How COVID 19 has impacted the personal growth of teachers

Introduction

COVID-19 has a polarizing and contentious impact on the educational industry overall. Due, to COVID-19, that nation has realized the importance of education not only to children, but to the ability of their parents to properly perform their work duties. Without proper schooling, parents are heavily restricted in their overall ability to perform their career or job duties. Likewise, with the inability to perform job tasks efficiently, parents are often forced to work longer hours as they juggle multiple tasks within the household. This further contributes to parental stress as parents grapple with the pressures of properly educating their children while also maintaining their career and job prospects.

As an educator COVID-19 has exacerbated my professional growth. First it has allowed me to be much more innovative with the delivery of my teaching methods and techniques. As COVID-19 has heavily restricted attendance within physical classrooms, I was forced to leverage new technologies that expanded the manner in which I could deliver instruction. Hybrid class formats expanded my ability to teach in-person and online course in a much more productive manner. This format was ultimately a benefit for my professional growth as I was able to interact with parents on a much more consistent basis. A quick video call replaced parent-teacher conferences which are subject to transportation costs, tardiness due to traffic, cancellations by parents, or the inability for both parents to attend due to work related reasons. With video conferencing as was able to communicate and collaborate with parents much more frequently, thus enabling the growth of my students in a much more collaborative fashion. I also had to ensure the safety of not only the children who did attend the facility but the health of other staff members. This was critical to maintaining not only service, but the overall quality of service that can be delivered to a limited number of students. In these instances, I was able to take a leadership role in helping to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases throughout the facility. I was able to personally set standards of social distancing, cleanliness, and safety that was replicated by other teachers throughout the school.

From a personal perspective, I now have a much greater appreciation for healthcare and its implications for the world. Over 500,000 Americans have died which is a testament to the severity of it compared to passed viruses. I have been fortunate enough to receive a vaccine due to my role as a teacher, but many others still remain to get vaccinated, which could cause further death. I have personally become much more appreciative of healthcare workers and their overall role in keeping America healthy. Also, from a personal perspective I now have a much more appreciative for a holistic approach to teaching that combines multiple facets to deliver a higher quality experience. I enjoyed, looking for new and innovative methods in which to teach my courses. From the pandemic, I have personally gained a much more innovative mindset that looks to challenge the “status quo” and deliver unparallel service. Finally, I have also become much more operations focused. Although innovative and utilizing new teaching methods is beneficial, the benefits actually accrue through proper executive. From a personal perspective I often find myself thinking about how to better execute various functions within the classroom and within the teaching facility overall. I find myself thinking about operations and how to improve quality throughout the school as it relates to online learning, inclusion, diversity, and how to better engage with students.

Standard 3: Equity and Cultural Responsiveness - Effective educational leaders strive for equity of educational opportunity and culturally responsive practices to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.

As it relates to equity and cultural responsiveness, it was very critical for me to help develop an inclusive environment within the classroom. COVID-19 did not impact this standard as much as other activities throughout the country. The killing of George Floyd was a particularly powerful mechanism and one that overshadowed my minority students throughout the year. The unequitable treatment of minorities and the track record of white Americans abusing their power is undeniable. The country has been through slavery, Jim Crow laws, the War of Crime, and police brutality that had disproportionately harmed minorities (Alexander, 2012). Even now, COVID-19 has harmed minority communities in poor neighborhoods much more than other socioeconomic groups. These circumstances were difficult for me to address as well as discuss within a classroom setting. The topic of race and culture can be difficult for a litany of reasons. Some that come to my mind where

1. How to properly discuss race and culture without offending a student, their parents or their heritage?

2. Should I ignore discussion entirely and leave it to the parents as this is a very sensitive topic?

3. If I do address the topic, how can properly prepare given the overall gravity and history of racism in the country?

For my personal and professional growth, I elected to discuss equity and cultural responsiveness in the classroom. Through video conferencing I discussed my intention with the parent of my students. Overwhelming, the parents were very accepting of my proposal. (To be honest, I think the parents where so accepting of my proposal as they didn’t want to discuss the topic themselves, and wanted a scapegoat if anything were to go wrong). In this instance I referred to some of the literature, regarding how to discuss culture and equitable treatment within a classroom setting (Ambrose, 2010). I was able to generate my lesson plan which consisted of the following objectives (Arao, 2013).

Objectives

1. Set up group guidelines. – Create a safe, welcoming and respectful environment. Focus on listening and interpreting. Explicitly explain that everyone has biases and hold some form of stereotype. Allow students to challenge themselves and their assumptions.

2. Helped and acknowledged that students will feel discomfort and uncertainty – Share that deep learning can come from feeling some discomfort

3. The goal is not to be “colorblind”

4. Help students understand that learning about race, culture, and racism is a process

5. Help students feel comfortable about talking to each other and to learn from each other about race

6. Connect and foster any behavior towards social justice

Through this process of research and instruction, I was able to grow both professional and personal. I was able to development much more appreciation for the complexities of culture and how they relate to one another in society.

Standard 5: Community of Care and Support for Students - Effective educational leaders cultivate an inclusive, caring, and supportive school community that promotes academic success and well-being of all students.

Due to COVID-19 community care and support was a very high priority. This care can come in both a physical and emotion concern for students. COVID-19 and its implications on the teaching profession were unknown when it first arrived to the U.S. However, many of its impacts were felt by students who lost a loved one, or who had a parent laid off. With nearly 31M COVID-19 cases in the United States, chances are that a child has been impacted in some form. As a result, it is important to care for them psychologically and emotionally throughout this process. This was difficult as I personally have never been through a pandemic of this magnitude and scale. As such, my goal was show empathy to make students and to assure the that they are not alone in this fight. Our school was fortunate enough to have counseling services and as such I encouraged students to use the services when they were available. Children, particularly younger children deal with stress in a litany of different ways. As such I heavily collaborated with parents through video and conference call to stay abreast of student behaviors and moods. Research has shown that counseling and intervention techniques lead to better outcomes for students within the classroom environment (Kottler, 2008). Through simply talking about their issues, as oppose to keeping them bottled up, can have a very positive impact on children. This is particularly true for students who come for disenfranchised home or is experiencing family related trauma (Studer, 2004). Through this experience I developed a strong appreciate for counseling and its merits towards ensuring that student can maintain their overall academic success.

Standard 8: Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community - Effective educational leaders engage families and the community in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial ways to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.

COVID-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to teaching in a traditional classroom setting. I have already articulated the numerous ways in which I have engaged with family members throughout this process. Evidence has shown that more engaged parents often lead to better student outcomes (Kellaghan, 1993). As such, I consistently engaged through video conferencing and dialogue with my parents to ensure that were involved in the instruction of their children, particularly for students taking the hybrid course options. Here, I set a personal goal of at least one video conference with a parent every 2 weeks. Although more frequent, the meetings often did not last long as we in constant communication. This ultimately helped the student feel accountable as their parents and the instructor where both working together for the benefit of the student.