MOUNT VERNON — Normal schedules for both students and teachers have been thrown for a loop recently with the extended spring break that is currently going into its third week. And both groups are trying to manage to work from home.
A typical school day may last around seven hours, but teachers agree that the students don’t need to be spending that amount of time working on education at home. The time spent working can depend on the grade level as well. Those in middle and high school might spend more time during research for a paper while those in younger grades just need to do a few activities and a few worksheets along with their parents.
Miranda Brennenman, fourth-grade math and social science teacher at East Knox, said that while each student is unique and each has a different home life, she thinks that they should spend about 30 minutes to an hour per core subject per day. Which, according to her, would add up to be anywhere between two to four hours a day. She also mentioned that the teachers are trying their best not to overwhelm the parents or students with work and that they are trying to provide them with the best education they can.
Barnard mentioned that they are trying to adjust the workloads so the students aren’t overwhelmed about the amount of work that they have to get done, but make it so the students are still being able to learn something.
Kayla Chatterton, a freshman honor’s and senior English teacher at Highland, said she understands that the older kids, those in high school and middle school, maybe helping take care of their younger sibling and doing things like making lunch for them.
“I try to give them minimal work,” Chatterton said, adding that working from home isn’t the same as being in a physical school building.
“For my individual classes that I teach, math and career advising, I have asked my students to spend an hour on math and 30 minutes on career advising,” Travis Church, a middle school special education teacher at Highland, said. He mentions that his two sons, a middle schooler and a high schooler, were asked to engage in school activities for 4 hours a day, along with keeping a daily log of what they do.
Students working at home might not get the help they are used to getting in the classroom. The teachers encourage the parents and students to reach out to them if there are questions or if a student needs help.
“Parents are our lifeline and we are theirs,” Mary Davis, a second grade reading specialist at Highland, said. “We are here to help them. We know how difficult it is to be a teacher, let alone during these confusing, overwhelming times.”
Davis said their highest priority as teachers have always been to nurture the family-school connection through multiple forms of communication. Teachers at Highland regularly use the traditional forms of communication along with Google Classroom and REMIND, a mobile messaging platform that is formatted much like a text message.
“We all understand that this process is not perfect and we all are doing our very best to keep a connection with our students both in an academic and mental/emotional manner,” Church said.
Working from home isn’t easy for most of the teachers. Both the students and teachers are missing out on social interactions with each other, the seniors especially.
“Granted it’s nice to be home,” Chatterton said, mentioning that she does like being able to enjoy her lunch and a cup of coffee. “But I would love to be back in the classroom.”
She said that it’s hard to see her students struggling with isolation. A school is a place where they socialize and be with friends. Teachers, Chatterton said, care deeply about their students. One thing she’s been doing is checking in on her students’ mental health as well as their academics.
“I miss my students, and while I believe teachers are doing a wonderful job trying to adjust to this new situation, it’s not the same as being in person with them,” Barnard said. “It’s different working from home. It’s stressful. We’re worried about our students and the world... And I feel so bad for seniors. They are missing fun things, senior trips and projects. I think they’re going to be resilient and grow from this experience.”
“We know this is not easy,” Brennenman said. “This isn’t easy for us, we had to say good-bye to our students on March 16 not knowing if we would see them again until next school year. It was heartbreaking for students and teachers alike.”