It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times - The Truth Behind My Covid-19 School Year
Before COVID, this school year was going down as one of the best and worst school years I’ve ever experienced. It was straight out of a Charles Dickins novel. Everything before lunch was beautiful! I was teaching a group of 8th graders that I had a great relationship with from last year, they weren’t perfect, but they worked hard. They cared about their education and they had huge hearts! However, after lunch… everything changed; I was teaching the worst group of kids that I ever taught in my six years of teaching public school! As teachers, we’ve all had that class that just rubbed us the wrong way and I was experiencing that class during this school year. Every day I wished my lunch break would just last a little longer, just to get a few more moments of peace before facing the challenges that this particular 7th grade class provided.
I witnessed countless kids cough and sneeze into the air without making any attempt to cover their face.
Fast forward to March… by this time all of my students knew about the corona virus and instead of starting my lesson with my warm up, I spent each day answering questions about the virus and showing my middle schoolers how to cough and sneeze properly. My 8th graders asked really good questions, that tugged on my heart strings such as: why were schools still open, will they get left back and what will happen to the exams that they were planning on taking. Although I didn’t have concrete answers for them at the time, my students and I knew in our hearts that schools would be closing soon. Student attendance and morale drastically declined; teachers and the students who were present, just seemed to go through the motions of what we knew school to be prior to COVID. Our hallways and classrooms looked the same, but there was a different energy. It felt like there wasn’t enough fresh air in the building, I felt that I could potentially be infecting myself with every breath that I took inside those four walls. Even with the threat of COVID on everyone’s mind, I still witnessed countless kids cough and sneeze into the air without making any attempt to cover their face.
My coworkers and I worried about our safety. We were glued to the news and quickly shared any breaking news in our group chat, including any news of school closures due to positive COVID cases. We listened to Mayor de Blasio speak daily, hoping that he would close schools to no avail. Each day he didn’t close schools our anxiety heightened. Then on Sunday, March 15th, we finally got word that schools would be closed until April 20th and we were to report to school Tuesday through Thursday of that week to plan for remote learning. Although I didn’t enjoy the idea of going back into school, a wave a relief ran through my body. Safety finally became more of priority than the “baby-sitting” service that schools allegedly provided. My school building was selected to house the children of first responders so not only did we have to plan for remote learning during our three day stint at work, we also had to quickly pack up our rooms.
I realized that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to my 8th graders and give them the send off to high school as I envisioned for them.
I walked out of my school building on a cloudy Thursday afternoon not thinking this would be the last time I would be going back for the school year. To be honest, I was happy when I drove home. I felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders; I had a plan for remote learning, I was be able to remain safe at home and I would be getting a break from teaching that 7th grade class. Once the excitement wore off, I realized that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to my 8th graders and give them the send off to high school as I envisioned for them. I realized after all their hard work that they won’t be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor; they won’t have their senior trip, they won’t get their yearbook, no prom, no graduation and they won’t get the opportunity to take and pass the regents exam that they’ve been diligently working towards all year.
I was no longer serving a 10 month jail sentence anxiously waiting for June 26th. I got released three months early and I was happy to be free.
Now we’re in April and this school year is still one of the best and worst school years ever, but for entirely different reasons. There is no lunch period that separates the positive and negative part of my day. I no longer have to worry about being physically present to teach a class I didn’t enjoy. I was no longer serving a 10 month jail sentence anxiously waiting for June 26th. I got released three months early and was happy to be free. But the irony of it all was that my new found freedom took me away from the class that I enjoyed, it took me away from moments that I was looking forward to, with kids that I genuinely enjoyed.
How was your school year going before COVID? Do you have a class that you’re going to miss now that you’re working from home? Do you have an added sense of peace because you don’t have to be physically present for certain classes or meetings? Let me know in the comments.