Steady as she goes!

No sooner has the cold snap moderated itself and the snows begun to melt than we are subjected to yet another ‘atmospheric river’. We are in for another five days of solid rainfall. Who knows if there will be anything left to wash away!

I find myself – slightly to my surprise – teaching once again… though this time a different course (albeit covering similar ground) at the College’s other campus in teaching rooms that I have not previously experienced.

I had seriously hoped that the burgeoning increase in Omicron infections – for which Canada and BC are doing their best to match what is happening in other parts of the world – would result in the College being forced to go back to online only teaching in the short term. Who knows – that might yet happen – but, sadly, we are currently face to face in the classroom.

Like most teachers I much prefer to teach face to face, but these are not ordinary times and I fear that the provincial government has reached the point at which it throws its hands in the air, stands well back and lets the pandemic rip. The hope seems to be that Omicron will cause less destruction than previous variants and will pass through more quickly – leaving us (if all goes ‘well’) with our disease status downgraded from ‘pandemic’ to ‘endemic’.

I sense a great deal of finger-crossing and wood-touching here and not a lot of truly informed scientific opinion involved, but it is what it is. After all – I don’t have to do this!

I am, of course, taking all the precautions that I can. I am double-vaccinated and boosted and I am now wearing only N95 respirators in the classroom. These I have had to source myself (not easily done!) as the powers that be have decreed them not strictly necessary. I am taking no chances! It doesn’t help that all my teaching is now on a single day a week, meaning that I have to keep the respirator on for a straight five hours and more. I can already tell that my poor nose is going to take a pounding – to say nothing of my voice!

To make matters even more complex we are having to accommodate students who can’t – or won’t – come into College. I am thus streaming and recording the classes as I teach them. This adds yet another layer of complexity to something that is already quite a stretch for me.

Oh well! I like a challenge – but there may be limits…