DEPOSIT PHOTOS
LESSONS FROM THE PANDEMIC
They were two school years unlike any other. But now that kids are heading back in the classroom — full time — Portland teachers, parents and students reflect on the ways in which the pandemic has made them more resilient and adaptable, and prepared them for this school year. BY TIFFANY HILL 12
August 2021
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pdxparent.com
“Wow! You’re tall!” One of Kim Howard’s students exclaims his surprise at her 6-foot2-inch stature. The school year was nearing its end, but Howard and her 20 third-grade students who attend Woodlawn Elementary in Northeast Portland, had all just met for the first time in person. “In the beginning, you’re looking at a screen of a checkerboard of faces and you’re trying to put the voice and the face together. But you don’t really know much about their likes or dislikes or their little personalities,” says Howard, who has taught at Woodlawn for 20 years. “And so
when they came in, in April, it was really emotional. It was like, ‘Wow, I finally get to see you.’” Like jolting awake from a bad dream, many of us are still trying to shake the past two years of COVID-19 induced health scares, quarantines, business closures and so much more. For parents with school-age children, the pandemic also spurred new learning modes: sudden, online distance learning from home, then half-day, hybrid sessions. It all required parents to be more hands on in ways many weren’t used to — or able to — all while juggling transitioning employment situations,
