Items
topic_interest is exactly
teacher
-
2021-02-03
They Make This All Worth It
It is weird to teach high school online. I usually get to know my kids by wandering around the room and making small talk. By inviting them to go running with me during 6th period (the athletic period). By running into them walking to Starbucks before an after-school review session. By leaving my room open at lunch as an alternative cafeteria. These things are not an option this year. When you teach, the jokes you make, are the kids laughing? The topics you’re really excited about sharing - are the kids excited? Are they REALLY listening when they nod at you, or are they texting their best friends out of the view of the camera, or playing a video game on a separate device? The silence is the weirdest part. Do the kids pick up on the little one liner remarks I drop in? Honestly, I get SO EXCITED when the Zoom chat lights up. It is truly my favorite part of any period because it’s like being back in class, having a real conversation, instead of me calling on students to answer and visiting them in break out rooms. They don’t like to unmute themselves to comment. Even in break out rooms they are still a bit anxious when I appear. They’re always willing to share when I call on them, so I know they’re learning the content. But I do sit up at night while I grade and wonder if the kids are actually enjoying class. I love teaching so much, and I love my kids so much, it hurts to think that this year’s kids just aren’t getting the same experience. And I am 100% in favor of staying on Distance Learning until our case rates decline, so I don’t have an agenda to re-open here. And this is why these letters I received in November are so meaningful to me. Our school ASB put out a “thank a teacher” post on Instagram, telling kids they should email a teacher and thank them. Honestly, our school has very little school spirit - ASB activities and assemblies are attended by very few students. Therefore, I didn’t think much of their social media challenge to “thank your teachers.” But then, I checked my inbox. And I became teary eyed. Honestly, I expected letters from the seniors. I was very, very close to last year’s kids. We had a great year before quarantine, and then when quarantine hit, it was like I had 180 best friends who would DM me at all hours because they were lonely, mad, sad, scared, and frustrated. And I didn’t mind because I love my kids. It’s not like I had anything else to do at 2 am the world had turned upside down. But this year’s kids have never met me in person. We don’t have the same relationship as I had with last year’s kids. So, I was so, so surprised by the number of current students, some of whose emails I have submitted (with all identifying information and names redacted) who wrote to thank me. I was hesitant to submit this at first, because I’ve never been one for public bragging, which is sort of what sharing thank you letters seems like to me. I know there are teachers who post every message a kid sends them, but I am not that person. A thank you from a kid is personal, and is something you keep but do not need to share. However, these emails are a really important part of my pandemic experience. They demonstrate to me that I have not totally failed this year. These kids who have never met me face to face, sharing such kind words, and excitement for learning history is probably the biggest personal win of this entire pandemic year. These kids will never know how much these words meant to me, and how much they motivate me to give 100%, even when we are all just within our tiny Zoom boxes. I hope with all that is within me that I can get vaccinated in time to be able to teach them in person before this year ends. They have shown over and over again this year how amazing they are, and I want to be able to be able to tell them that and thank them for that in person before the end of their junior year. -
2021-02-03
Masks mandatory inside middle and high schools in B.C.
