But I Smile Anyway…

Wow! What a week. Things are still changing, as I type… Let me tell you how week one of the new normal has gone for me…

• I rolled up to work on Monday, having made lunches for the kids and Hubby, as. I wasn’t sure what time I was going to be back, but it’s best to be prepared, isn’t it? Their online learning wasn’t starting officially until Wednesday, but they had plenty to keep them occupied. School was a strange place. There were more adults than children, as the majority of folk had managed to get care for their kids, but there were still children of key workers in. Some staff had been assigned to be working with them. The rest of us had different duties to complete around the school and in our classrooms. A few colleagues had brought their children in. with them too. After a long discussion, it was decided by our head and the rest of the management that those with children at home, or carers for vuldernable members of family who lived with them, should stay at home, and not come in. A tough decision, but a sensible one. I was approached as I have kids at home, but to be honest, they are pretty self sufficient, and as long as I am sensible with hygeine, and shower and change when I get home, I am okay to keep coming in as necessary. I finished at normal time, and then braved the supermarket to see if I could get some chicken, as the request had been put n. They wanted my chicken soup. Obviously no dinner at my in laws as the kids weren’t there. I just about managed to get some, and. as I was cooking it up, the announcement came that we were going into more of a severe lockdown. We were still open, but I had to explain to the in laws that we were definitely not coming round there now, for the forseeable future. There are vulnerable people in that house, two diabetics, a heart patient, an asthmatic… no risks to be taken.
• On Tuesday, I knew I had a couple of computer-based school tasks to do. Most of my class team were not going to be in, so I knew I could focus. First, I thought I’d try and pop in to Asda, and get a few key things that were running low in the house, including bread. There was a queue when I got there at 7.45am and they were opening at 8am. But It wasn’t too long. By the time doors opened, it stretched way beyond my eyeline. The store was letting in around six people at a time, in order that they kept people as far apart from each other as possible. By about 8.15am I was in, and grabbed the things I needed, before heading home to drop them off then I ventured to school. My classroom has been tidied up as much as it can be. Reports, Performance Mamagement reviews have been done, Progress Grids completed. Assessments done. Rather than start a new task, I went home. But not before a detour to the in-laws. Mum had called me to say she had made food and would pack it and leave it outside for me to grab. Bless her! It was good to see the kids still focussed with their work, and a habit I started on the Monday was that regardless of anything, we would get outside for around an hour, if possible, every day. We are lucky to have the temple just walking distance from our house. the temple is closed for worshippers at the moment but their sports ground is still open for exercise purposes. Lil Man played with his football, Lil Princess walked with me, then used some of the outdoor equipment. I did several rounds of the ground, and I have been taking that time to post a daily video story on Instagram, a kind of virtual diary, if you will. Whilst walking on Tuesday, I saw two magpies… hope in what feels like a hopeless situation…

• On Wednesday I stayed at home. And as it was the kids first day using Google Classrooms, I was glad. There will always be some teething problems, but we got there in the end, even though work from a 50 minute lesson took Lil Princess and I nearly 2 hours to complete – not because it was hard, but because the way it was meant to be submitted was ridiculous! I took the chance to finish some online training that my Head had sent to us all, then I accessed an online writing course that I had signed. up to a long time ago. I completed module four of a fourteen module course, so w as quite impressed with myself!

• I have to share with you my own little bit of humour, with regards to making yourself a mask at home…

• Thursday saw me back at school for the morning, where I had to email a few bits to my Head and then I set about the task of trying to sort out a resource cupboard that is part of my responsibility, and a HUGE MESS at the moment. It was quite cathartic, to. be honest! But something that will take more than a couple of hours to complete. After taking a good crack at it, I left after 12.30pm, with the intention of dropping the containers back to my in-laws, and picking up prescriptions for our hay fever medication, because not only do we have a virus to deal with, but that allergy season is also upon is now! But, I got there a bit late and they were clsoed for lunch. Got home and sorted lunch out for the family, and then I managed another module of the course too! Go, me!
• Friday – another school morning. It was even quieter than normal with only two children in for care. I got another huge amount done on my cupboard sorting, but not before I was called upon to join the children with their daily PE slot, the live half an hour session with Joe Wicks on YouTube. I was definitely out of puff by the end, and I tell you what, I knew I was going to suffer the next day! I left by 12pm and got home, fed the crew, then curled up in bed with my son, so we could watch a film together, after he had finished his work.
• On Saturday, I was woken up at 7.30am by a video call from my brother and nephews, which was lovely. Since I was awake, I decided to just get up. Grabbing my MacBook, and Kindle, I set myself up in the living room, with intentions of getting more of the course done. But when I went to log in, the website wouldn’t load! I got worried. Had I lost all my progress? Has this virus affected the company. providing the course? After slight hyperventilation, I thought I would jsut try something else, and started viewing vidoes from a Productivity course I had also signed up to. Lunchtime came and after making food for the masses. who had finally woken up, I grabbed my Kindle for a little light reading, only to find it wouldn’t switch on, even after being plugged into the charger! After a conversation with Amazon support who basically said I would have to buy a new one, I frustratedly just put it back on charge and thought I’d look at it later. Then I turned back to my course…but the MacBook had decided to make a funny noise. Jeez! What was happening with my technology today? I switched it off, and decided to bake cupcakes with Lil Princess instead.

• The evening brought news of a big jump in deaths as a result of COVID-19. Things are getting really scary now. My aunt has been taken to hospital with suspected COVID-19. She is on oxygen now, and still awaiting confirmed diagnosis. We tried to be light-hearted. Watched films together, had a take away, but my mind is elsewhere…
• On Sunday, I literally stayed in bed ALL DAY. Mother Nature was showering us with all sorts of weather, from beautiful blue skies, to rain to a hailstorm! I read all day, which was just lovely, then we decided to venture out for around twenty minutes for a walk. It was too cold to stay out any longer!

