Pass the Swine (Flu)

Ever heard of the game "Pass the Pigs". You know, the one where you roll the pigs and get points for how they land. Well, a friend of mine cleverly gave the game a new name..."Pass the Swine Flu." Unfortunately, but a bit ironically, this title pretty much describes TCIS today.

Since school began we have been giving our student H1N1 questionnaires each morning. I really hadn't been taken them too seriously and thought the measure was a bit ridiculous. However, this week a ton of people have become sick so the Korean health officials came and tested many people who had been sent home this week. It hasn't been as noticeable in the MS, but about half the senior class was gone as well as some faculty. Today, as school came to an end we got an interesting announcement. School will be closed until further notice due to confirmed cases of H1N1!!! All school activities were canceled, dorm students were sent home, and we were told that we will most likely be closed at least the rest of the week...maybe longer. I guess normal procedure is that a school is closed for 6 days! After an all-staff meeting to update us on the situation, media crews were swarming the front gate. It was surreal! We are the first international school to be closed by the Korean health officials, but more are expected to follow. Apparently there are already two people who tested positive at KIS in Seoul. I'm starting to think it will be a miracle if we get all of our volleyball games in this year...I mean, it would require that neither school has been shut down due to the virus. :-S

Although I am kinda looking forward to these free personal days (we aren't supposed to be in groups with TCIS people or anywhere with large groups of people), this will bring great challenges to a school year that was off to a smooth start. We are going to be transitioning to online learning so that students aren't sitting at home doing nothing. It means that I am going to have to rethink some of my lessons and come up with things the students can do at home. Most of them do not have their textbooks (and the school is closed as of 10 AM tomorrow so I can't even scan pages) so I will have to get creative. I think overall it will be a great learning experience with ODL (Online Distance Learning) and using various technologies to communicate with students; but it means I have a lot of work to do!

Be praying for the members of our community that have H1N1 and pray also that we are able to reopen soon. I have a feeling this no school, no friend gathering, no traveling stuff is going to get real boring real fast!