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2022-01-13
Addressing Trauma from COVID-19 on Students and Teachers
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on both students and teachers. Not only has there been learning gaps, but there has also been an impact on the social and emotional well-being of teachers and students. Many experts now say that these issues need to be addressed before focusing more on academics. -
2022
Teachers are Tired
Now that we are ending the 2022 school year, many people have "returned to normal". Most students no longer wear masks in schools. However, we are still working through the pandemic. Teachers are still at risk for contracting COVID and are navigating the severe behavioral problems of students. With summer approaching, everyone is looking forward to a break from an extremely stressful year. -
2022-01-10
Criticizing Teachers
Even before the pandemic, many teachers have felt that they are underappreciated. During the pandemic, the number of responsibilities on teachers increased. They have been forced to teach during a health crisis, putting themselves at risk. When teachers are sick, the remaining teachers are forced to pick up the work without any empathy if they are not able to fulfill all obligations. The expectations have increased as teachers are also battling increasing behavior issues. -
2021
High School Yearbook in 2021
Included is a picture of the page of a yearbook from the school that I work at for the 2021-2022 school year. This school year was very unique in that we started the year online. All classes were held virtually through Zoom from August to the end of September. At the end of September, students returned to school using a phased-in approach where one grade level at a time returned. After Winter Break, the school was held virtually again for two weeks. During the time that we were in-person, teachers were required to teach students in-person and online through Zoom at the same time. Because of that, I would have students in the classroom, and students listening to me and interacting with me through Zoom. Many students with health concerns never came to school in person. For everyone else, masks were required at all times. In addition, teachers were required to move desks in a way that students were at least three feet apart from each other shoulder-to-shoulder. This yearbook page shows different ways that teachers and students were affected during this year. The top left picture showed a Zoom screen with the students attending Zoom class. The large picture underneath shows a masked teacher standing in front of her students while also showing her students on Zoom behind her. Other pictures show teachers with their Zoom classes and empty classrooms. The text on the side was written by students who took the Yearbook class. It shows a student perspective on the pandemic and why classes were made to be held virtually for students. The 2021-2022 yearbook as a whole is an important object to me as this is the first and only school year that was affected by COVID-19 in its entirety in a way that can be seen visually. This year was unlike any other and forced me to have to change and adapt constantly. During this school year, I had to space students apart and had to make a seating chart for every class. If a student needed to move for a few minutes for any reason (like needing to charge their laptop), I would have to update the seating chart with the date to show where that student was and who they were sitting by. If a student tested positive for COVID-19, any students within three feet of them then had to stay home and learn virtually for a set amount of time. This time changed throughout the year but could be six to ten days. Looking back on these memories, I believe that it is so important to see what students and teachers went through during this time, as we are all still trying to catch up and adjust to the way that the pandemic disrupted and changed beliefs, attitudes, expectations, and ways of learning. -
2022-04-03
Teachers reflect on covid struggle
This article details the reflection of a few Arkansas teachers as we reach two years since the beginning of the pandemic. The teachers highlight the drastic changes not only in safety precautions, but also the adjustments in order to provide meaningful learning in an entirely new landscape. Many of the teachers reported excitement at the prospect of a return to normalcy, however they desire some aspects of the pandemic adjustments to remain in place. Flexible learning, new and creative ideas of conveying topics, and more individualized learning methods have seen an increase in retention of material, which is fundamentally what education is all about. The teachers would also like an end to the stigma surrounding the covid learning adjustments, primarily the notion that education is now "entirely computer based". This notion is quite the contrary, according to educators, rather the new methods not only encourage flexibility and invite individualized learning but also promotes computer skills which will be vital for adulthood. I think this article is interesting because it highlights the fundamental change covid has made and continues to make on society. In order to promote public health and safety, teachers were forced to adjust and were forced to rework how they educated. This compelling of behavior has rendered some positivity. I think it is critical that children are able to have the safest and most effective education, and while covid seems terribly negative, there is a small glimmer of improvement from the pre-pandemic world. This article was published in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. -
2020-08-05
Heroes Work Here Sign
This is a screenshot from a public high school's Twitter page. The photo is of a sign posted in the front of the school that says "Heroes Work Here". These signs were posted throughout the Deer Valley Unified School District at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year in order to celebrate the work of teacher's who were started the year virtually and would transition to in-person. -
