-02-02
Holding her Baby for the First Time
As a mother of two, two thoughts have plagued the darkest corners of my mind for the past ten months: “I can’t let anything happen to the kids” and “what would happen if something happened to me?” The thoughts terrify me so much I can’t even say them aloud. So, to read about pregnant women trying to safely bring life into the world amidst the pandemic is an unbearable thought. The thought of being pregnant right now is truly terrifying, so this article struck a deep chord when I read it. A woman at the very end of her pregnancy contracted Covid-19, gave birth while unconscious, and then spent 75 days on oxygen and a ventilator. Her baby was born November 4, and just this past week, on January 27, she was able to hold her for the first time. Seeing the pictures of this mom, who I don’t know and will never meet, with her baby is a wonderful moment of hope. Clearly this family has a long road ahead, as the mom is still weak and on oxygen. However, when you see the pictures of them together, the oxygen mask seems to disappear and all I see is a mother’s love and true joy. A story of survival, and a glimmer of hope in a year that has been bleak. -
2021-02-02
First Round Vaccines!
I stayed up late Monday night and headed over to my parents house around midnight. Their appointments were at 2:48 AM (and I had a time getting them appointments together), but we were planning to arrive early and expected to spend hours in line. I made myself a thermos of coffee and loaded an extra air tank into the car for my dad, in case the wait was longer than one tank’s capacity, and reminded both parents to bring their phones and tablets. It felt a little bit like loading up my niece and nephew for a road trip. We drove out to the stadium, the suburb’s quiet and empty, then followed the signs to the appropriate parking lot. It was surprisingly empty and I wove the car through the cones set up to guide a much longer line. We arrived at the first of three drive-thru tents, where my parents answered a set of questions about their health and medications. The car acquired a bit of caution tape on the side mirror and some notes on the window about blood thinners. At the third tent, they got their shots. We parked and waited thirty minutes rather than the standard fifteen since Mom has a penicillin allergy. They got their shots at 1:36 AM and we were released to leave at 2:06. We were back at their house before the original appointment time. I unloaded the air tanks and said my good nights then drove through the silent streets back to my apartment. -
2021-02-02
The Dog Days of the Pandemic
Teleworking due to the pandemic has resulted in a closer bond between me and my dog, who seems to be thrilled that I'm home all day to pay attention to him and has shared his joy with me to help me get through these dark days. -
2021-02-02
Statistics
Covid-19 is a highly contagious disease. In just California alone there has been 3.34m reported cases and 41,344 deaths. Worldwide there has been millions of deaths. The most recent spike in covid-19 was from November 20th to January 15th. -
2021-02-02
It's a pandemic, let there be cake
I was at the supermarket this morning and bought a King Cake on impulse. It was pretty pricey for a supermarket cake ($17). But, it only took me 3 seconds to justify it, my 6 yo has been out of school for a year (she’s learning online, but it’s not the same). The 2 yo is also home and they both get stir crazy. I have really found memories of eating King Cake every year at my best friend’s house, they lived in Louisiana and brought the tradition with them to Michigan. The fun, in addition to cinnamon, bread, and icing, is that there’s a small plastic baby inside the cake that someone will find in their piece. I hid the baby in the cake this morning and told the kids they could have a piece after eating breakfast. The tradition is that finding the baby is good luck, and depending on where you are, you might have to make the next cake. -
2021-02-02
Silences in Archives, Some Hopeful Musings
Gaps seem to be just about the only commonality among all public, digital, and academic history projects. One project simply cannot look at everything, nor should it. But this does not mean that each of these gaps should be considered silences. Silences in the archives are more specific. And they are typically the result of silences in the historical archives, left by those collecting the material or creating the documents. Silences can also appear naturally, for example, those who are either unaware of the Journal of the Plague Year, do not have the technical knowledge or infrastructure to access to it, are unaware that they are encouraged to participate, or who do not believe that the COVID19 pandemic is "real." In the present, they represent people who cannot or will not enter their stories into the archives. When large numbers of people in those groups do not contribute, that creates silences for the historians and humanists who will use the archive in the future to attempt to make arguments about 2020, and seemingly, 2021. The archive structure does not exclude these voices by design, but the tangible and intangible realities of the world that it is born into and built in does. And they are hard to account for, even in the most thoughtfully constructed projects and archives. Attempting to correct these silences by making entries on behalf of those perceived as "the silenced" does not always close the gap and sometimes actually silences them in favor of another's narrative. One exception might be that a tech-novice writes a story on paper, and a family member posts a photo of the paper with a verbatim transcription to the archive, listing the original author as its creator. Or assists with an audio recording as a piece of oral history and shares it. But to write stories about another, as another, seems disingenuous to the spirit of the project. Hopefully, if in 50 years the JOTPY is still a two-way street where material can be discovered as well as entered, historians, genealogists, and other humanists will scan, add, and upload the digital and analog records and accounts they find in their work, so that in 100 years historians have fewer silences to contend with. This future, of course, is reliant on sustainability, usually grounded in funding for digital projects and reliant on humanists interested in running it. Many digital public history projects are defunct online due to lack of sustainability and compatibility, and those recorded voices become lost, silencing and re-silencing them over again. -
2021-02-02
Don't Panic! I got help for the Covid wedding!
Planning a wedding in a pandemic is difficult. Many married couples have discussed the problems they faced during the process of planning their wedding due to the pandemic and the many limitations that they had come across. This website will give help in terms of wedding planning and all the things to consider during the pandemic. -
2021-02-02
Don't go back to the "Old Normal" yet!
This is an image from the WHO website that reminds people that even though it has been long we still arent safe from spreading and getting the virus, and the title speaks "The New Normal". I thought spreading this image would be a great spark of positivity since many are upset during this time due to the fact that they miss their life before covid and wish to do things that could be done before the pandemic. This image is a reminder that we are still in the middle of the fight and can't stop now! -
2021-02-02
Website on "How parents can support their kids through the COVID-19 outbreak"
The website provides a list containing 6 ways in which a parent can support their child through the pandemic. Reading through the many stories under that "children" collection I have come to notice that many of the posts are by children who face difficulty with daily life during the pandemic, whether that be through school, unable to physically socialize, or the fact that their childhoods are passing while sitting at home. This website gives an inside on how parents can help their children as well as gives reasons on to why these can help positively support their children.