Crash course on iMovie

So I managed to film my friend Lucy shaving her hair off for SPCA yesterday, but the challenge was turning it into a short video clip. I have only once played around with iMovie briefly but I had a baptism by fire last night trying to assemble something for today for SPCA and Lucy to post. I got the basics and managed to put in music and fast forward, all seemed to go OK, although cutting sections and choosing the exact point to add music were a little fiddly. All good, but then trying to export the jolly video from iMovie, oh my hat! What a mission. When I converted it to a file it produced this massive document that was way too big to email or whatsapp. I tried to Zip the file but it didn't seem to do anything. Tried Dropbox but it took all evening and still hadn't loaded. I then tried uploading to Facebook directly from iMovie. This wouldn't accept my password. I was really tearing my hair out by this point and wondering if a whole evening of editing had been wasted. Eventually gave up and went to bed, and this morning as a last resort tried uploading the humongous file directly on Facebook. Blow me over, this actually worked - I couldn't believe it. So, thankfully, the video was shared. Oh, but the snag - Facebook won't allow you to share copyrighted music, so alas the video may not have sound on Facebook.

If you would like to make a donation towards Lucy's head shaving for SPCA and are in Zim, the Ecocash number is *151*2*1*06326*amt*5555# 

The online board games yesterday with my friends and sister and brother-in-law were a lot of fun. Went for a lovely walk around Ballantyne Park this morning and then headed to school for a couple of hours work. Done all my photocopying for next week now - oh yeah. On the way home we passed by a friend's gate. They are doing take away meals from home and as a birthday present for my mum gave us a free pizza and some butternut soup - Tenji Mutiti, it was delicious. Can highly recommend.

To see more about Ballantyne Park go to https://www.facebook.com/bibi.eastwood/videos/10162149107200051/

Online games and head shaving

Had my Friday past paper Zoom session this morning with my class. Still have someone annotating my maths explanations, which is really annoying, but I threatened to stop the session and not offer any further help to anyone if it continued and it promptly ceased. Mid explanation though my one student suddenly leaped up and charged through their house with their lap top as they wanted to show me a horse at their back door. I didn't catch that this was what they were doing and wondered what on earth was happening. Thought they maybe needed a loo break and were taking their lap top with - oh my! It ended up being a long session so I need to break it up in future. One mum has suggested that instead of giving the class a social interaction time at the end of the lesson, like I started doing yesterday, I could give them a brief break and social half way through. I am just worried the social may continue afterwards. I give them free reign of my shared screen in this time and they seem to want to see who can cover the screen with the most writing and squiggles in one colour compared to each other.

I need to just do a bit of prep for next week but otherwise have a relatively free weekend. I have been asked to help record a friend shaving her head for SPCA tomorrow lunch time and then am scheduled to play some more Jackbox.tv games with my sister and friends in England and here, which I am looking forward to. My sister wants to do a Zoom work out later. We did a Zumba intense cardio yesterday. I want to do a bit more art and finish reading The Last Resort and Three Sisters, Three Queens.

My mum has just got back from trying to get some groceries. She queued to get in to Bon Marche and queued at the till, only to get to the end and find out that First Capital, our bank, is offline.

Anniversaries

Today has been long and a lot of work. Got to school just after seven this morning and have been working pretty much non-stop since. I had to do all the marking of work returned by the parents and then assessed a new student who it looks like will be joining my class. Was trying to do the Schonell reading and spelling age test at a distance and with a mask on, but it was tricky. From my marking, one student made me chuckle, they were asked what shape was at the bottom of a pyramid. The answer should have been a square, but my student replies, "Eygpt!" I guess the original pyramids had Egypt as their base but, no.

I did my French WeChat lesson to China from school and today we did la maison. The little girl was very chatty and good at repeating things but it was harder trying to extract things from the little boy, although he is a very good little artist. Am quite enjoying it but wish we could use Zoom rather than WeChat but it's blocked in China.

