Teaching and learning in the pandemic year
“M
y grandfather was a boxer. He taught me — you’ve got to bob and weave,” says Cheri Bradby, Spanish teacher. “This has been the kind of year where you have to keep bobbing and weaving and just work your way through it and keep fighting and get to your goal. There are days when tech is great, and things go perfectly smoothly, everyone gets all the material, and they’re engaged. There are other days when the storm clouds roll over and no one can figure anything out including me. Those are the days when you have to bob and weave, roll with it, laugh at yourself and keep moving.”
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SPRING 2021
Since the day Trinity reopened in late August, roughly half of the student body has taken turns coming to campus every two days. While this parallel model allows for safe distancing in classrooms, hallways and shared spaces, it means that teachers have the added responsibility of managing two groups of learners — in class and at home — simultaneously. The success of the model has relied on lots of technology: screens, microphones, video conferencing tools, and more. Like so many others, Bradby says she was slightly pessimistic at first for how the year would turn out. Over the last half a year, students and teachers have bobbed and weaved; they
