During the pandemic, with so many kids being homeschooled or interacting with their teachers online, it has been heartwarming and humorous to see everyone from late-night hosts to friends on Facebook saying, for example, that while they appreciated their children’s teachers before, they now believe teachers should make seven-figure salaries. But the jokes underlie the dramatic shift that COVID-19 has caused in our educational system in just a couple of months, and the struggles that parents, teachers, and students are facing in adapting to this new paradigm.

Despite the unique challenges individual schools, communities, and families are facing, there are some things we can all do to help teachers provide students with the best possible education under these circumstances. We asked a few teachers in different types of schools across the country, with a variety of challenges and technology access, for their views on the shift to remote learning and how we can support them.

Kerri Bisaga is a high school special education teacher in the metro Boston area; Jessica Thomas is a fourth-grade teacher in Wichita Public Schools; and Lawrence Liu is a high school Chinese and US Government teacher at Washington Latin Public Charter School in Washington, DC.

What have you been most surprised by in this abrupt shift to “remote” learning?

Kerri Bisaga: I think many teachers have learned that while our students adore and are often addicted to technology, their functional technology skills are actually very low. In my role as a special educator for students with mild/moderate disabilities, I’m normally able to spend time with students in small groups, where it’s easy for me to offer computer support efficiently. Without this daily, in-person computer support, the transition has been especially stressful for students with learning disabilities.

Jessica Thomas: How unprepared we were for it in a lot of ways. We often don't have consistent ways of communicating with families, because they often change phone numbers and addresses, and this lack of communication really was an obstacle to overcome in the shift to remote learning.

Lawrence Liu: In some cases, for several students who struggled the most during the school year, they have risen to the occasion and used this as an opportunity to reset and focus on academics. That has been great! It’s possible that the constraints of distance learning have provided certain students with more structure and fewer distractions and our school has been great about providing a consistent curriculum structure across disciplines and leaning into our most struggling students to support and encourage them at this time.

What would you most like nonteachers to know about teaching right now?

KB: I’d like them to know that I am, in fact, still teaching! While my schedule is more flexible right now than it’s ever been in a traditional school setting, I am putting in the same amount of effort and hours.

JT: How learning looks right now is going to vary from district to district and even from family to family. Educators are trying our best to help students and families have access to learning tools, but it is ultimately up to families to structure learning for their children.

LL: Teachers are putting in a lot of effort into figuring out how to adapt and do their best teaching in this new environment. I have attended numerous professional development sessions on using various technology tools to teach and I continue to experiment with how best to produce interesting content and run live classes online in a way that maximizes student accountability. We’re trying to strike the balance between conveying important substantive content while making it interesting and entertaining in light of the fact that it is a wholly online platform. I’ve dressed up, played music, and pretended like it was a TV show all in a bid to retain interest in ways that match the medium.

What has been most difficult for you and for your students?

KB: Motivation, for both me and my students! My career as a teacher normally lends itself to a really routine-oriented lifestyle, but right now it feels like I’m a first-year teacher all over again. Many of my students are having a hard time just getting out of bed before midafternoon and stopping themselves from endlessly scrolling on social media. Our district has also chosen to grade students pass/fail, which takes away a bit of extrinsic motivation for students who were doing well to begin with.