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Teacher
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2021-01-22
How covid has affected me
Even though I don't know a lot of people who have been infected by COVID that doesn't mean it hasn't affected me. The best example of this is with my teacher who has recently caught COVID. This has affected some of the classes I've been in. Making it so I don't have a teacher. -
2021-01-20
Mo had to go
My bible teacher's family tested positive for Covid. He had to go home for 2 weeks. So even though we are at school we have to be zoom. A bunch of my friends had to go home because their history teacher tested positive for Covid. -
2020-08-27
My experience with/symptoms of Covid
The symptoms of Covid are very similar to the symptoms of the flu. You usually get a fever, body aches, it is harder to breath, etc. Unlike the flu however Covid makes you lose your sense of taste. Of all the people that I know, only three people I know have gotten the virus one was my history teacher, another was my friend, and the last was my cousin. My friend remained mostly asymptomatic the whole time he was sick. My cousin got pretty sick and had a high fever and had a lot of trouble breathing. Thankfully he recovered and is okay now. -
2021-01-22
Tested Positive
In my close circle I haven't had anyone that has been tested positive for Covid-19. In the big circle, there have been a few though. All of them were school related. Some student in school were sent home for a week because one of their students got sick, and one of the teachers in my grade also got sick, but since I was indirectly related I didn't get affected. Most of the times where someone remotely close to me got Covid, I wasn't effected in any way. -
2021-01-21
symptoms of covid
one of my friends dads got covid but didnt have any symptoms he just go tested and found out that he had it one of my nabores family got it and they where tired and had a fever and lost some of there taste. my teacher got it and had a fever. no one i know though died from covid. -
2021-01-21
Covid-19
I had nobody in my family who got Covid-19 but my teacher got it and his symptoms were a Fever and a headache. My experiences are that my teacher has to zoom from home and he can't come back to school for a week to make sure he's safe and healthy we got to stay at school. -
2021-01-10
COVID-19 Possible Symptoms
[REDACTED] Covid-19 has been a thing for quite a while now, and the vaccines for he virus had come out. On Thursday, when my _________ teacher, ______________, did his daily COVID-19 test, he came up negative for COVID-19, but on Friday, he came up positive, making anyone who was in his class on Friday need to stay at their homes for a week and a half. On the Zoom Room that he used to come into the class without actually being there, he discussed he had a light fever, and he coughed excessively. It was nothing bad in his case, and he will be able to survive it just fine, despite his age. -
2021-01-21
Covid 19
If you happen to get covid, there are a couple of symptoms that you get. One of them is lost of taste. Also you get a fever. Luckily I don’t know anyone that got covid, but my history teacher, Mr. Newman got it. Some people that have him as a teacher, had to stay home for 2 weeks. -
2021-01-21
Symptoms of COVID-19
When you are given COVID-19, there are many symptoms you can have. Such of these are fevers, coughing, difficulty breathing, loss of taste or smell, etc. They are very horrible symptoms. My cousin and my teacher have both gotten COVID-19 and shown these symptoms. They are recovering and are good right now. However, we don't know the long term effects, and I hope they stay well for a long time. -
2021-01-21
symptoms
My REDACTED teacher came down with the covid 19 virus. He said that he had a fever, chills, and felt really sick. So, he went to the doctors office and got tested, he was positive. He called the school and said he couldn't come because he was sick. We were all worried for him but he is doing just fine now. My family has been spared from covid, non of our family members have had it thankfully. -
2021-01-21
13,000 School Districts, 13,000 Approaches to Teaching During Covid
