What can I do?
Since school started we found one case and yesterday one more. The virus seems to spread so as a precaution the school closed off the play area. Even one of the bathrooms are closed off. This makes it difficult for the kids and the teachers. Kids are only allowed to use the bathrooms by grade level. There is no teacher bathroom and this gets kind of confusing.
Half the school stays home and studies online. The other half comes to school and studies there. It is complicated and teachers prepare Zoom classes and face to face classes. I think it is the only way to operate at the moment. If the school was filled to capacity we would have a lot more kids going home sick. As it is some of the kids who are supposed to school aren't coming because their parents told them to stay at home to avoid infection.
I've been in the classroom with a student who tested positive but didn't catch Corona. But kids are different they touch everything and they take their masks off. The kids I teach are elementary school students in grades 3-6. What can I do with them? They need to play but they are not allowed to touch.
Can I do a roleplay?
Today I taught fourth grade. Not only do I have the virus barrier but I also have the level barrier. There is a student who lived in a foreign country in each class so for them English as a Second Language is not a second language. For them Korean is a second language. I'm supposed to teach the expression, "Can I..." for asking permission.
The textbook says I should sit the students in a circle and pass a ball and say the key expression. That sounds fun, but that's also a good way to get a hundred phone calls from parents saying I am a super spreader. I decided to go with role play. And because the level differences as so many I gave them silent role plays. The students would come to the front and pick a situation and silently act out the role play without touching each other.
To review I played the role of father and the kids would come up one by one and act out any situation that might us "Can I..." to ask permission but without speaking. Most of them asked me for money. One asked to go to sleep and another for my cell phone. Their friends then raised their hands to guess what the student in the front was doing. I know this technique is old school and not highly interactive but it worked to give all the students a chance to speak the key expression and to give the super hyper kids something to do.
Grade 6. What does she look like?
Next week I'm teaching 6th grade and the lesson is to review the expressions: "What does she look like." "She has long curly hair" and "She is wearing a blue shirt". I found a pretty weird video and I'm not sure if I will show it to the kids. Instead I will give them some time to think of someone that they want to describe and draw a picture. I drew a few here.