WSG 18 Teacher Talk
Saturday was “Hemp Day” in our City. I don’t know how many years it’s been going on but it’s never a high point for those of us who live next to it. “Hemp Day” is not when a bunch of people get together and compare ropes, or itchy clothing. Nope, hemp day is when scads of teens to boomers get together on the Boston Common and smoke a ton of pot and eat fried food from food trucks, run around like lunatics and stuff. The debris left behind is impressive. Not just in quantity, but in quality (use your imagination). Note to visitors, do not bring your dog to the common on Hemp Day or the day after.
Teachers Reflect on last year.
I did a little nosing around to see what questions might bring to light what teachers had learned the past 18 months or so. Even if we have kids in school we can’t know what their teachers were really experiencing last year and the Spring before, unless you’re a teacher:) Below is what I sent to a handful of women teaching different age levels: College professor, high school, elementary and preschool.
Covid caused a complete halt to the way everything had been operating since WW2 (I think). What did that unscheduled, unplanned (for) time mean to
you, how did you use it? Will it affect the way you teach?What did that extended time out of school allow you to do differently vis a vis your curriculum?
Some kids have found covid was productive and a relief as it took the social pressure off of them and the FOMO. In general, how was it as a teacher relating to students during covid?
What are you worried about?
What are you feeling good about?
Two of the teachers interviewed are at public schools in Massachusetts and one is at a private college and another at a private preschool, also in Mass. I was struck by the concept of Zoom as a porthole into their students’ home lives. They might have guessed how a kid lived at home and how that affected their behavior in school and ability to do their work at home, but COVID laid bare the realities for better or worse. Another big takeaway was how fast each of these teachers changed their teaching styles. Basically, overnight. It made me think about the automation replacing humans in the workforce, teaching is one occupation that needs people. Enjoy their journeys below!
College Professor:
Covid caused a complete halt to the way everything had been operating since WW2 (I think). What did that unscheduled, unplanned (for) time mean to
you, how did you use it? Will it affect the way you teach?
In the spring of 2020, when everything first stopped, it did seem like a quieter time - we moved to Zoom just before spring break at Harvard, and while it was challenging, the students all had relationships with me and each other, so it wasn't impossible. In that early stage of lock-down it felt as though there was unscheduled time of a new sort, and that seemed promising - the silver lining of the whole experience. I'm a novelist, and hoped there'd be some time for my own writing.
Over time, however, the reality proved rather different. We were enlisted in pedagogical training for Zoom over the summer; the university schedule altered. As a result of schedule changes, we lost the month of August entirely as a time for our own lives and work. We lost the month of January as well. They cancelled spring break. In the (vital) effort to be present for our students, alas the teachers' wellbeing was overlooked.
The return to in-classroom teaching is exciting, but not without its challenges -- not least, anxiety about Delta. I conceived a class last summer as a response to the pandemic, and am teaching it this semester in person for the first time. I'll be better able to say how it's affected the way I teach at the end of the semester!
What did that extended time out of school allow you to do differently vis a vis your curriculum?
While there was extended time out of the classroom, there was no time out of school. We all had to re-learn teaching, how to teach better on Zoom -- it's a different medium, with some benefits & lots of challenges. Working in small groups (break-out rooms) was more successful than larger class discussions; or at least, it was important to have the small groups in order for the larger discussions later to work. I don't know whether this is something that will translate as well into the actual classroom. We'll see!
Some kids have found covid was productive and a relief as it took the social pressure off of them and the FOMO. In general, how was it as a teacher relating to students during covid?
You realize, as a teacher, that the classroom is a level playing field. When you have kids on Zoom, you don't know what their circumstances are at home. Some kids are Zooming from the car, on their phones; others are in a room with siblings or roommates making noise around them, or a parent cooking dinner behind them; and still others, the lucky ones, are in a quiet bedroom or study, able to focus. As a teacher, you had to be mindful of each individual's situation, and also of all that you didn't know, couldn't be aware of. It encouraged us all to be more patient, understanding and flexible, good things to carry forward into the in-person classroom.
What are you worried about?
Hard not to worry about Delta of course. We'll see how it goes. I teach at a university, so there's a vaccine mandate, masking and testing. We're as fortunate as can be; and still, it's not without worry. Not least because any student may be experiencing additional issues related, even peripherally, to Covid -- family struggles, anxiety, whatever. We're just in a more delicate place. And frankly I have an eye, too, on my own state of mind -- nobody's looking out for the teachers in all this. You have somehow to build in space for yourself, however small -- the system, more consuming than ever, doesn't account for it.
What are you feeling good about?
It's great to see people in real life again, to see the campus filled with students as it should be. To know that the creative pollination of quick encounters and conversations will happen again -- students talking in the hallways, or in the class break, discovering mutual interests, sparking ideas. That's something that can't happen on Zoom. So it feels a bit like that moment after a forest fire when little green shoots spring up through the black debris on the forest floor. That's exciting, and hopeful.
