It may have been one of the most challenging times over the 2020-21 school year for teachers, students and families. But the teachers pulled through, making sure education was still a priority by shifting gears and using technology when COVID-19 became an obstacle.
Early on in the year, four teachers sent in video diaries to MLive to share how their first month went during the pandemic.
Now that summer is just around the corner, we wanted to check back in with two of them, Freeland Middle School eighth-grade social studies teacher Philip Schwedler and Bethlehem Lutheran Church and School fourth grade teacher Annelise Holcomb, to document their final thoughts.
Both schools ended the year following social distancing measures, wearing masks and cleaning heavily touched areas regularly.
“I was really proud how the kids would typically handle it,” Schwedler said about students who were tuning into class from home. “They would be on Zoom right before class started and be pretty engaged in what was going on in the day’s activities.”
While technology was the major reason teachers were able to continue working, both Holcomb and Schwedler say that face-to-face learning is extremely important.
Bethlehem Lutheran was able to stay open to the students the entire year and Holcomb says it was a privilege. She said she still had to record lesson plans online, however, in case a student was exposed to the virus and couldn’t come to school.
“Even when we’re wearing masks, communication is so much clearer when it’s in person,” Holcomb said. “I can just go over to their desks when they have questions rather than having to, you know, wait for them to respond through typing or even trying to communicate through a screen. There’s just a huge disconnect.”
Schwedler says they did their best getting through those tough times of being remote with technology, but it’s still not the best way of learning.
“The best education is face-to-face learning. You know, that’s the experience of being a teacher and being a student and that interaction, being together,” Schwedler said. “It’s impossible to replicate.”
Neither teacher let the threat of the pandemic cause them to question whether they should continue in this profession or not.
“Even during COVID, I still felt very strongly about my call to be a teacher and you know, despite the frustrations of having to go online and having to do a lot of changing in a short amount of time, I still really wanted to be there for the kids,” Holcomb said.
Both teachers said their ability to maneuver technology as a teacher has greatly improved over the year, which in turn has made them better teachers. Nonetheless, they say they are grateful to have that skill, but are glad to continue teaching in person.
“That piece has definitely helped out, but I also think building relationships, I think things like that, just pure appreciation of being able to be here has made me a better teacher, no question,” Schwedler said. “We can thank our principal and our administration. We were meeting, you know, weekly using Zoom in the summertime. I think going into that with a pretty solid plan made me confident that we’re going to be okay, we’re going to get through this.”
“I love what I do. This was challenging, a year like no other, but no, there’s no way. I’m not going anywhere,” Schwedler said.