I start teaching next week, and all my classes will be 100% in person. I will be teaching in a large room that has been reconfigured as a classroom. The room has a social distancing capacity of 40 students, and since my biggest class only has 28 students, there should not be an issue keeping the students safely apart.
It will be interesting teaching with a mask on, but other than that, I’ve been thinking it will be business as usual.
Well, at least that is what I’ve been telling myself.
But based on the interesting set of dreams I had last night, my subconscious is apparently not buying it.
My first class of the day is 8:00, which is a half-hour earlier than classes normally start in order to allow more time in between classes for cleaning, and still get the same number of classes in over the course of the day.
In my dream, I completely forgot I had an 8:00 class, and so I never showed up. My next class was scheduled for 9:10, but for some reason, I didn’t show up until 9:30, which would have been the normal time for the second class of the day to start.
When I walked into the room, there was already another teacher in the room, but it did not seem like his class had started yet. I wasn’t sure what was going on. My first thought was that I was in the wrong room, and so I started to leave. I then noticed the other teacher start to pull a divider across the middle of the room. So it seemed that he was in one half of the room, and I was in the other.
So I went into my half of the room and started to set up my laptop.
I then noticed a group of my students not wearing masks, which are mandatory. When I asked them to put their masks on, they just stared at me, defiantly. It was then that I noticed that one of the three students, while not wearing a mask, was wearing a full-body hazmat suit…
While I was trying to get that situation under control, a young woman came into the room, asking who had ordered the coffee. I told her she could not be delivering coffee in the middle of class, but she started giving me some attitude.
While arguing with her, I noticed that my laptop was not connecting to the projection screens, so I had to excuse myself to try and fix that. When I finally got that under control, I noticed that the young woman was now going around to every student and asking them if they wanted to buy a snack from the large variety she had in her backpack. I told her she had to leave and after a couple of minutes, she finally did.
Throughout all of this, I also noticed that my mask was either steaming up my glasses, or it was constantly slipping off my nose.
When it seemed like things were finally under control, it was time for the students to leave, and I had not having covered a single item. Since I had three more classes left, I decided to just cancel the remaining three classes so that all my classes stayed in sync. I sat down at one of the student desks, wondering how it all went so wrong.
I then woke up, thankfully realizing it was all a dream/nightmare.
I don’t know what it all means, but I’m thinking it’s a sign that it is going to be a semester like no other, and I better be prepared for anything…
*image from Steelcase
I’m not so good at oneiromancy, but I interpret this dream as a warning that your biggest danger teaching this semester will be a tendency to fall asleep in class.
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well that’s always been a danger for my students…
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Hmm, well maybe that’s the way I should have interpreted this. Like I say, I’m not good at oneiromancy.
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but you are good at using words I have to look up!
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Sorry. If I knew you’d have to look it up, I’d have never dreamt of using that word.
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🙂
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Now you are sounding like me. I dream all the time and they can get crazy! I hope your first day puts your mind at ease and that there are happy surprises for you!
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thanks! although I wouldn’t mind if somebody delivered me a coffee in the middle of my teaching…
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You are welcome and Haha! Perhaps you need to hire someone to bring you salted caramel latte’s. 🙂
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with espresso, I assume 🙂 I’ll just stick with a Dunkin’ Decaf…
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LOL!
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That s quite a dream, but it would be an interesting day! I wonder what would happen next if you hadn’t woke up. School is a real challenge under current conditions.
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I probably would have retired, thinking I’ve reached the bottom of the barrel…
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Be safe and I hope the school year goes well. It is going to be a bit of an experiment it appears.
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I guess no one knows what the best approach is. As long as every one follows the safety guidelines, I think we should be OK…
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That s quite a dream, but it would be an interesting day! I wonder what would happen next if you hadn’t woke up. School is a real challenge under current conditions.
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Fear is insidious, even when we think we have it under control… Hope your first day goes better than the dream.
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well it can’t go much worse… 🙂
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Never say that… 😉
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I hope I haven’t jinxed myself…
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😀
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I certainly hope your first day goes better than your dream! Keeping fingers crossed for you … and your students!
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My dreams are never that detailed. Who needs Netflix?
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it’s rare that I remember so much from a dream…
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Good luck Jim
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thanks, David!
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just a wee bit of anxiety, and your brain told it so well. this reminds me of the vivid nightmares i would have during my waitress years. like you, i’ll be back in person, as i’m at a private school, and there is lots of worry all around. stay safe and well.
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thanks, Beth. My wife will also be going back to her school. I would think it would be tough to have pre-k and k kids keep their masks on…
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It will be a bit of a circus and I hope to teach outside most of the day )
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that is my wife’s plan as well…
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“Late to take a test I didn’t prepare for” was a recurring nightmare for twenty years after I completed my studies, gradually replaced by “late to teach a class I didn’t prepare for.”
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I’ve had both of those dreams; and I still get one about not realizing I had a class as a student until it was the day of the final…
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Dreams has ways to terrorize us and recreate our hopes and fear… haha
Teaching with mask, wouldn’t it be hard? I hate talking when I got a mask on my face. So uncomfortable.
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teaching with a mask on will be, I hope, the hardest thing to adjust for…
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Can’t get much worse than this. Now you are prepared so well done, brain!
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that’s a positive way to look at it!
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Now you’ve dreamt the worst scenarios, you’ve got this Jim❣️
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thanks, Val! Reality can’t be worse… 🙂
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I hope the reality will be better than the dream! For safety’s sake, if there will be someone providing refreshments there should also be a demonstration of the emergency exit locations and what to do in the event of your lessons crash landing…
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I hope so to. And the room I am in has multiple exits. I think maybe the admins put me in there on purpose 🙂
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Sounds like they’re covering all the angles. Plenty of chances for you or the students to escape your teaching 😉
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that escape plan was probably a high priority 🙂
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You got it Brother, you’ve been a great prof for many years, this won’t be a problem for you!!!
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thanks, Joe! we shall see how it all works out. miss you guys…
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You will be fine!!! Can’t wait to read about your first day! I’m hoping people aren’t spread out so far that you have to yell for them to hear you!!!! My daughter starts online college the 18th and she denies it but she is pretty excited to start back to school!!
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as long as people follow the safety guidelines, we should be ok. Best of luck to your daughter!
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I would not cope in a lecture with being lectured to by someone wearing a mask as I can’t hear people properly when they are wearing one. Hope you don’t have students with the same issues.
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that is one of my fears; I guess I’ll have to talk extra loud…
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Not a dream expert here, but would you say that you are person that likes order/things organised Jim? I’ve had reoccuring dreams that follow a similiar theme where I’m back at school, can’t remember where my locker is and have no idea what my timetable is, so I run around in a panic knocking on doors trying to desperately find where I need to be. I say this as I like things organised and in control
The mask bit and all the other stuff going wrong – no idea!
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I do like to feel that I have things under control. I have every class planned in terms of what I hope to cover. Inevitably I fall off the plan, but at least having an overall idea of the plan is helpful…
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Your dreams are telling you something important.
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hopefully I’ll find out soon what that is! 🙂
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