By Stella Bryson, Staff Writer

What will students remember about remote learning in the time of COVID? Is it spending hours of the day in front of a computer, taking another quiz on a subject they barely understand? Is it attending another endless Google Meet and staring off into space? Or will it be a kind word from a teacher who wants to help you learn? 

First Flight teachers are making positive remote learning memories for students and going above and beyond to make virtual and hybrid learning work as well as possible.

English teacher Lauren Deal was looking for a way to inspire her students to keep reading as soon as students went into quarantine last spring. 

“Luckily, I had just moved a few months before that and had enough garage space to set up a mini-library in my garage so I could keep supplying students with books,” Deal said.  

Since then, Deal has been on a personal mission to match her students with books, even when they can’t check them out from her extensive classroom library. She remembers two teachers who showed her what it meant to be a compassionate educator who cares about every student as a human being and not just a name on a roster, so she has worked to be a similar role model her own students.

Deal got the idea to bring part of her classroom library to her home last school year when she realized many students would not have access to books. She even has a solution for when a student wants to read a book that doesn’t already exist in her collection: “I usually order it – my feeling is that if they loved it, odds are good that another student will love it, too!”

Even though Deal wasn’t able to meet her students in person until second quarter started a week ago, she made it a point to get to know them. 

“Ms. Deal checks in on every one of her students each day and she puts in the effort to find a book for each student they show interest in,” sophomore Kayla Lamm said. 

Among the other teachers who have been praised by their students during the challenging period of remote learning are Andrew Thomas and Samuel DeWitt. Students love that they respond quickly to emails and make tough subjects easier to understand. 

Sophomore Bella Sarbora is taking physics for the first time this year and wasn’t sure how a teacher could make a complicated subject like physics accessible over the internet. 

“Mr. Thomas is funny and talks to his students like actual people and not a bunch of kids. He explains all the topics very thoroughly and really tries to help his students understand,” Sarbora said.

Teachers have their own struggles, too. Without student feedback, math teachers such as DeWitt are spending a lot of time making their classes easier for students to use.

“Trying to anticipate the questions that are asked (during class) has been hard,” DeWitt said. 

One struggle for many students during remote learning has been trying to stay organized with the amount of work and deadlines for projects and assignments. Junior Kayla Hallac thinks DeWitt has helped her with that tremendously.

“Mr. DeWitt has gone above and beyond to provide his students with structured resources every day, including different videos, notes and organized homework. His style helps me keep an organized schedule in math,” Hallac said. “Mr. DeWitt also will meet one-on-one with students over Google Meet at almost any time for questions due to his extreme dedication.”

Many students are having similar experiences with remote learning: finding teachers willing to bend over backward to help them stay focused, laugh together and enjoy the experience. When this time is all said and done, many students will have wonderful memories of their teachers who have made this experience fun and worth remembering.

Sophomore Stella Bryson can be reached at 23brysonst69@daretolearn.org.