MMS Teachers Reflect on the Covid-19 Pandemic

MMS sixth grade students Aysha and Seren interview a handful of Middlesex teachers to see how the Covid-19 Pandemic effected their teaching, the school, e-learning, and students.

Questions:

  • How have your teaching styles changed after Covid?
  • How have your students’ learning styles changed before Covid? Have they been more happy, or fidgety? 
  • If it was not for the fact a lot of people got sick, do you think that E-learning helped the students in a way?
  • What were the difficulties you faced during remote lessons with technology?
  • Did you enjoy the time at home during the pandemic with your family? Any hobbies or dislikes while everyone was cooped up?

Mrs. Marshall – 6th Grade English B

How have your students’ learning styles changed before covid? Have they been more happy, or fidgety? 

I think I’m more reliant on technology now.

If it was not for the fact a lot of people got sick, do you think that E-learning helped the students in a way?

The students seem the same. 

What were the difficulties you faced during remote lessons with technology?

One of my favorite parts about e-learning was meeting everyone’s pets. So many dogs, cats, and even birds attended class. 

What were the difficulties you faced during remote lessons with technology?

Having class discussions was difficult on Zoom. 

Did you enjoy the time at home during the pandemic with your family? Any hobbies or dislikes while everyone was cooped up?

I did! We went for so many hikes. This is something we still do now.

Mr. Romeo – 8th grade Math

How have your students’ learning styles changed before covid? Have they been more happy, or fidgety? 

Students don’t notice too much of a difference there you have to remember there have been some other changes in the building that might cause changing students behavior as well. 

If it was not for the fact a lot of people got sick, do you think that E-learning helped the students in a way?

It definitely helped some students. Back when we were hybrid there were some students who were shy, or hesitant to participate in class discussions. They thrived in that environment, but overall eLearning wasn’t very wasn’t as beneficial as learning in person, and like it’s just kind of  what you would expect since none of us really knew what we were doing.

What were the difficulties you faced during remote lessons with technology?

I had some difficulties with zoom, but Google Classroom is incredibly helpful and all of the tools we had were incredibly helpful. I would use screencastify to record myself giving notes in explaining things, so as far as technology goes I didn’t I didn’t have any issues students were able to submit things online or on my textbook was great about that thing people submitted things on through Google Classroom I would have to show their work on on a Google slide so from that aspect, I had no issues with with the technology at all. 

Did you enjoy the time at home during the pandemic with your family? Any hobbies or dislikes while everyone was cooped up?

 I started making bread — I’ve never made bread before and I still make it and it’s delicious. I have two small kids and one of them was 4 going on five, and one of them was one going on 2. It was it was tough with me having to teach and my wife also was a teacher and trying to get my son to do his remote lesson all well keep trying to take care of my daughter and you know, back when we first started we kept our family Circle very close, and then we started to expand it to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. My kids brightened up when they got to see Grandma and Aunt Mandy again, so I guess it’s good to spend time with family.

Ms. Glass – 6th Grade Social Studies

How have your teaching styles changed after covid?

That’s a very interesting question – I think this year in particular reminds me a lot of pre covid times. Everybody is sort of getting back to normal in terms of how
students are behaving. I feel that everybody feels a lot safer around each other – I don’t think that you would see as much distancing as before, just because I think that you know everybody feels a higher level of safety, but certainly last year at the beginning of the year while we were still exercising a lot of social distancing, and we couldn’t be in groups and we couldn’t be working in tables. Everybody was kind of just sitting in rows. The students I think, were a lot more bored sometimes, or maybe much more tired and much more quiet because they couldn’t work and kind of interact with their classmates.

How have your students’ learning styles changed before covid? Have they been more happy, or fidgety? 

I think after covid I remembered, not that I had ever forgotten, but I remembered more vividly how important it is to have relationships with students. I missed them, I missed seeing kids face to face in the halls, I missed just randomly being able to ask them things about themselves, and so I think I try to make things more interactive, now because I no longer take that for granted.

The only thing I’ve noticed about students changing is that I already know their learning styles are changing. It’s that students ask a lot more questions now.  I think they were kind of left with a lot more independence when we were remote, and so now it was last year and this year I think they’re just many more questions so that they can be sure of what they’re supposed to be doing and make sure that they understand everything.

Ms. Thompson – 8th Grade Science

How have your teaching styles changed after covid?

My teaching styles have not changed too drastically, but I will say I became a stronger communicator with different types of technology methods. This allowed me to stay in touch with students outside of the classroom. I prefer to be in person, this way the students can see both facial expressions and see instruction. 

How have your students’ learning styles changed before covid? Have they been more happy, or fidgety? 

I feel that the students have become too reliant on technology and struggle when they are required to do work that does not involve their chromebooks. I will say as the year is progressing the students are becoming stronger critical thinkers when they can do work without the chromebook initially and then use it to confirm new knowledge. 

If it was not for the fact a lot of people got sick, do you think that E-learning helped the students in a way?

I do think that e-learning was helpful for the students, the part I found most helpful was for many of the students to become stronger advocates for themselves when asking questions. Without the face to face contact every day students had to become more prepared when needing clarification on any questions they might have. 

Mrs. Colonies 6th Grade English B

How have your teaching styles changed after covid?

The way I teach has absolutely changed as a result of covid! I use technology completely differently than I did before -there are so many different types of technology out there and different approaches to using them.  It really gives my students different ways to learn and to show their learning -which is great because we all show our learning so differently!  I also think the same thing has had an impact on our students.  Kids are more reliant on technology and struggle sometimes to break away from using it or connect through conversation with the kids around them.  I think teachers and kids are working on finding a balance of what the right amount of tech is.  

Mrs. Siano 7th Grade Math

How have your teaching styles changed after covid?

Since returning to school from Covid we went through a very tough time – students were restricted to classrooms and could not take part in typical middle school activities like using lockers, changing classes, and working with a variety of students. Since that initial return, it has gotten so much better! I can say my classroom is now back to “pre-covid” routines – group work, activities that allow movement around the room, less time on the chromebooks. It is such a breath of fresh air!  I think students are really appreciative of the freedoms and various types of lessons that they are now able to experience.

Mr. Jarboe – 6th Grade English A

How have your teaching styles changed after covid?

I think that my teaching style has changed after covid, because I had to become so much more committed to technology. When we were working over zoom, I did so much more online, so now instead of using old-school readers notebooks for English A, I do a lot of digital notebooks. It has actually been a lot better because it’s a lot easier for the students to do more work and their hands don’t get tired when you’re writing long things, so then it makes things a lot more efficient for me as a teacher because I get to use Google Classroom to collect all the work.