CLAY COUNTY – As teachers around the nation transition their classrooms online, educators and students are being schooled on the nuances of live-streaming classes, working on a computer for hours and the lack of one-on-one contact.

“There’s definitely been highs and lows and a lot of new adjustments to acclimate to,” Jennifer Moore said, a sixth-grade teacher of Coppergate School of the Arts. “I have never been one to sit for hours at the computer, but that is what I find myself doing these days. I spend hours planning how I can make my lessons more engaging and interesting without the human factor.”

Moore said teaching is all about making the subject, no matter what it is, enjoyable with a presentation that keeps students engaged. She said she worries about that engagement now that she isn’t there to “sell” just how amazing ancient Rome is online like she’d be able to in a classroom. Teaching across the board has dramatically changed as a result of schools moving online during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Providing feedback to students has grown increasingly difficult as not only does it take more time for each student, but Moore’s not there to work through the problem. An email isn’t the same as a discussion in-person. Despite the hurdles of online communication, Moore said she’s answering emails, messages and questions at all hours of the day and night. As a teacher that was already using many of the distance learning materials provided by the district, transitioning to an online classroom wasn’t too difficult for Moore although it did come with its own set of challenges.

“One of the biggest hurdles the district faced as we were preparing to transition to virtual instruction was access to technology,” Moore said. “They distributed thousands of chromebooks to students throughout the country, but therein lies additional struggles. Even if a home has Wi-Fi, which not all of my students’ homes have, many parents don’t understand how to use the chromebooks their [child or children] have brought [home].”

She said some students have been struggling with the task of doing more online as they don’t have their teacher with them to model out the necessary steps to reach the solution.

“I’d also say that now that we are relying solely on remote learning, the country’s digital divides are exposed and we will see the students who were already the most vulnerable to falling behind facing even more hurdles to keep pace,” Moore said.

Some of Moore’s sixth graders have adapted well to the online classroom, but she said others are struggling. Some students are bored or lonely, she said. It’s also much easier to hide in a digital world than in a traditional classroom setting.

“And for some students, regardless of their academic performance ability, the school really is their family,” Moore said. “School is one constant many of my students could always count on. Now that is gone. They no longer have those external structures, those external supports in place to help them be successful.”

She said she feels its way easier for students to fall behind or procrastinate in an online setting which is why she tries to make herself available all hours of the day.

“Whether it’s to talk them through an assignment or if they just need someone to listen, I want to be there for them,” she said.

When teachers left school on March 13, it was with the expectation that they’d see their students and fellow teachers again 48 hours later, just as they would after any weekend. With all schools closed for the rest of the school year, students and teachers have no real idea of when they’ll see each other again.

“I feel especially for our sixth graders, eighth graders and high school seniors who will not be returning to their current school as a student again,” Moore said. “There’s no last day or school or a final goodbye. There was an, ‘I’ll see you Monday,’ instead. There’s not going to be that closure that comes with the traditional last day of school.

“We teachers feel a love for our students that’s hard for other people to imagine. They become our families each year and we love them fiercely, even when they can’t follow through or act out or don’t do the work. We love them.”

Moore said she’s noticed the excitement of “not going to school” has worn off. The first week of online learning, students were actively online every day. She said that now, the majority of them are only actively online two to three days a week.

“I think teachers and students are in similar places when it comes to morale,” Moore said. “We are all missing the same things – face-to-face conversations, seeing each other out in town, that sense of community that comes from spending the majority of the day together for months on end. The built-in collaboration and community of a traditional school are irreplaceable, though getting to wear slippers and yoga pants at my virtual faculty meetings does make morale a little better.”

The district provides on-demand professional development for teachers via a virtual platform to help ease the stress and anxiety for teachers entering uncharted technology territories, or just feeling disheartened about being out of the classroom away from their students, according to Moore.

The Clay County School District uses Google products for its online learning so software programs like Google Classroom, Google Meets, Google Hangouts and others have taken the stage. The process in how each teacher uses these programs and runs their online classroom varies from teacher to teacher, Moore said, because there isn’t a singular defined structure as the district understands that schools are made up of teachers with different commands and understandings of technology platforms and resources.

As the nation continues to work its way through the coronavirus pandemic, things like school, work and other mainstay facets of our lives will continue to change. Moore said she wants students around the district to know that teachers haven’t gone anywhere.

“I think it’s safe to say that teachers in Clay County and everywhere want students to know that we haven’t gone anywhere,” Moore said. “We are merely waiting in the wings until it’s safe enough to be back in the classroom, and that once they’re our students, they’re always our students.”