Over the last few weeks, schools across Ohio have been looking pretty much the same - empty desks, and empty hallways.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the school year to a screeching halt, and teachers needed to find a way to make sure that their students could still get an education. For many, like the teachers at Delphos St. John's, that meant setting up their lessons online.
That brings a whole new world of challenges, especially for teachers of younger students. "We’re still trying to use our workbook pages but adapting them into a Google slide where they can edit it themselves, and using videos so they can watch the video first and then go to the assignment; we’ve also gotten into reading chapter books and answering questions that way too," said Melissa Myers, a 3rd-grade teacher at St. John's "Those kids still need their parents to help them do all of that, so that’s where we really appreciate the parents side of it too."
On the high school side, it's much of the same, with teachers using websites like Zoom to talk with students directly in real-time.
The adjustment of moving online has brought teachers at St. John's together - not only for their students, but for each other, too.
"All the teachers are continuing to struggle with virtual reality distance learning, but it’s wonderful to see the teachers are working together," said Sr. Elayne Bockey, Spanish teacher for St. John's. "Every day I get about four emails from my colleagues saying 'This is a good thing to try, have you tried this?'"
As a Catholic school, St. Johns had to figure out not only how to provide not only the academic side of their students' education, but the faith side, as well. Their solution was to continue to hold their weekly school masses, minus the students.
"Normally on a normal school week, we will have an elementary mass on Thursday and a high school mass on Friday," said St. John's high school principal Adam Lee. "We are fortunate enough that we have a live stream camera in our church, so after a little bit of a thought process and talking with our religion teachers, why not keep that same schedule for students, and provide a sense of normalcy for them."
And the biggest thing that the teachers we spoke with miss? Seeing their students every day, and seeing the smiles on their faces.