Masks are now mandatory inside middle and high schools in British Columbia, Canada. Elementary students are currently not required to. Schools are also asking for more money in order to help with improving safety for returning staff. While much of the population is currently wearing masks, the government has been relatively laissez-faire compared to the United States on compliance. -
2021-01-25
A Semester of Outfits
I haven’t grown in height since junior high school, and, as a result, I have A LOT of clothes. As sort of a fun game for myself and my students, I do not repeat an outfit through the 180 days of the school year. When school shut down in March, I switched to permanently in joggers, since I no longer left the house. When we began synchronous Distance Learning in August, I knew it was really important for my mental health and to try and portray a sense of normalcy for my students to still dress just like I was going to teach in person in a normal year. Since I don’t get to see all my students five days a week due to our block scheduling format for Distance Learning, I decided to post my outfit to my class Instagram each day, as an “ootd,” just for fun. It’s become sort of an interesting keepsake of my pandemic experience. If you look beyond the outfits and into my eyes you can tell the days I was anxious, worried, tired about the rising case counts, the unknowns, the state of our country, and locally, the true fear of whether they would force us to return to teaching in person. But the pictures also capture that in between the ever rising death toll, wildfires, political discord, racial tension, Capitol riots, life had to keep moving forward. And even during a semester of turmoil, you can see a lot of pictures show joy behind my eyes... and not only when the Dodgers won the World Series, allowing me to retire my 1988 World Series shirt! A new semester starts today, we’ll see what the expression in my eyes says about the state of the pandemic and the world in the weeks to come. -
2021-01-24
Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen
This is my worst fear for my students. All of us are on high alert for our students right now. The feeling of hopelessness is overwhelming our children. The next town over a child ended their life a few months ago. At the school board meetings, the children are saying that they feel desperate. I had a student who would put on a 72 hour hold for attempting to take her life before Christmas. I worry about my own pre-teen who is the most adaptive child I know, but he is missing his friends and his whole world has changed. I know my district is worried for the wellbeing of our kids. They want to open now, even if the numbers are high and even if we are not vaccinated yet. Anything to get these kids back into the classroom. The thing is suicide and depression are nothing new with kids. We know this. But now, I do not greet them at the door every morning, I do not see if they fall asleep in class every day, I can't stop them on their way out and ask if they are ok because I noticed a change in their body language. That ability saved kids before and now teachers cannot use that superpower to catch the kids when they fall. I worry that I will receive an e-mail telling me that one of our students did not make it through. That is my biggest fear right now. -
2021-01-14
I got the vaccine!
On Thursday, January 14, I got the first round of the Moderna vaccine. I am a high school teacher in American Falls Idaho. I think I might be one of the first teachers in the country to get the vaccine. I am very excited and honored to be among the first. I’m very grateful to my school district for working hard to get vaccines. -
2021-01-15
Keena Covid Vaccine
My name is Morgan Keena, I live in Nampa, Idaho, I am a 7th-grade social studies teacher, and I got my first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine today! Teachers weren't scheduled to start receiving the vaccine in Idaho until late February or early March. However, on January 11, 2021, our state superintendent of education delivered a speech to the Idaho legislature urging them to pass a law that would require all school districts to stay open unless mandated by the governor. Additionally, she urged that all students return to in-person learning full time as quickly as possible. On Tuesday, January 12, 2021, the governor of Idaho, Brad Little, announced via a press conference that K-12 teachers and staff were moved to the top tier and could start receiving the vaccine on January 13, 2021. This came as a huge shock to educators everywhere, but we know it is tied to the demand to have schools 100% in person. My school district, Nampa School District, then took on the momentous task of figuring out how to obtain vaccines for their nearly 1,000 staff members. Less than 36 hours later, they had secured vaccines for us at three major health systems and two smaller urgent care locations. The district also had one health system offering the vaccine on Saturdays and Sundays to better work with the teacher schedules. We managed to crash the portals of two health systems by overwhelming them with many vaccine sign-ups. I (by a miracle) was able to secure an appointment for January 15, 2021. Let me tell you; I have never been so excited to get a shot in my life. I received my vaccine from St. Luke's Health System in Nampa, Idaho. The check-in process was a breeze and done entirely on my own. I was very relaxed while waiting for my appointment but also exceptionally eager to get back to my room and get this first dose done. Once my name was called, I met