As a teacher, I miss our old normal. I miss my students. I miss the connections. The numbers where I live are pretty high and we have not been inside a classroom since March of last year. The kids are not doing well. No amount of scaffolding would be enough right now. My English Language learners are struggling and most have just stopped coming. Parents are frustrated (understandably), and it is evident in their desperate e-mails to me. I am failing them all but I keep pushing and adapting for them. I am so homesick for these kids. Seeing how other schools are dealing with Covid-19 definitely makes me sad. Apart of me wants to go back so badly that I would risk getting sick. The other part of me knows that I have children of my own and asthma. I need to be here for my own family. -
2021-01
An Old Gray Piece of Cloth
Gabriel Rheaume’s Sensory history contribution to COVID-19 Archive 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. -
2020-11-02
Cold in the Classroom
If you have ever been in a middle school classroom, feeling cold is probably not the first thing that you think of. One might think of rowdy kids, perhaps non-inviting smells, stuffy air, but not necessarily the feeling of cold. After going home on March 13, 2020, I was forced to work remotely for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is still crazy to think how quickly everything changed from normal life to the furthest thing from it—just two days before the end of in-person schooling, I was still planning on going on the eighth grade Washington, DC trip! Anyway, going into the 2020-21 school year, because teachers were allowed to return to their classrooms (even though school would remain in distance for the foreseeable future), I decided that I would go into my classroom and work from there. I figured that it would help create a sense of normalcy in my own life while offering a familiar background to my students. After a few d ays of w orking from school without any students, I noticed how cold it was in my classroom. On a normal school day, I would turn on the air conditioning fairly early in the morning, being that the room would become warm and stuffy shortly after the students arrived. Even with it warm outside, I was noticing myself running the heater well into the afternoon. Without the heater, my classroom would quickly become unbearably cold! With brick walls and only a thin layer of carpet over a concrete floor, it is clear why it was so cold. I was just one person in a room that would normally have around 30—my body heat alone wasn't going to heat up the room! It is amazing to think that a silly little thing like the temperature of my classroom kind of got me down. No matter what I did to try and simulate normal life, it was just impossible for life to be normal, and that nagging cold was there to remind me of that fact. Just writing this down, I can feel the cold on my arms and legs, and I have a n urge to go and get a blanket, put on a sweatshirt, or turn on the heater. Come to think about it, I can also feel the pain in my lower back from sitting in front of a computer all day! In addition to the sense of touch/feeling being noticeably different, I have to say, the absence of, shall we say, interesting smells has also been out of the ordinary for my middle school classroom. I really cannot complain all too much when it comes to my experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic; I am lucky enough to still be employed, I can work at home if I wanted to, and no one all too close to me has had the disease. A great many people around the globe have had their lives shattered in the past year, so I really should be counting my blessings. With that said, I feel as if the coldness of my classroom somewhat symbolizes the isolation that I (and many others) are feeling during this trying time. The simple fact that there are not 30+ individuals in the room is causing the cold and, again, it is a nagging reminder that the world is simply not the same as it was a year ago, no matter how much we wish it were. -
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. -
0020-01-15
Online School
When the teachers told us we were got going online, I was really surprised. I kept thinking about how this is going to be. I got excited to see how it was going to play out. We had 3 days off including the weekend for the teachers to prepare. That was nice. Online school started. At first I got super used to it. It was so weird waking up and going on a computer. At first I liked it and then finished the year. But when we were told we are starting 8th Grade, I got worried. When we got back into it and I was exhausted and had bad headaches. I stayed strong through the first semester. It was tough and interesting way of learning. It is crazy how so many schools shut down. Online school was an interesting experiment. -
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. -
2021-01-14
My experiences while learning virtually.
