Teaching During a Pandemic
By: Susan M
Tags: Teaching, Pandemic, Teachers, Covid-19, Education

Teaching During a Pandemic

2020 has been quite a year for teachers. These are things that I have observed during the year of the pandemic:

First, a little background since it could make quite a difference between my own and another’s experiences. I am currently a middle school social studies teacher in central Georgia. I have been teaching here since 2007 and started out as an elementary school teacher. I’ve been at the middle school level for 6 years now. Middle school suits me, as I can be a bit sarcastic and this age “gets it.”

I am one of the lucky few whose classroom is outside in a learning cottage (LC), aka trailer, so that also affects my classroom environment. You may not think that being stuck in a trailer all day with 30 plus kids is lucky but it does come with its benefits. For example, students who are on my team and have me for social studies class get to spend at least a bit of their day outside. I’m an outdoorsy type anyway, so I let them go out for a breather without a mask when I can. Another benefit of being in the LC is that we are not dealing with the massive hallway traffic generated by the middle schoolers in the building and hardly anyone wants to make the effort to come out here, so we’re left alone. Bad weather pretty much guarantees that I won’t have any observations or visits from admin that day.

Last March we started seeing news of a new virus called the Corona Virus, spreading to the United States. As we were going through our usual routines at school, we received notice one day that we should take our laptops home just in case schools were closed for a few days. When we went home that day, we took only our basic teaching necessities. To everyone’s shock, we received notice that our school system would be closed after all. Students were sent home, communities went into lockdown with curfews, and workers were sent home from their jobs. What we thought would be a few days out of school turned into weeks. It began as the entire system being closed and no teaching or learning going on. When it became obvious that this would be long-term, it was necessary to implement an entirely new way of teaching.

Very few teachers had experience teaching in an online environment and so we really had no idea what to do. Our school board provided some quick training to get us all online, but it was extremely intimidating for us.

Logistics were a nightmare. Students had left their Chromebooks and textbooks at school and couldn’t retrieve them, parents had to arrange emergency childcare provisions, and some did not have WiFi at home to handle online classes.

Facebook was flooded with parent complaints and concerns. A great many posts reflected that parents felt that if we were teaching from home, then we weren’t really working and that we should not be getting paid. They felt that since school buildings were closed then taxes that pay for schools to run should be cut. Parents were concerned that their children were no longer being educated at all and that they had all of a sudden become the “babysitters” and educators themselves. While truck drivers and first responders were being hailed as heroes, teachers were viewed as sitting home getting paid for nothing.

Were the students getting the same quality of education when the county went to remote learning? Probably not. I know that I was unable to be as effective online as I was face-to-face in the classroom. I had never taught online, so I was very confused. I had never attended a virtual meeting and was now expected to start four new ones each day to meet with my classes. I was expected to teach 131 students using only technology. Stress became a large part of daily life for us, just as it did for everyone else whose lives were changed drastically with the introduction of the virus.

I had students who did not sign on to our virtual classrooms and so I could not even teach them through that platform. We marked missing students absent, as we had always done. We were then told that if they completed any work we were to mark them present whether they signed into class or not. Rather than marking assignments as missing, which would count as a zero we had to just leave that space blank in the gradebook. That way it had no effect on their grade point average. Students very quickly figured this out and some just chose to do absolutely nothing. Parents continued to post angry comments online, stating that we were still doing absolutely nothing. All the while we were scrambling to learn and teach at the same time.

Was it perfect? Far from it. Did the students continue to learn at the previous level? No. Different factors contributed to this. We did not know how to teach this way. Student attendance was sporadic and completion of assignments was mostly done by those students who cared what their grade was. Many did not, and many were being exposed to parents’ negative comments about the teachers and schools.

Policies and procedures were changed frequently, leaving us feeling like we were scrambling to keep up. We would tell students and parents one thing and then find that it had been changed, causing us to have to reach out to retract what we had said. That occasionally happens in our “normal” world, but the frequency that it happened at the beginning of Covid added layers to the stress level that was already rising.

State testing was cancelled for the spring, giving students even more cause not to care. I am not saying that we should have had state testing. I believe that cancelling it was the right decision. It was just something else that I believe affected students’ lack of motivation to do well.

By the end of the year, we were told that students would not be retained and would move on to the next grade. Even students who had not joined class or done any work since the beginning of March would be placed into the next grade level in May.

Together, these things and more combined to stress teachers, cause discord between us and the community, and hinder students’ education for three whole months. Teachers resigned, took early retirement, and the rest of us cried. We cried for ourselves and we cried for our students.

Fast forward to preplanning in July for the beginning of the new school year. Communities are no longer on lockdown, although masks are required for most stores. Restaurants offer curbside service, but no indoor dining. Stores off curbside pickup and if they allow shoppers indoors, numbers are limited. Shoppers line up outside of stores waiting for other shoppers inside to finish and leave so that the next person can go in. Things like Lysol, hand sanitizer, and paper towels are sold out everywhere. People have pretty much split into three groups. The first group consists of those who are afraid to go out or allow anyone into their homes and continue on a self-imposed quarantine. Then there is a middle group. That group holds people who will wear masks and keep their hands and belongings sanitized, but are okay with going out in public. The last group is made up of those who are convinced it is a government conspiracy and that the mask requirement is a form of government control. That group peacefully rebels against following suggested protocols.

