What Teaching in a Pandemic Taught Me

We could see it looming on the horizon.

After weeks of anticipation and marking off days on the calendar; it was finally around the corner. The proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Spring Break!

Teachers at my school – Lady Bird Johnson Middle School in Irving ISD, where I taught 6th grade math – me included, were hurriedly finishing grading and front-loading lesson plans so we wouldn’t have to work over the break, and making plans to rest, relax and recharge.

Students were sharing their Spring Break plans excitedly in the halls – family trips, sleeping all day, playing video games and watching movies all night long and most of all – no school for a week.

Like every other district in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, staff, students and administrators left for Spring Break 2020.

And we never came back.

The COVID-19 Pandemic hit in full force while we were all on Spring Break – literally shutting down the world.

It was the last time we saw our students – and our colleagues – in person again for literally months. A world-wide health challenge had gripped the nation, and no one was immune.

Teachers who studied Math, English, Science, Social Studies and more in college, had to become technology, IT, computer experts overnight. We had to shift and shift quick – as we “returned” from Spring Break – feet away from our couches and televisions to a table with a computer. We had to set up engaging lesson plans online, hold classes on Zoom, hold staff meetings on Zoom, communicate with everyone and everything via technology.

It was our “new normal.” We still woke up at the same time, but our commute was seconds instead of minutes or hours.

It was challenging for sure. We couldn’t make the kids get on Zoom; sure, we took attendance, but who could fault kids for not getting on a Zoom session at 8 a.m. in the morning, during a world-wide pandemic while their parents were at work or worse, at home having lost their job due to the pandemic.

It was challenging and stretched me as an educator in ways I never imagined. I, too, was dealing with the effects of the pandemic, worried about family, friends, myself, and wondering what this COVID-19 was and where did it come from.

All the while learning to “teach” 70 kids in a day via an app. Some had Internet, some didn’t.

There were those who didn’t want their cameras on; some who did. There was all kind of back-ground noise in various homes; some kids logged into the Zoom still in pajamas and in the bed.

But I had to press on: “What are prime numbers? Give me examples of… Johnny please turn your camera on…what is the opposite of a prime nu…Maria please mute yourself, we can hear your television sweetie…”

At times there were just too many obstacles to overcome ranging from no Internet at home; spotty Internet at home; trauma from the pandemic and more. And grading ha, that was near impossible.

But there were also some positive eye-openers for me while teaching in the midst of a pandemic.

The quiet student in the classroom suddenly found her voice at home on a Zoom camera. Students had to become instantly responsible for their own learning in a way – since there was no teacher to stand over them and demand they get the work done- and many thrived on the new-found freedom.

This experience stretched me as a teacher and a person. It taught me empathy and compassion for my students in a different way than being in a classroom ever could because I could now effectively see what they were dealing with at home, away from school.

It taught me that I didn’t often give my students the freedom to own their learning; to try and make mistakes.

I was always quick to correct, did too much of the thinking for them and guided them way too much when, sometimes, they needed – and wanted – to learn to guide themselves.

Perhaps the longest lasting lesson I learned as a teacher is that we– students, principals, teachers, coaches, parents – we are all doing the very, very best we can on any day with the circumstances handed to each of us.

A little grace, patience, mercy, compassion, understanding, love and forgiveness goes a long way.

And for many, a world-wide pandemic was just what it took to learn those valuable lessons.

Dorothy J. Gentry is a 20-year educator and 30-year journalist. She teaches 7th Grade English/Language Arts/Reading in Irving ISD and is sports editor for IMessenger Media/Texas Metro News.