It was dear Shell Greyhound (aka Michelle Edwards) who put the idea into my head. She missed my travel blogs this year and suggested I blog about my time in isolation. Hardly riveting reading, I thought at first. But then I mulled over it and decided it would be a fun thing to do and, if nothing else, it would give me some amusement during ISO_2.0. So, here goes.
Living as we do in Melbourne, Ross and I have old hands at this isolation thing (ISO). We have been more or less house bound since All teaching at the university had ceased, and research significantly wound back as well. I had not lost my job and had been lucky enough to be WFH, in Our dining room had my office. Ross had bought a lovely new dining table only two months prior. The vase of flowers made way for my and peripherals. It now features a sporadic array of chocolate wrappers, coffee mugs, memory sticks, bits of paper with notes scrawled on them, books on genetics, a
bottle of eye drops, and seven large pegs. (Yeah, I dont know why either.) Since March, Ive sat here working - day in, day out - putting my entire course online, thanks to Through the windows of our dining room, I would watch the changing weather as the days rolled by and the academic year pressed doggedly on. As March turned into April, it was obvious I would be unable to see my dear parents and friends in NSW over Easter, as I usually do. Instead, I spent the whole of Easter devising curly questions for the exam in my course. Like many people, I sat through endless Zoom meetings during the initial lockdown. At least I could stop the video while I went to the bathroom, or shave my nose hairs during a particularly tiresome monologue from someone. Most afternoons, I was able to get out on my bike, clearing my head, getting some exercise, and with the world.
I spent an inordinate amount of time dreaming up and implementing creative ways to teach online. Meanwhile, Ross spent an inordinate amount of time dreaming up and implementing creative ways of making
cocktails. The two seemed to match! By the end of semester (June 30), I had managed to get through the entire course without seeing a single one of my 98 students This was, of course, disappointing to me. I love the usual engagement and interaction – especially in practical classes. Yet Id seen most of the students via Zoom, popping in and out of online practical classes run by our tutors, or making some grandiose video announcements like some sort of presidential address. It all went very well in the end, and I had wonderful student feedback. The online (open book) exam went well too. It was challenging indeed to devise questions that students could not readily look up, but we did it. I was very impressed with all the students answers. Marking exams can be tiresome, although occasionally punctuated by an amusing answer. In years gone by, I had encountered funny answers to questions. During my PhD years, I tutored first year uni students in the evening at an college at the University of Sydney. I once asked the class: What is the name of the nerve that controls the nose?
On another occasion, I asked for the definition of the PMZ. This is the Posterior Marginal Zone, a part of the early chicken embryo. Someone said it was as the Partially Melted Zone.
On another occasion, I drove to the college at 7:30pm for the weekly tutorial, only to learn that they had won the Varsity rugby that day and were out celebrating. I wish Id been told in advance, so I returned to my car to drive off. Someone had decided it was a good idea to let the air out of all four of my tyres! I stood waiting in the rain for the NRMA, cursing my students – though I never actually knew who did it.
During the easing of lockdown restrictions in Victoria - around late May, I guess it was – I started going back into the lab periodically. My staff and students did same, observing the required distancing.
