Back to School - Teaching During CoVid-19

Teaching During Covid-19

Teachers share their experiences and concerns as they prepare to return to the classroom

by Bianca Bujan

After a long stretch of uncertainty, it was recently announced that students would be returning to school full time in September here in BC, with a learning environment that would look a little different than before. According to the new plan, younger students will be placed in “learning groups” (cohorts) to allow for some social interaction while hopefully limiting the potential for widespread transmission, while high school students face a possible staggering of classes to limit the number of teachers, classrooms, and peers they come into contact with on a daily basis.

While the new plans have left some parents feeling a sense of relief knowing that their children will finally be returning to the classroom and interacting with their friends and teachers, others are feeling nervous about what this will mean for the safety of their families as our province continues to push through the pandemic, and feel uncertain as to how the new learning environment will impact their own lives and family schedules.

For teachers, anxiety is high as well. After a trial month of juggling part-time in-classroom learning with navigating new virtual learning programs to accommodate those students who opted to learn from home, teachers were stretched thin, often working increased hours while addressing frustrations from parents, and trying to adjust to the “new normal” of teaching during COVID-19.

To get a better sense of the teachers’ perspective, we spoke to four teachers who shared their personal experiences as they simultaneously opened up their classrooms while continuing to teach online, and how that impacted their own lives and professional responsibilities. Here’s what they had to say - in their own words.

Please note: due to employment contracts, we’ve agreed to keep the teachers’ names anonymous.

Q1 How was the transition to virtual learning/teaching for you? What were some challenges you faced?

“Trying to get families set up online was a huge challenge. Several of my students did not have devices to work on and it took a couple weeks for the district to provide devices. Trying to explain how to log in and set up an account to an 8-9 year old is very challenging and many of my students come from families who do not speak English, so it was really up to me and the support teachers to make this happen. I also struggled with working from home, the barrier between work/ home life was obviously eradicated and this meant that students and colleagues thought they could contact me at any time of day. Putting those boundaries in place was very challenging and took a huge amount of energy and effort.” - Grade 3/4 Teacher, Coquitlam

“One of the main challenges with the transition for me was prioritizing what material to cover. The advice from our District leadership was to focus on numeracy and literacy. However, there is so much essential content in Science and Socials at this grade level (for example, the human body and human rights) that it seemed wrong to just skip it.” - Grade 6 Teacher, Surrey

“Imagine being asked to completely transform the way you do your job with no training and minimal resources in one week. The biggest challenge of remote teaching was that it highlighted the inequality of society. Performance was often more a measure of privilege and accessibility than learning. Remote learning put students in the position of having to manage their own time and responsibilities. I had students who were working to support their families, caring for siblings, dealing with their own mental health challenges, in unsafe homes and then being expected to teach themselves.” Grade 12 Academic Teacher, Surrey

“Some of the larger challenges from my end was supporting teachers, students and parents in their tech learning, and quickly figuring out classroom management online - very different than in person." - Grade 5 Teacher, Catholic Independent School, Vancouver

Continued below

Q2 How did you find the transition to in-class learning in June?

“Very frustrating. I don’t feel that my school was given enough time to prepare or put measures in place. I have extreme scent/chemical allergies and these were never addressed, I would go home most days with a huge headache or difficulty seeing straight due to the exposure to increased chemicals. I was unable to get a medical leave and this resulted in me asking that my room not be cleaned as often as it was supposed to.” - Grade 3/4 Teacher, Coquitlam

“ I was SO happy to be back in the classroom. I had just 8 of my 28 students and it felt so good to be working in person with a group of students.” - Grade 6 Teacher, Surrey

“The bigger challenge was keeping the online learning students engaged. Some were getting online fatigue, others were already in summer mode - which happens when they are in school, but keeping someone interested in independent projects when they are not in front of you is extremely difficult - or you were hearing of parents just “giving up on school” which was also a challenging feeling when you were working really hard to keep students engaged.” - Grade 5 Teacher, Catholic Independent School, Vancouver

“It felt like a slap in the face from the provincial government. It felt like an experiment to try out protocols at the expense of teacher's health and safety. The burden of logistics fell onto districts and schools. I personally feel my administration did an incredible job with minimal resources. They had to create an equitable schedule and determine logistics for our school. My highschool is one of the biggest in the province but very few students actually returned in June so many of the protocols remained untested.” - Grade 12 Academic Teacher, Surrey

Q3 How did you find juggling both in-class and online learning?

“The way I managed it was that on the one day a week I was in class with students I did not connect with my online learners. Our daily class meetings were cancelled and I was less likely to reply to their emails. They knew they could message me for support, but many waited until one of the four days I didn't have in person students to reach out to me. Each Sunday night my teaching partner and I would send out a list of assignments (some optional) for the week. The 8 who attended in person finished the majority of the week's school work in the one day they attended. This highlights how little material I was able to cover with online learning.” - Grade 3/4 Teacher, Coquitlam

“Very difficult. The students in school had a clear goal of understanding that this was an opportunity to practice what to do if the same scenario appeared in the fall. Students at home who saw (I sometimes invited kids to view the class in a zoom stream) what was happening, or heard from friends, were having mixed feelings. There were the kids who wanted to come to school, but couldn’t because their parents didn’t feel comfortable with it yet, or they were staying home to protect some of the more susceptible members of their families. Trying to find something that both groups could be interested in or get behind was nearly impossible because their focuses were split.” - Grade 5 Teacher, Catholic Independent School, Vancouver

“Workload was the biggest challenge for many teachers who had to provide in-class and remote teaching at the same time. This in-equitably burdened some teachers particularly elementary, Learning Support, secondary Math and special education teachers. These teachers were expected to be in-class during the work day but also provide the same remote teaching program to all students.” - Grade 12 Academic Teacher, Surrey

Q4 What is one thing you think could be done better in September that was a challenge in June?

“Communication with parents about the expectations that are being placed on teachers - my online parents still expected me to be available all the time. My in person parents wanted the room cleaned all the time and their child to be having fun and learning. Put these with the expectations by the district and I would need 3+ people to do my job on any given day.” - Grade 3/4 Teacher, Coquitlam

“With mandatory attendance for students we will have to figure out how to safely move full classes around the school. If I only have 8 students lined up in the hallways, and the whole school has only 25% attendance, moving kids to music class or outside to play was easy. It will be different with full attendance and we will need to create safe routines for moving in the building.” - Grade 6 Teacher, Surrey

“Have everyone come in to the school to learn the protocols and understand how to be "socially respectful" with others so we can remain healthy and safe.” -Grade 5 Teacher, Catholic Independent School, Vancouver

“In-service training in preferred online platforms needs to be provided to teachers. More definitive expectations of workload need to be outlined and respected. Schools should not be seen as childcare. There is still a global pandemic and the health and safety of teachers needs to be considered seriously.” -Grade 12 Academic Teacher, Surrey