Another day, another round of deskwarming. My school, like many others, closed suddenly on Monday due to Covid-19. Students are not allowed at school except to retrieve textbooks they want to study from or to take things home. Parents shouldn’t enter. Teachers…. still have to come to work.
Every morning, the principal updates us on our current situation — are there any new cases in Japan? Is there a possibility of the school re-opening? What’re we doing about graduation? What if one of us gets sick? What about the children of teachers? At the end of each meeting, he ends by saying, “I know this is a strange time. If you have any questions or concerns, please come talk to me. For now, let’s just do what we can, even if it’s something small.”
Soooo what am I doing?
For me, the things that I can do are almost non-existent. Without kids, I can’t lesson plan, there is nothing to grade and nothing to prepare. I COULD prepare for the next school year, but we’re supposed to be getting new textbooks which haven’t arrived yet. I actually worked on stuff for the first two days, but as I realized that I had an entire month of nothing to look forward to, I quickly lost my motivation.
So now it’s more like a race to find something to do for eight hours of the day. Lately, I’ve been working more on my blog (about time, right?),organizing/editing photos, and checking my email every 10 seconds in the hope of receiving an email from the Olympics telling me my volunteer position and placement. I’ve been uploading more to Flickr and have some posts lined up for the next couple weeks. I also make sure to get up for ten minutes every hour and walk around the school; I didn’t do that for the first couple days and literally thought I would lose my mind. As soon as I got home I would jump around the house and refuse to sit down until my blood was pumping.
One bright spot in all of this is my fellow teachers! Some of them have started making lunch for everyone (for ￥300). I was honestly worried about lunch time (no students = no school lunch), so it’s really nice that they’re doing that. Yesterday was ramen, today is curry, and tomorrow is yakisoba! They have meals planned for next week too, all delicious sounding, and I’m super looking forward to it.
Another thing they started today was exercise after lunch! A teacher came up to me suddenly as I was sitting at my desk and said, “Jayelon. Come on. Enjoy badminton.” Can’t say no to that! All in all, 12 teachers ended up playing doubles badminton for 45 minutes in the gym. I left tired and SO happy; I hope they continue doing it, because I really needed that.
Aaaand that’s about it! I intend to give regular updates about my deskwarming, as it’ll give me something to do. Look forward to them!
Are you an ALT in Japan stuck deskwarming because of school closures? What do you do when you’re stuck at your desk all day? Let me know in the comments!
I’m glad you’re doing well with your situation, keep up with your posts.