Editor’s Note: This is the 10th installment of “Our Stories,” a new WOW Dems series dedicated to telling personal stories related to the critical issues of our time – beginning with the COVID-19 crisis. This story comes to us courtesy of a NYC teacher.

Lockdown

On Monday, March 16, I got a text from my principal: “Do you know anything about Google Classroom? I’m going to need you tomorrow.” Over the previous weekend, the NYC mayor and NY governor announced NYC schools would close, with a planned reopening after our scheduled spring break. We had Monday off, but teachers had to report Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for training and preparation for remote learning.

I am a special education teacher, not a school IT expert, but at my small school – which has a limited budget for extra personnel – everyone jumps in where they can. So there I was, setting up emails for the entire roster of students and training our staff using YouTube videos and a few links the district supplied. Our wonderfully collaborative and hard-working staff jumped in, full force: helping each other (from six feet away), finding online resources, sharing lessons, and just generally being the amazing educators and co-workers they have always been.

‘Sad News’

It’s hard to explain the emotions of those first couple weeks. In addition to the stress of figuring out how to teach remotely, we lived in what was (and in many ways still is) the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. I walked out the door that Thursday afternoon with a couple of colleagues, saying, “See you… soon?” 

I wanted to believe we’d be back in April, but in my heart I knew we wouldn’t. On Friday morning, I got a text from my co-teacher informing me she had a fever. My heart sank further. It took her two full weeks to be fever-free, and thankfully she completely recovered from Covid-19. Still, many families in my school were suffering. We received what seemed like daily emails from my assistant principal with the subject line “sad news.” 

How do you expect students to learn on a computer while the world is falling apart around them?

Struggle & Upheaval

It’s now a full 16 weeks after the pandemic hit us and we’re on summer break, but I think I can speak for all teachers when I say This. Has. Been. Exhausting! My school community was well set up for remote learning; most kids have access to technology, a secure home environment, and a parent or grandparent to supervise them, but getting kids to engage online was draining. Twice the work and half as effective. Some students showed up every day with their full effort, while others turned off their cameras and clicked “submit” on blank documents. We reached out to parents, but they were struggling to keep up, too.

The last couple of months have brought a new set of emotions. The streets of NYC have been in upheaval over the death of George Floyd. Having conversations with children about race and equality are that much more difficult over a computer screen and when you’re so detached from one another. I teach fifth grade and my students will be moving to middle school next year. June 2 was supposed to be our graduation trip to Chelsea Piers, and June 3 should have been the graduation dance. But instead, no celebrations, no yearbook signings, no final hug as they walk out the door to middle school and I likely never see them again.

See you in September?

I think back to that March 16 text and reflect on how much I’ve learned (yes, I did remember how to make a quiz on Google forms, and no, I don’t care what I look like when video chatting with fifth graders). I hope my students have, at the very least, learned how dedicated their teachers are and to appreciate the connections they’ve with the people around them. I can only hope that come September, I can make those connections standing in front of 30 smiling faces instead of a computer screen.

 

The guest contributor, Allison F., is a Long Island native who’s taught in NYC public schools for 12 years. 

Want to share YOUR Covid-19 story? Email communications@wowdems.org.