Greetings from day 9 in isolation in Ireland.

Covid 19 has meant that life has stopped. For the first time in my lifetime and in my parents lives
schools have shut and pubs and restaurants are closed until further notice. We watched on screens as
China was in lockdown as if from another world not imagining for a moment it would ever come to us.
Now we are awaiting deliveries of face masks from Wuhan to Europe.

Our Exploring Europe Erasmus funded project has been temporarily disrupted but much of what we do
was online and so we continue to work virtually. We have also built up a friendship with our partners
and teachers and students alike are maintaining often daily contact. We met in Kassel in early October
and again in Ireland in December. Planning different parts of the project has meant constant
communication since last March 2019 for the coordinators involved. We were all set to travel to Patras,
Greece in this month when it became apparent that travel for any of us would be an issue and our
meeting in Greece was put in jeopardy. The Board of Management in my school in Midleton, Ireland
decided against us travelling as it could put the lives of family members in danger. Very quickly
thereafter we read stories of cases being diagnosed ever closer to home. Then last Thursday 12 th March
very unexpectedly our Taoiseach, Leo Vradaker, gave a televised announcement to close all schools
effective from 6pm. It was surreal we walked around the staffroom shaking our heads in astonishment.
We still had to teach classes until 4pm and try and reassure students that everything would be alright. I
tried to take a few books home and a few essential bits really not knowing when we might be back
again.

The government in Ireland right now is a caretaker government. We just had a general election and no
party had a majority enough to form a government, and so we find the new TDs (Teachta Daila) MPs)
passing emergency laws and making monumental decisions in the face of this crisis. Leo Vradaker is
himself a qualified doctor and is showing himself to be very much a leader and has been lauded for his
public address to the nation on St. Patrick’s Day again urging people to stay home and calling on any
medical citizens to join in the battle against Corona. They are calling this advertisement ‘Ireland’s Call’
and have received 40,000 responders from retired medical staff to citizens in Australia and USA who will
return to help out where they are needed. I also listen to a radio presenter on national airwaves who is
presenting currently from home where she has the virus and is also a GP and when recovered plans to
help the medics too.

My school of 960 boys in East Cork has responded using a variety of online tools. Some staff are better
than others of course. On the school website students can access a portal especially designed to aid the
students at this time with classwork. All teachers have uploaded work and we will be trained either
online or in small groups to use more applications. It is an exciting way to teach. I was using Edmodo to
a small extent with my classes. It is a learning platform where I can upload games, documents and
videos. I can also put an assignment with a deadline and correct students work and give feedback. Now
is the time to see if virtual teaching could be the new norm. I also have a school email address where
students can contact me if they have questions. One massive decision made by the Department of
Education last week was to cancel the state oral examinations in both Irish and all modern foreign
languages. As a German teacher this affects my students directly. They get 25% for higher level exams
and 20% for ordinary level and 40% for Irish. We were in the process of preparing for imminent exams
where external examiners travel the length and breath of the country grading students. This process
has been cancelled and all students doing their final Leaving Certificate will instead get 100% for this
section. I find this hard to believe as some students had worked so hard to do well here and others had
almost nothing prepared and possibly would have failed. It seems very unfair to me as their teacher.

As for our project we have worked on two major European themes thus far, Economics and Gender. We
were all due to present our findings on the theme of Gender equality in Greece. Here students were to
take part in debates together all five participating countries. We were to collaborate on a presentation
with major stakeholders present and take part in cultural events including the lighting of the Olympic
torch for an Olympics which may not even take place. The last time the Olympics was cancelled was in
WWII!! My my strange times indeed. We enter the third phase our project, Digital Technology, and this
topic we prepare online before we meet in Bulgaria. At least that was our original plan. This is now very
unlikely and more likely it will be a virtual meeting on House Party or Google Duo ( just two of the apps I
learned of this week – necessity really is the mother of invention). It is indeed apt that the topic
coincides with forced technology use! We have split our students into five groups and each group is to
research and discuss five topics; 1. General Aspects 2. Dangers/Challenges/Fears 3.
Opportunities/Possibilities 4. Influence of Digital Media on everyday life 5. Future Outlook. Students use
our own website Etwinning to communicate through a private forum and the groups are international so
they will get to know each other and hear different opinions and over the course of the two year project
begin to learn from each other. It will make their real life meeting all the more interesting. We meet in
Brussels in November and Finland in February and one final time in Kassel to wrap everything up.
Hopefully Corona will be a distant memory by then.

For me personally this is an unexpected precious time to spend with my family. We are constantly
rushing to and from work, rushing to taxi kids to sports and other various classes, rushing to visit parents
and grabbing a coffee with this friend and that friend who I never get to meet. I am cleaning and tidying
more than ever before. I am doing all the DIY jobs I have been putting on the long finger and watching
shows I had meant to watch since Christmas. Ok the kids are bored but we have time for cycles, forest
walks and board games . These are precious times. I don’t want to wait until I have an empty nest to
appreciate what I have here and now. My husband is a church minister and we have live streamed the
services for anyone wishing to tune in. This is really important especially for those living alone to join in
and make sense of this apparent madness. I read a testimony by an Italian doctor on the frontline this
morning. He described how they are working flat out and making awful decisions about who to help
and who to send home to die. They were treating a 75 yr old pastor for respiratory difficulties and he
was ministering to all around him and praying with people with the virus. He died but his actions have
led many doctors and patients to look away from their human efforts and ask God for help at this time.
If we learn anything through this unprecedented time I pray it will be to appreciate what we have more
than ever before. Love those close to us and those who have no one .