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WHEN COVID CLOSED SOME DOORS LOCAL TEACHERS OPENED NEW ONES
RANDI MARTIN, DIRECTOR OF PERFORMING ARTS AT ST. JAMES ACADEMY, HAD TO GET EVEN MORE CREATIVE THAN USUAL WHEN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC FORCED HER TO CANCEL IN-PERSON REHEARSALS AND PERFORMANCES.
Workshops and rehearsals were held over Zoom, and most of the shows were reconfigured into skits and scenes that students could perform remotely. Martin, who has been teaching at the Monkton school for 15 years, says the change had some positives. They inspired more students to get involved – and also made it easier for far-flung relatives and friends to see the performances.
BY KAREN NITKIN
St. James, like most other private schools in the Baltimore region, held in-person classes for most of the 2020-2021 academic year. Yet the pandemic shaped nearly every aspect of the classroom experience for those schools. Extracurricular activities were modified. Students and teachers wore masks and kept a physical distance. And some students – and teachers – opted for remote learning. Yet teachers are now looking back on the unusually challenging year, proud of the resilience of their school communities. The unusual circumstances inspired educators to try new things, develop new skills and invest in technologies that will be useful even after the pandemic ends. “Nobody ever wrote a guide for how to open a school during a pandemic,” said Sandi Uehlinger, who teaches two year olds at Grace Preschool in Baltimore. While older preschoolers returned to their classrooms in September 2020, the two year olds had outdoor playdates until January 2021.
When the students returned, classes were smaller and students ate outside whenever weather permitted. Birthdays were celebrated with popsicles instead of cake. “There was Plexiglass involved, a lot of masks, a lot of sanitizer,” said Uehlinger. She was pleasantly surprised that the small children tolerated masks as well as they did. “For us, as staff, you can still see a child smile even if they have a mask on,” she said. “I think we’ve shown how strong we can be.” Kara Horst is a reading specialist with the WIN (Whatever I Need) program at St. Paul’s School for Boys. In non-pandemic times, she works in small groups with students from different classrooms. This past school year, though, “it was just not possible since we had to keep students within their cohorts to adhere to COVID safety protocols,” she said.
“While this made for a very unpredictable schedule, the opportunity that it presented was that I was able to provide a much more tailored learning experience for these students. This helped me individualize instruction even more and allowed my students to make tremendous growth in their skills.” The school, she said, put students in homeroom cohorts of 10-12. “Our small class sizes prior to the pandemic became even smaller, which enabled our teachers to really know their students and our students to really know one another. They literally spent every second of every school day together.” A mix of in-person and remote learning required new ways of thinking about how to teach, said Jason George, upper school history and academic dean at Bryn Mawr, a private K-12 school for girls. With about 40 percent of his students learning remotely, he made a special effort to make sure everyone participated in classroom discussions, regardless of physical location. “The biggest challenge, particularly as the year has gone on, has been maintaining the same level of engagement for students who are online versus the ones who are in person,” said George, who teaches U.S. history to juniors and seniors. His classes incorporate current events, he says, and this year the school will respond to student interest by adding a class for seniors about public health and epidemiology.
While face-to-face learning is always the preferred goal, he says, he expects online access to continue for teacher conferences and back-to-school nights, and for guest speakers. The technology issues around combining in-person and virtual learning were a challenge for many teachers. “Probably one of the most difficult pieces for me as an educator was having students in person as well as virtual,” said Elisha James, middle school dean of students at Roland Park Country School, which last year had 553 students in prekindergarten through high school. “If you ran into tech issues, then the students who were virtual were impacted, and it could also slow down the pace of the students in the classroom.” Some teachers who opted to work remotely returned to their classrooms after they were vaccinated, while others continued to deliver lessons virtually to students in classrooms with proctors. Yet, the challenges had a positive side. “Looking back on the school year that all the students had to face and all the teachers had to face, I would say that our school just continued to shine,” said James. “The resilience of the students and of the teachers will remain in my mind.”
The Waldorf School of Baltimore
has always emphasized outdoor education, said fifth grade teacher Angélie Guilbaud. “One of the many reasons I love working at the Waldorf School is that we do not bring screens and technology into the classroom in elementary school,” she said. “We focus on rich
storytelling and encourage students to experience their education through their whole bodies and imagination. We also prioritize spending a lot of time outside.” The academic year began with remote learning, prompting Guilbaud and other teachers to find creative ways to bring nature to their students. For example, students studying botany received gift packages of materials to make terrariums. During the pandemic, activities like chorus could be particularly challenging. Stacey Bilenki, the 8th-12th grade choral teacher at Notre Dame Preparatory School, said she started the school year with her student singers rehearsing over Zoom. “I would supplement that with video assignments so I knew the students were learning the music accurately,” she said. “When we came back in a hybrid of in-person and virtual learning, I could not use my classroom space because there wasn’t enough room to social distance, so I taught in three different spaces throughout the year, and our singers started out 12 feet apart, then eight, then finally down to six.” She also created a COVID-safe version of the annual school musical. “We staged the whole show to incorporate social distancing and we pre-recorded the audio so that the students were singing safely. We filmed the show because we could not have a live audience, and then we streamed it on social media. The response was overwhelmingly positive,” she said. Students also held an outdoor concert in May – and it went so well that Bilenki hopes to continue the tradition even when the pandemic doesn’t require it. Heather Romney teaches design, sculpture, and other art forms to students in grades nine through 12 at Friends School of Baltimore. Most years, her students work in close proximity, sharing ideas and supplies. “It was challenging to come up with project ideas that didn’t have to be toted back and forth but could still provide meaningful opportunities for investigation at home and at school,” she said. “For example, my Art Technology Media and Design (ATMD) students made robots at home with cardboard and small electronics; it was really important to have very clear instructional videos as well as written instructions, in addition to live (on camera) demos.” Those instructions and demos are now available for future students, she said. Romney also plans to co-teach a class next year with a teacher who does not live in Baltimore. Margaret Adams Szczerbicki has been a teacher at the K-8 Calvert School for more than 40 years, and has taught fourth grade for 21 of them. The 20202021 academic year was unlike any other. “The most noticeable differences were practicing protocols such as wearing masks, distancing, and more frequent hand-washing throughout the year, but all the students quickly became comfortable with these new routines,” she said. “In retrospect, the vision, positive mindset, support, and extensive preparations provided far more opportunities than challenges and enhanced the Calvert community in every way,” said Szczerbicki. “The goals and needs of faculty, staff, students, and families were at the forefront of every decision. The ever-present collaborative spirit was elevated to new levels to prepare for a successful academic year. I believe these students will take pride in being part of a solution when they look back on these times in future years.”