Today is a little bit of a hard one, as it is the anniversary of when Matt first asked me out after we got back from an Nyanga trip. Am trying not to dwell on it but at the back of my mind there are always the what could have beens and why's.

Soul renewing

Today has been a good day. I was able to get my water colours and paint brushes out and try an interesting approach guided by Sarah Fynn. The idea was you do a continuous line drawing of your surroundings and then once you've captured as much as you want down, you then use view finders to select three boxed areas of your line drawing and in each of them use only two colours (which you can blend together). Teamed cadmium yellow with black (don't know the technical name for that :P ), French ultramarine with burnt sienna and then viridian with alorizon crimson. Once you did your squares you then worked with those six colours and made your picture come together with as much or as little abstraction as you liked. Sarah highlighted that you need to work with your white space as that can sap a picture of it's life and vitality and equally you should make your dark areas flow.

Guess what I drew here?

I am enjoying the element of freedom with lock down as I am not tied to a desk all morning and I can be flexible with my time. Tomorrow I have to go back in to school to collect work and I am to assess a new student. We await what government says at the weekend again to see if schools will be reopening or not any time soon.

Heard a story of a lady in South Africa whose father is dying up here in Zim. The borders are closed at the moment so as a desperate last resort, the lady actually walked across the dry Limpopo River. She managed to see her father and made it across.

Thoughts of Africa

Continent of our birth,
whose sunshine and red earth
have moulded our childhoods
and much of our lives,
yet makes it so hard to survive.
Poor leadership and rampant greed,
with the ever present face of need.
Severe drought and famine
we have known
and what of the seed that has been sown?
When will the endeavours of so many
result in benefits and not disgrace?
The cradle of humanity
and yet from which many flee
to seek a life where it may be easy
no shortages, inflation or poverty.
But are these shores welcoming
and all that they seem?
Some make it but for others
it is a new form of slavery.

Another day, another Zoom

We got to school on the smell of an oil rag this morning, as we are very low in fuel. There seems to be a fuel shortage again now people are starting to move around more. The empty light was on but we refilled from our jerry can at school, but once that is gone we're in a pickle. The commute from Milton Park to Borrowdale must be at least 20 km.

Didn't get all the work I'd set back from some students. For some this is the second week running and the culprits are some of my grade 7's who are writing entrance exams next month. I am not sure how their parents think I will wave a magic wand if they don't do the work. Still have monkeys annotating my shared screen in Zoom while I am trying to go over past papers with them all.

It's amazing what new enterprises have taken off with Corona. I know of people making masks to order but I got phoned just now by a second person offering to sanitize the school for when schools reopen (we think soon). So yes, we don't know when the government is going to set schools to reopen but it is suggested they might do it in phases, starting with exam classes first. The school has already got an infrared thermometer and we've just had the school painted. A parent is going to sanitize all the classrooms etc. for us. I don't know if we'll have to have a Corona test. One of the staff had a family member return from overseas at the weekend. You have to pay for your accommodation in a hotel that has been designated as an official quarantine centre. My colleague's relative was told on arrival though that there was no transport to their accommodation so they had to phone their family and be driven by them to quarantine. Kind of defeats the point. We wait and see what the government is going to come up with regarding schools.

Of fires, Africa Day et le Français

Today being Africa Day, it was ostensibly a public holiday. However, I first had my Monday intro to the week's work with my class on Zoom and then I had my first French lesson with two Chinese five year olds who ordinarily would go to the French School here, but due to Corona are back in China. I managed to work out how to tell who is posting on my shared screen in Zoom and gave that student a bit of a fright by saying, so and so please stop posting on the screen. They couldn't resist straightening my diagrams a little later on but I had to ask if they were paying attention to what I was actually saying about perimeter and not just obsessing over my wiggly shapes. The French lesson went fairly well. I had two hard working five year olds and they did sweet drawings of themselves and their families and I tried to get the vocab across. The little girl claimed she had seven sisters and nine brothers so couldn't fit them all in. Obviously China's one child policy no longer holds or she may be getting her numbers a bit wrong.

