Kelly's teaching update

Swine flu panic began in April and immediately the Hong Kong government and residents became very nervous. Those who lived through SARS over here were especially nervous and measures were taken immediately by the government to prevent an outbreak here.  At the beginning of May, three hundred guests were quarantined in the Metropark hotel when it was discovered one of the guests had H1N1.  At school were told that if there was even one confirmed "local" case of H1N1 (meaning in someone who had not recently traveled abroad and could have contacted it there) they would shut down the schools for two weeks. Since this didn't happen during the initial scare, I thought everything would be fine and wasn't too worried. There were positive benefits of the increased measures put in place to stop the spread of the virus. The elevator buttons in our building are disinfected every hour, they put out hand sanitizer everywhere, and students at school are sent home right away if they have any cold or flu symptoms. This resulted in not getting sick with the cold or flu at all, whereas previously it felt like I picked up something every few weeks.

On June 11th though we had our first local case of H1N1 in the schools. They shut down that school immediately and the government met to decide what to do about the rest. They announced later in the day that all kindergartens and primary schools would be closed for two weeks. What did this mean for teachers? Well we still had to come in to school (but were each given three days off in rotation) for the two weeks and prepare lesson plans for next year and finish up with any work for the current students. Once the two weeks were over the government was going to make a decision about whether or not to keep the schools closed longer. Since there would only be about three more weeks left once they returned, it was questionable whether or not it made sense to resume if the virus was still spreading

We waited anxiously to hear whether schools would reopen and found out on June 24th that they would in fact remain closed for the rest of the school year. They would resume in August. I assumed this would mean I was going to be on forced leave in July. But it turns out that our school decided to host small groups of students whose parents really needed the help in taking care of them during the day. So we are going to start these small group sessions next week on July 2nd. I am happy I will still be able to work during July.

While I think the most important thing is keeping the teachers and students healthy, I am disappointed by the way this all played out because the school year ended very abruptly and I won't be seeing my current class of students again. I miss them and I didn't really have a chance to say goodbye to these adorable faces:



After these "small group sessions," we will have a one week vacation from July 24- Aug 1st before the new school year starts.  Daniel and I are headed to a secret location for a week! I planned a vacation for us but he has no idea where we are going. Can't wait!