Covid In The Classroom

My name is Kaitlyn Trexler and I am a senior at Millersville University studying Secondary English Education and Special Education.  I am currently interning or some may say student teaching in a high school setting. There are many different pandemics going on.  I learned this in my beginning Professional Developments at the end of August.  There is a cultural pandemic, a political pandemic, and a COVID-19 pandemic.  These three pandemics are coming with my students like baggage overflowing into my classroom.  Instead of just having a backpack this year, they have 3 suitcases, dragging behind them.  We don’t know where to put the luggage when they get to the classroom either.  They all need to be 6 feet apart and there is all of this luggage there just staring them in the face as they try to understand Mockingbird with 3 diagnosed disabilities.  Do we as teachers try to unpack it when they come to school?  We risk it all falling out and getting mixed and lost with the other students’ belongings.  Or maybe when we unpack it, it will become more organized or more clear.  The risks of being a teacher in a pandemic.  

As many school districts decided to go all virtual, mine did not.  The fear of a disease being poured into your classroom each day was terrifying.  Teaching was the last thing on my mind.  It was how was I going to make it through this and get my degree at the end.  Teachers are scared, I’m scared.  But my kids need me.  There’s no ‘right’ answer and there are no guarantees.  I could contract COVID tomorrow or I could create a bond with a student that no one has prior.  

I guess ‘student teaching during COVID-19’ belongs on a resume?  This is much more than I bargained for when I thought about my student teaching at Millersville.  What I have learned is the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.  Teachers are in tears, daily, over their jobs.  They are pouring everything into these kids.  Please have grace with them as they juggle this.  

Written by Kaitlyn Trexler