February 24th was the last day we saw our students. Had anyone told us our life would change over night we would have definitely planned something totally different. In Kuwait February 25th & 26th are two public holidays celebrating National and Liberation Day. February 24th all private schools celebrated this event. We planned big events and then students and staff went home at 12. That was the day we had our very first corona case… That was when everything changed.
We said bye to our students and staff as we had 5 days off. But who knew that was the last time we would all be on campus and saw each other. Had we known that we wouldn’t have been returning I promise you we would have planned something different.
Next thing you know, we were informed that schools were going to be closed for 4 weeks. Hello Virtual School. Luckily we were semi prepared for this as we practiced Virtual learning through Seesaw in January. Were we fully prepared? Of course not! Were we mentally ready? Definitely not! BUT as a team we pulled through.
The first two weeks of Virtual School were overwhelming, exhausting and insane. That is how I described my first two weeks as an AP point of view and mother with two young children. The first week we were booked into virtual meetings from 8am till maybe 2pm-3pm. The amount of screen time increased and that caused me to get very little sleep and I was sitting down most of the day. There were a lot of new things that we had to get used to. Between my husband being home, him needing his own work space, to my kids having virtual school and then also needing my help, (especially my 1st grader son), to my meetings with admin or teachers… It was a roller coaster ride and trial and error for my family till we got the hang of things.
I would finish my meetings then sit with my kids and help them with their assignments. By that time I was mentally drained and had zero patience for my kids but I had to sit with my son and teach him.
Week 2…
