The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Educators remain hopeful for a normal year
The firsts of the novel coronavirus still remains fresh in the minds of area longtime and first-year educators, and they still have hope for what should be a normal year of teaching.
“A lot of what I really enjoy about teaching is that it’s not always what you do in the classroom,” said Michael Goldberg, associate professor in the Department of Design and Innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.
“People are coming into the class, you get there early and you’re chatting about their weekends, their job search, their sports, their pursuits,” he said.
There is a lot of mentoring and teaching that occurs during the downtime moments between educators and students, Goldberg said, who started at Case in 2009.
“Last spring, when it went all remote, we didn’t have any of that,” Goldberg said. “We tried to do little things — get to your Zoom class early or stay after. I tried to recreate some of those informal moments, but it’s not so easy.”
Based on prior experience, Goldberg found himself prepared when the novel coronavirus hit. In 2014, he launched a class for Coursera and had gained prior experience developing content in the online space.
“I had been doing a lot of work over the years with remote communities around the class,” Goldberg said. “That class had almost 200,000 students from 190 countries, so I had experience engaging with students who weren’t sitting in a classroom with me. When we had to make the adjustment a year ago to fully remote, it was less of an adjustment for me.”
For Rebecca Klembara, a blue model, virtual kindergarten teacher for the Chardon School District, this is her first full year as a contracted teacher.
“I was coming off of a long-term sub in music for the quarter and that ended pretty much the day before we went virtual,” Klembara recalled. “I had a maternity leave sub set up in Mayfield for the fourth quarter. That was really strange because I had never met the kids before or I had met the kids once.
“And then I was their fourth quarter teacher virtually, which was not like what we’re doing now, but it’s still a bit strange,” she added. “So, I taught first grade in Mayfield during that first shutdown in the spring.”
Not having in person connections with students and having to make those connections virtually was difficult and strange, Klembara said.
“I only did once a week on Zoom at that point. You miss those connections,” she said. “When we first went to virtual teaching, we would have weekly meetings and really just support each other, and questions of how does this technology work, how do we do this virtually, how can we create the end of school, which is usually this fun time.”
Making sure that technology-free time was available was a large priority for Klembara during the pandemic, as well as getting outside and walking her dogs.
“The learning is still happening, it’s just happening with masks and shields,” Klembara said. “In kindergarten, I know the in person teachers are missing kids being allowed to play games and all of that social interaction. I would love to see kids in person next year.”
With only being a student teacher and had been there with her kids in person for about nine weeks, the disconnection was sad, said Lisa Wilson, a fourthgrade intervention specialist for Chardon.
“I was in student teaching, so I lost half of my student teaching. It was odd because we expected to return in a couple of weeks and we all know how that turned out,” Wilson said. “I didn’t get to have the option to finish out the year virtually as most school districts did. I did a little bit of paper and pencil with the kids I did student teaching with.
“Once March 12 hit, I never saw our kiddos again. I lost all contact with my experience.”
Going into Chardon as a long-term sub, Wilson said that Chardon took a risk on her being a new teacher and losing half of student teaching.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better school. Everybody comes along beside you. There, it’s the definition of teamwork,” Wilson said. “The school went above and beyond to protect everybody, even teachers who have been in position — they felt like they were in a brand new spot. Everybody came along and worked as a team. I hope by next year we’re back to what should be a normal year of teaching.”
“I have optimism for this semester. I am teaching in person for anybody who wants to come,” echoed Goldberg. “There’s a variety of reasons that students are staying at home. I’m hopeful that toward the end of this semester, there might be more folks engaging in person.”