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 Online School Effects on Teachers

By ALEXIS STRATIGAKIS

During the Covid-19 pandemic, schools had to find new ways to reopen their buildings; in order to do this, teachers had to begin teaching from their sofas. Teaching from home became a huge transition for faculty members. However, is working from home beginning to be overwhelming for teachers?

 

As teachers across the country have been switching to online learning, people have begun to question how it is truly impacting teachers and students. 

 

 In March 2020, schools began shutting down for two-week periods at a time, yet those two weeks ended up turning into a 6-month closing. As the cases of Covid-19 increased, the risk was too high to send students or faculty into the building. However, after the 6-month shutdown, by September 2020, schools were determined to reach a sense of normalcy, which meant a new reopening plan: hybrid learning. 

 

Before the pandemic, schools were filled with hundreds of faces every day without social distancing, masks, or online learning. Nowadays, the school environment has changed drastically, leaving students and teachers with the option to go “all-online.” 

 

People began choosing this option because they wanted to avoid the risks of covid, but as time went on, there became student engagement issues, teachers working extra hours, and technological difficulties.  

 

Kathy Stratigakis, a Kindergarten teacher at PS.86, includes, “The most challenging part of teaching from home is the lack of collaboration between colleagues, making sure students are engaged and lessons are thoroughly and thoughtfully planned out based on the time allowance.”

 

In fact, in the article, “Teachers’ Experiences Working from Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Matthew A. Kraft and Nicole S. Simon further research, “Teachers estimate that, on average, only 60% of students are engaged in remote learning on a regular basis, with wide gaps in perceived engagement along racial and socio-economic lines.” 

 

In short, the students’ incompetence to be fully engaged in class directly impacts the teachers’ ability to teach students to their full potential. 

 

Nevertheless, the additional technical difficulties that are being introduced are encouraging many teachers to retire earlier because it's simply too much to manage. Kraft and Simon analyze, “...veteran teachers are over three times more likely than early-career teachers to report being uncomfortable using the technological tools required for teaching at home.” 

 

Additionally, Stratigakis elaborates, “I also know a handful of teachers who retired earlier than expected due to their lack of technological skills.”

 

In the same manner, Stratigakis includes how these online days add more stress through the additional hours “...planning for the school day and being readily available for families is more time consuming. Constant emails and messaging with families is more excessive.” 

 

Naturally, while teachers are struggling to overcome these issues, in the article, “Students, Parents and Teachers Tell Their Stories of Remote Learning,” Meg Winnecour, a middle school teacher at Hanger Hall School for Girls, Asheville, N.C explains her strategy to make the day a little easier: “‘...I’m transparent with them about my feelings and experiences. This encourages them to be more vulnerable and open with me and each other, which prompts us to talk openly about our challenges and struggles and then figure out together how to handle them,’” Amelia Nierenberg reported.

 

All in all, online teaching has had a dramatic effect on teachers' routines; Kraft and Simon report that “... the percentage of teachers who feel successful dropped from 96% to 73%.”





Works Cited: 

 

Kraft, M. A., & Simon, N. S. (2020). Teachers’ Experiences Working from Home During the 

COVID-19 Pandemic. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://education.brown.edu/sites/g/files/dprerj366/files/2020-06/Upbeat%20Memo%20-%20Kraft.pdf

 

Nierenberg, A. (2020, October 18). Students, Parents and Teachers Tell Their Stories of Remote 

Learning. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/education/learning/students-parents-teachers-remote-stories.html

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