Educator/Instructional Technology coach - Very stressful, not enough time to support the needs of teachers. Parent - Hard to watch my spring 2020 - junior and now fall 2020 senior, be separated from school life

(About handling uncertainty:)  It is what it is. I do my part to help the community. I believe the experts. I take this serious, while understanding normal isn't like it was prior to March

2020.

(About handling stress:) Long walks. Home projects & de-cluttering. Social media for connecting. Netflix series recommended by friend on FB. Social media groups with teachers.  I do not know, just to help each other vent & reply. Lots on online shopping. In the spring, when this first started, my neighbors (who were teachers) would meet mid-day to go for a long walk and vent. Felt great!!  

(About effects of pandemic on work life:)   I actually already had a planned retirement from public education on June 30th. My new career started July 1. It is the same instructional technology coaching to support teachers, but since it is different this has been a very good change for me. My plan was always to work from home and my second careers -- so working from home is the nature of my job & I love it.

(About the home office:)  Yes. My former guest room now doubles as a home office (since no one can come visit). This is not a room I have really spent time in over the last 19 years of living here. It's in my basement and has a window for natural lighting. I have painted it from yellow to very light gray. I have arranged so my background on virtual conferences is pleasant. We I leave this room at the end of the day, I feel like I have left my office.

(New approaches to online teaching and learning):  I've been teaching online for over 10 years. I have noticed a quick change in "students" - mine are all adults in higher ed and teachers. I've learned to offer more virtual meetings and a lot of video instructions. The "students" I have are not confident in online learning -- it's a huge shift and VERY good for them to grow into learners. This makes them better teachers.

About video conferencing and Zoom: Better -- but not Zoom. I'm not sure why teachers have jumped onboard to Zoom when Google Meets via Google Classroom is the safest place for students. If a district uses Schoology or Canvas, then those provided conferencing tools are the safest. The impact on my life is watching teachers ignore students' safety by using what is free -- and not safe. Then panic when a student has shared the link to Zoom online and strangers enter. That cannot happen with the safer choices the school districts have purchased. One much missing component is PD and support for teachers, as well as, expectations of students & teachers to be on a conference more than about 30 minutes at a time is cruel to all. No one should be in a virtual meeting for hours every day. Some schools are requiring teachers online 3-6 hours at a time. Bad, bad plan.

(About efforts to support students:)  Since I support teachers as my students, I offer times online for "Teachers' Lounge". Time for any Q&A, chat, etc. As for watching my son, senior in high school, online with his teachers -- they are trying so hard and doing their very best with the guidelines they have been handed. They are being compliant, even though the teachers living this have better ideas for how this should function.

(About engaging with colleagues:)  Set, virtual meetings every M, W, F at 8:00. Sometimes even an online happy hour!

(About new technologies that are helpful:)  Google Enterprise and Google for Education -- Students on Chromebooks. Using one system that is designed to work together, can give teachers back so much time. Going forward, PD for best instructional practices with technology must be provided.

(About “superpowers” for coping with current challenges:)  I'm futuristic and not afraid of learning with change. In spring 2020, I already was comfortable with the shift because I moved with the times starting 20 years ago. I learned technology and used with my 6th graders & 3rd graders when I was in the classroom. I was not panicked. The panic was having about 2,000 educators who ignored real-life advances and wanted to learn everything over spring break -- so their lack of learning was not exposed. That became a shoulder shrug -- can't run a marathon if you haven't bought tennis shoes yet.

(About a new normal):  Technology exposes our weaknesses. Teachers how have taught with ancient practices learned that students really aren't learning -- they are just passing the tests. Teachers need a lot of PD to catch educators up on skills, classroom management and integration practices using technology. Private schools who have not advanced to keep up with their local public schools will lose families. And vice-versa -- If public schools cannot give a better education than an online school -- why waste time sitting in a classroom. Students who are used to getting points for participation, can answer questions on a pop quiz because they just heard it being discussed 10 minutes prior, are now struggling to really learn the content. They are also suffering because technology does not allow "almost" to be a math answer. It has to be exact. This is a struggle for students who pass school because they do school well.  Teaching is hard & the public is critical -- I worry how schools can attract new teachers after watching how teachers were dumped on without help.

(What will be remembered:)  Good changes that caused everyone to fast-forward to be better for each other. We have learned to wear a mask even if you aren't feeling sick or don't

want to -- it's what we do because we care for one another and our community. Things will be cleaner!!!

(About preparing for future pandemics:)  Good question. I feel my family handled it well and continues to handle it well. When you can't do things, you don't. We didn't vacation, even though we are so needing to get away. We have cancelled being together at Christmas as a large family group, even though my parents are in their mid-80's. We do not want to take any chances.

 

Figure 1:  Tyler:  Senior year - First day of school, second day of school, third day of school .... first quarter of school

Julie Jensen works as an Adjunct Professor at Baker University.  She is also Learning and Innovation Manager at Kincaid Information Technology (KIT) at Kincaid Information Technology (KIT).  Her email is julie.jensen@kincaidit.com.