Consider This from NPR - We're Halfway Through Another Intense Year For Teachers

Episode Date: December 29, 2021

We're halfway through another intense pandemic school year. As many teachers are taking a well-deserved holiday break, we'll hear why these past few months in the classroom have gotten harder – and what that could mean for students and parents. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Brandon Morrison, fifth grade teacher in Guilford County, North Carolina. Early in the fall, as a new school year was beginning. Today is Monday of week two, so I made it through a week of school. And PR asked some teachers to document their experiences. It was an interesting week. I will say it might have been one of the most difficult I've had in my career. I could see a mix of a lot of students who, for a lot of them, it's really become difficult to sustain focus. It's so nice being in person and being back with the kids.

I have sophomores who haven't been in school since they were eighth graders. A lot of the teachers, like Arium Abraham in Chicago, talked about how COVID precautions and the overall strain of the pandemic were adding a complicated layer to everything they did. Every second I'm having to ask students to put their masks on. I have two boys in particular, and they just cannot seem to keep their mask on. I don't know. It's only been a week and I'm seeing how unprepared we are for this. My name is Sarah Caswell. I am a special education and science teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School in Philadelphia. A lot of anxiety. I mean, just a lot of anxiety about keeping kids safe. Like with no social distancing, no capacity really to social distance. But I don't have wipes.

I don't have cleaning supplies. I don't like nothing. We've had two teachers who have literally just quit. This is Penelope Quesada from Semple Elementary. I teach music K through fifth grade. My biggest worry is that I don't want any of my students to get sick. A lot of them, they don't eat well, they don't sleep well, they don't have the best living conditions. So I really think if they get

sick, it's probably going to be bad. But there was also a sense of resolve. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to see them this morning. They were so excited to see each other. That's Katie Wright, an elementary school teacher in Helena, Montana. She and her fellow educators across the country also talked about their commitment to making things work. I'm going to stay positive. New week, fresh start. As I tell my students, we're going to make it work. And we're doing our best, our best, our best to be safe. And that's why we are teachers, because we care about them. To see how the self-confidence of these six to nine-year-olds when they are doing work and work that feels meaningful to them, I'm very happy. Consider this, we are halfway through another

intense pandemic school year. So as many teachers are taking a well-deserved holiday break, we'll hear why these past few months in the classroom have gotten harder and what that could mean for students and parents. I'm not going to let this virus kick me. I'm going to stay here, virus. You're not going to kick me out of my classroom. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It's Wednesday, December 29th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's consider this from NPR.

When asked what the past few months in the classroom have been like, Michael Reinholdt is blunt. He says teachers are drowning. They feel like they can't keep their heads above water. Reinholdt is a teacher coach in Davenport, Iowa. They're responsible for not only the standards that they have in the classroom for this year, but they're also responsible for all of the lost learning for the last 18 months. They feel like they simply can't keep up.

Reinhold spoke with my co-host, Elsa Chang, along with two other teachers, Susan Polk-Hofsus, a pre-K teacher in Millbridge, Maine, and Amber Wilson, a 10th and 12th grade English teacher in Denver, Colorado. And they spoke about the challenges of in-person teaching at this stage of the pandemic and what could make the existing teacher shortage even worse. Well, Susan, I mean, we are nearly two years into this pandemic. We're facing down another intense wave of infections, which will no doubt complicate how you do your job. Did you even think that you would still be here today? Never.

Definitely this year we thought, oh, everything's going to go well. But I will tell you that the teachers I've spoken to in my district and throughout the state have just shared that this has been the worst teaching year of their life. We thought that once everybody got vaccinated or we started wearing masks, that this would end. And this has become a nightmare where teachers here in the state of Maine are saying, I'm done. I've got to get out.

It's horrendous. It truly is. Well, Amber, you teach older kids than Susan does. How are you doing personally? You know, I'm doing okay. It's still difficult, though. Even at the high school level, the kids are back in person, and that matters a lot. And seeing their faces is really important. But started to come out in ways that high school kids act out. So some discipline type issues, just their intentiveness in class, trying to divorce them from their cell phone that they had unfettered access to all last year. So it's the normal high school things. It just feels like it's exponentially more.

