Michelle Armijo
third grade teacher, Piñon Elementary School
Ihave two high stakes in education: the teacher in me and the mama in me.
From a teacher’s perspective, I had strong reservations about moving into the hybrid-teaching model.
With remote learning, students have access to teachers five days a week, all day long. The parents in my class are going above and beyond, but they are working, too. It is my job to make sure their child is successful in remote learning, even when they do not have someone at home to guide them. I have those kids check in with me after every assignment to get into their next assignment. I text them when lunch is over to get into their special classes (art, physical education, music) and I call them to go to their reading group.
Teachers spent early mornings, late nights and weekends to try to be effective remote teachers. It took weeks to get students, parents and the technology working in an effective manner.
We do not have a foolproof plan for hybrid, and with COVID-19 cases rising, there is a great chance we will go back to remote learning.
The mama perspective contradicts that, however.
My daughter sits in our living room alone all day. She has “recess” alone, too. If my students need extra help or my colleagues need to discuss something, my daughter spends her lunch alone, too. It is heartbreaking to see.
She has an amazing teacher who holds office hours to help students, but I also hear her chatting about anything my daughter brings up. She misses her friends, but, more important, she misses in-person learning.
The mama in me realized that other kids need to be back in school for those same reasons. The mama in me volunteered to teach in hybrid.
I want these children to have their “happy” back. They need each other right now.