A supplemental blog assignment:
My Voice Thread....
And an update to my colleagues in CE5160....
I've finally finished with my Week 4 class assignments! Thank goodness Professor Tufts built a catch up week into the syllabus. Somehow she must have known that, when I returned from my Spring Break, North Korea's saber-rattling was going to force me to spend some of my free time working on ways to continue teaching my students even if war broke out.
What I can say, I think, without getting into trouble, is that my boarding school will serve as an evacuation site (since people can stay in the dorm rooms, there is a large cafeteria, the building's solar panel arrays provide electricity), and that teachers will be flown to Bangkok, Thailand. My colleagues and I are still expected to try to teach: provide lessons, assessments, and feedback to students, but who knows how many of my students will have Internet access (or electricity or safe drinking water and food)?
So it's not like the school is pretending that there is no threat whatsoever (some planning for war has been done). We also have had to think about things like moving cash from our Korean bank accounts into our US accounts or making sure to have copies of important documents gathered together in a safe place. But you make those sorts of preparations in Florida when you have a hurricane approaching too. And in my elementary school days in the 1980s, I lived with the threat of the USSR launching nuclear warheads towards the US. Of course, that was a case of 2 superpowers with nothing to prove.
Since there are direct flights to Japan, China, and Taiwan, we will probably go through these countries to flee, but I can imagine it will be quite insane at the airport. And I'm sure jet fuel will be reserved for the Air Force planes which would be parked on the tarmac. We would be evacuated only if the US Embassy in Seoul tells Americans to leave South Korea; however, if the North just goes insane and launches an attack, I doubt there will be days of advance notice (unless that's what all the bellicose posturing right now is, a prelude to an attack).
Also, I will say (because it's definitely public record at KIS, at least) that the Grade 123 team agreed that we would use Edmodo accounts (thanks again, Professor Tufts for this suggestion) to give the students one place to go (rather than jumping from sites like BrainNook, BrainPop, Weebly, Skype, Starfall, or TurtleDiary). Hopefully I don't need to teach with all this Web 2.0 technology because of war, but rather, I can continue trying to integrate Web 2.0 technologies into my classroom on Jeju - "Korea's Island of Peace."
Byron, you are a brave and devoted teacher, your students are lucky to have you. A bit of cold harsh reality in your post. I hope for all concerned that things deescalate. I thought your final statement was rather enlightening, and highlights the CHOICE most of us have to use Web 2.0 technology to enhance student learning.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this Byron.
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