with the pharmacist who would be administering my vaccine. She was a lovely woman, and I consider myself fortunate to have met her. She was such a calming presence as she explained the emergency use authorization for the vaccine, potential side effects, and what I could expect in the days after receiving this dose. She continued to use the line, "when I got my first dose...." which made me feel at ease. We talked about my job, her children, and how this school year has been wild. Suddenly, it was over! I had my vaccine and was ready to take on the world! Almost. After a couple of cases of allergic reactions to the vaccine around the country, they now require you to wait in the waiting room for 15 minutes after receiving each dose. I received the Pfizer vaccine and have scheduled my second dose for three weeks from today. As I was doing my time in the waiting room after my injection, I signed up for a program called V-Safe. V-Safe is run by the CDC and is used to track vaccines' side effects. Since this vaccine has emergency authorization, they are still collecting side effect data. since I signed up, they will message me once a day for the next week to do a quick wellness check. After the initial week, they will message me once per week to continue keeping up with any side effects I may encounter. I figure it's the least I can do to help science. I am super excited about receiving the first dose of this vaccine. My husband also received it today, and we are overjoyed by that. He is a third-year medical student rotating through various hospitals, so getting him a vaccine was a priority of ours, but it proved to be more difficult to obtain than we had thought. He received the Moderna vaccine, so we get to see how both vaccines work. I received the vaccine because I expect our school board to bring back middle school students 100% in-person and full time soon. Social distancing will not exist in the classroom, and I will be exposed to 150 students in my classroom and the other 150 students in my wing of the school. This is a good day for science. I feel excited and hopeful. I feel like I have hit the 'covid wall' lately, and I am just ready to be done with this. -
2021-01-15
The old gray mask
I would like to submit my gray, cotton face mask to the COVID-19 Archive. It is perhaps not as the most important item, but certainly it is the most present item for me throughout this pandemic. At almost a full year into this adventure, everyone has a keen familiarity with and opinion of face masks. I got this one as a gift. It feels about the same as getting socks on Christmas, except more useful. I have used this thing every single day unless I forget it—which sends me into a chaotic panic. I am a teacher in a suburb of Nashville, TN. Our school district insists on teaching in person, despite having alarmingly high infection rates in our community. This mask is now part of my daily uniform, a non-negotiable. It serves as a role model for students. A sign that their health is of paramount concern to us. It is part of everything I do. I have dozens of paper replacements in my desk. Those aren’t as good. They straps hurt your ears. The cloth ones are better, more comfortable. I thought about getting one with my favorite band’s logo, but I am going to stick with this old reliable gray, cotton mask. The smell of this mask will haunt me the rest of my life. I wash it multiple times per week. It often smells like laundry detergent. That is a good thing. However, by the end of the day it often smells like whatever I had for lunch. The masks gets hot. It is blasted with my carbon dioxide for eight hours straight. It gets really bad when I have to lecture during the day. When you inhale sharply to talk, it sucks in the material. I’ve learned how to breathe differently when I have the mask on. Sometimes I just pinch the end and hold it with my fingers while I talk. I can rarely take it off. I panic if I forget to put it on when I leave my classroom to go anywhere. Who would have ever thought this little cloth mask would be so important? I often doubt that it is effective at preventing the spread or contraction of infection. I am certainly NOT an anti-masker. But it’s a piece of cloth. I guess that it’s better than nothing. This gray cotton face mask, sometimes imbued with the glorious smell of fresh linen in the breeze or Last night’s roast and mashed potatoes has become a source of loathing and resentment, but simultaneously an anti-viral security blanket (if only in my imagination). Yet, I can’t wait to get rid of this vile thing. -
2020-01-11
Silent Bells & Quiet Halls: An Auditory Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic
In almost every aspect of life, COVID-19 has put the world on mute. From canceled weddings and downsized gatherings to remote workspaces and quiet homes left behind by those we have lost, the overwhelming soundtrack of the pandemic is silence. When K-12 students in the United States transitioned to distance learning nearly 10 months ago, elementary, middle, and high school campuses were abandoned, leaving bells silenced and hallways quiet. From March to November, this silence came to define my work at Princeton Joint Unified School District in the rural town of Princeton, California. No longer did bells ring to mark the end of one period and the beginning of another, lockers no longer slammed shut as students rushed to gather their belongings, and students could no longer be heard gossiping, laughing, and playing during morning break. While this silence initially felt like summer vacation had merely arrived a few months