Items

• 
  05/06/2021

  Linda White Oral History, 2021/05/04

  This interview conducted with Linda White talks about how her job in the financial sector changed and the many challenges presented from working from home. The interview also talks about the challenges of being a mom and having multiple kids returning home under one roof and how the family adapted. The interview also gives an interesting perspective into the life of a mother who has a child working in the health care field at this time. Finally, the interview also talks about other new experiences and hobbies developed and how staying positive was important. This interview ended by talking about the vaccine and looking to the future.
• 
  2020-07-21

  COVID-19: How to Help Your Child Navigate This New Normal

  A blog post from Banner Health about helping children during Covid-19.
• 
  03/10/2021

  Ellen Galindo Oral History, 2021/03/10

  This is an oral history of Ellen Galindo, a teacher in Orange County, California. The date of this interview was three days shy of the one year anniversary of when her school shut down. She has been teaching online for a year now. She is also expecting her first child. Her oral history is focused on her experience teaching through Distance Learning and her feelings on being pregnant during the pandemic.
• 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.
• 
  2020-10-17

  Women's March goes virtual in North Dakota

  This screenshot captures a story published by a local news provider in North Dakota. The story is important because it describes another effect of COVID, relying heavily on technology. Having to organize a women’s march via Zoom showcases the resiliency of people and their dedication to a cause.
• 
  2020-10-08

  Watch Me Grow Right Through The Concrete Cracks

  The story behind this image is something I hold true to my creative process, in aspects of the pandemic, what I would like people to know is that even when life seem colorless with no blossom, we have the capacity to make something beautiful out of pain, fatigue and tiredness because humans are relentless and resilient, like a flower growing right through the cracks.
• 
  2020-05-12

  We Are Brave. We Are Hopeful. We Are Resilient. We Are San Francisco.

  This is a photograph of a piece of street art in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. Stores across San Francisco closed their doors during the city's shelter-in-place orders that begin mid-March. Many stores boarded up their windows in response to shelter-in-place orders and because of looting that took place across Bay Area cities. Artists responded by creating beautiful murals on boarded up storefronts. This art piece was created by an owner of the restaurant Dobbs Ferry Of San Francisco, Lee Ann Frahm. Taken from the restaurant's instagram account, "When she decided to paint this, it was about finding a message that would connect with someone as they walked by... words can heal, they can make us smile, they can make us feel, they can make us laugh or cry, and they are powerful enough to stop us in our tracks and make us take one extra minute to breathe and appreciate who and where we are."