My experiences while learning virtually had some good things and some bad things. Some of the good things were I didn't have to get dressed and could show up in a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Another thing is It was easier to do homework and get it done because we had plenty of time during class. Some of the negatives were that Wi-Fi sometimes wouldn't work or my assignments wouldn't be submitted. Some other things would be getting a hold of teachers and getting help outside of class was really hard aswell. Those are my experiences while learning virtually. -
2021-01-11
The Changing Sounds of Public Education During the Covid-19 Pandemic
My wife and I are both public educators at Hamburg Area High School, a rural school district in Berks County, Pennsylvania. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused our district to fluctuate between in-person and virtual instruction. During virtual days teachers have been encouraged to teach from home to mitigate the risk of exposure to the virus. I conduct my American History classes from the office in our home, while my wife, a music teacher, performs virtual music lessons with her students in our dining room. This shift to virtual teaching from home has caused my classroom, which is usually quite traditional, to sound much different. While I attempt to educate my students on the finer points of American History, the sounds of young (and often struggling) musicians fill the air. Meanwhile, my two dogs also interject into class as they battle over toys and pillows. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only moved the location of public education, but also changed the way that education sounds. I recorded the following audio clip while my 3rd period AP US History class was studying primary source documents on the post-Civil War Reconstruction time-period (1865-1876) on Monday, January 11th. -
2020
How I first Found out about the New Plague
I first found out about COVID was from my former science teacher. We had been talking about viruses and someone had mentioned the word "coronavirus" well all thought this would just be another virus that would just come and go. We were told that covid initially came from a snake in China and it would never travel to the US and we would be fine. Now my knowledge from what we learned I really don't trust any government with heir telling of the story because each one if different. This experience really has changed me and a person and who I really trust in many things. -
2021-01-11
Covid Origin.
When I first heard of Covid I didn't really think much because I was in school. It was March 13th 2020, and it was a normal Friday. I was in school and there was an announcement. COVID 19 is now in the U.S. i had no clue what it was. I just thought it was a normal flu that was carried from somewhere else. There wasn't much to explain when we heard this. The teachers wouldn't explain so I had to figure where it came from. But thats the thing. I didn't It was no where on the internet on that Friday. But, when I got home, the T.Vs starting blowing up with all the news about the new COVID 19 strand. -
2021-01-04
Planning to Roll Out the Vaccine at KSU
Kennesaw State University notified faculty and staff on January 4, 2021, that the university would serve as a distribution site for the COVID-19 vaccine to students, faculty, and staff according to CDC guidelines. All employees and affiliates not slated for the first wave, which includes people over age 65 and designated first responders, will fill out a survey on January 14 to indicate their interest in receiving the vaccine and enable them to be added to the vaccination schedule. Although I am only 36 years old, I am teaching in person this semester, and I am eager to get the vaccine. -
2020-12-09
Connecting Past COVID-19: #1
At first, the professor of this class thought that he had done something wrong when all of his students’ cameras were turned off on Zoom. He then thought it might be a new cool trend. He was surprised and emotional when his students surprised him with hand-made signs showing their thanks. -
2020
I hated 2020
I am failing all my classes because I am an extrovert. I need humans in interactions. And I am scared to talk to teachers over the internet. -
2020-12-14
The Daily Numbers, No More Beds
Since October, I religiously check the daily case rate everyday at 12:30 when my distance learning class breaks for lunch. Originally, I checked in outrage, as I watched the local numbers climb, while simultaneously hearing our school administrators claim our school of 2500 was “safe to open.” After Halloween, I spent a tense November planning to take a leave because there was no way I was risking my family to continue to teach in person but still over Zoom, unable to walk around, with kids unable to work in a capacity beyond their chrome books. Me, exposing myself unnecessarily to the virus inside my classroom with students, but teaching exactly as I would for distance learning, for the political facade that things are “normal.” 20 people dying a day in this county is not normal. These daily numbers climbing confirmed to me my gut instinct was right. Our school ended up having our re-opening cancelled by the state when our area moved into the most restrictive tier at the end of November. I had mixed feelings of relief, horror, and deep sadness. The day we hit 700 cases a day, I was in shock. When we crossed 1000, I was horrified. Last week, when we hit 2000 cases a day, I was in terror. Today and yesterday, we have reached over 3000 new cases a day, and there are now 0% ICU beds available in our county. I feel nothing but numb. Numb and exasperated that people here are still refusing to wear masks and still think going out is more important than the safety of our community. Oh, but don’t worry. My school still thinks it’s safe to open. -