early, the lack of auditory stimulation began to diminish morale and decrease productivity as work felt further removed from the students themselves, transforming human beings into pieces of data and names on a paper. I could often go an entire eight-hour shift without speaking to another person, frequently finding my voice raspy when I would pick up the phone for the first time in hours. Even among coworkers, passing conversations vanished and became simple one-line emails dealing only with the business at hand. As Zoom calls replaced in-person staff meetings and participants remained on mute, the noisy world in which I once worked fell even further away. When in-person learning became optional in November, the sound slowly began to return, but it had changed from what it once was. Growing accustomed to the silence over the long summer, I often found myself jolted in surprise at each unexpected bell or sound of students on the playground. The number of students has drastically lowered since we first closed in March, as many opt to remain home to avoid possible exposure, while lunchtimes are now staggered, and breaks are shortened to prevent spread, creating ominously quiet and often uncomfortable atmospheres. The unease and discomfort heard in students' softened voices displays that widespread uncertainty that has permeated every corner of society. It is my greatest hope that schools will return to "normal" for the 2021-2022 school year and that the sounds of carefree students once more fill the hallways and classrooms of Princeton Joint Unified School District. Silence has become an all-too-painful reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I look forward to the day that bells ring on their regular schedule, coworkers are free to converse with one another, and every student returns to campus. In images and articles documenting the pandemic, the overwhelming auditory silence that many of us are experiencing is often lost and forgotten. -
2021-01-01
Summer Reflection
In March of 2020 the state of Idaho enacted a stay at home order. As a teacher I began teaching from home and my husband (a second year medical student) began attending all of his lectures from his office. In my mind I thought, "wow, we're going to get to slow down for a moment." I was so wrong. As a teacher I felt well prepared to move my students online. We already had the tools and platforms in place to make the transition go well. However, I wasn't ready for the overwhelming anxiety that came with the idea of walking away from my computer at the end of the day. Needless to say we continued on with our busy life from the confines of our 3rd story apartment. I continued my grad school class and teaching online while my husband continued studying and preparing for his first board exam. Over the summer I interned with JOTPY. The 12 hour / week commitment to the internship seemed doable and I was ready to be working on something. I'm not entirely sure what happened over the summer but I seem to have been so busy that it quickly turned into a whirlwind. The pandemic was supposed to have this major impact on what I was doing but I found ways to stay exceptionally busy. All of this to say I didn't have time to really reflect on my summer and internship experience. Looking back all I can say is wow. I was cleaning out my desk area last week in preparation for the return to work and grad school and as I was flipping through my notebook I found this page. This page represents a night from this summer that is hard to forget. I was busy working through my curation assignments in preparation to take the weekend off. However, about halfway through my assignment my curation group (shoutout to group 4!) starting chatting via Slack. We we just 4 students who were assigned to a group and we hadn't really chatted before. Suddenly we were talking about everything under the sun while all working through our curation assignments. I don't know that I have more to say on it except that it was fun and joyful. As 2020 turned to 2021 I started to reflect on the year that turned life upside down and I realized that it brought so much joy. While my husband and I have been blessed with our continued health throughout the year we acknowledge those who have not. -
2020-11-23
COVID and Montana High Schools
The contributor of this item did not include verbal or written consent. We attempted to contact contributor (or interviewee if possible) to get consent, but got no response or had incomplete contact information. We can not allow this interview to be listened to without consent but felt the metadata is important. The recording and transcript are retained by the archive and not public. Should you wish to listen to audio file reach out to the archive and we will attempt to get consent. -
2020-12-01
Teaching...during a pandemic
The story is about how COVID-19 has affected the educational system. -
2020-10-03
Jessica Fisher Oral History, 2020/10/03
Graduate student at ASU, Angelica S Ramos interviews mother of a new born baby. In this interview she discussed the struggles with prenatal care and her experience with birth during COVID. Fisher also discusses family support as a new mother amidst the pandemic and how her interactions with her family has changed. She mentions her worries with being high risk for contraction and how she copes with her worries. She also talks about her work as a teacher and how much that environment has changed for her and her students. In this interview, Fisher also talks about her close relationship with her grandmother who lived in assisted living and how their relationship has been forced to change. Lastly, she talks about her hopes for the future. -
