Judy R., 33 years of teaching; The challenges to Teaching over time and Post-Covid., Hist 150 Spring 2023, Conducted by Caroline Rhem, March 23, 2023.

Overview to Social Change Interview

This social change interview, conducted on March 23^rd,2023, was an incredibly fascinating way to get a good friend of mine’s perspective on her role as an educator in today’s climate. While I could have asked Judy a plethora of questions regarding her profession, I stuck to the ones that held the most prevalence in society today. These topics include post-Covid education regarding behavior, mental health, and education levels. I also asked a few questions about the impending teacher shortage along with gun-violence within the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted and influenced education forever. This worldwide health crisis forced students to learn virtually, forever impeding necessary educational and social skills. While remote learning was an essential remedy during the pandemic, it also brought attention to the access and quality gaps in education that still exist. Historically, accesses to equal education had been a prevalent issue, especially for disadvantaged groups, like those of lower socioeconomic status, and race. The famous Brown v. Board of Education case, which took place in the United States in 1954, paved the door for school desegregation and greater access to education for people of color. Nevertheless, there are still large disparities in educational outcomes and access, particularly for disadvantaged communities. When touching on teacher shortages, it is important to note that this is not a new issue in the 21^st century. In fact, this trend has been increasing for decades now. There have been times of teacher scarcity throughout history, which are frequently correlated with social and economic issues. For instance, a lack of skilled teachers resulted from the military draft of many teachers during World War II. In several regions of the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, a wave of retirements caused a teacher shortage. Currently, a variety of factors, such as low pay, high levels of stress, and a lack of support from administrators and policymakers, are contributing to teacher shortages. Finally, there is a lengthy historical background to the issue of violence in classrooms. Since many years ago, school violence has been a problem, with anything from bullying to major shootings. At a Virginia elementary school in 2023, a 6-year-old shot his teacher. On December 14, 2012, Adam Peter Lanza, 20, is believed to have carried out the most vicious and mindless attack on a school in American history. When Lanza attacked Sandy Hook Elementary School, he shocked the Connecticut community of Newtown. Before entering the school, where he killed 26 people and injured two more, Lanza killed his mother before this incident as well. The bulk of his victims were children, between the ages of five and ten. Since then, there have been many more well-publicized instances of school violence, which have improved security precautions and raised awareness of the problem. However, many teachers and parents continue to be concerned about classroom violence, and it continues to be difficult to find solutions to this difficult issue. My interview intersects with a few that are already existent on this website. On of which is “Teaching Elementary Scholl During the Covid-19 Pandemic”. This is well-discussed and covers a range of subtopics I discussed with Judy. Some of which include, the transition to online school, the lack of engagement during online schooling, and life after asynchronous education. Not only does this interview give a first-hand account of what it was like for educators, but also features how COVID-19 impacted elementary aged students.

Biography:

Judy R. (She/her/hers) was born on July 19^th, 1968, in Greenville, NC. Judy studied at Longwood College in Virgina for her BS degree, at Old Dominion University for her master’s degree, and at the University of Virginia for her EDs degree. In 1990, Judy began teaching at Deep Creek Primary school, located in Chesapeake, VA, as a second and third grade reading teacher. Three years later she moved to Deep Creek Elementary as a third-grade teacher and has been teaching for a total of thirty-three years.

Research:

My research indicates that in many ways, the current education system is failing its teachers and students. The breaking point it all could be said to started on March 11th, 2020. On this day, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. Schools shut down, businesses closed, and social life was put to a halt. Now in 2023, almost three years after the pandemic, life is back to “normal”, except now we are seeing drastic changes in administration, behavior, social skill and even education levels. It is argued that the readjustment to in person schools is the hardest part of post-covid life. While some schools were able to maintain in-person instruction, others had to quickly adapt to virtual learning, and many had to offer a combination of both. This has taken a toll on K-12 teachers, who are working longer hours without additional compensation, support from administrative positions, and they are facing mental exhaustion from concerns about safety and behavior within students.

I was curious about how specifically Virginia education is creating a challenging environment for its educators and students. Upon researching, I came across a recent news article regarding a six-year-old student who shot his teacher in Newport News, Virginia. The teacher in Newport News, who was shot in class by her 6-year-old student, claims the shooter had a history of acting violently at school. She also accused the assistant principal of the school of failing to take action despite being repeatedly informed that the student was carrying a gun. This is an ongoing issue in Virginia public schools. Ninety percent of Virginia’s early childhood educators who participated in a survey said their classrooms or childcare settings had at least one kid who displayed problematic behavior.  Also, the teachers said that they typically had four students that exhibited difficult behavior or a behavior pattern that interferes with the student’s ability to play, study, and connect with others. With little to no help from administration, or the city, classrooms are becoming dangerous in the state of Virginia.

