What happened next to schools and families was devastating and electrifying, thought-provoking and quieting, unifying and isolating. Homes became entire worlds. Working parents juggled daytime teaching. College students studied from childhood bedrooms. Millions of kindergarteners started school in a format previously unfathomable: on Zoom.
Teachers shifted to nurturing and encouraging through screens — with little training. Many hunted down students in person to ensure they were safe, fed and outfitted with resources to learn.
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a set of real-world lessons too close and too fresh to be captured by textbooks: How does one manage lives lost? Calculate the damage of lost income? Measure new levels of mental fatigue? We interviewed more than 30 students and educators, of all ages and experience, about how they grew and changed in 2020 — or just made it to the next day.
On the anniversary of this extraordinary year, here’s what they learned.
What surprised you the most about virtual or hybrid learning?
“The mask environment — having to teach through that, having to work with students through that and communicate through this barrier was a struggle. I couldn’t quite tell if they were getting it. My dad jokes just didn’t land.” — Josh Montgomery, 43, associate professor of computer science at Southern State Community College in Hillsboro, Ohio
When personal protective equipment was scarce at the beginning of the pandemic, Montgomery organized about 200 volunteers, most of them local educators, to create and assemble face shields for first responders. With the help of 3D printers, the educators distributed more than 4,000 face masks to 51 medical organizations. CONTINUE READING: COVID online school hits 1 year: Teachers, kids share powerful quotes