Masks, Social Distancing, & Lots of Sanitizer - the New Education System

“Educators are always good at juggling challenges and facing adversities...but this is on a different level.” Twenty-one years. That’s the amount of time Jessyca South has spent in a classroom teaching. Twenty-one years of educating children. She says it was not always a breeze, but no other year has presented as much of a challenge.

South teaches middle schoolers for the North Putnam School Corporation. “We are currently teaching in-person" South states.

For North Putnam, classrooms that were once filled with laughter and the eagerness to learn are now filled with kids peering over their masks and muffled voices struggling to break the barrier. Perhaps the classrooms are not even full at all. Some sit empty, as the old desks grow cold from lack of use and last year's banners cling to the walls.

COVID-19 has presented challenges that will likely alter the education system forever. As teachers have had to overcome many obstacles, they have also developed new and alternative methods of doing things.

South says “we can say "goodbye" to the Snow Day. Any day that school is postponed or cancelled will now be an e-learning day.” As students grew accustomed to online education, teachers became more comfortable working with it.

In fact, online deems to result in greater success for some students. “I can see students who struggle in the traditional classroom now seeing that they can move virtual and thriving more” states Chase Hiland, a longtime educator for North Putnam.

North Putnam School Board member and Trustee, Mark Hoke believes that “the potential is there for classroom instruction to become more virtual in nature when needed and for the teachers to use e-learning and online platforms as part of their daily instructional techniques.”

At first, transitioning to virtual classes was trying. For South “It was such a challenging and stressful time.” She continued, when the pandemic first broke out in March, “we had zero time to plan.” Now, months into the pandemic and online schooling seems more practical and even preferable.

For South, she feels that in-person classes are putting her at risk. She explains, “My anxiety is high on a daily basis. I worry about my parents. I haven't hugged my mom in over 8 months.” She’s not the only one.

According to Hiland, he feels that the school corporation has “put people at risk so they can feel good about how we’re the last school to go virtual.”

Fear for health is just one major reason why remote learning could become a permanent player in the education curriculum. Though, it is not the only change this pandemic has brought to the system.

For schools that have chosen to resume in-person meetings, health is a major priority. At North Putnam, all faculty, staff and students have been extra careful when it comes to health and sanitation.

One significant difference that could be expected to remain a part of education post-pandemic is masks. Before COVID-19 “masks” could have been considered a foreign object around the classrooms and through the halls. All of that has changed.

As suggested by the CDC, “students and staff wear masks all day,” says South. She goes on, “We provide masks for students who don't have one.” This is just one extra health measure that North Putnam expects to stay around.

South gives detail about the changes around her classroom. “Desks are arranged 3 feet or more away from each other. We spray down our classrooms between rotations. Students must bring water from home” because the fountains at school are shut off to reduce contact.

Hiland too has noticed a change in health precautions. “The school system, as of lately with the spike in COVID, has been more reactive in limiting infected students from intermingling with non-infected.”

The extra measures that have been taken to maintain well-being this year are likely around to stay. According to Hoke, maintenance and janitorial staff have “done an awesome job of cleaning and sanitizing the school so the COVID cases stay at a minimum.” Before the pandemic the health of students was always a considerable factor, but now things are on a whole new level.

Both Hiland, and South foresee extra sanitation measures carrying over into the future. Hiland “can definitely see a higher level of sanitation precautions being something that moves into the future—with support from all involved in education, especially with the sanitation of student work surfaces in shared classrooms.” South agrees as she does “think that is one of many precautions that will remain commonplace in schools.”

Quarantining is another obstacle that has potentially altered the education system forever. Pre-COVID, when a student was sick North Putnam sent them home, typically for a day or two. Once the student felt better, they returned to school. The fact that the student could have been still carrying the illness, and spreading it through the school, was not a great concern.

Now, living through a worldwide pandemic, the North Putnam Faculty and staff are much more conscious of spreading illnesses. Students, faculty and staff of North Putnam have had to partake in quarantining. Hiland shared that “As of recent, our high school had over 100 students in quarantine, which is over 20% of the population.”

This is a concept that the school had never considered before. And in the eyes of South, it can be a trying task. “We do contact tracing and follow the health department recommendations...even though they are ever-changing,” she said.

Hiland went on to add, “In most cases, an infected student will attend, which will then trigger a mandatory quarantine of staff and students who came into close contact with the infected person.”

According to numerous studies, quarantine helps control the spread of COVID-19. Not only is it effective for the pandemic we are experiencing now, but the concept would also help maintain the spread of other illnesses if it were something the education continued post-pandemic.

Overall, 2o2o has been a roller coaster of a year for a lot of people. It has taken a rather grand toll on the education system. The pandemic has introduced new concepts and methods that hadn’t previously been considered by North Putnam. But now, the school corporation has grown and adjusted to many of the changes, especially the ones that are likely to alter the layout of their curriculum for years to come.