There is also a major issue regarding learning loss and lack of outside support, thus leading to a decrease in educators overall. After the COVID-19 pandemic, statistics and studies suggest that Virginia’s teacher population has shrunk, become unhappier, and has fewer qualifications than in the past.

Although most school divisions continued to operate either entirely or partially remote during the COVID-19 pandemic, early data from Virginia schools indicated that more kids were having academic problems. It’s a worry that educators have expressed as they continued to learn about online learning. The Virginia Department of Education polled 132 local districts, and 40 of them identified failing pupils as the worst problem with remote learning, ranking it above even reliable internet connectivity, which was the top concern for around 35 divisions. 43% of participants in a sample of about 3,000 teachers in Virginia reported verbal abuse and lewd gestures from students, and about 3% of participants reported physical assaults by students. These rates of violence and lack of engagement are quite troubling and may be a factor in teachers and other school employees deciding to leave or transfer.

Transcript:

Caroline R. 0:07
This is a digitally recorded video with Judy R. the interviews conducted by Caroline Rhem via zoom recording on March 23, 2023, at approximately 5:03pm.

All right, how are you doing?

Judy R. 0:25
I’m well, how are you?

Caroline R. 0:26
I’m good. So, I’m just going to ask you a series of questions regarding your time as a teacher, and just your reflections on it. So first off, why did you strive to become a teacher?

Judy R. 0:42
Well, interesting story. When I went to college, I had not set out to become a teacher, I actually went to college as a business major. After spending a year in business, I realized that that was not really a passionate path for myself and felt the only reason I chose in business was because my father was in business. And what I truly wanted to do was I wanted to be a teacher. I knew I wanted to be a teacher, because I wanted to share my love of learning with children. I feel I just have this knack where I can teach children. It just seems to be a perfect fit for me.

Caroline R. 1:24
So, would you say the reason you wanted to become a teacher has stayed true over the past 33 years?

Judy R. 1:30
Yes, I absolutely would say it’s stayed true. And the reason why I can tell you it stayed true. I went back to college, and I got a master’s degree in curriculum and development, which is still my passion. Then I continued my education, again, to earn my EDS degree in the year 2000. And my EDS [Specialized Education Program] degree is in administration. And as you can see, it’s now the year 2023. And I am still in the classroom, and I’m in the classroom by choice. I never felt that I was ready to leave the classroom to enter into the administration role. So, I’m still teaching children today.

Caroline R. 2:17
Okay, kind of going off a little bit, how do you feel about the themes of gender? How do you feel that the themes of gender and education intersect?

Judy R. 2:33
Well, seeing that I am teaching at the elementary level, I don’t know that that’s really something that impacts my teaching. I feel maybe middle and high school probably deal with that more so. But I don’t feel like that that’s an issue for me as an elementary teacher.

Caroline R. 2:53
Okay. From when you first started teaching, how drastically has the curriculum changed?

Judy R. 3:03
Well, I would say the curriculum has definitely changed over the last 33 years, I’ve been in education, but I don’t know that I would say it’s been a drastic change. Since I am a teacher in the state of Virginia, we do have standards of learning that we have to follow for each subject area that we teach. And over the years, we have lost some of the SOL [ Standards of Learning] topics that we started teaching. But we’ve also gained a few new ones that we didn’t always teach.

Caroline R. 3:34
Okay, so would you say or what reforms, if any, have you seen over the past 30 or 33 years that you don’t necessarily agree with? In talking about changing with curriculum and so forth?

Judy R. 3:52
Um, scores, changing curriculum. repeat your question one more time for me.

Caroline R. 4:01
What reforms, if any, have you seen over the past 30 years that you don’t necessarily agree with? This can be within like the curriculum, or within the administration, or within anything as teaching as a whole?

Judy R. 4:15
Well, I mean, obviously, when the standardized testing rolled out, you know, that was a big change for education. And I don’t necessarily think that the Standards of Learning should be completely demolished and gotten rid of. However, I do feel that sometimes the amount of the standards that we have to teach I think sometimes it’s way too much, especially down in the elementary level. There is so many other things that we have to deal with in our classroom this day in time that it sometimes makes it difficult to get through the curriculum at the pace that the city expects you to get through. Now being that I am such a seasoned educator, I am not one that flips out when I’m behind of course, as the city expects me to be at a certain place. That doesn’t bother me so much, because I know that when the time comes for the Standards Test that my kids will definitely be prepared for it. So, I try not to let the pacing that’s put out to me, make me want to rush because I’m behind where everyone else is. Because again, I feel like as a seasoned educator, I know what these kids need. And I know how long it takes to teach some of the concepts.

