Patrick Kelly ’21 relishes life in the classroom. The smiles. The “aha” moments of discovery. The way old stereotypes fall away when a child learns something new. Naturally, when the time came for Kelly to begin his first student-teaching assignment early this year, he’d prepared thoroughly. Kelly had carefully crafted lessons for his students, thought about the learning environment he wanted to create for them, and sought advice from longtime teachers who served as his mentors. But that was not all. In a school year that was largely shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic, Kelly, who taught online in the North Syracuse City School District and the Syracuse City School District, also had to set up a webcam and two monitors, and consider how a group of second-graders would navigate their Chromebooks from home.
Whether their classrooms were virtual, like Kelly’s, or in person, or a blend of both, the Le Moyne undergraduates who completed their student teaching over the past year had to be nimble, quick and adaptable. They learned to navigate digital platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, to keep the students in their care safe and physically distanced from one another, and to gauge how those children were doing emotionally at a time that was challenging for many adults to process. What’s more, they did so while facing very real questions about equity of resources and about what the once-in-a-century pandemic would mean for students’ long-term academic success.
“When you’re in school to become a teacher, you’re focused on learning how to implement instruction, but being a teacher is so much more,” said Bailey MacArthur ’21, who taught at Morgan Road Elementary in Liverpool, N.Y., and Lanigan Elementary in Fulton, N.Y. “For many students, you’re a nurturer, a safe space, a highlight of their day, a reinforcer of positive behavior. Teaching is not just implementing lessons. It is so much more.”
For MacArthur and her peers, the year was in many ways what they’d expected, with math lessons. parent conferences. pajama days, and “book battles” designed to improve reading comprehension. They embraced the work that comes with planning, teaching and assessing student progress. Yet they also faced challenges distinct to the pandemic. Chief among them: What do you do when a child doesn’t have the adult supervision needed to navigate the technology required to complete their work at home? How do you keep students attentive, present and invested in their learning when there are limits to what is physically possible? What is the best way to build a sense of community in a classroom where students might not see one another in person?
“The biggest challenge of teaching during a pandemic was finding a way to make the lesson and learning experiences equitable for students who were sitting in front of me, and those who were at home,” said Jordan Daley ’21 , who taught in a hybrid format and work at both Chestnut Hill Middle School in Liverpool, N.Y., and Grant Middle School in Syracuse. “I definitely had to think outside the box when making activities to ensure that virtual students could participate in them as well, which was difficult. I learned how to be flexible while student teaching in a pandemic.
What was most important to all of the Le Moyne students, regardless of where or how they taught, was forming a connection to their students and providing them with an environment that was supportive and enriching. Looking back, Kelly said that, even during this most unusual of circumstances, he was able to do that. He gained essential hands-on experience, grew through the feedback he received from his colleagues, and ensured that his students were supported and challenged.
“My favorite memory from student teaching was seeing improvement in the students who were struggling,” he said. “And knowing that I was able to help them learn was very rewarding.”