2020-08-25
Teaching in a Pandemic
My mom has always been an elementary teacher and is finally nearing retirement. The pandemic has been a great challenge for her to adapt to. Her school year started with online instruction before moving to in-person learning later on. As a lifelong teacher, the adjustment to online teaching has been incredibly different and difficult for her. Especially considering the lack of support from the school and the district. The setup in the picture was jury-rigged together using materials that were already owned in order to try and provide the best learning experience for the students. Arizona State University HST485 -
2020-03-16
Silence at School, March 2020
This is a true anecdote about my experience as teacher during the pandemic, and the sensory experience by which I recall these events. I am a teacher at a middle school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In winter of 2019, I was aware of the coronavirus, which was something my students often joked about. For instance, if a child was out sick one day, the students would say the he or she had coronavirus, and everyone would laugh about it. It was funny to them at this time, because the virus was something that was mostly contained to places outside of the United States, and everyone thought it was preposterous that there was so much speculation about it on the news. My students engaged in speculation as well, and many of them concluded that it was actually a big cover-up for a zombie plague, and they would try to determine if I or their peers were also zombies in disguise. I recall hearing them laugh about it in the class, and I especially recall the return of one of our students to class after she had been out from the flu. I remember them asking her if she was a zombie, or if she had eaten bats before she got sick (remember, these are middle-school kids). Winter passed pretty much as usual, and cases began to occur in the US early in 2020. It was still seen as no big deal, generally. In March, we started to hear news stories about the virus in Winston-Salem. Some people claimed to know people who knew people who were related to someone with the disease in Greensboro. More and more cases began to appear, but it still seemed like something distant to us. Gradually, the sickness moved from Greensboro to Winston-Salem. I caught a cold in March, and by the end of the day on a Wednesday, I was feeling pretty bad. I told my many bosses that I would be out of work on Thursday, and on Thursday evening, I called out again. The first day that I was out sick, the school district had decided to close down the schools until further notice, starting the next day. I never got the chance to tell my kids goodbye, which was very painful, as we were all close and we had such a good experience in my class. Today, in October of 2020, I still haven’t seen any of them, as my school district is currently closed for in-person school. I wish very badly that I had the opportunity to say goodbye to them. Those are the events as they occurred chronologically. I will now recall the sounds that constitute my memory of the time. To begin with, my school is loud—our students are beyond unruly. I can recall the sounds of the end of a regular school day: raucous laughter, shouting, cursing, threats, insults, loud rap music, and the sound of me flipping the switch to cut off the overhead lights as we prepared to exit the classroom and make our way to the school buses. Then comes the sound of the announcements overhead, which no one can hear over the students, then the prolonged loud and dull tone of the "bell" which signals the beginning of the stampede to the buses. A chorus of shouts raises immediately—a proclamation of victory and freedom. It is exuberant. What follows is hundreds of footsteps on linoleum tiles, backpacks shuffling as kids adjust them on their backs, more yelling, screaming, and swearing, the sounds of an occasional "runner," who knocks the other students down to get to the buses, a teacher shrilly, piercingly yelling at him to go back and "try again", and reminding him that "you will not go up these stairs unless you can walk up them!," a muttered "f---you, b----," from a male voice that is just about to begin deepening as he turns around to try again, and so on until we get to the buses, load those kids up, and ship them out. Going to my car every day after work is over, my ears ring as I sit in the silence of my car with the doors shut before starting the engine and making my way home. I often sit for just a minute or two and enjoy the silence before departing, but the ringing in my ears gets uncomfortably loud, and I finally turn the car on and leave. When I go back to school on the Monday following my sick leave, the difference is remarkable. The school district has instructed us to come in safely, get whatever we need from our classroom that we require to work at home, and leave as soon as possible. Teachers are strictly instructed to only walk directly to and from their classrooms to their vehicles, not to visit with their friends, etc. Everyone is in their classroom, working quietly. The only sounds I hear as I walk down the halls to my room are the hum of overhead fluorescent lighting and my heels striking the linoleum tiles, echoing off the walls and rows of lockers. I hear my key turn in the lock of my classroom door, the flick of the switch to on, more humming fluorescent lights. Shuffling papers and sliding metal desk drawers and file cabinets come next. With