Teaching in a Pandemic - Adapt to Survive

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At the time of this writing, many schools in my area have decided to open virtually for the start of the year, including the school at which I work. However, many locations around the country are choosing to open in person to some extent, even in the face of rising numbers of COVID cases and urging by the CDC and health professionals that this is not safe.

The current state of education in this country is a true test of teachers' agility with change. Regardless of some of the ridiculous policies being discussed / implemented; regardless of the completely botched response by the federal government; regardless of the lack of consideration and compassion for the ADULTS involved in school, we will see the departure of many talented teachers who are either unable or unwilling to adapt to an ever-changing academic landscape.

There is no easy solution. There is no magic bullet. No proposed solution is ideal - either we're putting teacher and student lives at risk by going back in person, or we're hampering the value of education and teacher-student relationships by going virtual. Hybrid plans are simply a desperate attempt to try to have the best of both worlds, but are unsustainable, given the lack of preparation and training.

As a teacher who has been teaching traditionally for 29 years, change is naturally going to be a bit more challenging than it was when I was a brand new teacher. True, educational technology was very rudimentary back in the 90's, but I was definitely more agile and adaptive to drastic changes in my educational situation. New prep that I've never taught before? No problem - I'll teach myself the content and develop the curriculum this weekend (I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea). Now, at 50 years old and pretty much a veteran teacher (whatever that means), it's not so easy. I DO spend a lot of time thinking about my practice, and I'll try new approaches if I think they'll be effective (and sometimes, just to try them), but changing from in-person to something FAR from that? That is a herculean task - I'd almost prefer the Augean Stables.

I'm trying to look at the bright side - to find some kind of silver lining in all of this. I will do what is required of me this year to the best of my ability, and that means I get to learn some new tech tools and approaches to teaching my content. Sometimes evolution is gradual, and sometimes violent environmental changes causes a leap. We're at one of those moments in education. Some of the (pardon the analogy) dinosaurs are going to go extinct here. New species of teachers will emerge, and some species (yours truly) will be able to adapt to the new conditions.

I don't mean to sound insensitive - I know this is hard for many of my colleagues. I don't know how to make it better; all I can do is adjust and carry on. I have no judgement for those that decide to leave the profession over this. I fervently hope everyone is able to actually LIVE through this next year, as we figure things out. If you're done as an educator, and you don't want to adapt to this "new normal" - no shame, and no judgement from me! We didn't "sign up for this". We didn't learn to be teachers to not be WITH our students in person, safely. We (hopefully) signed up for this because we love kids, and we love seeing them learn. It's different now.

In the words of Captain James T. Kirk, "Buckle up!"
Location: Madison, WI, USA

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