Clayton County resident Mapillar Dahn kept a weeklong diary for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of her experiences with remote learning and working from home. The mother of three ( ages 16, 15, 11), who also is helping to raise two nieces (ages 8 and 11), reflects on the ups and downs of life during a pandemic. The AJC will revisit the family periodically through the 2020-2021 school year. Her diary has been edited for space. Read Dahn’s full story here.
DAY 1
6:15 a.m.: Woke the girls up to get ready for school. I had to remind Cayden, Lala, and Hajar that their tablets need to be in my room by 8 p.m.
9:30 a.m.: Checked in on the girls to see if anyone needs help. Why is Lala hovering over Hajar when she’s supposed to be at the other side of the table?
9:45 a.m.: Came back to make sure Lala was staying on task. She seems to be playing a medieval game. “Not again,” I thought to myself, but the game was actually part of her assignment.
7 p.m.: Hajar and I met up with Felicia and the twins to walk at the park. It was fun incorporating some of my soccer drills into my walk to try to compensate for not doing our usual 10,000 steps.
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Day 2
8:30 a.m.: Lala is already in class and has started to work on her assignment. Hajar did not complete her math assignment yesterday, so she’s working on that before starting her first period.
10 a.m.: Took Deej in for her pre-transfusion labs.
11:15 a.m.: I keep receiving Tardy/Absent alerts about Hajar and Cayden via the Parent App. Hajar has a habit of turning off her camera, so I remind them to keep their cameras on.
1:20 p.m.: Got a call from Lala’s teacher while on our way home from the lab that Lala has turned off her camera and is not listening. They are supposed to be taking a test and Lala has been on the same question for over 20 minutes. Uggh!
3:15 p.m.: Tully and I have a conversation about grieving. She lost a friend over a year ago and today is his birthday.
Day 3
4:30 a.m.: Deej and I start getting ready to head out the door by 5:15 a.m. for her blood transfusion.
7:15 a.m.: Called Mom to make sure the girls were awake and getting ready for school.
12:13 p.m.: Got a call from Ms. Chatman, Hajar’s Math teacher, letting me know that Hajar was not in class today. I added Hajar to the call and Ms. Chatman and I learned that Hajar had trouble finding the Zoom link.
Day 4
7 a.m.: Woke the girls up for school.
9:15 a.m.: Checked on Deej and Tully to see if they needed me. They are so independent that it’s easy to forget them at times.
2:30 p.m.: Our shoot with Jennifer was amazing. We went to the park for some shots by the lake and later went dumpster hunting so we could complete the shoot. .
7:15 p.m.: Spoke with Ms. Taylor, Hajar’s Social Studies teacher, about her grades. She’s sending a list of assignments for her to redo to bring up her grades. Ugh...there goes my walk.
10:15 p.m.: Sent Hajar off to get ready for bed. I can see why she’s been struggling with social studies because even I don’t understand and I’ve been texting with her teacher for over an hour.
Day 5
8:15 a.m.: Woke the girls up for school. I let them sleep in a little because they don’t meet with teachers on Fridays.
8:30 a.m.: Received a text from Ms. Taylor that our 11 a.m. meeting has been moved to 1 p.m. Hajar needs a lot of clarity from Ms. Taylor so we have to make this meeting.
1:10 p.m.: The meeting with Ms. Taylor went exceptionally well. I say that because after the meeting, Hajar and I had a moment. As a parent I know she feels overwhelmed in this virtual setting because some much is going over her head without her IEP support services.She actually broke down because she feels everything is so hard and she gives up and doesn’t ask questions because she doesn’t want her classmates to look at her weird because they all seem to follow along so well. It breaks my heart, but she’s not saying anything that I don’t already know.
7:20 p.m.: Got a call from Jasmine to let me know that they were back home from the hospital. We make plans to meet up so that Jazlynn, Hajar’s bestie, can come and spend the weekend with us.
10:30 p.m.: There’s nothing like watching Hajar and Jazlynn greet each other.I’m happy to see Hajar’s spirits up, but good God, 6 girls for the week!!! I need to be checked on regularly LOL.
