Name: Natalie Cole
Location: Azerbaijan
Grade: IB School – Middle Year & Diploma
Length of being a teacher: 17 years
Teaching in the pandemic has been a kind of surreal experience. It’s like you get up one day and you are in this alternate universe and you can’t get out of it, but you have to function like it’s normal. The upheaval – mental, and physical, posed a new kind of stress as you worry about keeping safe while at the same time transforming your personal space into a virtual public space. As it relates to precautions, one good thing is that the government here was proactive, and even before the first case was confirmed in the country, schools were closed. In the initial stages, schools were closed for two weeks increments and reviewed and extended accordingly at the end of that period. Eventually, they were closed for the remainder of the school year and into the start of this year. Schools reopened in late September; but by mid-October, due to extenuating circumstances our doors were once again closed. In fact, most places, not just schools, have been closed since March. For a period of time, we were under a kind of martial law where we could not leave our homes without permission from the government – we send a request via SMS and received permission via the same means.
Absolutely no mass gathering. In fact, any gathering above 5 persons was strictly prohibited. Everyone had to wear masks, and when you entered public buildings, hands had to be sanitized at the entrance and temperatures checked. Police and soldiers monitored streets and apartment buildings and you could often be stopped to ask to display your permission. If you didn’t have it with you, or if you violated any of the restrictions, you could be arrested and charged.
My school was one of the first to transition to full remote learning. Our entire schedule was revised to accommodate students learning online. The school administration was very considerate where scheduling was concerned. Because of the martial law, my daughter’s nanny wasn’t able to come to work so it meant I had to juggle teaching, homeschooling, studying (as I am working on my thesis) and raising a toddler. What the administration did for me and other moms with young children (who asked) was to put most of my lessons, where possible, in the mornings .
Was I stressed during this time? YES! But, it helped me to make two major discoveries. First, I need help and I cannot do everything on my own; and second, I detest online teaching. It is very stressful, it requires far greater planning and energy, and I am not a sit-down-and-teach kind of teacher so having to be at my desk for hours on end really took a toll on my back, my knees, my neck and my shoulders. By the end of the first week, I started having migraines and eye pain. Students found new ways to misbehave – or maybe to make their learning less stressful. For instance, one day, a student renamed himself Donald Trump and another renamed himself ‘Terrorist’.
How did I cope? I worked-out a lot. I made sure that each morning I exercised between 45 minutes to an hour; had my devotions, and itemized what I was going to do that day. These things kind of kept me grounded and made me feel less out of control.
Name: Melissa King
Location: Japan
Grades: 2, 3, 5 & 6
Length of being a teacher: 16 years
How has the pandemic been for me? Well like everyone I’m sure, I was pretty stressed in the beginning. For the two and a half months that we were on ‘lockdown’ here, I pretty much only left my house to go to the supermarket. (Lockdown in quotation marks because it wasn’t mandatory in Japan). As time goes on though, I am venturing out more; drinks with a friend here, dinner there, but it’s definitely not on a regular basis. It’s hasn’t been too stressful for me, cause mi love mi ya’ad.
What measures have been taken by my school? The students wear masks all day and sanitize with alcohol sprays each time they go in or out the classroom. There are roughly 30 students in a classroom, so social distancing is pretty difficult. The desks are now about a foot apart instead of being in pairs. Everyone (students and teachers) must take their temperatures daily and submit it to the school. If it is over 37. 3 C you may be asked to stay home. They also gave the English department some fool-fool plastic mouth guards to wear so the kids would still be able to see our mouths. I stopped wearing mine after one student coughed near my face when I was at eye level with her. After the students have left for the day, the teachers disinfect everything (floors, desks and chairs). Overall, my attitude at work is ‘shoganai‘. In Japanese, it’s essentially a philosophy — if something is out of your control, it is better to quickly accept it and move on.
Name: Patrice Sutton
Location: USA
Grades: 7
Length of being a teacher: 14 years
I think the world knows just how the U.S. is handling the pandemic — not very well. There have been millions of cases and to say it’s been scary is putting it nicely. For the most part, I have been working from school. Initially, the students stayed home and online, but recently (mid-October), parents were given the option to send their children to school twice per week (hybrid) or remain fully online.
Various measures were put in place to accommodate students transition into the school building and we were provided with cleaning supplies, masks, and face shields. Various signs indicating social distancing, hand washing practices and markers on the floor indicating the 6 feet distance were also put in place. Class sizes also did not go beyond 10-12 students per class.
It is a stressful period and I have literally told myself (and I keep telling myself) that I will do what I can, and not stress over what I can’t do. I will not send myself to an early grave. My workload is more, simply because the expectations are mostly the same as when we were not experiencing a global health pandemic. It’s almost as if it’s business as usual.
Many people have this idea that teaching online is one of the most marvelous experiences. Let me make this very, very clear — IT IS NOT! Well, at least for me. No one taught me how to teach online. I guess it’s assumed that you’re a teacher so you can teach anywhere — wrong! It has been a learning experience for me. Learning how to use an online platform and being constantly bombarded with technology issues by students while you try to teach a lesson will make you want to pull your hair out.
I also find online teaching to be impersonal and not very sociable. There are days when I struggle to get even a simple response from a student, a feat that would not be so hard if we were face the face. The computer screen provides the opportunity for some students to shy away and it’s difficult for the teacher. Nonetheless, the ‘show’ must go on and after about four months, I think I have a better grasp of teaching online.