a handful of papers in my arms (I travel light), I cut off the lights—the humming stops—and my heels strike the linoleum tiles until I open the exit door, walk across the parking lot, and leave. This time, the silence of my car is nothing extraordinary. Gone are the shouts, the yelled jokes, the subsequent laughter, the retaliatory swearing. Also gone are the kids coming up to me to just say "hey," do one of the complex handshake rituals we have worked out, and to ask me if they can have a dollar for a cookie in the cafeteria, which is a request that I have obliged so often that I will count it as a charitable donation on this year's tax return. On that last day in the school building, there was no sound of a kid coming up to me to tell me how well he did in last night's basketball game, and how poorly his best friend did by comparison, or a girl walking up to tell me that an unpopular teacher has once again worn ugly clothes to work, and that her shoes don't match either—middle school students pay a lot of attention to these things. Put simply, those are all happy sounds. They are the sounds of kids doing what kids do in 2020, saying the things that they say, and teachers managing the best they can. The sound of kids coming up to me to talk are the sounds of acceptance—acceptance of a teacher into their lives, who is usually the categorical enemy of the student. I'm glad to be an exception. These are the pre-Covid sounds. What follows conveys emptiness. The sound of echoing footsteps rebounding from the walls demonstrates how vacant the hallways are. The fact that I can hear the overhead lights hum is amazing in its novelty. The chatter of students is all gone, the desks, empty. For a teacher who loves his students, the sounds that follow the March arrival of the pandemic are the sounds of loneliness. -
2020-09-09
Not Enough Time in the Day
I am currently under the impression that there is not enough time in the day...or the week for that matter. School is in full swing both for me as a teacher and a student. After working a 9 hour day in my classroom teaching students online I come home and set up the wild setup pictured above. My large desktop computer is used primarily for grad school; to watch lectures, write papers, and send personal emails. The laptop on the left is my school computer and used to do tasks for my job such as lesson planning, distributing assignments, or as is the case tonight field the emails from the district and parents as the decision was just made to move into a hybrid in 10 days. The iPad on the right is my catch all notepad. I've started using Microsoft OneNote as a digital planner, note catcher, and meal planner. I thought that after this spring I would be so sick of technology that I would feel compelled to move to paper. However, as time has gone on I realized that this isn't coming to an end. This could very well be our new normal and it's time to embrace the change rather than dwelling in the sadness of what used to be. As I write this I am also running through an email I am going to send to my team of teachers tomorrow. A less appropriate thing to include in a school email is the line that continues to flow through my brain, "it's time to do the damn thing." We. Can. Do. This. This is not the time to feel sorry for teachers everywhere or to wallow in our never ending to do lists. Instead it's the time to prepare to SHOW UP for our students who haven't been in a classroom for 6 months. The kids don't care about content. They care about contact. We'll show up. We'll be there. We'll do the damn thing. -
2020-09-02
Board Meeting & Thank You Cards
2 nights. 8 hours. 2 school board meetings. Wow. Nampa School district decided early in August to push their start date back to 8/24/2020 to allow for extra planning time and to start the year entirely online. Included with this decision was the responsibility for the board to reevaluate this every two weeks. Well, this week we hit that mark. There have been many rumblings regarding what was to come in the decision. The biggest community push seems to come from parents who want their students involved in athletics. As of last Friday, 8/28/2020, one of our local hospitals was reporting 17/18 bed occupancy in their ICU unit due to Covid. The situation in Idaho is not stellar. Tongiht, at our board meeting, 2 trustees fought and fought for schools to reopen and athletics to continue. However, our superintendent held strong. She continually cited information from the health experts in our area. She noted the tremendous work our teachers are doing. At one point, early in the meeting she said, "teachers are working twice.....three times as hard as usual. They are working harder than they have ever worked before and we need to acknowledge that." - Dr. Paula Kellerer, Nampa School District. WOW. I am submitting this item to the archive to write Dr. Kellerer's name down in history. She is a champion for teachers, all students, and the well-being of our community. In a time where the teaching profession is under attack and districts are fielding those hateful Facebook comments...Dr. Kellerer stands strong. She advocates. She's thoughtful. She listens. I recognize how tremendously fortunate I am to work in a school district with such tremendous leadership. So, tonight, I wrote thank you cards. I know I could easily email Dr. Kellerer and other trustees but there's something about a thank you card that has extra 'umph'. Dr. Kellerer, we see you - we appreciate you - and we thank you for being an advocate for education for all. -
2020-08-23
Underwear, Socks, Mask.......check!
