Item
Mekenna Miller Oral History, 2021/10/12
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Mekenna Miller Oral History, 2021/10/12
Mekenna Miller Oral History, 2021/10/12, Part 2
Description (Dublin Core)
This is a personal reflection on a challenge I faced with Covid-19 as an 8th grade teacher. Unfortunately, because I got Covid-19, I had to miss my students' promotion--a moment I had been looking forward to all year. I was so proud of my students, and I only wish I could have been there to congratulate them and wish them a final goodbye.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
Creator (Dublin Core)
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Type (Dublin Core)
Audio
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Education--K12
English
Home & Family Life
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
Collection (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
10/12/2021
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
10/26/2021
04/15/2022
05/21/2022
05/25/2022
06/29/2023
Date Created (Dublin Core)
10/12/2021
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Mekenna Miller
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Mekenna Miller
Format (Dublin Core)
audio
Language (Dublin Core)
English
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:02:00
abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)
This is a personal reflection on a challenge Mekenna Miller faced with Covid-19 as an 8th grade teacher.
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Mekenna Miller 00:01
This is a personal reflection on my experience and challenges with COVID as a teacher. After a whole year of bonding and building relationships with my students, the moment had come. It was the morning of their eighth grade promotion. They had overcome so many obstacles, including switching to and from remote learning twice. They had to adjust and readjust. They had to learn and relearn. They had to persevere through online classes and Zoom meetings, find the intrinsic motivation to complete their homework, even though they could just as easily play video games or sleep in. They made it through wearing masks at school every day and distancing themselves from their best friends. Many of them even endured the pain of losing loved ones from COVID. All those challenges disappeared for a moment as these kids lined up and received their certificate of promotion. They were now high schoolers. As this profound moment was happening, I found myself laying in bed with fever and tears swelling in my eyes, realizing I couldn't be there to congratulate them. I struggled to open my computer to watch the live stream, which the quality made it almost not even worth watching. I tried to identify the students based on what they told me they would be wearing, and I thought of all the girls who were so excited to show me their dresses. I thought about how they might have been rushing up to me to hug me and take pictures, but I was at home sick with COVID. COVID gotten away with a lot of important things for me. My family vacation to Hawaii was canceled. My college graduation was canceled and broadcasted virtually. My sister stuck in another country unable to come home, and I was unable to spend time with my grandparents for almost a year. Although all of these things were hard, the absolute most difficult of all of them was missing my students' promotion.
This is a personal reflection on my experience and challenges with COVID as a teacher. After a whole year of bonding and building relationships with my students, the moment had come. It was the morning of their eighth grade promotion. They had overcome so many obstacles, including switching to and from remote learning twice. They had to adjust and readjust. They had to learn and relearn. They had to persevere through online classes and Zoom meetings, find the intrinsic motivation to complete their homework, even though they could just as easily play video games or sleep in. They made it through wearing masks at school every day and distancing themselves from their best friends. Many of them even endured the pain of losing loved ones from COVID. All those challenges disappeared for a moment as these kids lined up and received their certificate of promotion. They were now high schoolers. As this profound moment was happening, I found myself laying in bed with fever and tears swelling in my eyes, realizing I couldn't be there to congratulate them. I struggled to open my computer to watch the live stream, which the quality made it almost not even worth watching. I tried to identify the students based on what they told me they would be wearing, and I thought of all the girls who were so excited to show me their dresses. I thought about how they might have been rushing up to me to hug me and take pictures, but I was at home sick with COVID. COVID gotten away with a lot of important things for me. My family vacation to Hawaii was canceled. My college graduation was canceled and broadcasted virtually. My sister stuck in another country unable to come home, and I was unable to spend time with my grandparents for almost a year. Although all of these things were hard, the absolute most difficult of all of them was missing my students' promotion.
Item sets
This item was submitted on October 12, 2021 by Mekenna Miller using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.