LOUISVILLE, Ky. — From leading students through nontraditional learning to welcoming them back to the classroom with new safety measures, it was a year full of navigating changes for teachers across the Commonwealth. So many were looking forward to a somewhat normal school year, but rising COVID-19 cases could pose a threat to that wish.
What You Need To Know
- Teachers navigated a lot of changes over the past year
- Many are looking forward to a somewhat normal school year, but realize rising COVID-19 cases could pose a challenge
- JCPS teacher Rachelle Douglas decided not to teach summer school this year for the first time in her teaching career because she was feeling a sense of burnout
- Despite fears of mass exodus, JCPS saw pretty stable rates of teacher retirements and a reduction in retention
Rachelle Douglas heard laughter when walking through the halls of Crums Lane Elementary in mid-July. It’s a sound so familiar, but one she had not heard in months.
She’s a 3rd-grade teacher at Stopher Elementary. Typically, you could find her leading a summer school class for Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), but not this year.
“My brain needed a break. I wanted to be fresh for August, so I chose to take this summer off,” said Douglas.
Checking out a school that was in session this summer, she’s reminded why she loves her job so much. It’s a nice reminder after a far from easy past school year.
“It was information overload almost,” said Douglas.
JCPS switched to virtual learning in March of 2020, ending that school year with students at home. The NTI continued for over a full year amid the pandemic before students eventually returned to in-person learning under a hybrid model at the end of last school year.
Just like kids had to adapt to all the changes, so did teachers. They had to figure out how to teach in a whole new way.
“Learning how to engage students from behind the screen, then transitioning to the hybrid model and learning new ways about that, it definitely keeps you young, ''said Douglas, reflecting on the past year. “I felt like I just needed a brain break for a moment just to kind of refresh myself.”
Knowing many educators were feeling a sense of burnout, districts prepared for a potential mass exodus.
“Many districts were seeing an explosion in the number of retirements. People were really fatigued over the e-school environment,” said JCPS Chief of Human Relations Aimee Green-Webb.
To prevent that, JCPS is using some federal COVID-19 relief aid to pay for $5,000 stipends for all who worked through the pandemic. Those stipends will be allocated in increments depending on how long employees stay with the district.
That incentive seems to be paying off.
“We are seeing typical retirement numbers, but a great reduction in the number of teachers who are resigning,” said Green-Webb.
After some time away from the day-to-day grind, Douglas is ready to welcome back a new class of students next week but knows it still won’t be like old times.
“I’m very much looking forward to being in the classroom five days a week with my students. Just being able to be able to get back on track to a normal, well, so called normal school year, whatever that looks like,” said Douglas.
She is spending these remaining days of summer coming up with a game plan to help her students make up for any learning lost during the pandemic.
“We normally have the summer gap anyway. Now, there may be not just the summer gap. There might be a gap from online learning with things they didn’t receive at home. We are just trying to prepare for all scenarios,” said Douglas.
While there are education-related plans in place to help fill the gap, Douglas said the focus at the beginning of the school year will be on fun, engaging activities to just get kids excited about learning again.
JCPS students return to school Aug. 11.