By Simon Shikongo

April 2022 was another unpredictable month,thanks to new cases of the coronavirus (and unpredictable weather!). The Huameikindergarten team, as well as the entire city, had to act quickly and return,briefly, to learning online.

One the last day of March, we said farewellto our International teacher, Ron. He has left China to be reunited with hisfamily, and we thank him for his time with us at Huamei. On the first day ofApril, our kindergarten welcomed new International teacher, Jeandre. Originallyfrom South Africa, Jeandre has been in China for several years as a teacher inLiaoning and Guangxi. Jeandre has brought a lot of enthusiasm and new ideaswith him, and we are excited about what he will share with our students.

Our staff and students only spent fourcalendar days of April at Huamei, in part because of the Tomb Sweeping Festivalholiday, before we all had move to online learning. The Kindergarten team heldregular meetings online to plan and strategize ways to engage with the studentsfor an unknown amount of time outside of the campus.

As you saw in the class Wechat groups, wequickly established a schedule: video content from Chinese teachers in themorning, video content from the International team in the afternoon, and online“calls” at various times to allow the students and teachers to see each otherand interact. The video content included a variety of activities, from dances,math practice, reviewing English, singing songs and making crafts. The teacherswere delighted to see what the students produced in response.

This newsletter was written on Friday April22, the day we were told Kindergarten students could return to their classroomsover the weekend. So hopefully, as you read this, your children have alreadyreturned to the classroom for a week, before having a slightly longer-than-normalMay holiday – and hopefully, without a new ‘*’ on your travel codes!