In order to be certified as a teacher, students must spend time in a classroom as a student teacher. Due to COVID-19, many students had this opportunity to network and hone their skills cut short.
The move to remote learning for K-12 schools, beginning on March 16, forced students, including those at The College at Brockport, to finish their student teaching online. Many of the normal requirements have also been modified to allow students to succeed.
Morgan Cussen is currently student teaching in a fourth-grade general education classroom. Cussen said she is expected to be online every day for a set period of time so she can interact with the students, answering questions and giving assignments. However, Cussen admits connecting with students isn’t always easy.
“At first, it was very difficult to connect with my students online because many of them were never taught how to use Office Teams and they had to teach themselves,” Cussen said. “It is part of the requirements for graduation that we help our teacher and also connect with our students through different assignments and/or video chat. Not all of my students were able to go and pick up their materials from the school, so we are more just keeping track of who is attempting to do the work rather than giving them official grades.”
Griffin Everly is currently in Alaska teaching social studies to sixth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders at Newhalen School, which is part of the Lake and Peninsula School District.
Everly’s experience student teaching is unique in that the education system is a bit different in Alaska than in New York. School buildings house preschool to high school students, rather than having multiple buildings for separate grade levels. A level system is also used, which allows students to “complete standards at any point and get credit for the level that you’re on.”
The school is also a community center, where “elders and parents” often come in for lunch and open gym nights are the norm. For sports, students have to fly to different schools to play games and often have to stay at the other schools during bad weather until it is clear.
Many of the students also tended to stay after school to use the internet and complete assignments, as they don’t have internet at home. Everly agreed it was difficult to see how his students were progressing because of this.
“Since not all the students have the internet, I have been doing paper packets,” Everly said. “With that, it has been very hard to see what students have been doing and seeing consistent engagement on the materials I have given to the students.”
Desiree Barber, who is currently student teaching in a fourth grade classroom at Brockport Hill Elementary School, said the transition to online teaching was confusing for teachers and students alike. Barber and her school-based teacher educator (SBTE) have been trying to find ways to “ease that transition” for everyone.
“We have been using platforms that the students already know how to use, like their student email through outlook, instead of introducing them to new ones,” Barber said. “The only new thing we introduced the students to was Zoom. They all really love it and have found it very easy to use. We have a really good amount of students participating in the online work. Students are allowed to email my SBTE or me if they have any questions about their online work at all.”
Barber said her students meet with her and her SBTE on Zoom or through email at least once a week to check in with them, and they provide optional office hours if students need any help with their assignments.
In order to keep their students engaged, Barber and her SBTE have come up with unique opportunities for students to learn and be entertained at the same time.
“They are still fourth graders who need a lot of redirection to stay on task and unfortunately we are not able to do that through the online learning context,” Barber said. “That is why we try to keep them interested in the tasks they are given. I have come up with virtual field trips like the San Diego Zoo and then they have to pick one animal to write about. They have had to read about children who have immigrated to the United States and then they have to compare and contrast their lives with these children who have immigrated here. I have also done things like online crosswords, word searches and Mad Libs. It overall has been really fun and rewarding to create these lessons but very hard at the same time.”
Haylee Cogovan, who is student teaching in a fourth grade classroom at Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School in Albion, said she goes into the school and helps create packets of assignments for two weeks at a time. Still, she is trying to connect with students who have internet access online, saying “it hasn’t been too bad” trying to connect with them.
“I’d say with the ones that I’ve talked to on Zoom, I feel like it’s been nice to see them,” Cogovan said. “I think it was last Monday we did a Zoom and they all got to show their pets off and stuff. So stuff like that, but I don’t necessarily get to – they don’t email me for help, they email my teacher. And then we’re not grading any of their work, so it’s not like I get to see how they’re doing unless it’s on Google classroom, which a lot of them are still working on how to figure it out.”
Despite the loss of face-to-face teaching, Cussen does believe this experience could aid her in her future career.
“It has given me an opportunity to teach through remote learning in which many other student teachers in the future or past have not had the chance to experience,” Cussen said. “I think this has given me a step in the direction that I am able to say that if this ever happens again, I will be confident in running the show and being used as a resource for other teachers that may not have had this opportunity. My teacher that I am working with has been very helpful in giving me feedback and helping me plan my different lessons, which helps a lot!”
Everly had a similar sentiment. While he said he lost a month and a half of “building connections, improving lesson development and delivery of instruction” and finding solutions to complex student behavior, he said he feels prepared should a situation like COVID-19 occur in the future.
“The thing that I am really missing out on is further developing my connections to the students,” Everly said. “The kids in the school were really fantastic and I wish I had more time to get to know them better. However, for my career I think this is good. It has helped me develop a better sense of how to do online class material and allowed me to develop unique and engaging plans that can be used if something like another disease happens again. No matter the situation, there are lessons to be learned and from those lessons you are able to develop and hone your skills. I think regardless of what happened this semester, nothing will hurt my teaching in the long run. It may have delayed aspects of it, but not hurt.”