2021-03-30
Teachers Share Their Experiences Working During The Pandemic | Covid Confessions | Episode #6
Video Interview with teachers giving their experiences during the Covid-19 Pandemic. -
2020-11
Growing up online
In September of 2020 mid pandemic, I decided to follow my heart and quit my food service job to work with children. I was hired at a daycare, my expectations were drastically different than what I walked into on my first day. As I walked into the building I saw coworkers shuffling from laptop to laptop helping children log into Zoom, Microsoft, and Google classroom. My headteacher joked that within a month I would be able to memorize every student's laptop password and zoom log in, I laughed it off and went to the binder that held all the information. By the time October rolled around I was able to log in at least 20 children into their classes and knew their teachers as well as what their missing assignments were. I was also able to see the children's excitement for school fade from their eyes. Some children mentally checked out and fell asleep, some punched their laptops till they broke, and some left theirs at home purposefully. The pandemic was undoubtedly hard on adults, but have we forgotten the pure bliss that comes from making your first friends in Kindergarten, or even the comfort of a kind teacher? Seeing these children struggle was hard but knowing the daycare that I worked at was stepping up and helping with late assignments, communicating with teachers and parents, and offering the sense of community when all felt lost was really what kept all of us going. Community is all we have and it's all we need even if it is socially distanced. -
2020-03-20
The Signal of Approaching Silence
On Friday, March 20, 2020, I was grocery shopping at Hy-Vee in Canton, Illinois when my mobile phone pinged with an alert from a local news app: the Illinois governor had officially issued a stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Rumors of the impending order had been circulating for the past few days. I teach English at Canton High School, and we were scheduled to start a week of Spring Break that Friday. That morning the principal had cautioned us to take home our computers and any teaching materials that we might need, just in case we did not return to school after Break. So, the text message confirmed a stark reality. Talk of the stay-at-home order overtook the conversations of shoppers around me. People were speculating about what would come next, now that schools and businesses would be closed. I remember passing the meat counter where I overheard the department manager taking a phone call from a gentleman who wanted to place an apocalypse-sized order of beef. This is it, I thought to myself, trying to figure out what kind of groceries to buy that would sustain my family over for an indefinite period of time, because even though the stay-at-home order was for just two weeks, I had a sinking suspicion we were not going to best Covid-19 in two weeks’ time. I began pushing my cart up and down the aisles faster, a little more frantically, in response to a burgeoning awareness that the virus could already be circulating within our community. Looking back now, I see that we were somewhat cocooned in Fulton County, Illinois, a mostly rural county. The health department announced the first positive case on April 10; the first death occurred on October 21. The virus was slow to take a foothold, but eventually it did. In late July, our school district’s board unanimously voted to start the school year fully remote. Each school day, teachers reported to ghost-town school buildings and holed up in their empty classrooms, with admonitions from administrators not to co-mingle with each other. During that time, I dutifully logged onto Google Meets for each class period, where various avatars greeted me because students were not required to turn on their cameras, so none did. Sometimes I got to hear tinny student voices, which sounded a lot further away than across town, and I wondered if each voice matched the person I pictured in my mind’s eye. I had never met the majority of my students in person, and the photographs on our school’s student management system had not been updated since the fall of 2019. I remember the frustration I struggled to keep capped when I would call on students and be met with silence. Were they even sitting by the computer? Were they afraid to say something in front of their classmates, lest they look stupid? Were they just willfully ignoring me? Were they okay, physically and mentally? I pulled more words out of students through written assignments and chat boxes than through Google Meets. Although part of the student body returned to in-person school in January of 2021 while the rest remained remote by choice (we taught both groups concurrently), it was still difficult to get students to speak, even to each other. Sadly, many of our students had become so accustomed to the idea of school as a radio broadcast—one from which they could easily disengage if they so wished—that they no longer felt it necessary to contribute their voices. In Illinois, we’ve been told that all students will return to in-person learning in the fall of 2021, with few exceptions, but I fear the virus has done irrevocable damage to our students’ speech. -
2021-04-14
California teachers are getting one-time stipends as incentives and hazard pay
