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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My former college roommate was an electrical engineer but went into management, rose up thru the ranks, earned a PhD in operations research, retired, took up teaching 7<sup>th</sup> grade science at a small private school in Tennessee just east of Chattanooga (he’s that kind of guy.) He was hit by the tornado Monday but his house was OK, broke down some trees and minor structural damage to a toolshed from a falling branch.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>While I was on his Face Book page, I saw this, written a coupla weeks ago:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#1C1E21;background:white'>This year I began a grand adventure as a 7th grade science teacher at Collegedale Academy. Right after Christmas break we were studying infectious diseases. So I began sharing with my classes the data from a novel Coronavirus in China. This was a month before the WHO designated it COVID-19. My students kept asking me when I was going to stop talking about it.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#1C1E21'><br><span style='background:white'>As soon as we finish the chapter on infectious disease, I stopped talking about it.</span></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#1C1E21'><br><span style='background:white'>Just before spring bre<span class=textexposedshow>ak I gave one last update: WHO had designated COVID-19 a pandemic and the NBA had suspended all games.</span></span></span><span class=textexposedshow><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#1C1E21;background:white'><br><span class=textexposedshow>We also told the students that they were getting a 2 week spring break and that they needed to take all their books and journals home in case we needed to switch to online classes.</span></span><span class=textexposedshow><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#1C1E21;background:white'><br><span class=textexposedshow>This week we have been putting all of our classes online. Today we had an optional practice zoom meeting with my home room. Most of my students participated. Monday we begin classes online. The adventure grand continues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=textexposedshow><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#1C1E21;background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike again: Cool, we are having mixed success with online learning here, but I would call it more success than failure. Plenty of both. Our scouts are doing well with it: we are still doing ranks and badges over email and video. The schools are reporting mostly successful results, with a small percentage of students who have never logged on or demonstrated any form of participation in the online program since 17 March, in spite of the school offering free ChromeBooks and internet to anyone who wants them.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>