Preplanning was well planned out by the county. Planning days were extended to be able to provide the teachers with as much training as possible. Required teaching platforms were taught and optional programs were introduced to those who were interested. We were beginning to come together on the same page, although most of us were worried that we would fail our students by not “doing it right.”

We were finally allowed to enter our classrooms to prepare them for the school year, although we had no idea when students might return in person. We were given the option of teaching in an empty classroom or teaching from home. I chose to teach from my classroom because I knew that it would force me to get up and be in “work mode.” Others chose to teach from home, especially if they had children of their own who were learning from home. My children have grown and are gone building their own lives, so I did not have that responsibility.

The start of school was postponed until August 17th, with all students being remote learners. Although we felt a bit more confident in teaching online and had been given extra time to plan, there was still one big hurdle. This was the beginning of the school year and we would have to teach and try to connect with students we had never met in person. Since I teach sixth grade, that meant that my students also had the stress and fear of being new to middle school and having multiple teachers. Open house had been postponed and so we had not ever laid eyes on the new students, nor met their parents. I was teaching in an empty classroom, talking online to all of my students. Because we had never met these students, it was challenging to try to hold the interest of a group of children to whom I was a stranger.

It was communicated to parents and students that because there had now been time to plan and coordinate, attendance and missing work would now be counted. Students were expected to log in for every class and complete all assignments, just as they normally would in a face-to-face situation.

It did take some time to get that through to some of our new students and parents, but as time this year has passed we have seen improvements in all areas. I think that the students began to realize that it would be remote learning for awhile and that they couldn’t afford to do nothing. I’m sure parents played a big part in that change in their way of thinking. Parents were becoming cautiously optimistic that things were going to be more structured and planned than they had been in the spring when this was thrown on us overnight.

It is now the end of the first semester and I am still teaching that group of new sixth graders whose faces I hadn’t seen. We are now in a hybrid model of teaching, which was implemented in small steps over several weeks. Students were phased into the building in small groups instead of everyone attending all at once. All teachers are on campus now and parents were able to choose whether to keep their student at home to continue remote learning or to send them to school on-campus. I have approximately 70% of my students on campus now. Some others have indicated that they will return to campus next semester. We have lines and dots marking all hallways to encourage social distancing. Students and teachers must wear masks all day long. There are new hand sanitizer stations throughout the building. Students may refill water bottles at the fountains, but are not allowed to drink directly from them.

There are some things that I’ve learned or figured out during this first part of teaching during a pandemic:

Most children adapt quickly to changing situations as long as they have someone to reassure them. This group is amazingly resilient to change. It is possible to bond with 11 year old students without ever meeting them in person. I have only glimpsed faces once in awhile when they turn their cameras on, but the kids online can make me laugh by the simplest comments in the chat box. The ones here in the classroom (trailer) can do the same. There are times when students just need a break from the masks. It is okay to spread out outside for some “mask-down” time. Time flies when you are trying to do what feels impossible day in and day out. The year is halfway over and I don’t know how we got this far, this fast. It is okay to cry. I have ugly-cried in my principal and assistant-principal’s offices more than once this year. Sometimes I’m sure my AP wants to run the other way when he sees that look on my face. I’m not the worst teacher in the world just because I don’t know how to do something in this new format. If I do something the wrong way, it is not going to destroy a child’s education. If I take the time to learn and am patient with myself, I can make it better. My co-workers are amazing people who are all going through the same thing as I am and they are all still coming to work every day, right along with me. Our administration has our best interest at heart and I feel their need to support and help us. I have had several family emergencies this year, and could not ask for a more understanding admin team. On days that I feel I can’t go on, it is all right to shut one of my three monitors off or take off the microphone headset, or turn off the camera on myself for a bit and get myself back together.

I have cried in front of my students this year when I received news of my brother who has cancer finally being allowed visitors. These little eleven-year-olds sent me emails and chat messages of encouragement and letting me know they were praying for me and my brother. That is a humbling experience.

On normal days where I am as close to the top of my game as I can be, I am seated at the front of the room with my laptop, a Chromebook running a separate monitor, and my overhead projector displaying things on the white board. I am teaching and listening to those students physically in front of me while I also listen to the earpiece on my microphone headset to answer any questions from my remote learners. I am presenting media online and explaining it while also keeping an eye on the chat box in our virtual meeting so that I don’t miss any questions.

Sometimes my speakers work. Sometimes I can present a video without lag time causing it to splutter until no one can hear what is being said. Sometimes my remote students can make it through the whole class period without getting kicked offline. Sometimes my most difficult student decides to have a good day where I can teach without disruption. Sometimes I can make it through the whole day without a tension headache or anxiety attack. Sometimes I can go home without feeling like I’ve failed in some way.

Those are the good days this year. Things that seemed minor before are so important now. The number of Covid cases in our area is rising again, so I don’t know what the future holds. I do know though that if we are sent home again, these kids now know me and I know them. They know I will help them through this just as they are helping me. We are in this together.