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine submitting a picture of my sock and underwear collection - but here I am. In the name of history! I am a teacher. I teach 7th grade social studies for the 3rd largest school district in Idaho. Our school board voted to start our year online as our COVID cases were spiking. Additionally, they decided to push our start date back a week. Our superintendent made the argument that we normally give teachers about 5 days to prepare for a normal school year and this was not a normal school year, so we got some extra time. Our district has been amazing. They are allowing the teachers to decide if they work from home or school. During the first week I chose to work from school. So, on August 23rd I was preparing to return to school. As I laid out my 'first day of school' outfit I realized it would include a mask. Well, here it is pals. Masks, socks, underwear....check! I am ready for my first day! -
08/04/2020
Lee Foster Oral History, 2020/08/04
Oral History in which Lee Foster discusses how one teaches shop (Industrial Arts) through online learning, what it is like teaching your students at the same time as your own children, and having a spouse working in a hospital during the pandemic. He also discusses the changes, or lack thereof, in family dynamics during a pandemic all with his easy-going positivity and sense of gratitude for his situation. -
2020-08-10
Essential worker and a baby
In the beginning of the pandemic I was 7 months pregnant and working in an ICU. As things starting getting worse more changes would come on how we operated day to day. Day to day became hour to hour, things would be changing. New policies, then new policies would change. I was also becoming concerned about how the rest of my pregnancy and delivery would be. When the policy came down that all hospital personnel had to wear a mask at all times I started to have a problem. Due to wearing a mask and being pregnant my gag reflex would be triggered and I would get sick. After trying to work for 3 days my only option was to take early maternity leave. So while I was not at work for most of the worst part of the first wave of the pandemic it was still a little unnerving. I stayed in contact with my coworkers and stayed up to date on my unit and the hospital policies. It was not only going to affect my job but also the rest of my pregnancy and delivery. On my last doctors appointment I was sent to labor and delivery to have my baby. I was nervous because honestly who wants to bring a life into a world of pandemic. I feared for the health of my newborn child. Upon admission you have to be tested for Covid-19, it was very uncomfortable! I was lucky to be able to have my fiancé there with me for the labor and delivery but once he left the hospital he was not able to return but only to pick me up from the door. Granted, this was my 4th child and I knew what to expect, it still was sad that he was not able to spend the entire time with me nor were my other children able to come and visit. At least I was able to have previous experiences of giving birth before the pandemic. After giving birth, we were pretty sheltered. No one visited. We never left the house unless absolutely necessary. My newborn son had only left the house to go to the doctor before this past week. I had to return to work so he is now attending a small daycare along with my 2 year old daughter. Their father and I are both essential workers. Having children during this time makes things so much more complicated. Can't take the kids to the store or to any appointments so trying to organize schedules is very complicated. I miss going out as a family. Before the pandemic my family and I would go every where together. Even if it was just the store. We loved just to spend that time together. Now I feel like we are never all together unless we are sleeping, then we are all home together. I pray for the day that we are all able to go out together, take kids to do activities and just spend time all together outside of the home. This pandemic has made me and I am sure many others realize how truly blessed we were and if at any point in our lives things get back to where they were before the pandemic to not take such things as going out as a family for granted. -
07/27/2020
Jason Zackowski Oral History, 2020/07/27
