Pandemic Week 76: 1st Week of Sophomore Year

 Anna began her sophomore year at Madison High School on August 23!  This is a huge improvement over last year in that she got to start school in person.  Masks are required of everyone and all school personnel are required to be vaccinated by October.  Anna was definitely tired by the end of the week.  Last year Monday was an "asynchronist" day, which meant no class then with 4 days of on-line classes.  This year they are back to 5 full days.  School starts at 8:10 AM and Anna has been walking to school.  Her classes for the year include the following:

• Honors Cohort for World History 2, Chemistry & English - the teachers for these classes work together as a team and the classes are related.  For example, they will be talking about the nuclear age in history, studying nuclear matter in chemistry, and reading parts of the book Hiroshima in English.  They also have 4 major projects throughout the year that link all three classes.  It is a different concept from the normal classes. Anna did the cohort last year and decided to stick with it again (not to mention she has many of her friends in the same classes.
• Geometry - the first week the class had a substitute teacher.  We will see how that goes.
• Spanish 3 - During the open house, Anna stopped to meet her teacher, who immediately only spoke to her in Spanish (deer in headlight moment for Anna).  
• Choir - Anna auditioned and made it into the advanced treble choir this year with some of her friends.
• Theater 1 - LOVES this class.

Theresa attended the parent open house on Wednesday night.  The parents basically follow their child's schedule, which gives  a good sense of how large the school is and the miles students walk every day.  Theresa was ready to sign up for the history class (the teacher announced they would be starting at the end this year and going backward, which sounded quite brilliant since you never get to World War II or beyond).  The theater class was quite awesome as well.  There are lots of great opportunities for Anna to try new things.  It is clear that the students are so happy to be back.  We will continue to cross our fingers that the school can minimize the COVID impact and keep the kids in person.

Other event from the week included the following:

• The Vienna Jammers season kicked off on Monday.  Anna is playing in the Advanced Steel group this year, which is steel pan drums (last year she was on marimbas).  This remains her favorite activity.
• Theresa enjoyed her last week off before beginning her new job.  She and Joe spent a morning kayaking at a local creek and another day catching up on overdue medical appointments (they still know how to have a good time together.
• Theresa got to catch up with some long-time friends/former co-workers for a Saturday brunch.  She also found out that Alexandria now has a Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, which of course she tried out.  She further learned that there is also one closer to home, which she plans to try out soon (note - this is a Columbus, Ohio company, which is why Theresa is quite excited about the find).
• Anna mowed the yard....well the front yard.  This is newsworthy because this was her first solo venture.  She did such a good job that she will be asked to do it again.
• Anna started dinner on Sunday.  Actually, she was supposed to finish dinner but somehow only made the meat and then disappeared.  Perhaps more specific instructions will be needed next time for what constitutes dinner.

Back to work tomorrow for Theresa and back to school for Anna.  It is a good thing we have a holiday weekend coming up, which also happens to be someone's birthday.