‘the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do’ - The Washington Post

‘the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do’ - The Washington Post

'25 years in teaching and this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do’

Larry Ferlazzo, a veteran high school teacher in Sacramento, has been tweeting about his experiences teaching online during the coronavirus pandemic that shut down most schools in the country and sent kids to learn at home — and inviting other teachers to share theirs. He is finding a general meeting of the minds: Meaningful online teaching that began virtually overnight with little to no preparation or training is just plain hard.

It is even harder, according to social media posts Ferlazzo has solicited, for teachers who have children at home who need their attention to help with their own school work. And even worse, according to some teachers, for those who have no reliable Internet access at home.

For example, Cheryl Bost, a fourth-grade teacher who is president of the Maryland State Education Association, said some teachers who live in remote areas are getting in their cars and driving to the parking lots of schools or libraries or even McDonald’s to get Internet access.

“One teacher has two kids of her own, and she is teaching in the car while her own two kids are doing their own lessons in the car, too,” she said.

Ferlazzo has a large following on social media (@Larryferlazzo) and popular education blogs, which you can find here.

Recently, Ferlazzo posted two tweets about how hard online teaching is in these circumstances and here are some of the replies, which reflect reports across the country about the difficulties many teachers are now facing. CONTINUE READING: ‘the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do’ - The Washington Post