My walk through the park this afternoon was a study in shades of bluish-white. Between the frost on the trees, an artifact of this morning’s ice fog, and the falling flakes of snow, and the cloudy sky, everything was the almost same colour. A monochromatic landscape. Without a blue sky to set it off, the frost tended to recede into the background, and my attempts at photography were unsuccessful.
I thought about yesterday’s classes as I crunched through the snow. They were a mixed bag. The in-person class went well, although I was nervous–it’s my first time teaching the course and the subject matter isn’t my expertise–and made a couple of mistakes. I was able to correct them, but I’d rather have been more confident, and more competent. The remote class, though, was a gong show. You would think that after three years of remote learning, the students would have figured out Zoom by now, but that is not the case. And, since almost none of the students could be bothered to turn on their cameras, I found myself teaching rows of black squares bearing unfamiliar names–an incredibly alienating experience, one I found almost unbearable. I asked the class to turn their cameras on, but few did. I hope the rest of the semester isn’t the same as that first meeting.
I asked the class why they decided to enrol in a remote section of the course. Some had good reasons: they live outside the city and find commuting for hours in winter weather to be too much. Fair enough. But others said they were tired of being around other people. I’m still wondering what that answer might mean. Is remote learning encouraging a new form of social withdrawal?
Walking home after work was less monochromatic: the white snow and frost, lit by streetlights and the nearly full moon, contrasted against the dark sky and the shadows. No birds, but jackrabbits everywhere, feeding in the quiet. I was tired, taking slow steps, as if I’d walked all day, from some village somewhere to another, across a range of hills. But no, just a flat plod across the park, both ways, and I’m beat.
Thanks for this. Nice to hear about the walk to work and home, and I’m sorry to hear about the online class experience. Taught my first two classes of the term yesterday and today as well. Had a great time in one and a not-bad experience in the other (mostly because the tech was not at all set up, or working, and I was flustered for a while). May the term turn out to be a solid one for all of us!
I hate when the tech doesn’t work! How can you not be flustered?