'I Know That's Not How Kids Learn': Schoolteacher Shares Doubts as She Prepares for Return to Classroom
An elementary school teacher in Colorado Springs has given an insight into the preparations in classrooms for the coming term, and described the challenges she says she’ll face as an educator, in a video posted on Facebook.
“As a teacher, I feel the need to share what going back to school is going to look like. I’m not trying to pick a side of should we or shouldn’t we. My goal is to show people – especially parents – just what going back to in-person school will look like so you can make an informed decision for your family,” O’Connor wrote on Facebook.
In the video, O’Connor, who teaches fifth grade, says she must remove all personal items, including games since there is no recess for the children, and use only one bookshelf for the classroom. She also said that it is likely the students will be working solely on computers, since passing papers back and forth could be a risk.
“This just makes me really sad,” she says.
O’Connor shows another teacher’s classroom emptier than her own, but notes that the desks, which must remain three feet apart, were still too close.
“I want to go back, and I want to go back so bad,” she says. “Because I love teaching. I miss my kids. I miss my classroom. But I can’t show them love that way.”
When she describes how the children will have to remain seated all day, O’Connor says, “I know that’s not how kids learn. Kids need to move.”
Teachers in O’Connor’s school district were due to officially report on July 29 and students were to be welcomed back on August 10, she wrote. Credit: Katie O’Connor via Storyful
