The Five (#7)

1. I am sitting on some bleachers at the last club volleyball tournament of Michael's season. He plays today and tomorrow and then club is over and high school tryouts begin Monday. Hopefully my time on the bleachers isn't coming to an end any time soon. Although, I'm not going to lie, I always find it difficult to be gone for the entire weekend and missing the opportunity to catch up on everything I didn't get to during the week. Please don't misunderstand, I AM glad to have these weekends with Michael and, as a bonus, he's gotten to practice quite a bit of highway driving as we journey back and forth across Indiana and Ohio.

2. Do other adults have trouble responding to text and/or email? I'm typically not bad at responding when a quick answer will do, but, with anything of substance, I'm completely guilty about waiting until I have time to craft a proper response, which often leads to the text/email getting buried under newer messages and I end up never replying to things I meant to take the most care with. Just me?

3. I was in a meeting recently where we spent a good deal of time discussing how to manage AI in a school setting. I'm thinking this has to be a little what it felt like when the internet itself was new and the adults and children were figuring it out at the same time (adults often more slowly than children). AI is so intriguing as a tool that could support all kinds of learning, and yet feels like such a disaster for cheating/shortcuts that are going to mean students are short-changing their own learning. I know this has ramifications far beyond school, but obviously school is the place I'm going to see/notice it the most. We haven't seen too much concern over AI us in the middle school where I work, but it does feel like just a matter of time.

4. It's been an interesting emotional week for the kids. On the down side, Michael wasn't feeling recovered from having COVID until Wednesday and is still digging out a little from the school he missed. Harper started feeling crummy early in the week (yes, again) and was diagnosed with strep. While I'm sorry she was sick again, I was seriously thrilled to learn it was strep which is treatable with a remedy that helps quickly. On the upside, Michael got into his school's marketing program for junior and senior year, and Harper found out she got an RA position for next year. I'll be interested to see how both things play out, and I'm happy they're happy. 

5. For people who recognize it, this past Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent. Whenever Ash Wednesday rolls around I think of Christine Kane's magnificent song, "Mary Catherine's Ash Wednesday Journal Entry." For anyone who grew up in or adjacent to a Catholic household, I think you'd get a kick out of giving this a listen.