So there it is. My week. It’s been strange. And as of Sunday, the lockdown is to get much more serious. Apparently, there will be police or even army at checkpoints, making sure no one is out unless they have to be.

It’s my assigned day with the children today, Monday. Then I won’t be in school unless there is an emergency. Then we just wait and see what the government says about what happens after the Easter holidays.

It’s a strange world we are living in at the moment…

How has your week been?

Psst! Have you got time for a cuppa? What with all the craziness of the #CoronaVirus, I don’t quite know where the time has gone!

• If we were sipping chai together I’d start with the little things… We had our moderation, which took an age of sifting through the work of different children from all the schools, to see if we were all singing from the same hymn sheet, so to speak. It’s amazing how different the demographics can be in schools not more than a few miles away from each other. We are a true inner town school, and our demographic tends to be many non English speakers, and low income families, with a real range of abilities. The others all seem to have many more able children from more stable backgrounds. Still, it’s interesting to look across the board.
• If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you that I did manage to pop in to my local nail salon on Saturday, and got my nails done. They feel much better, but the salon was much quieter than usual. It’s operated by Vietnamese folk, but so many are misguided and think ‘Chinese’ they have stopped going at the moment due to Coronavirus fear… ridiculous!
• If we were sipping chai together I’d have to mention the elephant in the room properly, i.e. that awful virus that is attacking the world. We spent Thursday on tenterhooks, waiting for Boris Johnson’s decisions about how the UK are going to deal with the virus… and they decided upon the strategy of developing ‘herd immunity’. So basically they think that if around 60% of us got it then our immunity would be better and they could handle cases better… They aren’t planning school shut downs just yet, because they don’t want the situation where they have to keep them closed for so long that it has a detrimental effect on everyone. Not only will it affect the children’s education, but if they were to shut, then parents would need to stay home, and that means they can’t go to work. What about those parents who work for the NHS or care industry? They are needed so badly at the moment. This though isn’t sufficient for most. People are seeing other countries shutting schools for 2/4/6 weeks, or even a couple of months and can’t understand why we aren’t doing the same. I honestly don’t know, but I wish we were told, too. It is hard enough being a teacher, at the best of times, but knowing we need to keep these children safe, and as educated as we can means that we have a lot of forward planning that needs doing. It’s not going to be an extended holiday. We need to create accesible learning for all the children so they are continuing to learn while they are at home. Our head is so conscious of work life balance, she has ordered a whole heap of workbooks that children can use at home for each year group, to keep them learning whilst off, whenever that may be.
• If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you that we haven’t had a confirmed case here in the locality, but one school was closed for a deep clean due to a suspected case, and we had to send two children home, who weren’t well at all. It’t likely not to be the coronavirus, but we can’t be too careful.

• If we were sipping chai together I wouldn’t be able to shut up about the craziness of panic buying that is going on right now! Over the last two weeks, the toilet paper, handwash and sanitiser shortage has extended to bleach and cleaning wipes, pasta, tinned goods, freezer food and even FREEZERS! People are buying emergency freezers to stash their bulk buys in! Really?? I’ve had the joy of seeing at least three supermarkets over the weekend, and the pandemonium is just getting worse. On Friday, I went to do my usual shop. I got most of what I would usually buy, but no beer for Hubby Dearest. After an evening of cleaning the house, we settled down to chill. I got up on Saturday and after my nails, I popped into a different shop to get the beers. OMG! It was like the days that lead up to Christmas! The usual shelves were still empty, but trollies were full. Still, I got my beer, or rather, his beer! The rest of the day we were in our own rooms, doing our own thing. If only the reality of isolation was going to be that smooth. Sunday morning, I woke up and realised that I didn’t have Sonu Singh’s litter and I needed to top up dry food. Hubby and the kids wanted Macdonald’s breakfast too. So off I went, with Lil Man. The pet shop was fine. Asda, however, at juwt past 10am on a Sunday, was heaving! Usually it is quiet, but the car park was full. Apparently there was a queue, building up for at least an hour prior to opening. I wanted to get a new knee support as my one is feeling too tight when I sit down. Even they were out of stock! As well as paracetamol tablets and liquid for kids. Again, queues like crazy. At least the Macdonalds concession was quite empty! Got home and wished for another quiet day like Saturday, but that was asking too much. The kids were bickering. Lil Man was in a tizz, because he hates being cooped up. He also managed to drop his laptop while using it the day before, and the screen isn’t working, so he just bugged the rest of us! We did end up out for dinner though, which was lovely, to celebrate our date-iversary belatedly!
• If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you that I feel as if my life has been taken over by this dang virus… when will it all end? I’m worrying about my parents who are far away, my in-laws who are close but all classed as vulnerable, my kids, my hubby, my Finndian family, the children in my class, and their families… I don’t have time to worry about myself… at least I am making sure my hands are extra clean!

• If we were sipping that chai together, and possibly reaching for cake or cookies I’d tell you that I can only wait now, and see what happens at schoolt this week. I am meant to be on a course today, unless it gets cancelled last minute. We were meant to have a Mothers Day craft afternoon for the mums and children, and that has been cancelled, as has Parents Evening, school trips, the disco that was meant to be on before Easter… Tenterhooks, I told you!
• If we were sipping that chai together, and possibly reaching for cake or cookies I’d say that I don’t know what to do about Saturday. I am meant to be going into London for my radio interview… but though there is no lockdown, should I still attempt it, or see if they can do it via phone? Do I risk getting the train, or should I drive in and have a nightmare finding parking? I don’t know!

Right, that’s me done Peeps! Let me how your week has been!