2020-12-11
My life before Covid
Before Covid i was at school, playing sports, seeing friends, watching movies, going out to eat and other normal things. I then heard the news of a virus in China but didn't think much of it. Then i heard the news of it spreading across the world and they brought up the idea of online school but i thought that would be too good to be true. My school then anounced that it would happen and we had a long weekend as the teachers prepared for online school. we finally started and I thought it was the most amazing thing to do school from home. I luckily got a haircut before everything closed. Now I would like to get back to school because doing it online is very boring and i want to talk to friends again. -
2020-12-04
First and Second Year Teaching During A Pandemic
October 2019 saw me beginning my first full-time teaching job in the county that I grew up in. Six weeks into school, I was thrown into 4 classrooms of 8th graders who had been verbally beaten down by their beginning of the year teacher. He had told them they were stupid, worthless and pieces of trash that would never get anywhere in life. The first few months were rough. I had to work extra hard to gain their trust and show them that I genuinely cared. We hit road bumps (heck mountains) as we adjusted to each other. By Christmas I had made relationships with my kids that made each day much easier. I expected coming back after Christmas break would be easier. The downhill slope to the end of the year, then testing and finally the fun part-field trips and field day and all the end of year joy. Covid-19 had other plans for my first year. I walked out of school on March 13 (Friday the 13th, Full Moon and all that jazz) and told my kiddos and my co-workers I would see them in a few weeks. We were only supposed to be in distance learning for TWO weeks! One co-worker jokingly started singing "School's Out" by Alice Cooper as we walked towards our cars. We told him he was being ridiculous. Little did we know that his prediction would be eerily correct. The final three months of my first year of teaching were filled with Zoom meetings, failing grades, constant parent contacts and doing anything in my power to teach my 8th graders American History, while also making sure they were mentally and physically okay. My kid that lived in the home of an abusive father was now stuck with that 24 hours a day; there was no break for him anymore. We ended the school year with lots of tears. There were no in-person goodbyes. Just sporadic Zoom meetings and a few emails and comments. My first year did not end in any way like I expected it. I headed into summer break thinking that the by fall all would be right with the world again. I would be back in my classroom with my new students. Three classes of 6th graders and one group of 7th graders. We started the year working through the stages of re-opening. We made progress and slowly started getting students back into the classroom. That empty classroom from the beginning of school was starting to feel more like itself again. The laughter and chatter of middle schoolers was back. I was in my happy place. Then once again Covid-19 showed its hand. We were sent back home for just a few weeks. Those few weeks turned a month, then extended past Christmas break and New Years. Once again, my kids are struggling. I'm struggling. There is nothing I wouldn't give to be back in my classroom with 30 6th graders all asking questions at once and calling out and being all around goofy. Hopefully we will get back to that way of life one day. Teachers and students are struggling as we work through this trial together. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
2020-05-10
Validity for an online teacher
The Pandemic brought validity to my new teaching career while challenging my family structure and stretching my financial resources. I am a middle school teacher and I have taught both virtually and in person for over 4 years when the Pandemic hit. I was lucky enough to be teaching virtually with an accredited online school when the Pandemic hit, so my work life was not disrupted like so many other teachers. However, a strange thing happened when millions of teachers were forced to teach online, my career move to online teacher was validated. So often I had heard other teachers scoff when they found out I moved from teaching in a brick and mortar classroom to teaching in a virtual classroom. Often I would get remarks such as, "that is not real teaching" and how "great it must be to have a super easy teaching gig". I would try and tell them that teaching virtually was actually more challenging than teaching in the classroom. How do I get students to actually work when I am not in front of them? How do I ensure that students are learning and not just searching the internet for the answers? How do I meet my students social/emotional needs when we are all virtual? How do I connect with them? How do I create a virtual classroom that is a a safe space when there is no physical space? What happens