Teaching During a Pandemic

by Marysa Mitrano, Secretary

Back in March of 2020, I never thought I would still be teaching from my house a year later. I thought that this would only last a few weeks and we would be back to the way things were before the end of the school year. Now as we are hitting on the year milestone of the world shutting down, I am still in my home and struggling every day to engage and motivate my students to be the best they can. Spending over six hours on Zoom, staring at black boxes hoping that one of my students will unmute when I ask them a question.

The life I knew as a teacher is vastly different from when I started. Through all of this, I have been able to find hope every day when it comes to my students.

As teachers going through this experience, we are all experiencing it differently. Some of us are fully in person, fully remote, or some type of hybrid situation. After reaching out to some of the other National Board members, Andrea McKevitt and Nicole Ransden, I quickly learned that even teaching different subjects and grade levels was challenging, but has helped us adapt and become stronger in our professional lives.

Andrea, an eighth grade Social Studies Special Education teacher, spoke towards her experiences— “For me, teaching during the pandemic has been very frustrating. I am a planner, I plan weeks in advance. With the transition from remote to hybrid and back to remote every other week, I am finding my lesson to be out of date by the day.”

Even through her frustrations, Andrea added that this experience has helped her grow—“While I am trying my best, some of the things that I have found to be of support, is keeping everything in a file folder (via Google Drive). Even if I don’t know when I am going to use it, having quick access has been nice. Another positive is the level of knowledge that I now have about technology and my needs when it comes to technology. Pandemic teaching is an ever-evolving task. I hope to use the skills I have learned in the future, but hope to never have to teach like this again.”

I felt I really could relate to what Andrea was saying, as many teachers can. We by nature are planners, and now we have evolved to working at the pace of the students. The ability to adapt is something that teachers are always doing, and we’ve truly had to make ourselves and our curriculum adaptable.

Nicole, being an in-person teacher, has had a different experience than Andrea and I—“This is my first year teaching, and I am fully in-person. It has definitely been a whirlwind! I am teaching kindergarten at a private early childhood center. Kindergarten was actually added right at the end of the summer as a solution for working parents who were not ready to have their young children home for remote schooling."

"On top of everything else, I am also creating a brand new program from scratch as I go. Due to the pandemic, we have strict protocols in place, including small class sizes (I have just eight students), social distancing, and individual materials. So many of our toys and manipulatives are boxed up and piled in the corner. We have strict cleaning checklists throughout the day, and the kids stay in the classroom all day, except for when weather permits outside recess. All meals and specials (art, music, and even gym) happen in our four walls and I run it all since no parents or other teachers can come in. It’s a lot to keep track of for sure!”

"The pandemic has brought social media, Zoom, etc. to the forefront and allowed me to connect with sisters old and new from across the country that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to meet." —Nicole Ransden, Kappa Upsilon "Through contact via social media and phone and video calls. It's nice being able to check up on one another so easily!" —Emma Wenig, Kappa Alpha Gamma

"I have been FaceTime calling and Zoom calling my sisters and just communicating a lot!" —Haley Sullivan, Kappa Upsilon

I definitely couldn’t imagine the struggle of having children not being able to go near certain toys, especially at that age! Even through all this, Nicole reflected on her experience through Kappa—“Though I didn’t know it at the time, Kappa prepared me to be able to juggle multiple responsibilities, to adapt, and to be open to learning and growing as I go. It also gave me the confidence to be able to face these challenges head on and taught me how to see the good in each situation. Finally, Kappa has connected me with some of my best friends, both in and out of the field, who have been a huge support and resource during this time.”

Through my own experience, as an eighth grade Social Studies teacher, I make it my mission to communicate with them about their lives, and how they are doing. Sometimes we think, “students need to do this and that means they care,” but we do not know what is going on behind that black screen. Whether they are sitting in their bed because it is the quietest place in their house, or they log out of class because they have three other siblings also on Zoom. We need to understand that many students are facing tough times too.

Kappa has always taught me to listen to other people’s perspectives, because even if we think we are right we need to be able to see both sides. Communication is key to having successful relationships with peers and students. These kids just want someone to communicate with, and I am glad that I can be that person for the 65 minutes they are with me everyday. Through Kappa, I have learned that things happen, and we need to be able to move forward, and show empathy. We assume students to be adults, but they are just kids. They need structure, but to be given the opportunity to grow and succeed, to be given leeway when they don’t turn in an assignment, and be proud that they were able to accomplish what they have done.

Even though times are different, teachers have a strong sense of ownership to their students. We take pride in their accomplishments, and never want to see them fail. Nicole's classroom based on safety protocols

Marysa's virtual setup

This has been a mentally taxing experience on all teachers, whether you are remote, in-person or somewhere in-between. I hope that as we come to the end of this turbulent school year, we can have empathy towards each other, and know that all teachers have put their best foot forward to help our students succeed.

"When I started noticing a dip in my mental health during the first few months of the pandemic, my sisters were immediately by my side. They helped me get through some rough days and I always knew I could trust them to be there for me." —Robyn Sarette, Kappa Sigma

"By trying and reaching out to my sisters when I need them. I think it is important to keep that line of communication open, and whenever I can interact with them I try my best to do so." —Marysa Mitrano, Kappa Upsilon

OF KAPPA DELTA PHI

National Affiliated Sorority