A hot minute

Hello! 

It's been a hot minute since I've posted here, actually more like 1 million thirty thousand minutes (give or take...). Basically I spent a year after that last post processing a lot of "life stuff" internally that I wasn't really comfortable making public, and then this past year I've been super busy teaching. Plus, the kids are at an age where they're a little more aware of what gets posted about them on social media, so I haven't felt as free to talk about them as much here. 

But here we are, and I thought it might be a good time to rev up the ol' blog again. 

We have started school online this year!

We had hoped to begin in person on the 20th, then on the 24th, and then got word that permission to open face-to-face was denied by the Albanian Ministry of Education. But, we could start online, and then transition to face-to-face once all the Albanian schools open on September 14. 

It seems like everyone connected in any way, shape, or form to formal education is struggling with the pandemic and all that implies for the ways that we do school, at all levels. It has been a learning curve, for sure, but I've felt a lot of confidence in our administration - the thoughtful planning, consultation, and decision-making that has gone into preparing for this year gives me a great sense of optimism.

And, so far so good! There have been tech issues and glitches, to be sure - on Tuesday, four of my 9th-graders living near each other lost power! But students, teachers, and families have shown themselves to be adaptable and resilient. The four 9th graders got together at one home and used 4G to connect on one laptop to their class. It looked to me like they were actually really enjoying doing school together. 

We have had our own little family "pod" as well. 

Over the summer, our kids have had regular playdates with a couple friends from their respective classes, and so when school started we decided to keep the friend-pods going and invited the other kids to join us at our house. We hired a recent high school graduate to look after them while Terry and I work, and so far it's been going really well. 

COVID-19 stats in Albania have not been great this summer. We are up to 101 deaths per million, which is lower than the global average, but not by much. After lockdown lifted on June 1 (after a whole month of *no deaths*), people seemed to feel quite free to do whatever and also seemed to be trusting in the summer weather to knock out the virus. Daily cases soared - and are only now just starting to come down again as people seem to have realized the consequences of their actions. 

So, we will see how things go. That's all we can do, really - prepare and plan, but be ready to flex at a moment's notice.