Amber, you mentioned that you have seen just more acting out by some of the students that you are teaching. I'm just curious if you could talk more about that and how does that acting out affect your own morale personally as a teacher? A lot of times at the high school, what we're seeing is what a lot of us would deem middle school behaviors at the high school level. We don't usually see them anymore, but these kids didn't really get to be in middle school. If you think about this year's ninth graders, the last time they had real school was sometime in seventh grade. As much as middle school is already a difficult place to be, there's a lot of important things that happen with kids and milestones of

maturing and learning how to act appropriately in schools. So what do you mean exactly by middle school behavior that you're seeing at the high school level? So like keeping them in their seats. They're having a hard time using the restroom appropriately. It's like, get up, you know, go to the bathroom, be back in a few minutes. They are taking 10 minutes or longer in the bathroom. They're vandalizing the bathrooms and they are participating in this TikTok challenge that every month asked students to do different things at their schools. It started with vandalize your bathroom.

One of them was even go hit a teacher. Fortunately, nobody at my school did that, but they sure took the vandalize the bathroom to heart. Mike, what have you been hearing from the teachers you're working with? I mean, are you hearing a lot of what Amber's saying about these behavioral problems? Yeah. I mean, there are certainly behaviors and those TikTok challenges extend all the way down to elementary school. But, you know, the teachers are, they're just feeling overwhelmed. I work with the most passionate, dedicated professionals that you would hope to have your child in their classroom. And they are feeling overwhelmed by this, the amount of responsibilities, the stresses that are put on them, both in the professional hemisphere and also in their personal lives here. And they're breaking down underneath it. I find people crying in the bathroom. I just

was talking to a teacher the other day and they said, this is the first day I haven't cried in a week. These people are just breaking down under the pressures here because of how much responsibility they're expected to handle. And then simply they're just not given enough time to deal with all of the things that they have to do. Meanwhile, I mean, we're all a little apprehensive right now, right, about this wave of Omicron infections. How do you think Omicron is going to further complicate the jobs of teachers? Susan? I think more people are going to get sick.

There are no subs, so we'll show up and they will pull people, our resource people who are supposed to be helping with math and with reading. Oh, you can't do that with these group of students. You have to go sub. We're asking for the support and we're basically told there is no support. You, teacher, you're going to have to do the best you can. We're trying to do the best we can, but we are imploding within. Never in a million years. I've been doing this for 21 years. On my 21st year, I never thought I'd be imploding.

I thought I'd be, wow, this is great. You know, let me start mentoring people. Mentoring? Are you kidding? I can barely keep it together myself. So there are problems within education. And this has just compounded it. It's put a magnifying glass and we're like ants and

we're all getting burned up and they're just saying do the best you can. Well before I let you all go I have to ask have the past what almost two years now have has the pandemic made any of you reconsider sticking with your profession with your careers? No, I truly believe that education is a game changer for students. And it helped me and absolutely not. I'm not going to let this virus kick me. I'm going to stay here, virus. You're not going to get me out of my classroom. I would agree. I think it's even more important now to have passionate people in front of kids to help them see that there is a way through this. And that's what I want to do. Now, do I browse the internet and look at beautiful islands I could retire on someday? Absolutely. Sooner, getting closer, but not today. And Mike? And I agree. I'm not going anywhere. But I'm going to be honest. I know a lot of people that are very passionate teachers that are losing that passion.

They are struggling. They need help. And I'll tell you what, there's not enough money in this job to keep people here for that. They have to be passionate. And if they lose that, they're out. And that's only going to make this crisis worse. That was Mike Reinholdt of Davenport, Iowa, Amber Wilson of Denver, Colorado, and Susan Polk-Hoffsis of Millbridge, Maine. And special thanks to NPR editor Clara Lombardo for those teacher voices from early in the fall. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.