There was a massive fire on Monavale Vlei as we were leaving to go to school to prep for tomorrow's book hand out. The fire brigade came and they managed to put it out eventually but it took a couple of hours. Wasn't near our house, but close to houses where I have house sat in the past. Depending on lock down I may have a house sit in June.

Photo credit: Jill Roberts from Monavale

Photo credit: Jill Roberts from Monavale

Photo credit: Jill Roberts from Monavale

Photo credit: Jill Roberts from Monavale

Photo credit: Jill Roberts from Monavale

Photo credit: Gretta Mackenzie

Photo credit: Gretta Mackenzie

Had a bit of time out this weekend. My sister organised an online games afternoon with our cousins Jaimie and Carly, in Cape Town and London respectively. We played Drawful 2 and then Quiplash which were fun. Jaimie has an alternative that you can play without Zoom as Zoom did keep timing out, but hey, technology is amazing.

Doctor's visit

Had to venture into town this afternoon for my routine check up with my psychiatrist. He got his patients to all wait in our cars rather than in the reception. It was a shorter wait than normal. When I was called inside we both had masks on and I sat away from him and all the doors and windows were open. Need to have blood tests done to check on my lithium levels but will have to wait until flights resume to South Africa as the blood samples have to be flown to Joburg. The good news was that I have lost quite a bit of weight since I last saw him. On the way home, I drove past Parirenyatwa, which is one of our major hospitals. There was only one person standing by the entrance dispensing hand sanitizer to those driving in. The person was clad in flimsy blue plastic and it didn't present a great frontline to Corona.

It looks like I will be teaching two Chinese five year olds who usually go to the French School here, but who are back home in China. I need to prepare for the French lessons tomorrow. Will be doing it over WeChat. Zoom lessons continue with my class. They have discovered how to use the chat setting and how to also post on my shared screen. It is a bit irritating that I can't tell who has posted stuff on the screen. We soldier on with fractions and the like. My students keep asking when we are going back to school, but I don't know. ED said exam classes should go back but he hasn't said when or under what conditions, and until he does there isn't much we can do. In the meantime, I get introductions to all my students' pets and they like to keep changing their Zoom backgrounds.

Had a chat with my best friend Nina, last weekend and we exchanged notes on teaching online and then trying to do NILD educational therapy online too and I got to see her delightful three year old, Emmy. This week I was able to chat to my good friends Heather and Delfina, both in the UK, which was lovely too. My sister is keen for us as a family, to try play some online board games. I've been doing her Pilates and Zumba classes still too. Doesn't really feel like Friday but hope you all have a good weekend :)

And it's Monday

Made it through another Monday of virtual learning. One of my class decided to put on a scary mask halfway through my Zoom session this morning and I had to ask them to remove it. He then some how managed to shut himself out of the meeting and I had my phone on silent so wasn't aware his mum was trying to call me to add him back on - arrrgh! We semi got through division of fractions. Not all of my class had done the work from last week. Government has said exam classes can go back but they haven't given an indication of when or how yet. Bit tricky if only my grade 7's and I have to keep up with virtual for my grade 6's but am not going to stress over it and just keep plodding on.

Hit quite a dip this weekend. I think it was partly after Mrs Toovey's funeral and partly other things. Just felt really low and struggled.

Joining my sister's Pilates just now. Need to do some exercise. Will try do some training in the garden tomorrow as I don't need to go into school then.

My heart is heavy today

Today my heart goes out to my good friend Heather and family as we all paid tribute to her dear mum, who sadly lost her fight against cancer. Due to lock down, poor Heather was not able to go and see her mum which must have been unbelievably hard. It feels like a light has gone out and there is a hole where Mrs Toovey should be. We have all lost a very special person and I wish we were all closer and able to pop meals to Heather and give her a big hug. She organised a beautiful service for her mum which was live streamed to friends and family around the world who couldn't be there in person. The song above was played as an instrumental and like Mrs Toovey, it is one of my favourites.