Barber expressed concern for how employers will view her, and other student teachers, unique situation. She felt as though she is “really missing out on this opportunity that other student teachers have had in the past or will have in the future” and knows she has missed out on making connections with potential employers.
“It deeply saddens me to not be able to continue to connect with the students everyday and see them in person; the students really look up to you and this is really the first experience you have as an educator where students see you as a role model,” Barber said. “It also scares me that I have not had time to make connections throughout the school with the principal or other administration that could possibly be on your hiring committee one day. I have only had 34 days to make an impression on these people who may decide my future as an educator at Brockport School District or even other school districts, whereas other student teachers have a little over three months to make this lasting impression. I do not know what this means for me with my teaching in the long run, but I hope that it is not affected.”
Cogovan is also concerned about how people will view May 2020 graduates who do not have to complete many of the requirements to become a teacher.
“That’s like something me and my friends, who are also student teachers, have been like talking about how, like if we don’t have to take the exams, if they’re going to view it as we didn’t get our certification fully or that we didn’t have enough time doing student teaching to be prepared,” Cogovan said. “I feel pretty prepared because I did a lot of subbing and with my field placements before this, I was pretty involved, but I feel like some people might not feel as ready for it.”
Cogovan mentioned the college has offered students the option to student teach for eight weeks in the fall, but she doesn’t know of anyone who has taken the offer, given many people are planning on teaching in the fall or attending grad school.
While Cogovan is a bit worried, she also thinks she has been able to learn how to teach in ways other student teachers haven’t before.
“I’ve been like learning how to work Google classroom and stuff, which is something I’ve never done, so it’s kind of nice to almost have like a test run so that way when I have my own classroom, I will feel a little bit more comfortable on how to use it,” Cogovan said. “So I think it’s been something that’s definitely been helpful that I might not have gotten experience with during my student teaching, since my teachers didn’t originally use it, and none of my other field placements really did. So I thought that part’s been helpful.”
As for those modifications, the state has canceled certification exams due to social distancing restrictions. If the testing centers are not open by May 1, those certification exams will be waived. The edTPA, which is a requirement for certification that includes student work samples and submitting videos of their lessons, have also been waived. An optional exam can be taken to replace this requirement, but that all depends on if the testing centers reopen.
Cussen is grateful for these modifications, as it will ease some of her stress about the future. As for Everly, he believes this is a good thing, despite having everything he needed to complete edTPA due to starting his student teaching nearly an entire month early.
“For [other student teachers], they missed out on much more classroom time and self development then I did,” Everly said. “Many of them hadn’t started their videos and if the state hadn’t done anything, they would have had to retake the course next semester. For me, it’s actually really beneficial. I was waiting to take my certification exams this summer when I had time and the money to do so. If the testing site doesn’t reopen on May 1, I don’t have to take any of them.”
Barber is thankful for the modifications. She spent three semesters as a nursing intent major, which put her slightly behind her classmates. Every summer and winter, Barber took two courses in order to stay on track to graduate in May 2020, and she did not want to spend another semester of undergraduate student teaching because she would have had to postpone graduate school at Brockport.
Regardless, Barber is still concerned about how this will impact her job prospects.
“I am weary on how this will impact us for being desirable for jobs,” Barber said. “I do not know how school boards will look at us because we have not completed any requirements showing that we are capable of teaching students besides our field experiences and our Bachelor’s degree. Maybe our Masters degree will make up for that gap in our certifications.”
Cogovan thought the modifications were “really generous.” She said when the rumors of schools closing began, a lot of students were concerned about what this would mean for their certifications and trying to see how they could be completed in a short period of time.
“Taking the edTPA away was kind of nice because some of us were talking about how if schools did start back up, we might only have a week to finish it and that would be stressful,” Cogovan said. “So I guess them giving us that option was really nice, but I guess in the back of my head is still always that worry about, are we going to be looked at differently because of this, but it’s hard because it was nothing that we could really control.”
Following graduation, Cussen, Everly, Barber and Cogovan are excited to further their careers, whether that be by beginning teaching or going to graduate school.
Cussen hopes to become a first and second-grade special education teacher through BOCES where she will be “working with students who are classified as having emotional disturbance along with another disability.”
Everly has plans to teach high school social studies post graduation, but would be “happy teaching any grade level.”
Barber will be attending graduate school at Brockport in the fall and ultimately hopes to become a teacher at the elementary school level.
“[Brockport Hill Elementary School] has made me fall in love with teaching even more,” Barber said. “I hope to teach third or fourth graders in the future, but I would be thankful to get a job at any of the 1 through 6 grade levels.”
As for Cogovan, she is hoping to teach third, fourth or fifth grade.
“I like [those grade levels] a lot because they’re a little bit more independent, but they’re still a fun group,” Cogovan said.
COVID-19 has changed the way education is being administered, and many student teachers, like Cussen, Everly, Barber and Cogovan, have had to learn how to adjust their education along with their students’ education as well.
Originally published as an online exclusive for The Stylus.
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