Elementary School Teacher
Covid caused a complete halt to the way everything had been operating since WW2 (I think). What did that unscheduled, unplanned time mean to you, how did you use it? Will it affect the way you teach?
I am a reading interventionist at the elementary level, which means I teach at-risk readers, in small groups or one-on-one, to help them move toward grade level literacy benchmarks. When our schools shut down for covid quarantine, I wouldn't say that I had too much unscheduled, unplanned time during my work day because my district very quickly shifted to a School from Home model. Our administrative team acted very fast to come up with a plan, and teachers acted just as fast putting the plan into action! I quickly learned how to try to teach reading from home to my students over zoom, and my own 3 children, suddenly at home with me, tried their best to become virtual students, learning from their teachers while at home on their own zooms.
Our district's "crisis mode" teaching prioritized reinforcing already taught skills, instead of introducing new concepts, in an effort to help students feel less overwhelmed in an overwhelming time. We, as teachers, were careful to take care of our students as people first, learners second.
In an attempt to preserve our sanity and our mental well-being, teachers and students tried to wrap up School from Home by midday and log off our screens in the afternoon. Yes, this meant long and often draining mornings staring at a screen for all of us in our house. But in the afternoons, we had much more free time than we were accustomed to. This is where the unstructured, unscheduled time came in... after our online learning ended.
And then of course, to fill those afternoons, we weren't socializing with others or getting together with groups of friends or family or attending sports practices or other activities; instead we were creating our own fun together as a family at home. We took long trail walks everyday with our dog. We explored art in our driveway, trying new things we'd never tried before. We set goals for reading books, playing music, cooking new foods, watching new movies, mastering new skills. The boys built forts and teepees in the backyard, created obstacle courses in the front yard, and rode their bikes all over our neighborhood. Our family even did what so many others did and learned how to plant our own vegetable garden. We took advantage of our unstructured time!
While doing it though I was very aware of how fortunate we were to live in a comfortable home in a welcoming neighborhood in a safe community where trying all of these new things together was possible and actually even fun! Our family discussed how so many families were not as fortunate and did not have the actual physical space in their home to enjoy all being "stuck" home together, or did not have a safe place to spend the day, or did not have the resources without going to work to take care of all the people in their home in the way they needed to. Learning from this experience, I will always remember to consider my students' home life, more than ever now. I will remind myself of our covid quarantine learning and how each student has a different home life experience that directly impacts who they are as people and as learners. Of course, I knew this before, but I saw this with my own eyes during our quarantine teaching over zoom.
What did that extended time out of school allow you to do differently vis a vis your curriculum?
From a professional perspective, the extended time out of school, and teaching in a more limited/disconnected capacity on zoom instead, allowed me to do more actual teaching and less assessing or monitoring of the teaching. We focused on the particular skills our students needed to learn, and tried to use our limited time with them to give them just what they needed. Of course, it is important to assess student growth, but with less time with students, we were able to prioritize the essentials and focus on filling the holes in their learning over assessing the gains we hoped they were making.
Some kids have found covid was productive and a relief as it took the social pressure off of them and the FOMO. In general, how was it as a teacher relating to students during covid?
As a teacher, I was getting a glimpse into students' home lives, while I was attempting to teach them academics over Zoom. Because I already had a relationship with my students when we shifted to zoom teaching from home in the spring of 2020, picking up where we left off was much easier than it was in the fall of 2020 with new students. We were able to feel connected over zoom because we already had a rapport, and students were already comfortable with me as their teacher. The part that was different was that these students were now introducing me to pieces of their home life - their parents, siblings, pets, and their environment - each time we logged on. For some students, this was very stable and a consistent "work/school" space was established for them without distractions. But for other students, routines were changing now that they were not going to school in-person, and this sometimes meant they were staying up too late, practicing habits that were not as conducive to being a well-rested and prepared student, or losing focus during our sessions because of distractions in their home environment. As I said before, I had to figure out how to reach my students as people first, students second. Getting a glimpse into their home life helped me to understand how I could best meet their personal and academic needs. For different students, it meant different approaches. There were positives and negatives to this, but with both kinds, I realized that I could be a consistent part of their School from Home experience, and I could be a person who made a difference in their life and in their learning during this very challenging time.
Another takeaway from this experience was recognizing how much one of my students benefitted from no longer reading in a group with other students. Over zoom, he and I got to meet one-on-one several times each week. Without his peers watching him or listening to him and without having to worry about what they might be thinking, he became a much more confident reader! I was well aware of his anxiety prior to covid teaching, but in school, I did not have the luxury to meet with each of my students individually. Once we gave him the chance to practice his reading without any peer influences or pressures, he totally blossomed! I learned something about his learning style that will now benefit him in his life as a student going forward, and by sharing this knowledge with his next teachers, he will continue to have his social and emotional needs met making great academic gains too!