Trying to carry on with everything else. Have finished marking the work that was handed in to me today. Not all of it has been done and we were supposed to go over a past paper tomorrow, but there is no point as not all of my students have done it yet.

Day 1 of remote teaching, how many more?

We screeched into school just after 7 this morning and quickly set up books to be collected under the tree by the entrance. I ended up doing some marking (yes, it has begun already) while waiting. All my parents did collect the work and I then had my first Zoom session with my class. Not sure that it is that effective for teaching some of mine, as I had the feeling I was leaving some way behind. One student doesn't have internet at home so I will have to email her dad at work to get work and instructions to her and then another student didn't manage to get online for the session today. I also need to plan my maths sessions a bit more carefully as I found it hard to get some concepts across today. I also may have to plan more maths during the week as one session today and then on Thursday might not be enough. I am supposed to have two other slots to go over past entrance exam papers with my grade 7s. We're waiting again to hear what dear old ED has to say on Sunday about schools going back and if he will allow grade 7s and then form 4s and upper sixes to come back at least as they are exam classes. One friend said an actuary down south said they are predicting that Corona will only reach its peak in Southern Africa in September. Who knows!

My mum seemed to have a good birthday yesterday and we organised a surprise Zoom friends and family toast for her, with my sister, aunt and cousins and good friends. We're still eating the fabulous chocolate cake that my friend Chiara from Sorella's Pizzeria and Cafe made and my parmesan chicken turned out fairly well, although with my mum being on Zoom lunch got delayed a little and the chicken maybe shouldn't have been in the oven for quite as long.

I'm pretty tired after today. So far not too much marking, but it's going to come and I need to get back into the rhythm. Did most of my photocopying today for next week.

Back to reviewing

Thankfully prep for online school and work packs is pretty much done and dusted, as I have to re-review the wetland paper for the journal. Reviewing has kept me busy for a fair bit of today. Otherwise did some much needed watering of the garden (it is missing Given our gardner who is at home with his family in Epworth for the lock down). I also did a work out that my personal trainer Demi had sent me. This evening I joined in my sister's online Zumba Zoom class. I still don't feel that coordinated trying to follow at times.

Otherwise have been planning lunch for Sunday for my mum's 70th. I am going to have a go at trying to make lemon, Parmesan and garlic chicken. If I can't find Parmesan cheese I may have to resort to Kefalotiri. Have ordered a chocolate cake from Sorellas. Will have to do a bigger celebration with other friends when we are out of lock down and can meet in bigger groups.

I have also been going through old family photographs. My mum was born in Cromer, in England and lived there til she was 8 and then moved to Kenya. My grandparents moved back to England briefly when my mum was 11, before then sailing out to Cape Town and driving up to what was then Rhodesia. My mum has lived in Africa ever since.

Sunflowers, wood hoopoes and pretty much set for online school

A friend very kindly gave me a spare mask to use and it is making a big difference in that I can breathe better. Also limiting how much I am wearing it as am certain Monday's awful migraine was brought on by wearing a stuffy mask for too long. The police are out and about though on the roads and if you are caught without a mask on it's a hefty ZWL $500 fine. If you break other lock down rules it is a ZWL $35 000 fine.

Have printed out what is needed for my class' work pack. One student has already told me they don't have access to internet at home so I will have to email her dad at work and he will have to download stuff I'm putting online. One student at the school's parents work for the American Embassy and we had to have our pick up and drop off of work plan revised to fit with US protocol for the embassy. This involves passing books through car windows and disinfecting books when they come back. Saw a flock of wood hoopoes at school when I was printing stuff out. Am now pretty much ready for next week. Just have my Zoom meeting with parents and then my students on Friday and need to finish working out how Padlets works.

Passed the communal pavement food garden on Piers Road and I hopped out to take some photos of the beautiful sunflowers. They had quite a lot of veggies growing and it is a help yourself scheme for the less fortunate. A lovely idea that I would like to try too.

Communal veggie garden on roadside on Piers Rd