Praising, Praying and Planning

So just over a week of quarantine complete and it's almost time for 'back to school.' I joined in with Church online again, which thankfully got me in the right mood to start the day, and by singing along loudly during worship, I ensured the neighbours kept their distance.

I then couldn't put it off any longer. It was time. Tomorrow will be my first online class and I honestly don't not know what to expect. As our school is a private international school, we'd already had two weeks off at Christmas, so we're due to go back a week earlier than the public schools who don't have time off in December.

I recorded a video over a powerpoint I'd made earlier, made sure everything was uploaded in the order students will need it, and checked everyone knew what time we would have our first 'lesson' tomorrow. We're using Zoom, which I've thankfully got quite used to through Church services and small groups. And most importantly, I made sure that any parents or kids who added my WeChat were unable to see my moments.

We have four homeroom teachers across two classes in Grade 4 (two Chinese, two foreign), and we'd previously decided to divide up the homeroom subjects (English, maths, science and world geography) and plan one subject each for both fourth grade classes. I would have no idea how I would cope if I was doing this by myself! I'm very fortunate to work as part of an amazing team, and despite the fact that everything here is closed, I am so thankful I am in the same country and therefore timezone, as the students. Some of our teachers are still in South Africa (6 hours behind China), and friend's at other schools are even further behind (8 hours) in the UK. I'm not sure I could start at 2am for this!

And then it was done, and I had a cup of tea to celebrate my success. In the Officer Training Corps we learnt, "no battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy,” and I've always applied the same principal to my teaching career; "no lesson plan ever survives first contact with the students." I guess we'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings...  I'm just hoping the wifi holds out...

Setting my alarm for the first time in three weeks and praying I don't sleep through it.

As of Feb 9th:
1,390 unwatched YouTube videos on my 'to watch later' playlist (so many added as I tried to remain focused!)
495 unread emails.
7 unread paper books (+ 1 kindle).

3 dogs and a hamster.

229 episodes of Friends left to watch.

Way too much time spent on Pinterest and TPT looking for ideas.

3 alarms set at 5 minute intervals.