Coronavirus: Part 1
“I never would’ve thought that Friday, January 24th would be the last day I’d see my students for a while, and more importantly, that the world would go into complete panic mode for the next several weeks.”
Thirty-five.
The number of school days without students since all hell broke loose. Fifty-one calendar days total.
Fifty-one days is about the length of some schools’ summer break; and here I am in the middle of a school year, going on almost two months with no students.
I arrived back in Mongolia on Sunday, January 19th from visiting home in the states for winter break. I woke up every day from Monday, January 20th through Friday, January 24th to go to work, do my day, and come home—just like normal. I never would’ve thought that Friday, January 24th would be the last day I’d see my students for a while, and more importantly, that the world would go into complete panic mode for the next several weeks.
As I’m walking home from work Friday, I stopped by the corner store right beside my apartment complex to stock up on my favorite snacks. Again, my normal Friday routine—grab my snacks, get comfy on my couch with Sasha (my dog), and Netflix the weekend away. I get to the checkout counter only to run into my therapist, who is now my school’s counselor; stay tuned for that story in another blog post.
Anyway, she has a child in another local school. She says to me, “So, how do you feel about schools being closed for the next couple of weeks?”. I replied, “Huh?”. She responds, “Yes, I just got the notification from my daughter’s school about the government closing all schools due to the coronavirus”. Me, knowing how my school operates being a private school, replied: “Oh wow—but I’m sure ASU isn’t closing”. She then responds, “I don’t think they’ll have a choice”.
The rest is history from there.
Article reporting Mongolian schools closing
All the coronavirus rumors around town and amongst our faculty and staff had now gone viral, which is when I received a phone call from my boss early Saturday regarding an emergency administration meeting in a few hours. I head to the meeting only to find out that we are, indeed, without students until March 2nd. As a reminder, it was currently January 25th. We quickly think of a plan, being that this was the end of our first semester and some students had to take final exams. Against government orders, it was decided upon to proceed as planned on Monday by allowing scheduled students to come take exams. It was okay since it wasn’t the entire student body, right?
Wrong.
No sooner than students were well into their exams, police and government officials barged into the building, ordering all students to evacuate, while several members of the administrative team were summoned to the police station. Not me, though—thank God.
I didn’t even realize I had my mask on incorrectly until afterwards! Smh.
At this point, I don’t think myself nor the school staff knew exactly how serious this coronavirus was—but we found out very quickly. Hundreds of thousands of cases began being reported within surrounding countries such as China and South Korea; even a few cases within the USA. Travel bans were implemented all throughout East Asia, and cities were being completely shut down. It wasn’t looking good, yet students still had to learn.
As the days and weeks continued, our school staff reported to work for half days, tasked to provide students with online instruction via Google Classroom and other web-based academic resources. However, when the government decision was made to extend the school closing yet another month due to the virus severity, our understanding became more severe as well. Parents began complaining about insufficient instruction, which led to Zoom video instruction being implemented. Contacts were made to parents and students to inform them of assignments from teachers, as well as the expectation to complete outstanding assignments if students wanted to maintain high markings within the gradebook.
Interested in how I went from providing online instruction to students while they’re restricted from school—to almost being quarantined in South Korea?
Come back for Coronavirus, Part 2!
