K-12 educators have found a renewed sense of optimism and opportunity for the future of education after teaching through the challenges of the pandemic.
K-12 educators have found a renewed sense of optimism and opportunity for the future of education after teaching through the challenges of the pandemic.
In March 2020, K-12 educators found themselves packing up for spring break while hearing murmurs about something called the coronavirus. Most thought school would only be closed for two weeks. They didn’t know they would need to pivot for the next two years.
Oakville High School Principal Jason Buatte, who is studying educational leadership, leaned heavily on Maryville’s Doctor of Education cohort model throughout the pandemic.
“It was great to talk to my classmates and see what their schools were doing with COVID-related policies,” Buatte said. “We had each other to lean on; it was nice to realize it wasn’t just tough for me, it was tough for all educators.”
Alumni of the Educational Leadership Program found themselves leaning on what they had learned from the program to navigate the pandemic, too. Michael Baird, ’18, EdD, principal of Hickey Elementary School, part of Saint Louis Public Schools, thought back to how Maryville taught him how to leverage his strengths as a leader.
“My strength is relationship building. I knew my best access point to lead during the pandemic was to foster relationships with my colleagues,” Baird said. “That meant checking in on them to make sure they were well taken care of — so that they could take care of their students.”
After Wydown Middle School, part of the Clayton School District, transitioned to virtual learning, Assistant Principal Tarita Rhimes, ’20, EdD, realized that some students excelled in the new virtual format, while others struggled.
“It made us step back and think about how our students learn differently from one another,” she said. “For those who were doing well virtually but hadn’t typically thrived in a brick-and-mortar classroom setting, we asked ourselves, ‘What about the virtual learning environment is better for them? What can we do differently for these students in the future?’”
When many schools returned to in-person learning last year, it brought about new challenges as students and faculty alike grappled with their new normal. Back at school, Rhimes found her students to be socializing less and acting out more after having spent so much time learning through a screen. “Students were more subdued. We were prepared for them to be behind academically, but we didn’t expect the lapse they had socially and emotionally,” Rhimes said.
To help with this, Rhimes has implemented activities for her students to participate in during their lunch hour, like a rock-paper-scissors tournament. “I try to remind students that school can be a fun place and encourage them to spend time rebuilding their social skills,” she said.
Baird and his team at Hickey Elementary grappled with similar hurdles. The school’s recent change to a mask-optional policy has made a dramatic difference. “It has been really cool to see our students’ whole faces again. To see them smiling and making facial expressions as they learn is what I missed most.” Some aspects of education, however, may be changed for good.
“I hope we don’t go back to how we did things pre-COVID,” said Rhimes. “We had much more personalized education during the pandemic, and I hope that’s something that stays the same.”
Rhimes, Baird and Buatte agreed that the pandemic highlighted inequities in the education system. “Education cannot return to the way it was pre-pandemic. Now that we know the inequities that surfaced due to the pandemic, we cannot ignore them,” Baird said. “As a leader, I know I have to look at the system as a whole and ask how we’re going to make sure that every student has equitable access to education.”
Being an educator in the time of COVID meant adapting and being flexible, an outcome for which Buatte is grateful. “Before COVID, we often thought of all the reasons why we couldn’t do something. The pandemic taught us that we can pretty much do anything and gave many teachers the courage to try new, creative things,” he said.
Challenging times also created opportunity for Kevin Stokes, EdD, director of the educational leadership program and assistant professor of educational leadership. As a professor in Maryville’s School of Education, he was able to experience both teaching himself and observing other educators navigating pandemic learning.
Early on, he realized that his courses may not be able to cover as much traditional content as usual. Instead, he shifted his approach to make sure students were given the space they needed to work through what was happening in their real lives together. “We weren’t just doing theory,” Stokes said. “We were using the courses as a way to ask, ‘What’s going to happen when I go to work tomorrow, and how can I apply what I’m learning?’”
Looking back, Stokes can see that the past two years weren’t all doom and gloom. Instead, he sees it as a lesson that teaching and learning can happen in many ways. “There is the possibility to make education really exciting based on what we’ve learned from the pandemic,” he said. “We shouldn’t lose that opportunity.”