Another anything-but-normal school year is coming to a close. It was especially tough for new educators, who had no experience to fall back on and had to ride the pandemic’s tsunami while navigating the already choppy waters of first-year teaching.
To try to capture it all, St. Louis Public Radio asked first-year teachers in the St. Louis region to pick up their phones from time to time and record audio diaries.
We learned that this school year they prepped their classrooms, only to have them sit empty for months. Then they made two sets of lesson plans, one for the students coming to class and another for those still at home. They met some of their students for the first time in April.
Their patience was tested, by bullying, technology and constantly having to nag kids to fix their masks. But they made it to the final day of school and are very, very ready for summer vacation. And most important, they’ve learned and grown and expect to be back at the front of the classroom in the fall.
You can listen back to our first two installments of the teacher diaries here and here.
Follow Ryan on Twitter: @rpatrickdelaney