Jason Zackowski describes what science education has been like during a global pandemic both in schools and on the internet. He discusses the transition to online learning in schools as he is head of the science department and a teacher at a high school in Red Deer, Alberta. He also shares his concerns for the planned return to school. Jason runs a science podcast as well as a popular twitter account for his dog "Bunsen Berner" which he uses to share scientific facts, research, and methods in a fun way. As such he discusses the "blowback" by members of the public on social media to scientists when it shares information regarding the virus and pandemic. -
2020-07-15
Teachers hold sit-in protest at Texas Capitol to demand changes on reopening schools
On Wednesday, July 16th, 2020 Austin, Texas area teachers held a sit in/protest around the state capital building to express their fear of being forced to go back to in person school this fall. School begins in one month. Having personally watched this protest be planned I know that the reason they chose this location was because they could not get onto the capital grounds. Entrance to the grounds are barricaded and National Guard troops are present. I also know that TEA, Texas Education Agency, has announced they will work from home until January 2021. How can they look out for themselves but send precious students and teachers back to work? -
2020-07-01
Teacher: ‘Parents need to go to work’ does not stop covid-19 at the school entrance
Many have been questioning how schools will reopen in the fall following closures for most of the nation's schools in March. While there was hope that COVID would settle down, it seems to be doing the opposite, and while we inch closer and closer to August, the month when most schools start their fall term, the question remains; How will K-12 schools reopen safely? While many parents, guardians, and even doctors (The American Academy of Pediatrics) are pushing for students to return fully to campus this fall, citing just how necessary in-person teaching is. Teachers get it; we know we need to see our students to give them the best education possible. But, that doesn't stop COVID at the doors of the school. -
2020-07-06
Summer School Classroom
I went back to teaching in person today. I have about 7-14 kids per class, their exits into the hallway were staggered by classroom, they were all spaced safely apart, and meals weren’t offered in the school but were bagged up and sent home. We can do this with 50 kids but trying to imagine what this would mean in the fall when we hope to welcome back nearly 850 students into our building is frightening. I hated teaching with a mask on because the kids couldn’t read my face and it changed the tone of the room. I truly teared up as I pulled into the parking lot this morning and saw kids walking to school - I’ve missed them SO MUCH!!! I don’t know what the answers are in terms of reopening schools. What I do know is that teachers don’t want to be teaching from their living rooms but if it means keeping the students we love so much and the colleagues we adore safe....then we’ll do it. We’ll move mountains to keep up with our kiddos. We didn’t get into this profession for the fame and fortune, we got into this because we truly love what we do. I wasn't placed in my normal classroom today. Instead I was put in the art room which had chairs for 15 students but no desks. There were many hand sanitizer stations around the schools and are halls are all 'one way only.' The students wear masks while riding the bus but immediately take them off upon arrival and they are washed and given back at the end of the school day. I've used more hand sanitizer in the last 24 hours than I have in a long time. It also has me rethinking class copies of work. -
2020-05-30
Personal Journal May 23-30, 2020
I am sharing this journal in hopes of being able to look back to it in the future. I felt so overwhelmed by working from home when COVID-19 started to rock the world and I didn't journal. Now that school has calmed down and I have temporarily relocated to Fargo, ND I decided to share my story. North Dakota is quite open compared to other states and has been for quite some time. -
05/24/2020
Lauren Mottles Oral History, 2020/05/21
This is a recorded conversation with a teaching colleague, Lauren, who works as the Math Department Chair at St. James Academy in San Diego. Since the beginning of the pandemic, and especially in California since the stay at home order on March 17th, teachers have done the incredible in teaching their students at a distance. Lauren shares her experiences at her school, reflections, and thoughts on the current state of education.