Teaching amid coronavirus: No time for field trips — or fear

After more than two decades in the classroom, I can say with confidence that this school year has been challenging.

There are lots of little things that make it challenging. Things like trying to speak loudly enough to be heard through a mask. Listening closely enough to hear my students through their masks. Finding ways to engage distracted students via video conferencing. Serving as hourly tech support for students learning at home while also teaching students in the classroom.

Sharing a restroom with my fifth-grade class to preserve our bubble and avoid spreading germs to other classes (which have their own restrooms). Fifth-grade boys still can’t pee into a toilet with any accuracy. They are disgusting.

Then there are more challenging things for teachers.

The awareness that I am responsible for the safety of 19 other human beings. The knowledge that despite my constant worry and fear, I cannot allow my students to feel any of it. I may be drowning in fear at any given moment, but I must find a way to keep students happy, positive, and productive no matter what.

Worrying about colleagues who have underlying medical conditions that make teaching especially dangerous, but they do it anyway because they love their students.

Worrying about my own safety too. The safety of my wife, who teaches kindergarten across town. The safety of my children, attending school in a neighboring town.

I’d say that we need to keep smiling despite the dangers, but smiling doesn’t matter anymore. Everyone is wearing a mask.

Add to this the constant monitoring of distance between students. Mentally calculating 6 feet at all times. Rarely seeing colleagues in an effort to maintain the bubble. Missing out on field trips that students have been waiting years to enjoy.

It’s not always easy.

Think about it this way:

Since March, very few Americans who are taking this pandemic seriously have found themselves in a single room full of people for hours at a time. Even worse, our rooms are filled with people who might be the most asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus. Many kids contract COVID-19 and never know it, but they are perfectly capable of passing it on to others.

If teachers seem stressed, tired or even frightened, cut them a little slack. Offer support.

I’d tell you to give them a hug, but don’t. It’s dangerous.

Therefore, it’s critical that we seek every source of joy throughout our day and make it count. Notice it and remember it. Share it with others.

For me, it’s been simple things:

The happiness of students who are seeing friends again for the first time in months.

The quiet under the trees as students sit on blankets and read books.

The moment when a student says, “Wait a minute. Are decimals just another way to show fractions?”

The moment when another student says, “I wouldn’t normally be worried about Hamlet, but Romeo and Juliet both died in the last play. This Shakespeare guy is willing to kill off anybody. He even kills off the people in the title of the play. So, yes, I’m worried about Hamlet.”

I’m excited about ensuring that my students understand the proper use of the words “a” and “an” while writing. Teaching them how to make inferences while reading. Showing them new strategies for rounding decimals.

I’m excited about our study of American sign language. This week, we learn the signs for specific sports.

I’m excited about the games of “Wax Museum” and “Red Light Green Light” that we play during our mask breaks. The walk we will take through the forest. The discussion about what Bruce Springsteen means by a “runaway American dream.”

I’m excited about getting my kids excited today. Excited about books and music and language and poetry. Excited about school and learning and the possibilities in their futures.

I will spend my day endlessly worrying about the safety of my students, my colleagues, my family and myself. I will focus an enormous amount of energy on mitigating risk for my kids. It’s a year unlike any other. More fraught with fear and anxiety than ever before.

But we’ll be reading “Hamlet.” Listening to Springsteen. Discussing current events. Rounding decimals. Writing. Thinking.

Even smiling behind our masks.

It’s not easy, but teachers are doing it. Despite the dangers and the ever-present fear, teachers are getting the job done.

Do me a favor:

Support them today. Offer a word of encouragement. Thank them for their efforts. Tell them that you’re thinking about them.

Remind your fifth-grade boy to pee into the toilet and not on the seat.

Anything you can do to let a teacher know that she or he is appreciated will be appreciated.

Matthew J. Dicks teaches fifth grade in West Hartford.

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