Monday, December 21st, 2020
School is in the final stretch for this calendar year. The past few weeks have been terribly stressful for the students and hence the parents. A number of assignments were due concurrently and managing the workload at times was exhausting leading to tears with EM.
As a result I have spent time coaching EM for an oral (sadly about a week to late), talk her through the structure for her psychology assignment, discussed potential ideas for her art project, and conducted research into publications on WWII.
Yesterday was psychology and art. Today I spend a couple of hours searching the internet about publications on the concept of Blitzkrieg and the role of the Luftwaffe in these during WWII. Most relevant publications were produced by air force personnel. I must say I learned a lot as I was scanning through literature to establish how relevant it might be to the prompt given.
By the end of the school day teachers were showing mercy. The art project due tomorrow can now be produced during the first week of the new year and the history assignment is now also no longer due tomorrow, but only January 8th, 2021. EM is very happy as she feels she will now get a much-needed break and can unwind. Over the holidays she will now think about her next three art projects, rework some of her processes in the journal and touch up or redo two of her projects. I do think she will need to do a little work on her history IA, but at least all of this is not to be done within the next twenty-four hours, so she can relax.
I have decided to spend more time reviewing her work and discussing the prompts with her, though it may be too little too late as the English oral is done and there may not be a significant opportunity to make up for a possible underperformance. It simply took me too long to figure out what she needed to do and understand that she was lost in her assignment. I guess, it is what it is. She still has a chance to up her overall score with the history and the art IA.
Now we shall all take a well-deserved break. My sister and her family have been isolating since Friday and their COVID test came back negative today, so they will be on their way to join us tomorrow and Christmas can begin. We are just a little sad to miss our traditional BBQ on the 23rd, with my cousin. At least he came by today and we went for nice walk in the park – masked of course.
I am still amazed how lax people here are with their masks and maintaining distance. Meanwhile the USA report 179k new infections to bring the total to 18.26 million out of 76.9 million global cases. This amidst a new mutation discovered in the UK and I am not sure I find the latest news on the UK mutation encouraging. Basically there is nothing new except a footnote that the virus is on track to escape vaccination. This means it mutates so rapidly that like the flu vaccine, vaccines need to be adapted regularly and a new shot is needed once the vaccine has been adapted. For the BioNTech/ Pfizer vaccine this may prove challenging.
The potentially more infectious new mutation has led to the UK being quarantined. Many countries willnot allow citizens from the UK to enter their countries. The Eurotunnel has been closed. Ferries have stopped operating. This has resulted in hundreds of trucks stuck in Dover and on the French side. Im- and exports meant to be completed prior to a potential no deal Brexit are now stuck at the boarder giving politicians and Brits a flavor of what a no deal BRexit may look like.
It looks as if the virus is here to stay, even with a vaccine. How much it will impact us going forward will depend on how many people will get vaccinated in every corner of the world. If the virus continues to thrive in one country it can restart infections in countries where it appears to have been eradicated. Will we ever go back to life as we knew it?