The Pandemic And Its Effect on Teachers

By Harold Lane

Last year many schools closed and moved their learning online, leading many students to miss out on proper education for the last part of their year. After that, however, many people assumed that this school year teachers would be prepped for online teaching. However, that was not the case.

The main problem was the amount of time teachers were given to prepare for an online school. Many schools assumed online interaction between students and teachers would be simpler than it really is.

The teacher should ideally receive a month of training to be prepared for online school just as they have training for in-person school. Many teachers, however, did not get enough training, meaning they had to resort to other methods such as worksheets or individual assignments, which decreases how much time students and teachers interact.

Part of a teacher’s job also relies on them being in a classroom with students. While in-person a teacher judges and evaluates things like the student's moods or how they are reacting to the lesson and reacts accordingly. While online, however, that is impossible to do even if students have their cameras on. This affects student’s ability to learn and be engaged at school.

Not being in person also has effects on specific classes. Classes dealing with music and physical activity are impossible to do online and many teachers are left having to come up with inadequate solutions for their students.

Other harder classes like Calculus or English are also affected. Many students in these classes need to be able to ask teachers questions about specific things. This now has to be done through Zoom or over email, both of which are slow, and it forces teachers to modify their schedules for every small question a student has.

But how much of an effect has online school actually had compared to in-person school?

According to studies done by the RAND corporation, this lack of preparation and move to online school has had enormous effects on school.

According to the teachers surveyed, two-thirds of their students were not prepared for this year and 56% of teachers said they had only covered half of what they had done by this point last year.

This may seem like a bigger problem for students than teachers, but the teachers in the studies also said they felt burnt out from this year and had lower morale. Teachers also reported having to work more hours per week and one-fourth of all the teachers said they were thinking about leaving the profession.

Overall, teachers during this pandemic were not properly prepared for the school year, which had terrible effects on teacher’s morale and caused students to lose critical parts of their schooling. This pandemic is a once-in-a-century tragedy. No one could prepare. Many sectors of society suffered and continue to suffer. So no, no one was prepared, but the next time something like this happens we will have had experience and will hopefully know what to do.