One thing about the curriculum too, just to give an example where I felt like there’s almost too much they try to cram in, for us as teachers to teach is, third grade is the grade that I teach. And multiplication is a brand-new skill that we teach in third grade. Now granted, multiplication does come off the premise of repeated addition and repeated subtraction. But when you get a group of children who don’t know addition facts, they don’t know subtraction facts, and you as the third-grade teacher are given exactly a four-week period of time to teach all multiplication and division facts, including those that would be found in word problems. That’s just a little much to put out for a third grader. So again,

Caroline R. 6:20
Could you repeat that last part? It glitched out.

Judy R. 6:23
The curriculum and the expectations, I said that for third graders to expect them to learn their multiplication facts in a one month, a four-week period is unrealistic. They’re not going to get the multiplication facts learned. So, as a matter of fact, we’re going on, gosh, I guess it’s been four months since the facts were introduced. And I still have students who don’t have their multiplication facts memorized. And therefore, when they don’t have those done, then it impacts them when we go to teach fractions, because they don’t know the multiplication facts.

Caroline R. 6:58
Interesting. So, in talking about education impacting children, have you seen any drastic changes in education levels with students post COVID [coronavirus disease 2019]?

Judy R. 7:10
Oh, wow, yes, I definitely have. I think the changes that I’ve seen in the education level of students probably will go back to that first year after school shut down in March of 2020. So, the following school year, which was the 2020-21 school year, was the first year that our district gave parents the option of either doing what we called in school instruction, or they could choose virtual instruction. Now, one difference between the two was the length of the day, the virtual instruction day was shorter in my division than it was for the in-school instruction day. I feel in my opinion, the school, well, let me rephrase that. I feel the students who actually attended the in person learning, I feel that they, given the circumstances, they’re trying to learn social distancing, they’re trying to learn how to cope with a mask, not understanding that they can’t be close to classmates and even close to their teacher, because at the elementary level, they’re so used to being close hugging us and that was a big step for them.

But I think given that group of kids that I had that year, they did fantastic. They were able to, with some reminders every now and again, I mean, even when they played, they couldn’t play together, they had to play in their own little box that was drawn on the, you know, the grass for them to play. But I think overall, they did do okay, given the circumstances. But to go back into thinking about how the virtual children, I just think, choosing the virtual education as an option for the elementary children was not the best option for them. The most, I guess, academic change that I saw was the following school year, which would have been last year, the 2021-2022 school year. This was when we no longer offered our virtual instruction, all students were coming for in person instruction. And as an educator last year, I could clearly pick out my students with not looking at a roster of them and where they were from the previous year, but I could tell you by just the class performance, that which of my students who weren’t virtual and who those who actually attended in person learning.

The virtual students were extremely low. And as a historical record, when it comes to test scores, we always find ourselves our kids are much lower in reading and higher and math. But last year in particular, everything was flipped. They were so much weaker in math and the reading was not terrible. Which was nice for us. Ah, but the lack of their math skills and their math knowledge was just unbelievable. And it required a lot of reteaching a lot, especially to those virtual students. I don’t think virtual education, especially when it comes to math was probably the best choice for elementary. I wish there could have been another way where maybe they could have somehow figured out to come in person for math. I don’t I don’t know what the answer is. But I do feel like, and the instructional part is not the only thing that we’re going to have to deal with here in the next few years as post COVID. Because not only mentioning the academics, I think this particular school year, obviously, all these children, if you will, are at the same place, all attended second grade last year. So, they all were quote in person learning.

But what I’ve noticed with this group of children is the impact on their social skills. They are really struggling with social skills. This year’s class, this is third grade again, so we’re talking eight-year-olds and nine-year-olds, we’ve got children that are screaming, they’re yelling, I mean, basically taking on the role of acting like toddlers. They, something doesn’t go their way they have complete meltdowns, they have no coping skills whatsoever to deal with conflict. They don’t like to be told “no”, from an adult. And their reactions are just unbelievable when you think of the classroom setting things that I’ve never in all my years of teaching, ever experience, to have kids screaming and yelling. And I have to say, I am fortunate that I don’t have these screaming and yelling and temper tantrum throwing children. But I observe it all around me every day, I hear it in the classroom next door for me. I think that these children have a lot to grow and learn as far as the social emotional learning. They lack that. And I can’t say their parents are much better, I feel their parents are probably about the same way with them. Because obviously, they learned that it’s okay for them to scream and yell. And throw a fit and you know, hit and whatever they need to do, because the parents are allowing that to happen. Parents, even in communicating with teachers, post COVID, rude, demanding nasty the emails they send to teachers, yelling at teachers, I mean, things I never encountered in the past. And you just stand back, and you think, well, now I know why the child acts the way they do.

