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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
My toddler and I have been monitoring the robin eggs in a nest on our back porch light for the last couple of weeks. We can’t see in but I could hold my phone up over my head and get a photo. The eggs hatched Apr 29th or 30th. The last time we checked, Monday, this nest held four little fledgling robins. Today the nest is empty. No mama bird in sight to yell at us. I don’t think the babies possibly could have been grown enough to fly away. Husband and I searched the tall grass next to the deck but didn’t see any indication the birds had leapt out. No carnage around the nest or the deck gives me hope they weren’t devoured. We told toddler that the birds moved to a new home. I hope that’s true but it seems unlikely. I suppose this has nothing to do with Covid, although I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole drama would have gone unnoticed if we’d been in our busy old lives…
May 7, 2021
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Think about the people closest to you. Tell us about how the coronavirus has affected them, and their life.
My oldest son is in his second year of teaching sixth graders in a small school district in a more rural part of the state. He was very fortunate to get his first shot a week before his district was set to open up to in school learning. That opening was postponed for a week due to a fellow teacher testing positive and possible exposure to the other teachers at a pre-opening meeting. Michigan, where we live, is currently seeing a rapid rise of cases that has catapulted us from 45 best in the country to third worst in the number of cases in just a few weeks. According to my son, his area of the state has seen a rapid rise in cases. He told me that teaching is very difficult because between in class and on line, he can not keep track of the children. A student will disappear for a few days before he learns that that child is in quarantine. Being in quarantine to the student, often means they don't have to go to school both in person and on line. He is seeing his students fall behind in their learning and often has no way of contacting or reaching out to that child. Consistence in schedule is always best for children and today, with his school, it is constantly changing schedule. You hear on the news, the challenges and stresses of the teachers trying their best to educate our country's children. My son is a natural teacher, his personality is very compatible to teaching. This pandemic has been hard on the most seasoned of teachers, but this pandemic has been most of his teaching experience. . As his mother, it is hard to hear the challenges in his voice.
March 21, 2021