It’s Tuesday morning and Hanna Kudrinova’s 5th grade English class is signed on to Google Meet. Kudrinova starts like a lot of teachers everywhere, with a check-in. She asks the students to turn on their cameras and show a thumbs up if they’re happy, thumbs down if they are sad, and sideways if they are feeling so-so.
Today, Maksym Radzievsky, a boy with a round face and a striped shirt who seemingly always has his hand raised, says he is so-so because he’s tired. He is in Munich, Germany, in an earlier time zone than Ukraine, so he had to start class at 7:30.
Other students are yawning — one is wrapped in a blanket. Air-raid sirens were going off the night before in the small town near Odessa where they all used to live and study with Kudrinova in person.
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