March 2020 Project Report

Here is a report of where I spent my time and how well I progressed towards reaching my goals last month.

My 2020 Goals

Professional Goals: 

97% / Double the number of members of The Religion Teacher (December 2017 to present) (+2%)

279,097/1,000,000 words for kids (A part of my #1millionwordsforkids goal) (+24,548 words)

516/600 Resources (Videos/Worksheets) for Members of The Religion Teacher (New goal!)

Personal Goals: 

17/75 books read (+7 books)

25/73 Books: Read the entire Bible from beginning to end. (+3 books read)

36/100 30-minute workouts (+15 workouts)

How I Spent My Time in March 2020

I track every minute of time I spend working on projects using an app called Toggl (here is why). Here is a list of the top ten projects I spent the most time on last month:

1. 29:07 – Bible Breaks Bible Stories for Kids
2. 20:03 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
3. 8:22 – Daily Review
4. 5:51 – Weekly Review 
5. 5:17 – Morning Preview
6. 5:15 – Accounting & Taxes
7. 4:56 – The Religion Teacher Newsletter
8. 4:09 – Brainstorming Stories
9. 4:00 – The Religion Teacher Videos
10. 3:59 – The Religion Teacher’s Saints Worksheet Collection

Total Time: 122:02

March 2020 Highlights & Lessons Learned

Coronavirus Quarantine

At the end of March the world went on lockdown to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Many friends have asked me how much as really changed for me since I work from home. The truth is not much, except that I get to spent a lot more time with my kids. We spent a lot of time together before, but now we have nothing else to do other than enjoy each other’s company. I couldn’t feel more blessed about being the father of a big family right now.

I spent a lot of time working to help religious educators during the coronavirus pandemic. I put together this page to help them share resources with parents either through email or eLearning:

Religious Education eLearning Help for Parents during the Coronavirus Pandemic

I had to research how to write about the coronavirus:

View this post on Instagram

Which is correct: coronavirus or corona virus? Is it one word or two words? CORONAVIRUS Regardless of what auto-correct and spell checks might tell you, the correct way to refer to this pandemic is: coronavirus (one word). Here are a few other facts and references when writing about the pandemic and the disease. I hope it will be a handy cheatsheet for people writing about it online, but especially for teachers, parents, and kids. THE MEANING OF CORONA The name corona refers to the shape of the virus. The word corona means crown in Latin. Under a microscope, the virus looks like a crown. Thus: Corona (crown) + Virus = Coronavirus WHAT DOES COVID-19 STAND FOR? The technical term for the 2019-2020 Coronavirus pandemic is COVID-19. It isn’t the 19th Coronavirus. The number “19” refers to the year that it was first identified by the World Health Organization (December 2019). COVID is short for coronavirus disease: CO =COrona VI = VIrus D = Disease 19 = 2019 (the year it was identified) Other related acronyms: MERS = Middle East Respiratory Syndrome SARS = Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome COVID-19 VS. SARS-COV-2 The specific name for the virus causing the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic is: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is not the same disease as the SARS outbreak in 2003. SARS-CoV-2 = The virus strain that causes COVID-19 COVID-19 = The infectious disease commonly referred to as the coronavirus, which was first identified in 2019. IS CORONAVIRUS CAPITALIZED? Technically, no. In the same way we do not capitalize the word “flu” or even “influenza,” we do not capitalize coronavirus. (By the way, “flu” is actually short for “influenza,” which is short for various strains of the “influenza virus.”)

A post shared by Jared Dees (@jareddees) on Mar 17, 2020 at 4:10am PDT

We’re also praying for help during eLearning:

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Ok, Ok there is no patron saint of eLearning BUT . . . Patron Saint of the Internet + Patron Saint of School Children = Patron Saint of eLearning, right? St. Isidore of Seville, pray for us!

A post shared by Jared Dees (@jareddees) on Apr 4, 2020 at 9:19am PDT

Bible Breaks Bible Stories

I spent most of my creative time re-writing Bible stories for kids. I love reading the Bible. I want my kids, the kids that I teach, and children everywhere to know and love the stories in the Bible as I do. So, I set out to collect and write Bible stories in language they could understand. It is my hope that parents and educators will take “Bible Breaks” with kids to spend time reading the Word of God with them.

I launched my first book in a series of Bible story collection: Take Up Your Cross: Lenten Bible Stories for Kids.

More than 1,000 people download the book and added their names to a new Wednesday email newsletter I am calling “God’s Word Wednesday.”

Taxes, Accounting, and Estate Planning

Just a quick note here. March is tax time for me. I spent a lot of time going through financial documents and getting things prepared for our accountant to process our tax forms. It takes a lot of time, but it is helpful to know where we are at financially both as a business and family.

My wife and I also spent some time on our will and estate planning. Since my mom passed away in December of last year, we both realized how much we need to prepare for each other and our children if anything should happen to us.

Prayers for all who are suffering from this pandemic. May God get us through this swiftly and safely.