During a conversation with teachers in early childhood, middle school, and high school classrooms, a theme emerged regarding the difficulty some students are having with in-person learning. Students who had acclimated to the freedom of remote learning were having diffculty adjusting to the time constraints of the classroom. They seemed surprised (or aggravated) that they couldn’t just enter the classroom on their own time schedule, go the restroom when the need arose, walk around if they felt a need to stretch. For some students, the anonymity of virtual learning led to diminished courtesy and respect for others when they re-entered in-person classrooms. Others were having trouble focusing on subject matter as their levels of anxiety remained high. The sense of uncertainty and the potential for serious illness or death created by COVID, also seem to have undermined some students’ motivation for pursuing educational goals. Although the news media focused attention on “the lost year of learning,” less attention was given to the types of re-adjustments the teachers in the conversation are dealing with. Another teacher pointed out that in hindsight more thought should have been given to a planned transition back to in-school classes. Schools are still working to establish a new normal, so it was unrealistic to expect that students could just jump in and pick up where they left off. As a teacher or administrator, what has been your experience as the 2021-2022 school year has been evolving?
I have a unique position of being both a student and in school to be a teacher. I just finished my second year of college and I had my field experience this year. I taught pre-k, 3rd, and 4th grade. As a student myself, the transition back into school after quarantine was difficult. Especially because I was beginning my first year of college and everything was new. I struggled adjusting back, but with hard work and determination I was able to succeed. However, I think age has a lot to do with my ability to bounce back. I think about the students I had in my field experience and how they had struggled with getting back into the groove of school. Some of them are still having a difficult time. I think as educators we need to be patient with our students and guide them back into the routine of school and not just throw them in and expect them to swim.
As a Pre-service teacher, I can only rely on my experiences from classrooms I’ve observed and as a student myself in college. I’ve noticed that there is a learning gap students are a part of from having classes online. From my Field classroom I was aware that many students were behind and were not meet state standards. Where I go to school is in a more lower-socioeconomic area. Parents of these students are less motivated to help their learners with their schoolwork or provide them additional help if needed. In some circumstances I had students who were just barely making the marks but were severely behind. For educators back in the classroom it’s been difficult for them to make up for lost time. Many teachers are teaching material that are two years behind. I feel for the teachers and only wish them the best. I know we can manage the gap and I hope we can put the whole pandemic behind us and keep on moving forward! For myself as a student I had a major struggle with online school. My at home situation was not ideal and for reasons of mental health did not perform my best. I believe many other learners struggled with this as well. But now we are over the worst of it and I like to believe we are on the pathway towards success!
As a future educator, currently in school to become an elementary school teacher, I agree with the worries of this concentration. I have also witnessed it first hand while working in my first classroom as a freshman in college. I believe that we are unfortunately raising a community that is centered on technology and no longer truly knows how to react and or communicate. Unfortunately teachers will be blamed for their ‘inability’ to adapt fast enough. While the students are also struggling to the same. I believe that in the future the steps and adjustments we as a whole will have to face will take a lot of trial and error. Hopefully one day a classroom will feel like a home once more.
With this unprecedented national transition back into in-person learning, it will be all the more important for educators to have flexibility. In my opinion, it is our professional purpose to encourage our students through their anxieties and frustrations. It is important to acknowledge this is also difficult for them. As all educators navigate this transition it will be important to collaborate with colleagues on what methods are proving effective in addressing new behavioral and learning problems in the classroom. We should hope that by working together we are more able to effectively help our students navigate this big change.
As a preservice teacher, I have seen many examples of children having meltdowns and struggling to go back to being around their peers, in my different field experience many e. It has been interesting learning and watching how the teachers I am with address these behaviors. I have enjoyed assisting with this and trying different ways to make these students more comfortable and used to being back in school. I hope that through understanding where the students are coming from they can be encouraged and helped to get back into the school routine.
The Nexus School Practitioner is an educational site that teachers can use to benefit them in becoming effective educators. An online library offers various supports, such as books, podcasts, and Powerpoint. This website can help inspire educators. For example, the articles mention six qualities a scholarly educator should have. There is also a blog for educators, who can relate as they talk about topics that occur in the classroom. The website can spark inspiration for how to fix small dilemmas that may arise in the classroom.
不知道说啥，开心快乐每一天吧！
As a preservice teacher of students in early childhood classrooms this concerns me. It is already hard for younger students to come into Pre-K or Kindergarten and have to sit at a desk and listen to the rules, but having a year online makes this even harder. I also think the social aspect of a school is harder for younger kids. They aren’t used to interacting with other kids their age and may not understand that they have to share a teacher’s attention with other students. These students are going from being the center of attention from their parents for school to being one of 20 that the teacher has to help. This is one more thing that teachers need to help students to understand so that learning can go smoothly.
As a future educator for elementary classrooms I agree with the worries presented in this post. Coming back to school after a year of online learning can be hard socially for younger students. These students are not used to interacting with other kids their age so now they have to adjust to learning alongside 20 other students. It can be hard for a hard for a younger student to understand that they must share the attention of the teacher with the other students. It is very important that the teachers are patient with the students and understand where they are coming from so that they can have an easier time adjusting to in-person learning.
As a preservice teacher, I worry about the future of children whose early years in school were disrupted by covid. I’ve worked with children (outside the school setting) who developed severe social anxiety from being completely locked down with their family for two years. Most of these children were around 1-2 when covid started meaning that crucial years of being immersed in the world outside their home were lost. Some of these children were unable to even walk into a room of other children with their parents without having severe panic attacks. It will be interesting to see the long term effects that this isolation has on the classroom environment.
Another point: this article mentions that students were struggling with being unable to move around and use the restroom. Instead of condemning students for having basic needs that are easily respected in settings with adults, why are schools not looking at this and changing their expectations?
I think the transition from online learning to in-school learning was very difficult for both teachers and students. As a nanny working with a child in online school and then witnessing her transition back to in class learning during my Christmas break, I realized just how difficult that significant of a change was for young students. She suddenly had to return to routine. She could no longer complete her classwork in her PJs or take her snack breaks when needed. She now needed to adjust back to a routine and also struggled with the return to the social aspect of school. Like this post stated, I think many students would have benefitted from some sort of transition planning, slowly exposing and reentering them back into the traditional school format. Many of the students I worked with in my field experience struggled to readjust to the full class days immediately, so I think many students would have benefitted from shortened days to begin with and slowly transition into full school days.