when my students computers break or their internet gets shut down? Teaching virtually has challenged me in ways in person teaching could not even come close too. It was all too real when the pandemic hit and schools were forced to all operate virtually. Now they were faced with challenges they were not prepared for, at least I worked for a school that invested in remote teaching for over 20 years. Somehow, almost overnight, I was flooded with questions from former colleagues and acquaintances asking how to handle virtual teaching. Suddenly I became a valued resource and my teaching skills as an online educator were validated. No more was I seen as taking the "easy route" and "not actually teaching", as they enjoyed telling me. Now, I was a teacher who was ahead of the game and had valuable insight and information to give them. I have school aged children of my own, so I really felt for their teachers when they were suddenly and unceremoniously shoved into online teaching without a life vest. This pandemic has been a strange experience of both fear and validity. Finally being recognized by my fellow teachers and the state education board as being a valued, hardworking, educated teacher was not what I expected to come out of the pandemic. -
2020-09-24
Jayce, Tonia, and Keiwan tell their COVID stories
Jayce, Tonia, and Keiwan tell their COVID stories as part of the LongIslandStories collection being done at the African American Museum of Nassau County -
11/15/2020
Recent College Graduate Trying to Maintain Employment as a Substitute Teacher during the COVID-19 Pandemic
This is an interview with a recent college graduate that started her career at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. She describes pre-covid conditions to COVID-19 rules in the kindergarten classroom. -
11/10/2020
Rosie Oral History, 2020/11/10
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. -
2020-11-06
Summer School and COVID19
One thing that scares me about becoming a teacher is the fact that I may not be able to go into a classroom to teach when all this schooling is said and done. After reading the archives that I have it seems that teachers are being affected by this just as much as the students are. The schools that are allowing students to enter are in limited fashion with a lot of rules that apply. for example, the archive I am referencing shows a picture of a classroom with only chairs in it and no desks. due to covid they are not allowed to use desks for sanitary reasons. It makes it seem as though the schools should not be open anyways if they arent able to take notes. It really makes it seem as this is a trial run for this school to see if they are going to be able to allow students into the school when the regular school term starts. The time that we are in is making it hard to do the things we loved to do before the pandemic and I think we can all agree we will be happy when things get back to normal. -
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. -
2020-07-31
School Re-opening Video from Now This News
This video is from Now This News and uses footage from the School District of Manatee County in Florida. The footage was for promotional material the school district released in July 20202 for what it would look like in August to have their schools be re-opened. The video mentions the controversy between parents and schools and professionals that want to wait for in-person teaching to resume. -
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. -
2020-10-30
Teaching during a pandemic
As we know we are in a time of having to adapt to a situation we were never prepared for and things are changing rapidly. One thing in particular that has been ongoing for a while now is teaching in America. As we have been adapting to most things that has been happening in the world one of the hardest things that has happened is for the working family to have to find a way to make sure their children are being monitored while they are doing school through the computer. A much needed thing for most families is the time they have to do their work while their kids are at work. Having to adapt to something like that has been hard for most families in America. Having a friend who happens to be a teacher in this time i had the opportunity to aske her how she was dealing with having to teach from home. Listening to how hard it is to try and get kids to pay attention to the things she is trying to teach is the hardest part to her. Imagine trying to get teenage kids who are at home to try and listen to you while you are trying to make sure they are getting the correct materials to move forward in their academic careers. She says that it is her most challenging year yet and that she has not been this stressed from her job ever. After having this conversation with her it made the appreciation i have for teachers that much more great. We need to celebrate these people who have chosen to become teachers to our kids. -
2020-10-28
Milwaukee cultural institutions team up to provide a virtual field trip portal for teachers
In Milwaukee, several museums and a zoo team up to create virtual field trips. This allows for students to have field trips in light of most schools not allowing off-campus trips because of COVID-19. -
2020-09-20
online learning is hard
