We have made it to the end of an epic school year, unlike any we have experienced before. A year ago, we were in limbo, wondering what the next year was going to look like. We spent the summer of 2020 learning to create digital lessons to match our standards, knowing it was on us to do this right. We had to learn how to navigate Zoom or Google Meet, figure out how to set up online meetings, and post them to Google Classroom. Organizing Google Classroom (or other online format), was new for us too. We had to learn to organize, number assignments, learn to grade, and communicate with students using this online tool.
TEACHING BLIND
Some of my fellow teachers were able to move back into the classroom in the Spring of 2021, but I was not. I ended the school year having never seen a single student in person. I got to know my students by their personalities, and not their faces. Because many students had connectivity issues, we could not require them to turn on their cameras. It was very frustrating at first, to talk every day to blank screens. Then our district surveyed the students and we found out that many of them just didn’t want to see their own faces online. So, I learned to accept this, knowing they could see me and feel a bond to the teacher who was on the screen talking to them every school day.
BONDING WITH STUDENTS
I greeted them by name each day, and tried to talk to them as if they were sitting right in front of me. I spent time typing reponses to their online assignments. I wanted to be able to talk to them as if I were walking around the classroom checking their work. It took hours! This past school year was exhausting. Seven days a week, and often 14 hours a day to do it all, the stress was real.
CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE NEARLY NONEXISTENT
However, there were some real plusses too. Classroom management became suddenly very easy. One of the most difficult aspects of teaching, managing large groups of students, responding to their defiance, and disrespect (middle school!) took it’s toll every previous year. But this past year, it magically disappeared! Online students could only communicate with me, so they could not show off for their peers, who would never hear them anyway. They could defiantly refuse to do assignments, but there was little I could do about that, other than calling parents and grading them accordingly. In the beginning, we had “Zoom Bombers”, students who logged into our classes who didn’t belong there. They made obscene statements online, and then bolted, gaining entry by giving a fake name. But we learned to deal with that early on. We learned to leave students in the waiting room, who used a name we didn’t recognise, or a student name that was spelled incorrectly. The Bombers had their fun, and then stopped when we made it more difficult for them. But overall, it was a year of very polite, respectful students. I will miss them this year more than any other class in my 21 years of teaching.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
As it stands now, we really don’t know what the 21/22 school year will look like. We’re trying to get the message out that things will be back to normal, but we know they will not. At this point vaccinations are only available to those age 12 and over. So many parents are not ready yet to send their kids back. We respect them for that decision. We can only plan the best we can and be prepared for all scenarios. But this past school year was definitely one for the record books!