On a “normal” night I would have already been in bed.
On a “normal” night I would have missed the news.
Last night I was up a bit later than usual emailing my principal a request to put something in Thursday’s daily bulletin about our Growing Kindness club meeting on Thursday. Just as I sent that email two things happened- I got an email response and a WhatsApp message from a colleague. The decision had been made- schools would move online for at least two weeks.
It was not really a surprise. Saturday morning I was in the doctor’s waiting room getting updates from a friend. It came out in the news that some people who were supposed to be quarantining after arriving in Cambodia had bribed a guard and left quarantine. Some condos were being locked down. As the weekend progressed more cases showed up as first someone tested positive as they were preparing to depart Cambodia. Over the course of the weekend it got a bit eerie, with Koh Pich (Diamond Island) being locked down and different “hot spots” being identified.
Still, Monday morning there was school as usual. I was missing five students as some parents kept their children home, but still we were going on “as usual”. At our leadership meeting after school there was talk that we might go online soon…
Just before 8:45PM, being near my phone later than usual it was announced- schools were to be closed for a minimum of two weeks. To be honest my emotions were all over the place- disappointment (I so prefer in person learning), gratefulness (that we had had a long stint in person), relief (it was sounding a bit dangerous now), worry (what next?).
This morning the kids were great! Most of them do not love online learning, but we talked about our understanding that we can do hard things, the strength of our learning community, our goals moving forward, and more and we got on with some learning. We are trying to take on lessons we have learned as teachers from our other experiences online this year and last and aim to do a better job this time. Yes, I am hoping this is just a short blip, and we can be in person again soon, but I know we may have to pivot again and again in this Covid time (and the only vaccines that are heading this way so far are the Sinopharm ones and so far they are reserved for high ranking government officials), so it may be awhile yet.
My fingers are crossed that acting pretty quickly will contain this round of community spread as the health care here is not up for a challenge.