It’s all a learned behavior. And I think a lot of these kids are really reaching out and needing someone to give them the attention that they lack at home. And as an educator, it’s hard for me to try to draw the line between I’ve got to teach this child, I’ve got to raise this child. But I’ve also got to teach them at the same time. And that was one thing. I feel even as a as a veteran teacher I’m struggling with. Because I can’t do both in a school day. I will love your child; I will do everything I can. But I have to figure out what I’m going to leave out. And unfortunately, sometimes it’s my academics that get pushed to the side, because I’m trying to teach the child how they need to react in different situations. And that you know, crying and having a meltdown over it is not going to be helpful to them.

Caroline R. 13:41
Okay, so now that we’ve touched on kind of how education, behavior and like just overall social impairments are within children. Um, how would you say that, in what ways have you had to adapt your overall classroom with the physical classroom or learning style to suit the post COVID education?

Judy R. 14:09
I believe one of the biggest things that I’ve had to do this year in my classroom adaptation is there’s been multiple seats changing. And that is not something that I had to do a lot in the past, I may have changed seats maybe four times during the school year. And I find that the children, they don’t have the skills to cope with people, if they didn’t want to sit next to them. They make it clearly obvious. And so I think my classroom I’ve had to do a lot of seats changing to try to make sure personalities are working with each other. I also, you know, don’t always jump to move a seat just because there’s a problem. I try to let the children work the problem out because again, I’m trying to teach them that you’ve got to learn to get along and you’re going to be with people that you might not care for. But you have to learn how to get along with those people.

I also think part of my personal problem is, I wear my heart on my sleeve. And I want all my children to succeed. And I don’t understand sometimes, if I’m working so hard for my children, why their parents aren’t working so hard at home with them. Parents have been reached out multiple times, I’ve asked for help at home, and it just seems to fall on deaf ears. So, I feel like all of the children’s success or failure falls to me. And I know that that’s not the way it should be for me. But I just think that these children just don’t have the skills to cope. They don’t have the parental support at home and so therefore, as me with everything that I had the expectations for, I feel like I have to, I have to fix everything. And I just simply can’t fix everything. And I’ve really, really struggled with that this year. Excuse me one second.

Okay, sorry about that.

Caroline R. 16:15
Okay, and moving on. From previous conversations that we’ve briefly had, um, we’re going to discuss a little bit about the teacher shortage that we’re seeing today. What would you say are some of the leading causes of the shortage in today’s time?

Judy R. 16:35
Hmm. I think for today, and my opinion to completely that there is a lack of support for teachers from building administration. Building administration says, well, they don’t get the support they need from downtown or the district. And my younger teachers, I think it’s harder for them. Because they don’t have the experience behind figuring out how they can deal with situations, how they can handle them.

A second reason, I think teacher shortages is due to the behavior of the students, there’s no consequences. There’s few to no suspensions giving to students, and I’m talking students with major behavior issues. I’m talking about students who were cussing out teachers, fighting in the classroom, just getting up and literally walking out of the classroom, the disrespectfulness to them. Teachers work really hard to prepare lessons that are engaging and fun for these children and when you feel there’s nobody there to support you and help you when you have issues in your classroom, I think that really puts a bad taste in teachers mouths.

I think a third reason teachers are leaving, and there’s going to be a shortage if it doesn’t already happen today is that if a student does get sent out and does get sent to the office, for one reason or another, they’re not there very long and when the student returns, they’re returning with candy. They’ve got lollipops, and they’ve got smiles on their faces. Like they’ve just had the best time of their life, even though they were pulled out of the teacher’s room, because they were disrupting instruction. And often the same children and they’ll say, “Can I go to the office?”, because they have learned that if I go to the principal’s office, if I go to the assistant principal’s office, I’m going to get a reward, I’m going to get some candy, I’m going to get a free time away from my teacher in the learning environment.

