I Survived Teaching Through a Pandemic!

If you were a teacher this year, you know that teaching through a pandemic was no joke. For me, I started the year by adding in a new grade level, fifth grade. I teach multi-grade so I had grades 3-5. I began with three students online and the rest in person, socially distanced and wearing shields or masks.

Pandemic teaching, added a whole new set of of vocabulary in the classroom. We had lots of, "Put your masks on." "You cannot be at someone else's desk." and "Don't share supplies."

For the online students I was busy saying things like this, "Turn on your screen." "Are you there?" "Can you hear me?" "Mute yourself."

Then there were the masks. Teaching in masks was incredibly hard. When you talked, it would suck into your mouth or stick to it. It made speaking muffled and it was so hard to hear certain students, especially those with soft voices or ESL learners. Mask brackets were helpful. 

Greeting my students changed big time because while I usually give them choices about how to greet me, this year all of the options had to change. We could no longer make physical contact when greeting. No handshakes or hugs. Instead we had options like air hugs or toe taps.

We had photos and artwork with students wearing masks. Each year, I traditionally have students create self portraits and this year was no exception, but this year's self portraits were masked selfies.  Our back to school photos were also masked. 

At recess, we could not play contact sports and for P.E. we could not learn games. We spent a lot of our P.E. time on walking and exercising. 

Throughout the year, we had several times where we all had to quarantine due to someone catching the virus. Then we'd go online and I would teach from home. Then there was the time that I contracted the virus and could not get a negative test for over three weeks. Yeah, that was fun. 

But as always, there was also the good. Connections. Kids needed to connect this year. They were excited to share with me, make pictures for me, find ways to connect with their friends, despite the distance.

Students need me like never before. They were worried about the virus, their family, their parent's jobs, being online, being in person. They needed encouragement, structure, and normalcy.

School was successful. We did not have anyone who had an extreme case of the virus. We taught the curriculum, We learned, despite the craziness of a pandemic. We enjoyed time with each other. 

We found ways to still learn, despite not being able to learn in as many hands-on ways. We still had several room transformations. We played learning games with gloves on. We were able to discuss as a class more.

Teaching during a pandemic taught me about what is important. When things are striped down to the bare necessities out of necessity, you see what is most important and you go with that. It taught me about the resilience of the human spirit. It taught me about the need for connection. It taught me that we are stronger than we know and can endure more than we ever imagine. 

I am thankful for the things I learned in the last year and the end of the previous year. Now I am ready to return to a normal school year. Here's hoping next year can resemble the best things I love about teaching a little more. Let's move on!