This is already the middle of year 3 in Hanoi. 2020 was quite the year and yet nothing really prompted me to write a blog since May. Admittedly, there's nothing specific now either but I figure ... I'm on Tet break and it's been almost a year so why not. So some of the "highlights" of the last year (ish) ... 1. end of 2020 school year: a lot of the people I started with at St. Paul moved on to other schools and countries. I became team lead for the math department for 2020-2021 school year 2. Got trained to teach AP Calculus. Unfortunately the trainings were from 8pm to 4am. Yay synchronous learning on opposite sides of the world. 3. Did get to go on a couple of trips to central Vietnam in the summer. God bless the beach after months of staying in Hanoi 4. Covid wave #2: in the beginning weeks of July, Covid made a return in central vietnam (luckily I got back to Hanoi like 2 days before the cut-off for quarantine). We had our first deaths (35 of them to be exact) but the government handled everything swiftly and we were able to start school in person only a couple weeks late. 5. "start" of 2020 school year: a whole new crop of teachers joined us virtually for the first two weeks of school while they quarantined. Part of the reason we started late was due to some difficulties getting them in to the country. It's been slower getting to know them since there was no introductory period but the ones I've gotten to know are great 6. Finally made it back to Da Lat over Thanksgiving, without 50 children attached this time. 7. Christmas plans were swiftly changed when my closest Hanoi friend had to return to England with 1 week notice. Still managed to spend the day with friends and had a decent holiday. 8. International New Years was nothing special 9. Signed on for another 2 years in Hanoi. It's a good job and a good life out here, not in any rush to move. 10. Slowly formed plans to go to Mui Ne for Tet break but procrastinated forever on booking anything 11. Luckily that worked out because cue Covid wave #3 featuring the UK variant My year in photosCurrent situation/ thoughts on CovidCurrently wave #3 is hitting Vietnam hard. Still not sure exactly how it got here but that's largely inconsequential now. Up to almost 30 cases in Hanoi, same in Saigon. Original outbreak was in/near Hai Duong where they're up to 300 something cases (maybe almost 400 now).
The government response has been swift and strict in major affected areas like Hai Duong. In my opinion, it leaves a bit to be desired for the rest of the country though. At this point last year, Hanoi was working from home and basically in lockdown with just as many, possibly fewer, cases. The difference between last year and this year is the timing with Tet (lunar/chinese new year). Tet is the most important holiday in Vietnam. Everyone has the whole week off and goes back to their hometowns to be with family. With Covid happening right before Tet this year, people had one of two reactions. 1. Stay where they are. Prioritize health of the country and minimize possible spread to rural areas. 2. Get back to the countryside as fast as possible because they don't want to miss Tet with their family. For the foreign community in Hanoi, the first reaction is basically the same. But the second reaction was: "Go on vacation anyways before a lockdown happens. I'm not currently sick so it's fine." Personally, I believe in the power of masks and staying the fuck at home so that's what I'm doing. I've seen 2 people outside of school since this wave hit and one at school while teaching online. School was virtual for the last 7 days leading up to Tet break. Many Vietnamese schools just cancelled classes completely and allowed students to take an extra week for Tet break. During this time (Tet/Covid), I'm trying not to fall into the Netflix all day every day trap or mindlessly scrolling on my phone. To combat that, I've sat my ass on the porch in a beanbag with a book for most of the morning. Phone and computer safely in the living room. Go for a walk or cycle (wearing mask) before lunch. Nap after lunch. Walk or cycle after nap (whichever I didn't do in the morning). Read some more. Then I'm allowed to watch netflix after I feed the cat around 5pm. So far it's been working okay. I've read two books from start to finish so far. Today is actual New Years Day so I'm making an exception today and am watching Netflix in the morning. While I want to be optimistic about going back to in-person school after Tet, I am dubious as to that actually happening. So many people did still travel and have the potential to be spreading the virus. Already, the news has covered stories of covid patients who falsely declared themselves healthy or lied about where they've been during contact tracing so that they wouldn't be quarantined and have to miss Tet. While I have faith in the government response, my faith in people in general is a bit lacking. One of my students before break said "oh there's nothing to worry about. The Vietnamese people will listen to the government." to which my response was just "but Tet." Just like in the US and UK over Christmas, when the government recommended against travelling and large gatherings ... the people's response is "but it's Christmas! you can't miss Christmas." So here's hoping the next few weeks and months go back to normal quickly. Here's hoping that with new administration the US gets its shit together. Here's hoping that after over 2 years, I'll be able to see people in the US again this summer. Here's hoping for a better 2021.
