The following is the opinion of Rob Taylor, a teacher at Spruce Mountain High School and union leader with the RSU 73 Education Association.
I have real concerns about the year, regardless of how we return to school. Let’s take the best scenario – kids are in school live and in person five days per week. That sounds like “we are back to normal.” But what does it really look like? At the end of last year, we had already received information on students who are not yet medically cleared to return to school and may need to remain fully remote, so it may not be business as normal for all students and teachers.
I am really concerned about students who have not seen the inside of a classroom in 18 months returning to a 5 day per week “normal day.” I think the start of the year may prove more challenging than the start of this past year. A high percentage of our most challenging students opted to be fully remote. Our disciplinary issues dropped. With kids only in school 2 days per week and 25% opting to be fully remote, we had few detentions or suspensions last year. For students who opted for hybrid models in class two days per week, my attendance rates were higher than average. Academic expectations were modified to meet the needs of kids in hybrid and remote models. What will it be like this year?
How will students adjust when they return to school? They have not had to get out of bed 5 days per week or interact with peers and teachers for a year and a half. Will kids attend every day? What will behaviors be like? What will the residual effects of trauma induced by a long absence from school be like? I think it will be a real struggle to get back to “normal.”
An amazing amount of preparation was done last summer at state and local levels. People had time, as there was literally nothing else to do. Personally, this summer I attended two weeklong professional development workshops, working with my Envirothon students to compete in an international competition, and working on curriculum. I fear this year will present great challenges. I also fear there will be little to no preparation for this or even awareness or concern about what is coming. I believe many people think it will be “business as usual.”
Personally, like many teachers, I am not trained to deal with kids with serious social and emotional needs. I have always had to rely on our social workers and guidance counselors for help with kids struggling in classrooms. Want to learn about photosynthesis? I am your guy. If you are having anxiety or depression, my job has been to understand your situation, be supporting, caring, understanding, and get you to a person who has the expertise to deal with this. In fact, some teachers are seeing counselors themselves.
The last 18 months have been a long, bumpy road and I don’t think the journey is over. It will be a while before we are “back to normal.”
