I won’t be writing about remote working ever day just when things emerge that might be useful to share.
Plan and Accountability Buddy
So the accountability buddy system is definitely worthwhile!
I haven’t had much chance of planning due to ad hoc meetings. However, after the morning chat with accountability buddy. We decided to treat this week and the crisis management week. And next week we go back to writing up and undertaking (online) teaching observations, marking assessments and so on. This week is all about communication, setting expectations, putting emergency measures in place.
Also my team at work has now a very brief get in touch meeting every morning. Boss says the aim of this is more moral support than anything else.
Go Outdoors but avoid people
At the moment going for walks is still possible. I have to give the people in East Dunbartonshire (with the exception of one runner who spilled all over me!) a bit thumbs up! When out on a public path, people who walk next to one another, automatically begin to walk in a line to give oncoming walkers physical distance. Everyone keeps their distance BUT every single person smiled, said hi, or waved. So it seems as if the ‘physically distant but socially close’ attitude really works.
I love my little #GardenMoments in the morning, we are lucky going into spring (although the weather forecast seems to contradict this). There is something new to see every morning in the moment. The following photos show some close ups from my garden.
Magnify your Online Presence
That’s a tip I got from Anne Tierney etheses.dur.ac.uk/11826/ during yesterday’s #LTHEchat. At the moment I am feeling exhausted because while I like being social, I am an introvert so magnifying my presence is what we would call a Kraftakt in German–an activity which requires a lot of power (energy). But it is important to keep relationships going.
So Vicki and I set up an MS Teams space yesterday for all our colleagues, where we can debate issues around online learning and assessment but it has a strong social component including a virtual coffee, and an arts and crafts channel. Oh this reminds me I want to see if there are colleagues interested in photography!
Exercise
I still haven’t set up a home exercise system and the punch bag is still in the shed due to the relentless rain. *sigh* However, lovely colleagues from our Sport Service are putting resources together and will share them in the social space. So I might be able to share some tips by the end of the week! Maybe I need an exercise accountability buddy!
Anyone?
Happy Moments
My oldest niece whose visit now has to be postponed till Christmas, send me some sunny pictures from Munich. And she set up a Corona Spotify Playlist, only listen if you are open minded about crass genre mixes …
list of all emoticons from WhatsApp
And a wonderful colleague send us (the spring term LTHEchat team) a wonderful handmade thank you. AND stickers! I mean stickers. Have I said stickers? The photos below show the postcard and stickers, a crochet jellyfish dream-catcher, and a tiny crochet bumblebee with a handmade poppy blossom.
Reminiscing
This little present actually led to a coffee break reminiscing. Apparently reminiscing can help with anxiety and support mental health. Link below for more information. So maybe I will add some reminiscing to my remote working routine.
So I looked up two video (below this paragraph) from our summers up the North-West coast of Scotland where we managed to catch images of jellyfish. If anyone can help identifying what type of jellyfish they are that would be fab!
Adventures in Academic Development 