It is 7.18am. Sunday 29th March. I am
perched at the breakfast bar (we hadn’t yet ordered a dining table pre
this). A normal Sunday morning for me
would be a few of hours of focused school work whilst the kids watched
cartoons/What Now – for me it means Saturday and the rest of Sunday are back to
whanau. Now I’m at a slight odd.
New Zealand went into lockdown pretty much Monday
afternoon it felt. We had spent the Friday prior
as a TOD where we had time to sort out packs/learning/computers for our
learners ‘just in case’ this happened. I
had thought we’d limp along till Easter and then maybe be told after the
holidays they were extended. How wrong I
was!
Monday rolled around, my juniors (y9) and I had a couple of
goes on Google Meet – just in case. We
had Social Studies after lunch, and a few asked if they could listen to the PMs
speech. Ok – but headphones and no
blurting out stuff – call me over! The
others wanted to keep working on their projects (and a few with anxiety I didn’t
want to elevate!). Within about twenty
mins I knew something as up.
The DP came around and we were briefed on next steps. I was thankful I had made the paper packs
with journals (for them to record this experience in) and novels and write on
pages. They all were able to take their
issued school devices home as well.
Over Tuesday/Wednesday we were able to be in school without
them as we needed – so odd – finalising the last things we needed to teach from
home. Thursday and Friday have been
Google Meet classes, touching base, ensuring they have the links (literally)
they need to keep on learning.
And now it’s holidays.
However, I’m thankful. I’m
thankful that our family moved into our new whare literally two weeks ago. It would have been harder at the old
place. I’m thankful work has been
supportive as DH and I split Tuesday/Wednesday while he sorted clients as well. I’m super thankful for internet friends and colleagues–
where now that support and contact is even more important. I’m thankful for crazy little things like a
dishwasher.
I’m not the best at sitting still and being – even at the
best of times. I will learn. We will find a new normal. We will be.