Snowflakes and Swine Flu

Many of you have already heard about schools closing for 3 weeks in Ukraine due to the A/H1N1 epidemic. This includes KCA.

Originally, we planned for one week "off", but as a working vacation for our students. However, when it became highly unlikely that we would reopen after one week, we have made plans for 3 weeks of not being able to meet as a school.

The new plan is as follows.

On Thursday, 1oth-12th grade students will meet in Podil where we have 3 apartments close together. There will be a rotation of classes for English, math, and science courses. All math classes will be taught at the same time, since the students are grouped by ability level and not by age. This posed a slight problem for me, in that I cannot teach 2 classes in 2 separate places at the same time. Thankfully, a former KCA teacher has been willing to fill in for me and teach Algebra 2 while I teach Geometry.

Starting next week, we will be meeting over on the Left Bank for what I call "Left Bank School." There are 5 different apartments being used, and between each class "period," teachers will change locations. I've only been to the Left Bank (on the other side of the river) once, and I have no idea how to get to these apartments, but there will be "guides" sent to the metro to get us to the right place. As Dougie points out, this does seem to defeat the purpose of the "quarantine", but we cannot afford to miss 15 school days in a row like this.

The remaining days that need to be made up will be pulled from other calendar days, by New Year's/Christmas, so that once we are in January, everything will be back to normal (what IS normal, anyway?).

It has been quite confusing for me to figure out what I can give my students to do on their own, and what I need to actually teach them. They will have many questions, I'm sure! Not to mention, I will probably not have supplies that I am used to having, like a whiteboard, or overhead. I plan on listing "office hours" when the students can come by school and ask questions and turn in work if they would like (and if their parents allow them to travel).

Please pray for us as a school--staff and students--as we work within this new plan (that hopefully is the final version, unless version next happens to be that we can go back to school sooner). Pray for flexibility and patience.

In other news.....

It snowed yesterday and today!!! The snowflakes were bigger today, and it snowed longer, but none of the snow stuck to the ground. It was really fun to watch. :)