Written by: Delmarice Price, Class of 2021
“What a great time to be student teaching.” That statement was said by every teacher that I met last week. With colleges and public schools starting this week amidst a global pandemic, we are sure to see some unique circumstances that the world would have never thought of. One particular COVID-specific situation that I, and many of my peers, find myself in is student teaching. Normally, getting real world experience teaching in front of students comes with its own set of anxieties, but with the added bonus of hybrid or online classes, districts not having comprehensive plans until a few weeks ago, and social distancing, student teachers (and their cooperating teachers) have to traverse a whole new set of challenges that raise the anxiety levels.
I am fortunate enough to be placed in the East Brunswick school district, which I believe is the only district in the county to have in person classes to some compacity. Their plan up until winter break is to have in person classes Monday through Thursday for half of the day and online classes for the other half, and Fridays are completely online. They split the kids that are doing hybrid classes up into two cohorts that rotate every other day. This semester I am teaching 4th and 5th grade beginning band pull out lessons that only last 30 minutes. You can see how this can be a problem. How am I supposed to teach students how to play their instruments when a majority is fully online and when I do get to see students, it has to be socially distanced? As many of you know, when having a lesson on your instrument no matter the level, your teacher is always close to see what small issues you may be having. On top of that, my coop teacher travels between four schools, so to cut down on exposure she been restricted to traveling between schools on a weekly basis. So basically, I will see students from a school in person once a month. Imagine when you were just starting out on your instrument, how far would you have gotten knowing that you would only have someone to help you in person once a month? To combat that, our main focus of our lessons will be online so that we can use that short in person time to workshop students in specific areas. I’m excited for this semester but also completely terrified because I am learning at a time when nobody knows what they are doing.
Next semester I am supposed to be in the High School teaching band, but I have no clue how that’s going to work. With the elementary students, they get pulled out of their classes to have small group lessons. With the high school kids, band is the class! If we’re still in quarantine mode by January (which wouldn’t surprise me), how are we supposed to run an ensemble while social distancing and some students being fully online? Apparently East Brunswick high school had a successful summer band camp in person, so maybe I am just worrying for no reason. Hopefully soon we can get back to a sense of normalcy, but in the meantime, all I can do is try to have a successful semester in these unprecedented times.
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