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For teacher appreciation week, three things happened. 1. We actually went back to school. After 12 weeks of online learning + 1 week spring break + 1 week Tet Holiday, I finally got to see my students in person again. We're all wearing masks and teachers are trying their best to enforce social distancing ... but it's been nice to be back in the classroom even if we can't do group work. 2. I was called in for a meeting with my principal. His gift to all of the teachers was individual meetings to share what he appreciates about them. He did this last year too and it's actually kind of the best teacher appreciation week gift. Don't care about the candy, gift cards, etc ... Tell me how you really feel.
I think teachers are often times insecure about their classes ... "I should do more ___." "How does so-and-so manage to do all of those projects? I should do more projects." "I can't think of a way to make this topic fun." etc. so it was nice to be told today why I'm an asset to the students and school community. I feel really fortunate to have an administration that gives us the freedom to do what we want with our classes and provides positive feedback on things we do well. The best compliment I received today was "Normally when I go into a classroom, I can always find the teacher immediately. When I enter your classroom, I always have the hardest time finding you. But I've realized you're always sitting with the kids helping them, working with them, guiding them. It's a great thing to see." 3. Our HR/PR person at school did a teacher appreciation Instagram thing with the students ... I don't do Instagram so not really sure what to call it. Either way, I got some shoutouts from my students that made me feel all warm and fuzzy As I'm finishing up my 8th week off school ... 7 of those due to Coronavirus ... 6 of them teaching online, I figure it's time for another update. I'm still physically healthy ... mental health is manageable (from the going crazy standpoint, not from a depression/anxiety standpoint). I've done a lot of random stuff during this time: 1. made pizza from scratch ... it was delicious 2. had a picnic in the park with friends ... learned to make pita bread for the occasion 3. helped a friend clean out the massive pile of charity donations in their living room ... this lady is piling a bunch of it on her bicycle ... absolute legend this woman 4. lots of cuddles with my new cat Lucky 5. learned to make croissants ... very tasty 6. helped friends complete a 1000 piece puzzle over the course of 5-ish hours. It was already partially done when we started working together on it Online teaching is going alright. We now have to do 2 live sessions with our full class per week. In addition, we have 3 office hours per class per week with smaller groups of students. So basically, I'm still teaching 25 classes/hours per week ... just in front of a computer screen. It's a challenge to get some of the students to participate in discussion and problem solving. Yesterday, I had to threaten my small group with absences if they wouldn't talk (basically "we can sit here for 40 minutes in silence but we're here to solve these problems together. If you choose to sit silently for 40 minutes, I still get paid but you get marked absent." ... they begrudgingly spoke after that. Today was much more productive conversation wise (different groups of students). I still have 2 students who have yet to show up to a single live session. One had the audacity to email me asking for a one on one meeting to "get the material he missed." . . . umm sir, I post recordings of all the lessons online afterwards. so, no, try coming to regular classes first. I had another student who asked if she could attend a different class period's session in addition to her own so she could get to hear the same material twice. I commend her dedication to understanding the material and awareness of her own struggles. Of course you can do that, just don't miss someone else's class :) My cleaning lady is I think mildly confused but not yet annoyed that I'm constantly in the apartment now. I feel bad having told her both days this week to come back later when I'm not teaching. Updates on the situation in Vietnam:
As of right now (literally just checked), there are 60 active cases in Vietnam (76 total including the 16 recovered from our initial wave of patients), 20 of those in Hanoi, no deaths in the country yet. At least 5 of those cases were within 3 km of my place. The government is currently searching for passengers of at least 8 recent flights that arrived in Vietnam. Each of these flights had someone who tested positive for the virus after arrival. Masks are now mandatory in public places. Many westerners are complaining about getting yelled out when they go out without a mask . . . not hard guys, just wear a mask. Doesn't have to be the best quality or even new, just wear one ... it makes people feel safer even if it you're reading everything the CDC and WHO said about masks and believe you don't need one. Fun fact: Recent studies suggest many cases (more than 10%) are transmitted by asymptomatic carriers or pre-symptomatic patients. Links: CNN , Science Daily ... So wear the damn mask people, the Vietnamese medical system cannot handle an abundance of patients if you happen to accidentally infect other people. Me