As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been fascinated with the beauty of water lately. Originally this post was just going to be a short display of pictures I took recently, but it’s grown into more than that. First, the photos.

Second, with the spread of coronavirus, the idea of flowing has suddenly gained significance in my life, as it has with many others. The university I work at switched all of its face-to-face classes to online with only one day to prepare. I’m grateful I’ve been teaching online classes for a couple of years, so even though there’s a lot of work to be done getting assignments online, making videos for students to watch, arranging video conferences, and so on, I feel confident I can still help my students learn the material.

There’s a lot for me to learn as well. My face-to-face classes are different than my online classes, so I have to figure out (right now!) what works best for me, the students, and the material. While it’s somewhat stressful and a bit chaotic, I also find it exciting. There are new concepts to learn, and the immediacy of the situation provides a focus that doesn’t normally exist. I picture the process as flowing around obstacles and toward solutions. When one method doesn’t work, go around to the next possibility; when one task is done, proceed to the next.

It’s a different feeling with the students. We’re scheduled to return to classes after four weeks, but that only leaves four weeks in the semester, including Study Week and Finals Week. And who knows what will be happening with the virus at that point, so as I spoke to my students today and told them the tentative academic plan, we all had in mind that it might be the last time we’re face to face. It was jarring to say the least. Normally by the time we get to Study Week, we’re all ready for the semester to come to a close. This time, though, even the one student who has half-jokingly been asking me to cancel class much of the semester said she’s not ready to leave, and presumably no one was ready to go in this manner. It’s poignant to say good-bye to students at any time, but today I was a bit teary eyed as we said our farewells and they flowed home.