“The New Normal”“Semi-normal Times”“During These Difficult Times”“Getting Through These Tough Times”“We’ll Get Through These Tough Times Together” It would seem that in the 21st Century, it would be nearly impossible to create a new turn of phrase. Undeniably this time of our lives is not intended to become “the new normal” nor is it a…
Author: Carol Ann Heath, Ed.D.
Women and the Impact of COVID-19 on the Workforce
The current economy results from many factors, the most significant of which is the impact of the closures in March due to COVID-19. While the economic recovery sputters along, Americans are differentially impacted, with working mothers and Black Americans falling significantly behind. Of the over one million Americans who stopped working or even looking in…
COVID-19 Vocabulary #5: Herd Immunity
The continual use of the term “herd immunity” in the media has been troublesome. Not being a farm girl, I have been unfamiliar throughout my life with the discussion of herds and what happens to the group as a whole. According to http://www.mayoclinic.org, herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community, in this…
Friendship While Quarantined
These months have passed quite slowly. For the longest time, I kept thinking I had stepped into another plane of the universe, as in the movie Contact. Perhaps if I looked closely enough I could find the wormhole to return to pre-March 14, 2020. What didn’t happened was actually a life-changing happening. The quarantine extended…
COVID-19 Vocabulary #4
While each day has brought an increase in my COVID-19 vocabulary skills, I am becoming more “with it” each day! Today I will share my new technology words, Instagram Moments, Zoom Meetings, and Cancel Culture. Of course, technology has been an integral component of my life since I purchased my first Apple IIE in 1983. I have steadily…
COVID-19 Vocabulary #3
Day 3 of reflecting on the new vocabulary common to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the desirable social distancing, our almost painful new reality, and the politically sensitive face mask. Social Distancing: Once upon a time, this was a phrase implying the appropriate distancing when carrying on a conversation or standing in a public area. Social politeness required the…
COVID – 19 Vocabulary #2
In an effort to keep up with the many new phrases and their uses during the pandemic, today’s words include data-driven, flatten the curve, and in an abundance of caution. Data-driven: As an educator, since No Child Left Behind was enacted under the Bush Administration, data-driven as come to mean using the results of standardized…
The Intrusion of COVID Vocabulary: What are these words and phrases?
At the beginning…who knew? Over these months, I have been recording, sequentially, new phrases and words that, while “real words,” the concepts were either utilized in a different context or had not been previously in common usage. COVID 19: The name of this disease is coronavirus disease 2019, now abbreviated as COVID-19. In COVID -19,…
Appreciating My Ancestors
All of my cousins and I are in the same age range, older but not entirely ancient. During this enforced stay at home period, we have been sorting and sharing. Among the many treasures have been family pictures. This is a picture of my grandpa’s barbershop in Rochester, NY. He was born in 1884 in…
Traveling During COVID…or NOT!
When the news began to solidify that there was something unusual happening, I was in Southern California visiting my son and his family. We usually visit with them until about April 1 and return to endure the usual blustery East Coast spring. Deciding we were not going to get quarantined away from our home base,…
