Here's a sweet little picture of the kids and there Daddy at the track. I was just finishing up my run and catching up to them when I took this.
Kyle's dad wanted to take us out to Stables for Kyle's birthday. They came to town for dinner along with the Hwangs, Sabrina, Wanda and Ira.
A month or two before Kyle's birthday I remember making my coffee before school and Kyle mentioning to me that he was reading about an illness spreading through China that was highly contagious and killing people. Aside from how horribly sad I thought that was I didn't give it too much thought until the threat started traveling abroad. There were cases of the Corona Virus popping up in the US. It was wiping out Italy. People were getting scared and it seemed like no one knew what to think. Right after we ate at Stables the first known IN case popped up in Avon, where the Hwangs live. Their school was shut down. Our superintendent called an emergency meeting after school. He told us that he had no intention of shutting down and that we were in no present threat. The next day we went to school. It was a Friday. He sent out a mass text to the parents and staff stating his intentions to remain open even though Vigo Co had just shut down. Just an hour or so later after receiving the text we received word from the governor that schools across IL were to be shut down effective the following Monday. Our superintendent sent out another text stating that school on Monday would be optional. A separate email to teachers stated that we were just supposed to use the day for parents to have additional time to make arrangements for their children and that we were just supposed to make it fun for the kids. I only had 9 kids come. I did not sent Evangeline to school. The following day was supposed to be for teachers to go in and prepare some kid of remote learning activities. That night we got a text that school that day would be canceled and that we were not to come in. School was shut down for two weeks. Then it was extended, then finally all in person schooling was cancelled all together. We had to plan remote learning for students. We could not teach any new skills because so many kids did not have access to internet or parents that would or could help them. The goal was to maintain skills. I worried and worried so much about my school kids. Over half of them I did not see again since that last Friday of school when we thought we would be back on Monday. It was so hard meeting with my coworkers via Facetime and Google Hangouts to prepare remote learning activities and then try to get it to the school. I worried about the wellbeing of some of my kids that didn't always have food or good home environments. Lots of them had parents who had to work outside of the home during the day...did they have someone to watch them?
Evangeline missed her teacher and classmates. She was sad about things she knew she was going to miss out on. It was strange for everyone to have life change so drastically and so abruptly. Not to mention we were all scared to death that we would get the illness. No one knew what level of concern was appropriate....we still don't.
On my last day of school I voted on my lunch break....
The kids made these little leprechaun traps (Jed's side was a Zombie trap) at Peggy's house on the optional school day. I taught, they stayed home.
