It’s not been good in Hong Kong since the start of the holiday. Our numbers daily have been going down overall, but the issue has been most of the cases have been local instead of imported as they had been last year. We have had so many more people die in the last month. There are so many who are in critical condition. It is not a good situation.

Last week, it was announced that schools would remain online until at least 10th January.

I was not ready to go back to school. It was so hard to walk up this morning. I know that the kids have to be the same way. The benefit though is I was able to walk up at 8AM to be ready for school by 8:25AM. I was wearing a hoodie and slippers and had a blanket.

It was a pretty nice set up. For most of the morning, I was sitting at the dining room table. Helper had to clean my room. Once she was done, I moved to my bedroom. Pupper, of course, opted to lay on my bed instead of her own bed.

I would rather be in school with the students, but this isn’t a bad set up. I had my pillows, blanket, and pupper. It is definitely more comfortable. Additionally, it has been quite cold. I don’t have proper winter clothes. It would have been miserable without the slippers, hoodie, and blanket.

Later in the day, in our Whatsapp group for my department, it was shared that we will most likely be online until the Lunar New Year. That’s mid February! That’s crazy. Other teachers are saying the school is trying to work out the possibility of secondary students getting into school 2 days a week. I think it’s going to be a logistical nightmare, but it’s not my job to sort that out.

I know that the schools are feeling a great deal of pressure from parents to have kids back in school. They look at online learning as though teachers are not doing their job. I can say that working online is way more work than it is to be in actual school. It’s constant. During online learning, I have students contacting at all times day or night. That didn’t happen when we were just in school. I am not complaining about it because I choose to respond. I do think that parents are not giving teachers and other educators the credit they are due for all of their work. Yes, it is our job to teach, but we also problem solved this nightmare to work out a solution to continue education even without the ability to see our kids face to face. Add to that, most of us are also parents and have to manage our own children during this time.

None of this is easy for anyone, but that doesn’t mean it is easy for teachers just because we are “working from home”.