personally, I'm not worried about getting sick myself. I'm more worried about accidentally getting someone else sick. Bars, karaoke places, and schools are shut down. Quite a few restaurants have changed to delivery only though you can definitely still go out to eat at a number of places. Vietnam is no longer issuing new visas and almost all foreigners are denied entrance into the country. We're now seeing a max exodus of foreigners back to their home countries. Many weren't getting paid at the moment anyways due to schools and language centers being closed. My flight to Bangkok later this month was finally cancelled (thank god!). I was going for the EARCOS conference (meeting of international teachers) which was cancelled almost a month ago but I couldn't get a refund if I cancelled. Decided to wait it out which now worked out in my favor. So ... If you follow any news at all, you know that the coronavirus is a thing. Depending on where you live, you may or may not be keeping up with what it's doing in Vietnam specifically. Geography lesson: Vietnam shares its northern border with China. Hanoi is over 1300 km from Wuhan. The whole coronavirus thing really ramped up as Tet (Lunar New Year) was finishing up here in Vietnam. Schools had been off for at least a week already for that celebration. Sidenote: my Tet was nice, thank you for asking. I stayed in Hanoi and got a lot of time to chill and relax in a much less busy city. Lots of bike rides, brunches, reading, etc. But I digress ... as we're preparing to go back to school after the Tet break, the government decides to shut down the schools. Not a terrible idea since so many people traveled during Tet, many of them internationally. At that time, the virus was thought to have a 1-14 day incubation period. The plan was to wait out the incubation period and set up schools to better handle the transition (stock hand sanitizer, masks, cleaning supplies, etc). . . . Guys . . . we're now on our 4th week off of school . . . after Tet break. Math: 1 week Tet + 4 weeks Coronavirus = 5 weeks since I last taught children who were physically inside of my classroom Instead, we've been exploring the wonders of online learning. *Please read that sentence with a mix of sarcasm, genuine interest, and exhaustion* Now don't get me wrong, it's been nice to set some later alarms and stay in my PJs all day . . . but it's been almost 5 weeks and I'm so ready to go back.
My thoughts on online teaching: It's not terrible but it's not my preferred method. Some days I make or find videos on the concepts for the students to watch. Making is better but very time consuming. Planning for virtual learning is way more time consuming than in person teaching (my opinion). Some days we do live sessions using Google Meets. Many students do not want to physically talk so it's a lot in the chat box and me feeling like I'm just talking to a computer screen ... I started requiring students to contribute twice to the class in order to be marked present. It's helped some. Students still have homework and classwork ... but we can't actually check that they're doing it with integrity. It's a lot of responsibility and trust we're putting in our students. I know with like 98% certainty that I'll have at least 3 students when we finally do go back to real school come ask me to explain everything we did in the last month to them again ... FFS kid ... you had a month to ask questions but chose to a) not do anything or b) google all the answers It really sucks that we don't find out about the next week of school until Friday evening. Like we kind of know on Wednesday (ish) because HCMC decides before our People's Council meets (they tend to do the same as HCMC) but nothing is final until Friday around 5pm. None of us want to plan past a week in case we have to go back to in person teaching and change all of our plans. It makes the weekend very stressful. Some Interesting TidbitsWith the excess of dragon fruit, there are quite a few bakeries that are doing "banh mi thang long" or dragon fruit bread (see above google search). While colorful, it doesn't actually taste much different from regular bread here, just a little sweeter. If you're from America and/or have tried "Hawaiian bread", it has a similar taste. One place is even experimenting with Dragon fruit pizza ... have not tried that one.
Vietnam got up to 16 reported cases. I think all of those have recovered now. The new concern is travel to and from Korea. A friend of mine works for Korean Air and all her flights have been cancelled through the end of March. There's discussion about cancelling school through the end of March. This proposal is being considered more so in HCMC ... Hanoi seems convinced we'll go back to school next week ... I'm an optimistic skeptic ... let's just wait until Friday and see. My new concern now is that my school is like 70% Korean and I have no idea how many kids stayed in Hanoi during this time and how many went back to Korea. ... In case you didn't know, Korea is up to like 700 cases or something. Anyways ... I am healthy and safe for now. Just know that life has gotten both real interesting and real boring at the same time here in Hanoi. It'll be interesting to see how it progresses. |
ShannonMath Teacher living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam Archives
February 2022
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