As much as there are "reopening schools" supporters, there are about as much hesitant to do so. You might hear the hesitations from concerned parents and children, but school employees experience it as well. Schools are typically crowded and people are in close quarters at almost all times of the day. Although California regulations are to remain 3-6 feet apart in and out of classrooms, it continues to be a difficult challenge. Moreover, such precautions might lessen the spread but they're not guaranteed. This is where aid funds in the form of stipends come in. These stipends are displays of gratitude, used as an incentive and, unfortunately, hazard pay. More than $2 billion will be distributed across 42 K-12 school districts in the San Diego region. Stipends vary, however. There are one-time stipends for Lakeside school district teachers who have taught since October 1, 2020 of $450 to $900. Special education teachers in the same district will receive more, about $500 to $1000. Despite the incentives, there is an ongoing conflict over who is eligible for the stipend (to my personal surprise). One argued that only employees returning to campus are eligible, while there was a debate over whether those teaching since Fall 2020 should even be compensated for. If this were the criteria, it should simply be an incentive to return as the act of “being appreciative” would not exclude any teachers who have and will continue to work during the pandemic. -
2021-04-10
Child Care Concerns Persist Despite Returning to In-Person Instruction in Californian Schools
Californian schools are opening back up, but there continue to be concerns over employees and their families. Although there have been some employees working at schools the past year (i.e. custodians), those working remotely (i.e. teachers) continue to face challenges in child care. Due to this, "Los Angeles Unified School District earlier this week announced it would provide a day care stipend of $500 a month for each child under age 5 to all full-time employees, including teachers." The Service Employees International Union (SEIU 1021) did clarify within the article by Sacramento Bee that some demands could not be met. Among the demands was a one-time stipend amount of $1,500 for employees with children aged 3 - 14. This is an ongoing issue with its latest update on April 10, 2021 being: a weekly stipend of $125 for employees with children aged under 14. This represents one of the issues employees of educational institutions are facing. They’re hesitant to return to in-person instruction. Although there’s a fair amount of news coverage of children returning to school, the ones hesitant (especially those responsible for the school to run smoothly) should also be acknowledged. -
2021-03-29
School Districts in California Setbacks while Reopening
This explains which and how many school districts in California have reopened. Many have remained closed for a year or more. As the article's title suggests, "A majority of school districts are now open. But not everyone wants to return," they share why they're seeing a slow intake of students. They also reported that the Long Beach school district had their teachers vaccinated earlier, therefore was able to open their schools earlier than the rest of the state. -
2021-03-04
Teachers spell out racial slur with giant Scrabble letters. Parents are pissed.
From the article: One parent said that her son is “tired” of the racism because it is a common occurrence at the school. “He absolutely told me, ‘Mom, I’m tired of it, do what you need to do because this is not fair and I’m tired of feeling like this,'” she said. But one of the school’s basketball coaches, John Smith, is standing up for the teachers. “This isn’t our school, this was a mistake,” he said. “Everybody in the world makes mistakes, everybody in the world has faults and this is just a little fault that we’ve had. This is not our school. I truly believe that they did not know what they were posting.” The school, though, openly supports discrimination. Their website says that the school teaches that marriage is “the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture” and denounces the “immorality and sinfulness of sexual relationships outside of biblical marriage and of sexual relationships between persons of the same sex.” -
11/28/2020
Clay Carpenter Oral History, 2020/11/28
This is an interview with Clay Carpenter. Clay Carpenter was born in Devils Lake, North Dakota and grew up multiple small North Dakota towns. He studied Elementary Education and Physical Education at the University of North Dakota, where he met Melody Carpenter, his wife. They moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they work in the education system. They had a son, Dakota Carpenter, and moved to Arizona shortly after. In Arizona they continued to work as educators with Clay teaching in elementary school, middle school, and high school before becoming a high school administrator,. While working in Arizona they adopted two sons, Artem Carpenter and Andrey Carpenter. Clay’s long experience in the field of education as both a teacher and an administrator provides him with a wealth of knowledge, experiences, and a view of the changes made in the education system. In this interview, he reflects on the coronavirus and the affect it has had on the education system, students, and teachers. -
11/19/2020
David McKenney Oral History, 2020/11/19
David John McKenney lived in rural Michigan for most of his life. In this interview, David reflects upon the challenges that COVID-19 wrought on the rural school districts for which he works. He describes how he and his coworkers wrote code that helped transition students to remote learning and saved other districts countless hours of labor. David also touches upon his experience in Ukraine and the flu quarantine that occurred there seasonally. He contrasts this with the current American quarantine and highlights his concerns about freedoms of speech in reference to lockdowns. His concerns about freedoms of speech also extends to the future of Christianity and the church. He expresses his anger about the 2020 election season. In addition, David discusses his frustration with rioting in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. David remarks on the shift in real estate from urban areas to suburban areas and the rise in construction. Finally, David comments on his participation in pandemic trends (such as baking bread) and increased time spent with family. -
2020-11-06
The Faculty Perspective
