Teacher Transitions By Danelle Taylor Johnston
On Friday March 13 just before the last class of the day got out students and teachers got a text that would change their lives in ways they could not imagine. It read “TK-12 will begin distance learning from March 16-20. On-campus school is canceled.” From the front office, cheers from students could be heard from across the campus. At that moment students felt like they would be headed into a vacation. Five weeks later students and teachers find themselves isolated at home, Zooming for class time, and being required to wear a mask if they leave their homes, with no end in clear sight. For teachers the transitions to online has been an enormous adjustment resulting in many new obstacles. “I’ve missed getting to see my students in person. Also, when teaching from home, the hours have been longer and the workload larger, so it has taken more of
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my time away from family,” Tom Quishenberry, Bible teacher said. The hardest part for Richard Davisson, science teacher, has been “dealing with a sedentary lifestyle.” He
compensate for all the sitting time on-line learning has created by utilizing his home gym. “I also take my dog and cat on walks, and I have picked up yoga to make sure I can get a good stretch in!”
Davisson said. Transition to on-line learning has also created opportunities for new technology skills for teachers. All teachers have had to learn to teach via Zoom. JO Cordero, campus pastor, has learned “Rapid video editing” skills creating videos like pastor interviews for campus ministries social media. Heidi Elssmann, physics teacher, is spending more time “navigating ideas for teaching through technology. “It’s really weird [to be home all day] on a school day,” Elssmann said. Kate Lewis, science teacher, has been upping her MYLLA skills with on-line assignments and realizing, along with all the other teachers, there is still much more to learn. Though teaching online has increased the workload for teachers, but teachers are happy to do it and happy that they are still able to connect
