THE COVID COLLECTION

This might sound a little silly but the fact that we were not able to sing with our students was extremely difficult for me. Prior to this school year, I would sing with my class every day and all day. Singing makes my heart happy and I teach not only fun songs but songs that teach skills within my curriculum. I still taught songs to my class this year but saying them is very different.

 I think a challenge for me was screen fatigue and lack of work life balance. It often felt as though everyone was "on" and "plugged in" so there was never a time we truly felt we could stop working and just disconnect. There were no set "office hours" and all hands on deck just applied across the board. While this was probably necessary for the first few weeks while we all got our bearings, it is SO important that we give people time off, time away and do not expect that their every minute should be lived online. Just because we have the access doesn't always mean we should give the access. People were constantly being asked to go above and beyond, and while that might seem like resilience and perseverance, to others it was just anxiety overload and trying hard to stay above water and adjust to a completely new way of life. This pandemic should teach us all to be a little more gentle with ourselves and each other. We did an incredible thing: we kept school going and learning going during a global pandemic which none of us has ever seen before. Now, we need to truly take the lessons we learned and apply them as we hopefully reach a post-COVID, or at least post-pandemic, world. 

The hardest part of the pandemic was the unknown. The fear, the worry, the anxiety. 

The best part? Realizing that those we love are everything. That phone calls shouldn't be put off, that taking care of others and having compassion are true life skills, and that the world is bigger than just our little corner.

The hardest part for me was my son working as a volunteer firefighter during the pandemic.

The hardest part of the pandemic relating to school has been the barrier we have from parents. I miss the relationships and getting to understand children through their parents. Of course we communicate through technology but closeness and emotion can be watered down. I miss seeing parents. It has also been hard keeping distance from employees. I miss the camaraderie, support, laughs, gatherings, ideas and shared information. There was a disconnect in the beginning but we’ve learned to navigate through and share space and perspectives.

Working remotely has been such a roller coaster of emotion! There are some days where I like being able to get up early and have a cup of coffee on my balcony before starting work. But other days I miss the connection with people! Especially being away from campus, it is hard to still feel like a part of the community. Most of Admissions work is customer service and making personal connections-this has definitely been harder to do through a screen!

Not being able to spend time with loved ones.

The hardest part has been bimodal instruction and ricocheting among all six rooms on the top floor each day. Silver lining - this bizarre year is almost over!

After 25 years in Maryland. I sold my home in June of 2020. I moved back to my hometown of Bristol, VA to provide housing assistance to my mother.  I found a job as a PE Aide in a local county.  The pay for an Aide was very little so, I kept searching for a full salaried job in my field without success.  On a whim, I applied for 3 jobs back in the DC area.  I arrived at the Congressional campus on March 2, 2021 for an in person interview.  I was offered a position the next week and accepted. The week following that, the pandemic was upon us. I was able to live with my mother the rest of the spring and summer, we were great companions during this stay at home time.  In August, I moved to Fairfax, VA in a new environment for me.  I had very few friends in the area and absolutely no connections at Congressional.  The hardest part about this pandemic for me was leaving my hometown behind and moving alone into a world of social distancing making everyone around me strangers. Unfortunately, this feeling has not changed.  I have joined a softball league which has allowed some new connections, so this may be a silver lining. 

The hardest part of  pandemic form me was and still is -  that people became afraid and/or suspicious  of each other; also not being able to see people smiling , the  state of alienation that deepened even more with the pandemic.    

As a teacher, overcoming unexpected challenges is in the job description. Still, for obvious reasons, this year came with a plethora of new challenges that no one could possibly have prepared for. It's difficult to pinpoint what, on that long list, was the most challenging for me. Truthfully, any one challenge would have been fairly easy to overcome on its own, but what made this year most challenging was the avalanche of challenges that seemed never ending. 

Having to teach in-person wearing a mask to a large group of masked children and a smaller group of virtual children simultaneously, adjusting my curriculum to fit that bimodal plan, implementing new technology, battling that technology often when problems arose, having additional duties in order to support the cohort plan, following countless new health and safety procedures, having to travel from classroom to classroom for each one of my classes instead of having a classroom of my own, keeping myself, my students, and their families happy, healthy, and safe during a global pandemic and when the world outside seems to be falling apart, not being able to travel or see my friends or loved ones, and having to do all of this on top of the other everyday challenges that comes with being a teacher left me feeling a little like a headless chicken trying to juggle flaming cats. 

The hardest part of the pandemic for me personally has been not being able to visit with family. Being a DC transplant, my family resides in Vermont and I have not seen them since Christmas 2019! Of course since then, we have all been vaccinated and I am thrilled to be able to visit with them this summer. For school, it has been having to give up some of our physical spaces to convert to classrooms to ensure the children are adequately spread out and to comply with CDC restrictions at the time. Our littlest learners who cannot wear masks did not get to have music and library this year but luckily have been able to enjoy PE outside. 

The hardest part for me was being stuck at home. I felt like a caged animal..so I binged Tiger King! I really enjoy getting out and being in nature. It felt claustrophobic.

The hardest part of living and working with Covid is not being able to fully engage with the children because the mask limits—the children seeing our expressions and full faces.

All in our family were positive with COVID-19.

The challenges facing transportation during the pandemic are assuring that the students are safe from exposure and providing as normal a service as possible.

There have certainly been a lot of challenges throughout the Covid-19 pandemic; both professionally and personally. I have been fortunate that no one close to me became seriously ill during the pandemic, but the anxiety and the fear...the "what ifs" were constantly racing through my mind...especially as we went back to school in August.  Personally, I have missed seeing my friends and family who live far away. My father lives in California, and he has always been my rock. Not seeing him for 15 months was emotionally challenging. There have been times when I've felt isolated from those who live in the same town as me too. 

When school started back up I was concerned that the precautions that we were taking wouldn't be enough---what if I brought this virus home to my high-risk partner? By November, my anxiety started to ease. The challenges didn't go away though. I was still trying to figure out how to engage my students in the content...get them excited about learning while keeping the community safe. Throughout the last 14 months, I spent countless hours teaching myself to use numerous computer programs, which I could then use to adapt my curriculum for those learning at home AND in the classroom. All the while, I've been a full-time graduate student at George Mason.

The hardest part of the pandemic was the isolation and the increased time indoors. No longer was it as easy to have spontaneous activities with friends or family, outings to restaurants or just a casual day of running errands. We all adjusted in time, but it was very challenging to mentally adjust to.

My hardest part of the pandemic was being away from the classroom and children. And not be able to teach them in the classroom. I enjoy seeing them laugh, play, learn, and grow up.

Human are social creatures and we were not meant to be so isolated, so that has been the hardest part about this pandemic.

The pandemic a situation that changed the world and our lives.After being locked up having to return to work knowing that we were more exposed to being infected by the virus and taking the virus to my family was a very difficult decision.

The hardest part of the pandemic for me was performing my job last summer. Between having to furlough some employees and reduce hours for others plus plan for a safe return for faculty and students for the 2020-2021 academic year, I probably worked the hardest I've ever had to work. In addition, I really missed my extended family as my parents and sister are local, but our family followed some pretty strict COVID precautions and chose to only socialize outside. We have really enjoyed hugging each other again over the past few months!

Not being able to see my family face to face.

I've missed meeting families in person and observing students in person. It was also hard to work with the increased demand and trying to manage everything with a small team. We worked during the time we would've been commuting and we worked longer hours during nights and weekends.