I have faced many challenges as a teacher but nothing could have prepared me for the challenge that was and continues to be teaching during a pandemic.
Early teaching in the pandemic was difficult for me. I thrive on the daily interactions with my students and coworkers. I strive to create connections and forge relationships with and between my students, allowing them the comfort needed to create and turn thoughts, ideas, and messages into art. This was all taken temporarily at the onset of the pandemic. My lessons in the first few frantic days lacked authentic engagement and learning. Quickly I realized it was going to take creative problem solving to keep my students at their best. When faced with a challenge my instinct is to get busy, so I got busy. I researched,learned, read, experimented, failed and tried again. We drew on concrete with water and made paint out of coffee and tea. When kids had to stay home I took them into my yard to draw the plants. I took them digitally with me to the empty streets to share public art found throughout our city. We made it authentic, we made it work.
Upon returning to school (hybrid) things were not “back to normal” as hoped for. Everyone felt separated and alone while wearing masks, observing social distancing, and with dividers erected on each table. Connections were again hard to forge. We had to try new activities that could be done collaboratively but with space. With much hilarity we designed and tried different contraptions people could wear to ensure six foot distance. We drew each other's faces on the clear table dividers as we interviewed each other, making the barrier more personal and less divisive while getting to know each other. We explored how the world reacted to the pandemic through street art created around the globe before talking about the physical masks we now wear and the symbolic ones we perhaps have always worn. It wasn’t perfect, but the room started to regain some of its pre-pandemic atmosphere.
Even now teaching in this tentatively post-pandemic world remains changed. I often ponder about what fundamental changes will we each make to our practice using what we have learned? I am excited to face this challenge and navigate this time and to keep finding new ways to help my students use art to create personal and global understanding.
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