Surviving COVID: Oakland Middle School Spanish teacher Susan Craver returns to the classroom
Spanish teacher Susan Craver returned to the classroom recently after COVID-19 nearly ended her life in December 2020.
"It's been two years since I've done in-person teaching," Craver said from her classroom desk during planning period at Oakland Middle School in northeast Murfreesboro. "It's been a struggle."
Craver continues to be an ongoing survivor of a severe case of COVID-19. The virus has caused the death of at least six others who worked with Rutherford County Schools during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Although pandemic conditions have improved, Craver and many others continue to live with lingering health problems caused by the virus.
A former faculty member with Oakland High School, Craver came down with COVID-19 after Thanksgiving 2020 when vaccines for the virus were not yet available. She sought treatment at TriStar Summit Medical Center in Hermitage. Rather than being at her Lebanon home, Craver spent the Christmas holidays in a coma in the hospital's intensive care unit.
It's been a struggle.
Susan Craver
Her husband, Greg Jones, had thought he was going to lose his wife and wanted to keep a promise the couple made to hold the each other if one of them was dying. He could only watch from behind glass as medical staff treated his wife.
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From coma through rehab: A long haul recovery
Even though she soon came out of the coma by early 2021, Craver's recovery has included staying in three rehabilitation centers, and working with physical and occupational therapists to help her regain strength from nerve damage.
A year ago, Craver needed more time to recover and regain her ability to walk before returning to the classroom. She was able to serve as an online teacher for the spring semester of 2022 with the Rutherford County Virtual School.
A 20-year Spanish teacher, Craver hopes her nerves will continue to grow back in her legs. She has braces on her lower legs and uses a cane. She also has a walker to lean on for the longer walk between her classroom and the parking lot at Oakland Middle.
Above Craver's desk, the wall shows words on a poster from Mexican artist Frida Kahlo: "At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."
The poster was a gift from Oakland High Spanish teacher Minerva Lopez, a friend who was overjoyed to see Craver visit the school after surviving the initial hospital treatment for COVID-19.
"She was crying," Craver said.
Craver continues to wear a mask as a precaution while teaching because "schools are little germ factories."
"I am fully vaccinated and boosted," Craver said.
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Advocate for temporary mask policy in 2021
About nine months after being hospitalized, Craver showed up in a wheelchair to a packed Rutherford County Board of Education meeting in September 2021 to speak about the mask issue. The board required masks the previous year and started 2021-22 without the policy. The Delta variant of COVID-19, however, was spreading infections, and local hospitals reported their ICU beds were mostly full to treat more severe virus cases of unvaccinated patients.
The board heard public comments from people on both sides of the mask issue. People against masks heckled a Central Magnet School student for saying his grandmother died because someone visiting her was not wearing a mask, Craver's husband told the crowd to "shut up and listen."
Craver spoke next. She climbed from her wheelchair to stand at the lectern with the microphone before the elected school officials.
"If wearing a mask saves one child from going through what I did, it's worth it," Craver told the board.
The board reinstalled a tempoary mask policy that ended when infection rates improved by early November 2021.
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Educational assistant is her 'eyes and ears in the classroom'
Craver felt strong enough at the start of 2023 to teach in the classroom from behind her desk but needed help to interact with her students. She works with educational assistant Sally Beasley in passing out materials to students and collecting their turned-in assignments and tests.
"She's been my hands on," Craver said. "She's been my eyes and ears in the classroom."
Beasley also hopes to become a teacher and sees Craver as a role model.
"I have learned that it's important to be flexible from her," Beasley said. "You can't be so rigid. She's taught me to go with the flow, especially with middle schoolers."
Craver has taught her educational assistant to persist through surviving COVID-19 as a long hauler. It's a story that everyone should know about, Beasley said.
"She's inspiring," Beasley said.
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Classroom job offer at Oakland Middle
Craver accepted her Oakland Middle teaching job from Rutherford County Schools Director James "Jimmy" Sullivan.
“Valuing our employees is a pillar of what makes Rutherford County Schools special," Sullivan said in a statement emailed to The Daily News Journal.
"We have worked with Mrs. Craver over the past few years as she overcame various ailments associated with COVID-19 with the hopes that she could return full time to the classroom. From the beginning, Susan has always stated her desire to return to in-person teaching and to be with her students.
"We are thankful that her journey is progressing positively and look forward to the positive impacts she will continue to provide to our students and Rutherford County Schools.”
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'Teaching should be fun'
Middle school Spanish is more basic than the further advanced first and second year Spanish Craver taught at Oakland High for over four years and Siegel High for 13 years. The younger students learn Spanish numbers, days of the week, months, vocabulary and pronunciation.
"This is just a taste of the language and culture," Craver said. "This is exploratory Spanish."
Craver engages with her students by using auditory, physical and mnemonic techniques.
Her classroom lessons, for example, include swapping out the words in the "Sound of Music" play and film song, "Do-Re-Mi," to personal pronouns in Spanish. She'll have her students sing and move to the song, "Macarena," to help them memorize the Spanish words for the calendar months.
"I have fun doing it," Craver said. "Teaching should be fun. Any job should be fun. If you're not enjoying your job, find something else."
Craver will weave in lessons in about history, such as people from Puerto Rico gaining U.S. citizenship in 1918. She'll ask the students to solve simple math problems using Spanish number words. She'll challenge the students to use the internet to complete a worksheet and then lead them in an in-depth conversation about what they found.
"I keep telling the kids I'm the queen of random, useless knowledge," Craver said.
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Supporting other COVID survivors
In addition to teaching, Craver serves as an administrator of a COVID-19 survivors support group on Facebook with 25,000 members.
"We add people every day," Craver said. "While COVID is not as dangerous now, it's no joke."
Like other passionate career educators, Craver is doing what she loves after recovering enough from the pandemic virus to return to the classroom as an in-person teacher.
"I want to be involved," Craver said. "I want to be part of the education process again, and it's difficult to do online."
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Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.
Remembering those lost during pandemic
The following are six people who had worked for Rutherford County Schools before dying from COVID-19:
Susan Keener — Special education educational assistant at Walter Hill Elementary
David Picklesimer — Marketing teacher at Siegel High School
Bill Estes — Bus contractor
Garry Mooney — History teacher and football coach at Smyrna High School
Jennifer Baker Morton — Educational assistant at Rocky Fork Middle School
Angela Dawn Crook — Custodian at Walter Hill Elementary School
Note: Families gave the district permission to reveal cause of death
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Teacher Susan Craver returns to classroom after surviving COVID-19