Both of my parents are teachers, one working as a fourth grade teaching assistant and the other an eighth grade math teacher/soccer coach. Though I have left home, and started my first semester of college, I have heard their rants, their grievances, and complaints regarding the ways in which the school system is "taking care" of their faculty. My mother and father are both paranoid about the coronavirus, rightfully so, however they were told they must return to the classroom to teach students in person. While there are rules and restrictions in order to carry out this plan safely, there is only so much they can do. Take my mother's fourth graders for example, they don't understand the concept of a pandemic or the need to socially distance. She must enforce rules upon these kids that they don't see as necessary and, more often than not, choose not to follow. This makes my mother, and teachers in general, feel as though their safety is not a priority and as if they are not being thought of by the school's administration. The same can be said for my father. Though his eighth graders may have a better grasp of the new restrictions, his soccer season was a mess. Socially distanced, masked, and with only three games total, it simply did not make any sense. What appears to be happening is the school is choosing to cater to students' parents' wishes, to obviously provide their children with as close to a normal schooling experience as possible; however, by doing so, they are ignoring the comfortability and safety of their teachers by placing them back in the classroom. -
2020-03-28
Future History Teachers
I am hoping to become a high school history teacher and this meme rang true for me. I cannot wait to teach 2020 to future students, it will probably be a class in itself! -
2020-11-04
The Reality Of Teaching During COVID
No teacher was prepared for a transition to distance learning during a global pandemic. Nevertheless, teachers all over the world had to alter courses at the end of last school year, and the beginning of this school year. With very little time, adjustments were made to introduce distance learning. This allowed for teachers to keep teaching and students to keep learning. Although a plan for distance learning was created, no one knew what they were walking into. This has left teachers, parents, and students to pick up the pieces and learn as they go. In frustration many blame teachers for any disorganization or problems that have occurred throughout distance learning, but in all realness, they too are left to take this new style of learning day by day. -
2020-10-30
Teaching Today
This is a photo of my friend, Lindsay. She is a high school teacher here in Colorado. We live in a small town that was fortunate enough to not feel the panic of the pandemic until well-after other places had. She misses her students, and there are real concerns for the mental health of not only the kids, but the teachers too. -
2020-10-16
Pre-Pandemic, what did we know? Teachers knew nothing.
March 12th, 2020 seemed to be a perfect spring day in Southeast Georgia, it was a beautiful morning. I am a teachers assistant in a self-contained classroom in Liberty Co., GA. We had a long weekend ahead of us, March 12th was a Thursday and we had Friday off, 5 day weekend, and all of the kids knew it! So as any teacher would do we had a relaxed day. We taught normal morning lessons, talked to the kids about why they will not see us on Friday, Monday, Tuesday, or St. Patricks day that was coming up. So, we painted pictures of rainbows - nothing out of the ordinary, at least not in our little self-contained bubble. The teachers for some time had been hearing about this virus, and that it was far worse than the severe flu we saw in 2018, or anything else we have seen from overseas. This illness was something that we all were closely monitoring in the news because schools are the perfect breeding grounds for germs of any illnesses; however, we knew one thing - that there were some measures being put in place for travel. Then we get an all-call on the intercom in our classroom, "Hey 201, we just want to inform yall the main water line is broken up the road. We suggest you call your parents to get ready to receive their children, its a half-day." STUNNED we all took a moment, took a breath. Our 7 kids had no idea what was happening so we all took to our phones and called the parents of the most vulnerable first, then the ones we knew may take some time to get a hold of. Next we informed our parents of the children who ride buses that they will be on their way home within the next hour as the school had no water. We rallied up our kids, went through our daily clean up (4 hours earlier than usual) and gave them all tight hugs. Some of them didn't want to leave, some really didn't understand why they were going home so early, and some just wanted to get out of the crowd. In the end, I hugged every last one of my kids I took up to the front office because I had a sick feeling about this weekend. I told them to be good and listen to their adults and I waved goodbye. For most, that was the last time I saw that set of kids again because last year's class was older. Those children went onto middle school. Friday, March 13th, 2020 came and rumors started that we may not be going back to school on Wednesday because of some virus called Coronavirus. What was this? Why? No one understood. My teacher friends were all communicating online what was happening, a lot of uncertainty. The weekend came and went, nothing. Monday, the 16th of March, we got the news we weren't to enter ANY school building, this virus is highly contagious. I'd seen the news and by then China, Japan, Korea, and Italy were on total lockdown, Spain was following suit; along with the rest of the world, the US was the only nation in the world not really doing anything. However, in Liberty co. we were on lockdown, schools shutdown. At some point we were told only lead teachers and 2 assistants per grade level may go into the school to help get the