Seit Beginn der Quarantäne posten wir Artikel, um zu inspirieren oder unser kreatives Potenzial zu stimulieren. Wir nennen es #CREAntäne!
Wir sitzen global all in einem Corona-Boot. Deshalb setzen wir mit unserem 28. Post unsere Sonderreihe fort: Crea Germany e.V. ist Teil einer globalen Community zu Kreativität. Aus dieser haben wir Freunde aus verschiedenen Ländern eingeladen, aus ihrer persönlichen Perspektive und der ihres Landes zu berichten.
In diesem zweiten Teil unserer Reihe berichtet Bruce Scharlau von seinen #CREAntäne Erlebnissen. Er lebt in Aberdeen in Schottland und lehrt Computing Science an der University of Aberdeen. Dabei nutzt und mischt er auf experimentelle Weise agiles Vorgehen, Lean Management und Service Design.
Since the beginning of the quarantine, we have been posting blogs to inspire and to stimulate our creative potential. We call this #CREANtäne!
We are all in the same corona-boat. That is the reason why – with this 28th post- we continue something special: Crea Germany e.V. is part of a global community engaged in creativity. We have invited some friends from different countries, to give us a short report on their personal perspective and some information about the situation in their country.
In this second article Bruce Scharlau shares his #CREAntine experiences with us. He lives in Aberdeen, Scotland, and teaches Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen by mixing agile, lean and service design approaches in an experiential manner.
How it all started
„Life has fallen into a regular routine. It started off with lots of energy and optimism about ‘what and how much’ I might achieve without the daily commute of 75 minutes each time. I went there and back again, and was interrupted by someone turning up at my office door, or meeting someone unexpectedly on a walk between classrooms. All this ‘lost’ time was now mine! Oh, the things I could do!
My life in #CREAntine – challenges and insights
The first insight is that those ‘things’ vanished in a few bites of reality. Work now takes longer, virtual meetings take more energy, and we’re also supporting and working with our families. Life is now reduced to the essentials of looking after ourselves, and our loved ones. The ‘grand vision’ is reduced to key parts of that vision. And that, you know, is ok. We can’t do everything. We have to do enough to keep ourselves excited and optimistic for the future. The schedule has reduced down to ‘work’ Monday to Friday, with ‘other things’ at the weekend for a change of pace. A typical work day is now breakfast followed by one of the ‘7-minute workout’ sessions, and then shower and dressed, or a bike ride if there’s no video call. Otherwise the bike ride falls before dinner. I’m glad that I finally find the right time/place to do the 7-minute workout as I’ve known it was useful/good for me, but previous experiments had it at the wrong time of day. Now it feels like something that I can keep going with when the commuting starts again.
Weekends are slightly different with a slow start on Saturday, and then garden work, and time for me. I also do a few hours work for Code the City (https://codethecity.org) , where I’m a trustee. We are looking for funds to employee someone full-time to help us do our work with coding for civic good. The goal of the weekend is to reduce screen time at the computer by swapping it with fresh air, physical activity, and more time with others in the family, plus a bit of streaming video, or book reading time for me. This helps break up the pattern, so that there’s something to look forward to during the week.
Creativity in Quarantine
The second insight is that I’ve found that all of my creative energies are being poured into conceptualising and planning my teaching. ‘How do I do what I do in a a remote setting with students?’ This has led me to exploring different facilitation sessions online (CoCreAct, Liberating Structures, and various agile ones too) in order to gain ideas that I might take back to my classroom, or use for our Code the City sessions, too. My goal is to find engaging ways to set up lessons that will help students practice what they learn, and let me share ideas in suitable ways. I’ve gained some ideas on how I will do my teaching this summer and in the coming term, and found that some approaches which I’ve never quite got around to implementing, will now be implemented by force of circumstances. This is overdue, and a good thing. I’m also fortunate that some of this will come with new courses, and some parts that can be trialled in smaller sessions, so that I have the opportunity to learn through my mistakes, and quickly iterate towards success.
The third insight is that I like working from home and having the family around. I need to find a way to maintain this I think, or get back to it again sometime. This won’t be possible when we have our students back, but might be something that I can do more of as my work schedule allows. Knowing about it is the first step, right?
Lastly, I’ve also realised that the people I miss seeing most are a handful, and that some of those are people I only rarely see in person in any case. The hanging out in cafes with family, or working on my own in a café is something I do miss. Same too with meeting friends for a drink in a bar, or a coffee in a cafe, and talking about our pains and gains of the day. At least I still have a good stove top espresso maker for use at home. It’s now getting a daily workout of its’ own.
I’m not sure if there’s any ‘take away’ from this. I found it interesting to pause and write this up. Maybe you should too, or at least pause and reflect on what you do now and want to carry forward after covid times as you go for your next walk.“
Thank you, Bruce!
Stay safe and hopefully we see you soon!
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Nächste Woche gibt es einen neuen #CREAntäne Blogpost.
Crea Germany e.V. 