Someday in September, I was curious about how to learn everything online just being five hundred feet far away from students and the teachers. I’m starting to get bored to just stay there forever, this makes me want to go back to school again. If you want to meet your friend you need to meet online. The only fun thing left for me to do is to play videogames on my computer making me felt time go pass faster. However, online learning just comes in and cleans up my schedule of playing video games. So now I need to wake up at midnight just for “learning” online for six hours straight and start getting tired because of the different time zone I’m in also homework. In conclusion, I just want to be lazy again not having any homework or classes online. -
2020-10-26
2020
August 17, 2020 the first day of school. Years in the past for school i have jumped up excited to meet my new teachers, see my classmates and start sports. This year i felt something different, I was excited I was scared to start this virtual learning journey where my home becomes my school, my bedroom becomes my classroom and my family becomes my classmates. This life we are living is one that will be told for decades to come, so let’s tell it the right way. The very first mandate was to wear a mask, this was to keep others safe of your germs. Wearing a mask limited interaction with people because it was hard to hear them or know how they are feeling because we can’t see facial expressions. The second mandate was a country wide quarantine, two weeks in your home to clean your body of the Coronavirus. Many people didn’t believe or did not want to follow this mandate so they didn’t, so two weeks turned into four months. Not being able to see your friends, family, co-workers, and just the general public was really strange and was hard to get used too, however now as things start to open it is strange and hard to get used to this as well. -
2020-06-26
Never Been in a Real Classroom
I like this meme because when the CDC came out with initial guidelines everyone who has been in a classroom was surprised. Anyone, especially teachers and administrators, know that its next to impossible to keep students 6 feet apart and stay in one desk. The initial guidelines, and even some of the current ones, are next to unrealistic for a school environment. -
2020-10-22
Education and the Coronavirus: Updates for opening in California.
Text story. I found it while surfing the internet and reading about how they were going to determine to let schools open back up in the state of California. -
2020-10-20
Pre-Schoolers Wearing Masks
My story talks about the struggles of working with young children in a Pandemic. This was important to me for people to understand how the work enrollment is when Children are involved. -
2020-05-12
Doing what we can
This picture is one of a few I took during my AP CALC test which I would have to upload to their server. I find it important because it shows one of the first real choices that students and the school districts had to make when the pandemic was barely starting. By all accounts, teachers, admin, and children alike understood leaving school would be bad for their academic success but public safety demanded it. The people most affected by this being minorities who had less access to technology at home. In situations such as mine, the school could not even formally assign work to its students until it was certain every student had a laptop/desktop to work from; the consequence being that there was no incentive for kids to study. Blogger, Guest. “What Coronavirus Has Taught Us About the Digital Divide.” Education Week - Rick Hess Straight Up, 18 May 2020, blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2020/05/what_coronavirus_has_taught_us_about_the_digital_divide.html. Valencia, Bryan. Scribbles. 2020. -
2020-07-27
First day of school during Covid
My daughter began 1st grade at home through online learning. Her first day was July 27th, and she returned in person on September 8th. Trying to balance everyone working and learning from home was an incredible struggle, and didn't benefit anyone. Mom was working on her dissertation and taking classes, her dad was teaching high school from 8-3 each day, and she had classes with homework throughout the day. For a 6 year old who had no idea how to type, it was very hard to get everything completed. While we are glad that she is back in school, I worry about her safety everyday. -
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. -
2020-08-14
First Day of Elementary School
After being home for so many months my granddaughter was excited about going back to school to see her friends and teachers. I was happy for her but also as her grandmother I was concerned/anxious about her being exposed to COVID0-19. While I was happy for her it made me sad because I feel like this is going to be the new norm for children who choose to attend in-person schooling versus online schooling. (This was an option we had in our school system.) But this picture also goes to show that even though we are facing a health crisis, we are still adapting and overcoming, and trying to make life as normal as possible for our children. -
2020-10-12
Quarantine
My experience during quarantine was not that bad because during the summer I was still able to play baseball and go on vacation. But something that was bad is my basketball playoffs were cancelled mid way through so we weren’t able to finish them. For my mom quarantine was a little bit stressful because she is a teacher and she had to do something new she never knew, and now she has a totally new group of kids.