children's personal belongings, this did not happen. Everything was shutdown, it was too dangerous. Personally, I didn't hear from the majority of my students after March 12th. Many factors are at play here: little to no technology in low-income homes, parents decided that since school was out they weren't obligated to stay in the area so they went to visit family in different Counties/States (so no communication was made) or parents didn't pick up the phones when we would call, those that we did see online wasn't for long because our teaching method is very hands on for Special Education our parents had no idea how to help at home and some gave in a put YouTube videos on all day. This wasnt easy for ANYONE I know. Pandemics, changes in general, and a sudden life change is ALWAYS hard. School as we know it will never be the same. As of today, this new school year we are doing hybrid teaching, which is giving parents the option to send their child to school face-to-face learning (with a mask on at all times) or they can have virtual learning. Our county provided everyone child and staff with ipads, so there's really no excuse at this point. I'm optimistic for the future, I feel a change in teaching. It's hard to change a system that is so engrained in our systems but we can figure it out. -
2020-09-28
Masks, Floor Decals, Mute Buttons: How Schools are Scrambling to Open
The main point of this news article is to show how teachers and administrators are struggling to adjust to the new lifestyle of having school during a pandemic, while being safe at the same time. I chose this news article because as a student, it’s important to be aware of what you may have to experience when going back to school. Also, the precautions and safety nets that teachers are taking should be addressed because they’re putting in lots of work for students. This news article shows that the school lifestyle is going to change drastically for teachers and students due to the new learning spaces, social distancing, and hygiene necessities. Furthermore, this news article is important because it’s not evident on how long this pandemic may affect our lives, so the public needs to be educated on the situation that we’re going to be put in and may continue to be put in. There’s no bias evident in the article, however there is a perspective point of view from New York teachers and how they are forced to handle these harsh times. The responsibility of the media during the COVID-19 pandemic is to spread awareness on how everyone can be kept safe and that we must take extra precautions so we can go back to our daily lives and see students go back to school freely again. -
2020-07-25
Break the Union
Recently my school district announced that we will begin the school year with remote learning. While many members of the community were in favor of remote learning, many were also incredibly vocal about their wish for a return to full in-person learning. This does not surprise me. There will always be multiple perspectives and positions on any major decisions that need to be made that impact large groups of people. Some individuals in support of full in-person learning have taken to social media and have begun attacking district teachers blaming them and their union for the district's decision to start the school year with remote learning. There is an aggressive tone to many of these posts. As a parent of children that attend school within the district, as well as teacher within the district, I worry about the environment that teacher's are going to be educating children in this year. With remote learning, we will literally be teaching in the homes of parents that are openly demonstrating hostility toward teachers. This brings a great deal of worry and anxiety as I prepare for the upcoming school year. -
2020-07-21
If Schools Reopen Now...
Schools, education, and the development of students has become one of the new points of contention out of many concerning coronavirus. While in-person education is vital to the development of students, many plans seem to be overlooking the feasibility of safety guidelines, in addition to not fully addressing the fears of teachers and administrators. This item was added TAGS v6.1.9.1. I originally searched under the hashtag #ifschoolsreopennow. Within that search, I have chosen to add the following tweet because it is highlighting the divide amongst teachers concerning a desire to return and work with students while also fearing for their safety. Link to the article: (https://www.teenvogue.com/story/teachers-reopening-schools-coronavirus-covid-19/amp?__twitter_impression=true) -
2020-07-12
Professional Athletes and Schools
When the schools originally shut down back in March, professional sports league were quick to follow congruently. Distance learning doesn't necessarily carry over to sports. As Summer reaches its height, everyone is itching to return to school and get sports back on as quickly as possible. What this looks like is playing out differently in various job spheres. This item was added TAGS v6.1.9.1. I originally searched under the hashtag #schools. Within that search, I have chosen to add the following tweet because it highlights the priority levels in the United States for different types of workers. -
2020-07-13
Reopening presents additional challenges for Northern Ontario schools
"In one school, she said, there’s one full-time teacher, a part-time teacher and an education assistant. There’s no administrator, which raises a new host of problems during a pandemic. “'When there’s no administrator on site, and a kid gets sick, what do you do?' Douglas said. 'Who’s gonna be responsible for that child?' "But the barriers to remote learning are also greater up north, she said. “'A lot of us don’t have Wi-Fi abilities at our homes,' Douglas said. 'We pay an exorbitant amount of money to get Wi-Fi. And for us to do online learning, it’s been a challenge for many members. I’ve had members who have paid upwards of $700 for their Wi-Fi, just to do the distance learning.'”