And finally, I think probably the fourth is going to be the lack of parental support. The lack of parental support goes hand in hand with the lack of respect, the way parents are communicating to teachers, as I mentioned earlier, the nasty emails, threatening emails. Basically, these kids are just they’re on their own. They’re going to have to learn how to figure it out on their own, because the parental support is definitely lacking.

Caroline R. 19:11
Oh, okay. Would you say, or what events in the past, would you say have led up to the shortage we are seeing today? Are there any events? What are your thoughts on that?

Judy R. 19:29
I would think the shortages in the past are probably less than what they are within the last year or two. And I also think the teacher shortage, it’s going to be increasing. I think it’s going to be increasing to where people are just going to be blown away when there’s nobody to teach anymore. The shortage, I think, in the past and in the in the current time, is the workload that’s put-on teachers, the expectations, the low pay that the teachers are receiving for all the stuff that they’re doing. As an elementary teacher, I really feel that expectations that are put on the elementary teacher, and when I say expectations, a lot of the expectations are above and beyond your regular school day.

There’s more put on us than there are secondary teachers. If a secondary teacher does anything above and beyond, they’re going to be given comp time [Compensatory time, also known as comp time, is the practice of employers giving employees paid time off to balance out hours the employee worked beyond their regular schedule.]. There is no such thing as comp time in the elementary world. If I had to turn back the clock and do it over again, I definitely would have become a secondary education teacher. Because I feel like I would be less stressed, more relaxed, and then if I chose to do something extra, I was going to earn some comp for it, so why not do it?

Caroline R. 20:51
Okay. And for my last question, it’s kind of a heavier one. But recently, a six-year-old student in Newport News [ A city in southeastern Virginia] shot his teacher in the classroom. With that just being a few school districts over from you, how do you feel this has impacted teachers in your area and you yourself?

Judy R. 21:13
I think the whole entire teaching community was probably in shock. First of all, at the age of the child. I don’t think we were shocked when more information came out about all the things that were done that led up to the event. All the different people who reported it, the people who got involved and kept telling someone, but nobody’s listening. And that is exactly what teachers feel like today. So then you stop, and you think, okay, my awareness has got to be heightened. I’ve got to be paying attention to these kids very carefully, watching what they’re doing. You know, where are they at all times in the room? You know, have I made any one of them angry? You know, could I be the next person? But I think the first day the news broke, it was like, oh, my gosh, I can’t believe that happened. Oh, my gosh, it was a six-year-old that did it. Oh, my gosh. But then as more and more events came out. And you started to learn how many people told another person and administrator about the issues, and nothing was done. That is the life of a teacher today.

We reach out for help constantly. And we get no help. If we do not get on top of the behaviors of these children, if we do not start inconveniencing these parents, making them come to pick their children up from school when they are being disruptive or when they’re being disrespectful. These children are going to continue behaving the way they behave. And they’re doing it because nothing is done at home. It’s like “oh, well, you got in trouble. Okay?” Until you start putting the parents feet to the fire and making them being held accountable for how their kids act, nothing will change.

And back to that child who shot his teacher. Why was it stated that the parent had to attend school with him every day? Why was that student in a regular education classroom? That was not the situation, the environment that that student needed to be in. That was not what was best for him. And as a result, now, these children, who in that classroom, imagine how they’re going to live the next few years of their lives. They’ll never forget that event. That will always be with them how they were in class when their teacher got shot.

Caroline R. 22:35
That’s incredibly sad. Um, all right. Well, that’s the last question I have and thank you so much for doing this interview with me.

Judy R. 24:13
Okay, thank you so much.

Overview of interview technology and process

This interview was recorded over Zoom, as Judy R.  lives in Chesapeake, VA, and I am living in Harrisonburg, VA. The meeting was recorded via zoom and the audio file was converted and saved as an mp3 file. I used Otter.ai to transcribe the interview, then edited the transcript manually.

Bibliography

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“90% of Virginia’s Early Childhood Educators Face Challenging Behavior by Children, Survey Finds.” VCU News, news.vcu.edu/article/90_of_Virginias_early_childhood_educators_face_challenging_behavior.

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Reflection/ Follow up.   

After conducting my interview, I was shocked at how deeply these concepts and events have affected Judy R. In previous conversations she and I have had, we have never gotten this deep in our discussions. Judy is very passionate about teaching, and its heart breaking to me to see how these worldly events are changing the perspective of teaching for many younger, newer teachers. At the same time, though, I am inspired. I am inspired that someone like Judy has such resilience to push through these hard times in her career and not letting smaller things affect her greater love of teaching.