Back in lockdown and online

Just seen that the last time I posted was end of May. Feels like a time warp since then. I finished marking all the exams for form twos which was quite an undertaking, and then did preparation for report comments. After that I was able to relax a bit. I went to art with Sarah Fynn and also managed a trip to Nyanga with good friends, which was icy but lovely. So glad we did it then, as we have now gone back into lockdown in Zim and interprovincial travel is blocked for the moment. I spent the last week of my holiday suddenly having to think about how to do high school online. Gulp! Art is particularly tricky but brainstormed with my colleague and we made a plan. 

It is a strange case of deja vu but also adaptation to new things for me at the moment. The whole period between now and the last lock down is a bit hazy and I've lost track of time. Sadly a few people I've known have died and funerals were limited in numbers. There have actually suddenly been quite a few deaths, some semi-expected, some not. My one dear friend lost her special dad and she had to travel out from the UK. Whilst travelling here was stressful with Covid, returning to the UK and having to stay in a quarantine hotel has been the pits. I am so not keen to do that to use my air ticket before it expires.

I have also been helping to moderate exam marking for IGCSE art. Art has definitely changed since I did high school art. You now have to put together a portfolio of work, experiment and explore a theme and show progression and structure through to your final exam piece. Some great art has been done by some of the girls. I am supposed to do an online course with Cambridge on marking IGCSE.

So yes, in some ways a lot has happened, but in other ways it's more of the same. My form ones in art are supposed to be thinking of ideas for a massive event to celebrate the end of Covid and design invitations, posters and a menu for it. My one dear student though said she was going to do it for a funeral - um, not quite what I was angling for in my brief.