Part of a Community

When her school turned to virtual instruction in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, Ms. Kim and her students were remarkably well prepared. Ms. Kim was familiar with Google Classroom, and students in her 7th and 8th grade science classes knew how to use the platform to access assignments she would post for them. Her students were also used to self-guided learning because Ms. Kim regularly used the “grid method,” an instructional approach where students work at their own pace through a prepared set of activities. However, her community in rural Kansas was not prepared for this shift online. Ms. Kim explained that there were vital community-level technology issues that needed to be addressed before any virtual learning could occur.

Our biggest challenges were getting devices to all the students and also providing Wi-Fi for our community. [Our town]’s fairly rural, it’s about 9,000 or so. They ended up working with the local Wi-Fi companies to provide Wi-Fi across the community. But the biggest issues were when more than one student was on a device in the home.

Once the students had devices and Wi-Fi, Ms. Kim set up weekly grids with virtual lab simulations and activities. She also had an optional weekly check-in meeting. However, participation was low, and the number of assignments turned in dwindled. Ms. Kim empathized with the students and prioritized addressing their stress levels over their academics.

We would have check-ins during the online sessions where we’d ask the students, “How are you feeling about this? If you had to say your mood, which emoji is your mood?” . . . It was hard to know what to expect as far as, “How do you grade on this?” You can’t really fault the students for not getting their work done in the middle of all this chaos.

In 2020–21, Ms. Kim and most of her students were back at school in person. In the classroom, masks and social distancing were required, which ignited heated arguments that mirrored the arguments around COVID nationwide. Ms. Kim knew the science behind the virus and was in favor of masking indoors for safety. However, she also knew masking all day was difficult for students, so she allowed her classes to take frequent mask breaks outside. Unfortunately, one of her well-intentioned mask breaks was recorded by a community member, who claimed the video was evidence that the school was not taking students’ safety seriously.

One time I was on a brain break and took the kids down to a park a couple blocks away from the school. Kids had their masks off, and they were outside, but they were walking closer than six feet, and we saw this car go by us really slowly. The people had their camera up and they were filming us. And then you see on Facebook, “The school’s not doing what they need to do!” That was disheartening, because we were bending over backwards to try to do what we could do. And people were always looking for something to point a finger at and to be derogatory toward the school system. That was hard because as educators, our heart and our souls are loving on these students and helping them to have a future.

To Ms. Kim, this experience highlighted that COVID was not only a scientific information issue, but also a social behavior one. Therefore, she started having discussions as a class about how to function in a community when you have disagreements.

There was such a division there for a while, even nationally—vaccinated and not vaccinated, mask and no mask. The students pick up on that, and they get angry and in-your-face and very opinionated. I think the discussions helped them to at least understand that it’s a personal decision. Everybody has to look at the facts and make their own decision. And just because someone’s different, you shouldn’t shame them for that. They have a right to make that choice. . . . We’ve got to learn to have these discussions where we disagree on things and are able to hear each other out, respect each other, and try to find the best path for our society. So being able to do that in the classrooms is important, which is kind of the first society they know.

As the pandemic dragged into the 2021–22 school year, Ms. Kim saw student social and emotional problems worsen. COVID prevention measures were lifted, and, on the surface, life looked more normal. However, the combination of COVID and other serious current events dominating the national news, such as gun violence and racial inequities, took its toll. She noticed many students had become depressed, withdrawn, and apathetic towards school.

Even when they were back in school, they wouldn’t do the work to a very high quality. It’s like they thought, “Well, I missed two weeks, and nobody seemed to care. So, whatever. It doesn’t really matter. Education’s not important.” . . . And I think it’s not just COVID at this point, it’s all the other things that are happening in the world. The school shootings, the racial tension, the presidential election, all of those things stirred a lot of [stress]. The kids really care, and they’re listening to adults talking. They’re listening to the media, and they take a lot of that on their shoulders. . . . Some of their behavior is not really because they don’t want to be at school or they’re not putting in effort, it’s because of the burdens that they’re trying to process.

Parents’ attitudes toward education also shifted during this time. Instead of working together as a team, Ms. Kim felt that many parents were mistrustful and judgmental of the teaching profession.

[Parents had] this attitude toward education: “Anybody can do it.” You had people that were wanting to homeschool their kids, and after about two weeks, they were sending them back to school because it didn’t work for them. Everybody thought that they could do a better job, and they found out quickly they couldn’t. . . . It was a struggle with lack of parent support. There were other teachers in our school that were [getting] some criticism for how they taught. And then [teachers] were demanding that their students step it up, and the parents were not really backing the teacher and pushing the student to get their work turned in.

After two years of COVID-related struggles, Ms. Kim was worn down and burned out. She even considered leaving the profession, but eventually decided the stakes were too high to quit during the upheaval of the pandemic.

We were so focused on making sure everything was high quality, and we wanted everybody to do their best and didn’t want any gaps. We all took a lot on our shoulders. You go home at night, and you think of what you could do differently or better, and you don’t take care of yourself. You don’t eat. You don’t exercise. You’re just totally absorbed in what’s going on with work. It was difficult. In fact, I considered making it my last year. . . . You just feel like maybe there’s somebody younger with more energy that needs to have this role. But I’ve decided to give it at least one more year, because who wants to make this kind of decision when you’re in in the middle of a war?

Ms. Kim views teachers as an integral part of children’s well-being—not in opposition to the community, but as part of the community. She modeled this way of thinking in her teaching throughout the pandemic, challenging students to respectfully live in a society with people who hold different views. Ms. Kim hopes that parents and the broader community can do the same, coming back together around common goals as the pandemic comes
to an end.

I think if we could all just learn to appreciate each other as professionals and as community members, [recognizing] that we’re on a team where we’re wanting the best for their children, and we are open to discussions. . . . Hold people accountable, but don’t shame people because of things that they feel are not right. For the students, we want them to have a strong future, and we realize that the world that we have right now is what they’ve got to grow up into. We want them to have healthy lives and happy lives, so let’s work together for that.