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The Hechinger Report
Coronavirus becomes unprecedented test for teacher-student relationships
When students drop out of online learning amid the pandemic, teachers worry they may never come back
By Liz Willen
April 20, 2020
NEW YORK — Social studies teacher Karen Rose stepped out of New
Rochelle High School last month for what will likely be the last time.
And while that makes her sad, it’s not what bothers her most after 34
years in the classroom.
“My biggest worry is the kids I’ve gotten no response from,” said Rose,
who is retiring in June and never expected to end her career struggling
with online teaching. “I’m calling and emailing them constantly. Maybe
their parents are sick, undocumented or out of work. Some might not
have a Chromebook or internet. They are literally MIA and may never
come back.”
Eileen Wood, a first-grade teacher in Stoneham, Massachusetts, joined
educators last month in a parade through town to greet students after
schools closed. Credit: Photo: Courtesy of Eileen Wood
Many teachers I’ve spoken with are doing their best to maintain
relationships from afar with students who depended on seeing them every
morning. Along with Rose, I contacted a middle and an elementary school
teacher to see how they are faring. They told me they are often
frustrated, longing for classroom interaction and eye-contact. All are
adapting to new platforms and trying to reach their students virtually.
And all three told me the same thing: They miss their students
terribly. The conversations reminded me why the relationships teachers
form with children – and vice versa – are so often the key to
educational success. The best teachers, the ones we all remember, are
those who inspire, give a push when needed and make sure we get back up
when we fall. They are the ones whose words of encouragement we still
hear many years later.
The coronavirus has in many ways become an unprecedented test for
teacher-student relationships, forcing a readjustment of expectations
without daily check-ins and in-person interaction, without tissues for
tears, high-fives for a job well done or praise in front of classmates.
Of course, teachers want their students to master content, develop a
love of learning and move on to the next grade. But these teachers also
know that success requires time and trusting relationships.
“We are the one constant for some of these kids,” said Eileen
Wood, a first-grader teacher in Stoneham, Massachusetts. “They come to
school and they know what to expect. It’s the stability, the
repetition. They have art, they have gym, they have lunch and they have
teachers they know. And now it’s all taken away.”
Jennifer Glick, a former lawyer who has taught English language arts
and special education at PS/MS 108 in East Harlem for the last five
years, used to start each morning walking around the classroom while
her students ate breakfast, checking on their health and well-being.
“If you don’t have a relationship with them, they won’t learn,” said
Glick, who has taught many of her students for both seventh and eighth
grade. “In middle school, it’s really part of development. They want
that internal motivation, to do it for someone who really cares about
their success.”
Sometimes, just listening is enough – especially at a time when many of
her students are locked inside or know someone who is ill or has died
from the coronavirus. Now, during morning meetings via Google
classroom, Glick is the one being peppered with questions – and often
she can’t answer them. “They all want to know: Will school re-open in
the fall? Will we get yearbooks? How will we graduate?” said Glick. “I
can’t answer, so we just talk about silly things, and the frustration
of not knowing.”
Bottom of Form
In Wood’s suburban Massachusetts district, elementary school educators
were so concerned about their students they held a car parade, driving
through streets and shouting greetings from a distance. The three hours
of driving around town crystalized for Wood the stark disparities in
ways students live, from spacious homes with front porches to small
apartments where they could be seen waving from windows.
Direct online instruction for kindergarten and first-graders is too
difficult, so Wood posts activities on the app Class Dojo that kids can
do with help from their parents. She is most worried about her students
during school hours when their parents may be working and don’t have
time to oversee their assignments. “I think some of them are watching a
lot of TV,” she said.
New Rochelle teacher Rose has no idea if lack of internet or laptops
are the reasons some of her students haven’t gotten in touch, although
she suspects that’s sometimes the case. She teaches 114 sophomores,
juniors and seniors in a highly diverse school of more than 3,000,
including many from families whose first language isn’t English.
At school, there were always plenty of staffers around who could help
translate her concerns to the non-English speaking parent, but that’s
no longer an option. Short of going door to door, Rose doesn’t know how
she can reach those students who are simply not answering emails or
turning in assignments. “Some of them are seniors, and they are
failing,” she said. “Can you imagine not responding at all?”
Late last week, she finally heard from one of the seniors who’d gone
missing, through a school counselor: The student couldn’t get to her
schoolwork because her father was hospitalized with coronavirus and her
brother had also fallen ill. On Monday, Rose learned the student’s
father had died.
For additional perspectives on the student-teacher relationship during
coronavirus times, I turned to trauma experts including Pamela Cantor,
who started the nonprofit Turnaround for Children. On a recent
conference call, Cantor said it’s important during this period for
students to maintain relationships with family, friends, teachers and
people they trust. She pushes the three R’s – relationships, routine
and resilience.
I also listened to educators and researchers at Harvard School of
Education discuss ways of staying connected while apart. They reminded
teachers that learning can take place in many contexts, and to not
strive for perfection during these difficult times. “Our teachers are
feeling a really big loss,” said Dana Winters of the Fred Rodgers
Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media. “They are missing their
students’ faces and they are missing those interactions. There is a lot
of anxiety about whether they will be able to progress to the next
level.”
Superintendents are also concerned. Some have banded together to call
for providing internet hotspots and Chromebooks to millions of students
who cannot get online or access lessons. Nearly 12 million students in
2017 didn’t have broadband internet in their homes, according to a
federal report, and the school leadership group Chiefs for Change is
calling for better connectivity nationwide. “It is time for federal and
state governments to similarly accelerate plans to bring connectivity
to every family in our state and the nation,” Pedro Martinez, a school
superintendent and chairman of Chiefs for Change, wrote recently.
In the meantime, some school districts have decided that providing
virtual learning may not be worth the effort. Others are still
scrambling to get devices and hotspots to parents. Glick’s school gave
out iPads and laptops to students who needed them, while committees at
her school are going door to door to track down the non-responders.
When students don’t sign in via Google meetings, Glick sends them silly
questions just to make sure they check in, such as: “What would you get
if a Zombie bit a Vampire?”
In East Harlem, where Glick’s school is located, there’s an acute
awareness of loss. The low-income and largely minority neighborhood is
experiencing more coronavirus cases than any other part of Manhattan.
To help process their feelings, Glick has asked her students to write
journal entries. “I’ll be reading a journal entry, and it will be like,
my aunt died, my neighbor died,” Glick said. “There is so much
insecurity. We are losing people and they are dealing with all of this
loss in isolation.”
The youngest learners can’t have playdates or easily connect online
with their classmates, though they might get an occasional glimpse of
them online during Google meetings Wood has set up once a week. But
those interactions are sometimes missed by parents who are working or
can’t access the platform because they’ve misread or misplaced
directions. Teachers in the younger grades have been told it’s not fair
to hold parents and kids accountable for every single assignment during
these difficult times.
“We are going to have to work extra hard next year to catch them all
up,” Wood said. “All of us are going to have to just meet them where
they were last spring and do our best.”
Back in New Rochelle, Rose recently received a full-page email from a
senior who used to spend his free periods in her classroom, even though
she was no longer his teacher. He wanted to tell her everything that
he’s doing, from playing guitar to Legos – along with how much he
missed his classmates and being in school.
So does Rose. “I never expected that when I left that March 10th would
be my last day ever as a [classroom] teacher,” she said. “This was
supposed to be the final spring semester for the seniors. I was
supposed to have my last final spring semester. Now it’s just all the
work, but none of the fun. And I may never see some of them again.”
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