Exceptional Teachers at the Center of Pandemic Education

This is one in a series of articles written by a Lawrencian originally published in the ‘Ostholsteiner Anzeiger’ in Eutin on May 5, 2021. See the German article.

by Nancy Albrecht
German translation by Arne Koch and Bill Keel

How are we educating America’s youth during the 2020 global pandemic?  A look at the numbers gives insight to understanding the magnitude of this challenge.  The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported in 2018 nearly 76.3 million people were enrolled in American elementary and secondary public and private schools and colleges.  For the past year, public schools, universities, and colleges nationwide have been contending with how to educate safely and appropriately elementary, secondary, and university students during COVID.  Committed to student learning, educators, parents, and communities continue to rise to seemingly impossible challenges of providing virtual, hybrid, and in-person schooling according to the beliefs, values, and resources of the school community.  Ninety-thousand school leaders are working tirelessly to keep everyone safe—one student at a time—while transitioning everyone back to brick-and-mortar classrooms.  This work looks different at each school within America’s 13,589 school districts for optimal reach to 50.7 million public school elementary and secondary students, taught by 3.2 million public school teachers. (Source: NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2020, 2018) https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/

These challenging transitions have been met with new innovative thinking and unlimited flexibility to move beyond pre-pandemic procedures and policies, to modify delivery of instruction that accommodates student learning in the best interest of all students.  At a small rural Kansas school, a guidance counselor takes students’ temperatures each morning to determine if they are permitted to attend in-person classes. An elementary teacher in western Kansas makes four lesson plans per subject taught to reach virtual remote learners, hybrid learners, in-person learners, and special needs learners.  Many high school and middle school students participate in extra-curricular athletics, with the limitation of spectator attendance is held to two parents per student. One northeast Kansas principal explained that while planning to reopen his school, he worked with the custodial staff to install plexiglass dividers in the cafeteria to reduce student contact. 

Ongoing changes in pandemic teaching and learning continues and includes, but is not limited to the following measures:

·         High schools and universities conducted graduations via Zoom with restricted audience attendance.

·         Colleges and universities require students and faculty to obtain regular negative COVID tests to attend in person classes.

·         Some college campuses have restricted high school junior and senior college visits to virtual visits.

·         Masks are expected to be worn by everyone on college campuses.

·         Universities are teaching virtual, hybrid, and in-person according to plausibility.

·         Qualifying university students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are provided emergency financial aid grants approved by Congress March 27, 2020, known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security CARES Act. 

·         Zoom is used to conduct interviews for new faculty positions, conduct department meetings, and hold professor office hours.

·         University professors make scholarly presentations via Zoom conferences.

·         Professors, public school teachers, and administrators have become proficient in screen sharing, entering breakout rooms, muting microphones, and enabling video as they practice Zoom etiquette during the multitude of virtual meetings. 

·         Zoom fatigue, is the phrase used to describe exhaustion experienced from Zoom meeting overload.

·         With the goal of reducing unnecessary social contact, university calendars were revised to remove fall breaks so students leaving campuses at Thanksgiving in November would not return until late January.  Spring breaks have also been altered to accommodate calendar changes while meeting graduation dates. 

·         University course assignments have been modified and due dates extended per individual student needs contingent upon classes being taught remote or in-person aligned with curriculum. 

What will we say about teaching and learning during the 2020 global pandemic when we look back in history?  Educating America’s youth changed overnight from being in-person, in brick-and-mortar, to being conducted remotely in virtual classrooms and even a combination of hybrid classes at the onset and throughout the pandemic.  This past year, teaching and learning for nearly 76.3 million students enrolled in American elementary and secondary, public and private schools, colleges, and universities has operated uniquely different at each site dependent upon size, geographic location, resources, and the beliefs and values held by the educational community.  What has remained constant is having committed educators who make decisions in the best interest of all students, to maximize learning while keeping students safe.  There has been no extra pay, no added perks, for how to meet the increased and exhausting demands of educating America’s youth subject to change modes at a moment’s notice. Nothing additional was expected.  I have asked university undergraduate students in an Introduction to Teaching class why they want to become teachers?  Their responses were overwhelmingly, “To make a difference” and that, “It is not about the paycheck”. 

I too entered education with this vision—wanting to make a difference as a teacher and educational leader.  I have been teaching online classes as a university professor for over a decade; therefore, this transition was not difficult for me. However, the strain of this change was felt more acutely by my colleagues in other departments.  I felt my role shift with the onset of the pandemic as students required more direct support.  The personal contact I was able to provide for my students was possible because of the support I received from my department and university.  As departmental meetings transitioned online, I was supported in productive ways just as I aspire to provide my students with fresh hope. Hope is something we can all cling to.  Despite creative approaches, I still miss our in-person collaboration.  Nothing will replace live, in-person, human connection for which we eagerly await the return.  For in the end, we must never lose hope! 

Whether it be in Lawrence, Kansas or Eutin, Germany, teachers across the globe go above and beyond in their call to serve their students.  During these tempestuous times, we need to recognize our educators as unsung heroes.  We need to thank them for teaching and leading our youth to be lifelong learners in an ever-changing global world.  May 4, 2021, is National Teacher Appreciation Day.  A perfect time to celebrate your favorite teacher by telling them what an important impact they have made on your life.  

Moving forward, we have learned disparity in resources such as limited internet access in some rural areas and lack of technological equipment for teachers and students, impede remote instructional options.  These disadvantages net negative impacts to teaching and learning.  They are not acceptable and cannot be ignored.  Policy makers, communities, and school leaders must find ways to invest in educating our youth more equitably before we encounter a future pandemic.  In the meantime, teachers and school leaders will continue to do what they do so well—putting students first—as they strive toward educational excellence pandemic or no pandemic. 

Article written by:  Dr. Nancy Richard Albrecht

February 2021

Dr. Nancy Richard Albrecht is a Professor in School Leadership and Secondary / Middle School Teacher Education at Emporia State University (ESU), Emporia, Kansas. She is a former classroom teacher, high school principal, National Professional Development Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Grant Director, and former Director of Admissions for Teacher Education at ESU.  Dr. Albrecht was the first Lawrence High School teacher to begin in the Lawrence-Eutin student-teacher exchange in 1991, with host, Mrs. Susanne Kühner, former teacher at Carl-Maria-von-Weber School of Eutin, Germany.