Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Sonya Adkins never thought she’d invite over 60 high school students into her home. Still, this past March, she began doing just that, albeit virtually, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A NEW NORMAL
An educator for 10 years, Adkins, who is also a student in the educational specialist program at MSU’s College of Education, first heard of the new coronavirus during Newton Municipal School District’s spring break. Even then, the high school biology and chemistry teacher didn’t realize that it would completely change how she would teach her students.
She explained that teachers typically use spring break to regroup and mentally prepare for end-of-the-year state assessments and finals. The last thing she expected to do during that time was to move her classes, which rely heavily on hands-on learning, entirely online.
“I never expected not to see my school babies again,” Adkins explained. “It has been a challenge to incorporate the inquiry side of biology with limited resources at home. We’ve had to adapt by watching video demonstrations instead of hands-on activities.”
Adkins said she was grateful both she and her students love technology. They were already using many online accounts to supplement learning, which made their transition less challenging.
Anna Oswalt was also quick to rise to the challenges presented by the pandemic. As an English teacher at Monroe County School District’s Advanced Learning Center, a mother and an MSU graduate student, she was used to the daily challenges that life threw at her. But after the governor ordered all schools to move to virtual learning in March—giving her just one week to move her dual-credit classes online—she knew she’d never faced a challenge quite like this.
“It never fails that when I’m in a Zoom meeting with my students, my 5-year-old runs up to me and whispers that she needs to go potty,” Oswalt, who is pregnant with her second child, explained with a laugh.
Her students, high school juniors and seniors, took it in stride. Oswalt said she is grateful that they are so understanding that this hectic time is hectic for everyone, including the teachers who usually have it together.
BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Oswalt explained the biggest challenge to teaching students online is the technology disparity that many students across Mississippi face. While it’s no secret that not all homes in Mississippi have access to Wi-Fi, having enough devices in the house might pose a bigger problem. When she first heard that schools might transition to distance learning for the rest of the semester, she began to wonder how that would be possible. She knew that not every student would have the means to learn online.
“I wanted to figure out not only if they had internet, but because of the number of people in their family, if they had enough access to devices,” Oswalt said. “So I, along with my colleagues, gathered the data to present to our administration.”
Oswalt, who also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MSU, is currently pursuing an educational specialist degree. She credits that program with giving her the foresight to anticipate what challenges lay ahead for her students. She explained that since enrolling in the teacher leadership program, she has learned to identify needs that arise within her school and address them with support from her fellow lead teachers and the administration.
To combat the technology gap facing some of her students, Oswalt was able to loan her classroom’s
Chromebook laptops to students who lacked internet-accessible devices. Paper packets were still available to students just in case their internet went down and they were unable to access Canvas, the
school’s cloud-based learning management system. Some of Adkins’ students experienced the
same disparity. Since they lacked devices, access to the internet or both, some students had to resort to accessing the Google Classroom with their cellphones. It also meant those without internet often couldn’t participate in any classroom Zoom meetings. When the administrators at Newton High School realized there was a need, they were able to provide electronic devices to those families that could access the internet.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Oswalt said she isn’t sure how the next school year will look.
“You know as much as we know,” she said with a laugh.
The bright spot of the pandemic, if there is one, is that she already has a lot of her instructional materials online. She said she believes that all the work teachers have put into taking their classes online shouldn’t go to waste. If schools do meet face-to-face, the digital assets might still be useful for students who were absent or for supplemental instruction. Still, she is planning for every possible outcome.
“What I am really thinking is that I may just have more of an online approach next year because I have a lot of online stuff already. I think it could be useful no matter what format I end up teaching in,” Oswalt explained.
Similarly, Adkins is preparing for whatever this school year may bring. She explained that her bright spot is how her experience as both student and teacher during the pandemic taught her the need to adjust lesson plans to her students’ individual needs. She hopes to continue to implement this in future classes whether she is teaching face-to-face or online. Though she hopes she’ll be back in the classroom, Adkins said she realizes that many safety measures need to be taken before face-to-face classes can work. But regardless of what comes next, both teachers say they know their students can handle it.
“I’m just so proud of my students,” Oswalt said. “For the first time, I’ve felt at peace because I know that if the students can handle school during this pandemic, they can make it through whatever
higher education throws at them. I am very, very impressed by how hard they’ve all worked.”
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