What are you worried about?
In regards to covid teaching, what I am most worried about now is that we don't know when we'll ever be able to stop wearing masks! My district is operating with an abundance of caution - all students and teachers are masked indoors and socially distanced in their classrooms, classroom cohorts are kept separate from other classroom cohorts playing on the playground at recess, kids are eating lunch at separate desks behind plexiglass dividers while their masks are off. This is not how school is supposed to look nor how it is supposed to feel. I want to see my students' smiles, and I want them to see mine! I am sure to tell my students that I can tell from their eyes when they are smiling under their masks, but I cannot wait to get back to a time when we can connect with people the way we are meant to. Kids are meant to partner read side-by-side and not worry they are too close. Teachers are meant to help a child hold her pencil the correct way as she learns to write . . . without having to sanitize before and after. We should be able to happily high five a student to congratulate him on a new success . . . without washing our hands afterwards! This may not be politically correct anymore, but I want to hug a student who needs a hug . . . without having to assure her of my negative covid test result! :) I want to connect personally with my students and my colleagues again . . . worry free.
I am also worried about curriculum lost in the time kids were not in school in-person for full days or 5 days/week. Teachers could not possibly teach all of their curriculum when we were in "crisis mode" at the beginning of covid teaching, nor when we graduated to hybrid, and although an improvement, were still not in full-time school. Our students lost valuable time, and I don't think a solid plan is in place to make up the lost curriculum from during that time. Classroom teachers have very full plates and very full curriculum expectations, so how do they add months of lost learning from the previous year to their current year teaching?
What are you feeling good about?
I feel awesome about the fact that our district is back in school full time 5 days/week at every grade level! Hallelujah! My students are learning in-person from their teachers and in-person WITH their classmates. I am teaching students in-person everyday in my own classroom and in my colleagues' classrooms with them. AND my own children are taking the bus to school with their friends and attending school full-time everyday with their teachers and classmates. Whew! Not only are we teaching and learning new curriculum, but people are reconnecting socially and emotionally. My children are happy to be learning again because learning has become fun again. My students are excited to be back at school and realize how lucky they are to be a part of a great school community! Yes, there are still masks and other restrictions, but these are big steps in the right direction. We will get there.
High School teacher:
I used much of the time to learn new technology; platforms such as Parlay, Edpuzzle, Padlet, ScreenCastify, Jamboard, Mote, Soundtrap all became part of my daily repertoire in order to engage online learners
We read more shorter texts because, at the beginning of last year (until October when we switched to hybrid,) we were all online and couldn’t get books to the students. I find I do many more short texts now anyway because kids’ attention spans are limited.
It was not great. I tend to tease/ cajole my recalcitrant students, and because they hadn’t been in the classroom, they didn’t know me and took it the wrong way a couple of times.
Teaching takes up a lot of energy and stamina. You build it up over the years. Last year meant a loss of that particular type of stamina, and I wonder if I can build it up again.
Feeling good about being back in the classroom sounds so trite. It’s not that, exactly, but stuff around that like routine, predictability, control, all things that help order a classroom of 25 messy teenagers.
Pre-School Teacher
For early childhood, Covid was difficult b/c our entire curriculum is social/emotional and doing that in a two dimensional way is not productive for small children. It’s precisely at that stage of development that they should be with their peers, adjusting to time away for the first time. However, I think the benefit was that families did slow down and were able to spend more time with their kids.
When we went back into the the classroom it presented a problem trying to come up with different strategies about sharing and cooperative play while staying at a distance.
Small children do adapt and are resilient. They did all wear a mask easily and despite challenges loved being together and were thrilled to be outside playing in their element .
We all were very grateful to be teaching in person and worked together as a community to help remain in the classroom . We were lucky that our school and the community were all on the same page as far as Covid was concerned
Another anecdote: we all were capable of pivoting and establishing a new curriculum with so many online resources. In some ways it definitely added to the depth and scope of planning .
A recipe you wont hate: Ginger Tea
This is something that we discovered while we were away somewhere and it’s perfect for the worn down immune system from the start of school and the new busy time seeing people.
Ingredients:
fresh ginger, limes, honey, pot of water
Recipe:
Peal the skin off of a three inch piece of ginger with the back of a knife but scraping downward and dice it into small bits.
fill a sauce pan with water, 5 cups? 6? more?
put the ginger in the water with the juice of several fresh limes and half a cup of honey, at least. Add homey and lime to taste at the end.
bring to a boil and simmer until reduced by half
Enjoy!
What do you think? Should we have a chat session so other teachers and parents can weigh in or confirm what we have heard above from our brave teachers?