Your Teachers Need a Little Love Right now

“I used to have students, now they’re all just little boxes on my screen.”

She teaches high school Spanish. Ever since the pandemic flooded our timelines and closed our schools, this California teacher has had to adapt to teaching her students in an online setting.

On the Friday of the week before last, I took notes in one of her classes. The light from the basement’s white fluorescent lights reflects a sickly yellow glow from the old linoleum. She’s teaching from her a 13-inch MacBook Pro given to her 10 years ago. Its hard purple case is scratched up and the computer keys have faded letters.

She’s dressed in formal clothes. She’s wearing a dark purple dress with a blue necklace. Behind her is a sign in Spanish that translates to “I will return shortly.”

“I use it when I am going to the bathroom so they always know I will be right back.”

She stands in the basement for the entire class period, monitoring those little black boxes to make sure they are focused and learning. On her desk are the pictures of her students that would normally be sitting in front of her in a classroom. She has planned the lesson meticulously.

There are no windows in her basement and it strikes me that many of the students won’t even see that she has dressed up for…