Diary of a Teacher During the Coronavirus Crisis–Entry #1: “From School Shutdown to Homeschooling for Human Connectedness."
he coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on world health, economics, politics and education. More than 300 million students world wide are now missing weeks of school. The Seattle area is the epicenter of coronavirus in the United States, with some 388 confirmed cases and 35 fatalities in King County as of Saturday. In an effort to stop the spread of the virus, Gov. Jay Inslee banned all gatherings of people larger than 250. With some 2,000 students at Garfield High School where I teach, it made us all uneasy this week that we were at great risk of contracting and spreading the virus.
On Wednesday, March 11, I was sitting at my desk in between classes at school when an email from the Seattle Public Schools appeared. I was working on finishing a lesson so I didn’t immediately open the email. But when I heard whooping and hollering in the hallways, I decided I had better read the news. The e-mail had announced that the entire Seattle school district would close its doors for the 52,000 pupils for a minimum of two weeks starting the following day.
The clamor in the hallway had been my 6th period 12th grade English Language Arts students who heard the news and were celebrating the coming break from school. As class began and the initial amazement of school being canceled set in, students’ elation turned to apprehension. I tried to cut the tension with a joke: at least the closure of school would cure the well-known disease CONTINUE READING: Diary of a Teacher During the Coronavirus Crisis–Entry #1: “From School Shutdown to Homeschooling for Human Connectedness." – I AM AN EDUCATOR