Diary of a teacher on lockdown

We have had a good run since last year and life almost felt normal again. At the beginning of this month, the news, social media and communication in schools started pre warning that it was a matter of time before Covid's Delta Variant will affect New Zealand. I was sitting in a Manaiakalani leader's meeting when our principal sent through an email from the ministry asking teachers to start preparing just in case we have to go into an urgent lockdown. 

Today, we heard the update from the Prime Minister that there as been a positive case of Covid in the community and it is Auckland. It is unsure if it is the Delta variant but genome testing is being conducted to determine if it is the Delta variant. 

Here we go again. We are going into teaching from home and students learning from home. We got communication from our principal that we can access school devices tonight and hand them to students in preparation for learning from home. Luckily for me, most of my students take their devices home and also VERY LUCKILY, my class had a practice lockdown drill in class yesterday. YES! Just yesterday we had another lockdown drill. 

What does a LOCKDOWN DRILL look like? 

In my best Jacinda Ardern voice, I announced to the class that there is now a positive case of Covid in the community and in an hour New Zealand will go into Alert Level 4

The students sit at their tables with their devices and chargers

We check all devices and chargers have labels with the students names on it

All students go on to the class site and go into our Home Learning page

On the Home Learning page, the students join the class meet using the link on the Home Learning page

I then accept all the students and we smile at each other while I take a screenshot to capture our beautiful faces on screen 

Benefits of a Lockdown Drill

I have peace of mind that all students have a working device and charger

All students are able to go on to the Home Learning page and access the class meet

Our new students to our class and Manaiakalani are taught how to access the class meet link 

I am confident our class site is easily navigated by students and parents to access the meet link

All devices are chargers are labelled 

Therefore, tonight, it took me about three minutes to take the devices out of the lock up cupboard and put them on the table. It took about 30 minutes to wait for my students to arrive and pick up their devices and that was it. Done! I left school confident that in the morning I will be seeing my tamariki on our first meet in this August 2021 Alert Level 4 Lockdown.