‘I miss them so much,’ but Bellingham elementary teachers coping with online teaching

Bellingham Public Schools elementary school teachers have been figuring out how to keep their students connected as the new coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of classrooms across the country.

After two months of online instruction, Sunnyland Elementary School fifth grade teacher Kate Larocque said that people are still settling into this new reality.

“I think people are starting to get used to things,” Larocque said. “I think really it’s just what’s been working is that we had time to try to figure things out. There are still some kids we’re catching up and still trying to get online.

“I think what’s been working most for me is knowing that there are other fifth grade teachers out there that are figuring this out.”

Apart from not being able to see their students on a regular basis, teachers including Birchwood Elementary School first grade teacher Erin Eckley don’t have much online experience and were thrown into a whole new world when the transition happened.

“I’ve spent so much of my career working to be a good classroom teacher and now I’m an online teacher and it’s a whole new set of skills,” Eckley said. “New things are exciting, but new things can be frustrating too. Early on I was like, ‘I didn’t sign up for this. This is not the job I signed up for.’”

Both Larocque and Eckley are part of the district’s pilot program of using Zoom for class-wide meetings instead of just posting lessons and assignment plans online. Only a handful of teachers are using it but Eckley said it has made a positive impact so far.

“We’ve had a lot of success,” Eckley said. “I had 17 kiddos on a Wednesday and our kids are craving connection with their peers. It was so amazing to see their expressions and to just see how much they need each other.”

Larocque concurred, saying that while they’re grateful to be able to post lessons online using the program Seesaw, it doesn’t have the same intimacy that classroom teaching does.

“What’s hard about Seesaw is that, yes, kids can post videos and kids can post full voice recordings, but it’s not that real-time connection,” Larocque said. “I think all of us are really missing that.

“The Zoom meetings have been super, super positive and it’s so bittersweet because you’re so happy to see those kids. And at the same time, I’m ready to break into tears because I miss them so much.”

Eckley says that while everyone has to adapt to these circumstances, she realizes that not all of them are in the same situation.

“We’re actually not all in the same boat. We’re all in different boats, but we’re all in the same storm,” Eckley said. “And that makes such sense looking at just the variety of circumstances all of my families are dealing with, including myself.”

Early Childhood Specialist Nina Ballew stepped out of the classroom five years ago, but has been working closely with other teachers in the district to make sure they have what they need to help their students learn remotely.

“We were really working collaboratively and closely to make sure that all that learning was somehow aligned and would be put out to teachers in a unified way that would make sense,” Ballew said.

Ballew said that she hopes parents realize that kids won’t fall behind the learning curve because of the change in learning, and hopes the term “kindergarten readiness” will not be used as much.

“It’s just not the child’s job to get ready for school. It’s our job to be ready for them,” Ballew said. “In any grade, not just kindergarten, it’s the teacher’s job to be ready for kids. They’re not behind. They’re not losing learning right now. What an opportunity to like go outside and just learn family routines or whatever.

“They’re going to come back perfectly where they need to be and we’ll be ready for them however they are.”