I'm Taylor Gant with the GPB series "What You Need To know Coronavirus."
To halt the spread of COVID-19 Governor Brian Kemp ordered schools to remain closed for the
remainder of the academic year. That's forced teachers to adjust curriculums in
big ways through virtual learning. Dana Farr is an eighth grade teacher at
East Hall Middle in Gainesville. She teaches more than a hundred students and
advises the school's broadcasting club. Dana joins me now from Gainesville.
Good Morning Dana.
Good Morning.
Also with us is one of her students Antoine Garner.
Good Morning to you Antoine.
Hello good morning.
Alright Dana let's start with you.
When the pandemic really began to take shape here in Georgia and you
learned that you'd have to be teaching remotely. What was your first reaction to that?
My first reaction was- I knew in terms of logistics I was set up and
ready to go in terms of those logistics. I have a pretty deep technological
background, I know how to set up our learning management system, to set the
work up. I know how to screen cast myself, I know how to you know- I had all
those technological elements in place it really wasn't the technological elements
as much as it was the emotional elements that I was concerned about.
How students we're going to get access to food, the emotional connections you make
in classrooms that were going to be gone, the student to student contact, the games,
the band concerts, the broadcast club just the emotional components.
You know when my students left the classroom I was like bye, I hope to see you soon
and then my heart kind of caught because I thought, what if I don't see them the
rest of the school year- I mean my heart kind of caught then, I thought no no no
Dana you're being ridiculous but then my heart kind of caught like
what if this is it. And I knew there was a catch in my heart at that point and I
knew- and I thought oh I'm worried emotionally, you know it wasn't the
technological lesson component, it was the emotional component for me.
Alright, and Dana you've been teaching for a couple decades at this point. How did you-
17 years, it's 17 years. Not two decades.
Nearly, nearly nearly there but how have
you prepared to teach students with different levels of access or
dealing with different situations at home? How have you dealt with that?
You know, equity is it's it's on my heart too and I have you know students that
run the gamut. I have gifted and advanced students, I have students that don't speak
English. I have students that are you know
learning how to read more efficiently and some of them read on like a first or
second grade level and so when I'm doing this I have to kind of mentally break
apart what I'm doing and fragment it and think about how am I going to meet this
need, how am I gonna meet this need, how am I going to meet this need. Luckily I do
that in my classroom but flipping the switch and kind of transferring it to
home, you have to kind of cut back what you're doing. Make it shorter, make it
more digestible and so I've been kind of working to do that as well and then I
have an English language learners teacher who was able to kind of
translate everything into Spanish for me so I could send it home in Spanish and I
had our interpreter call and on speaker, he was showing up on the Zoom's but I
don't speak Spanish and so I just wanted to make sure that he was being taken
care of and I just have a heart for him and I it was just so precious to see him
on there trying to learn the content and learn the material. So I contacted our
translator and got some stuff translated for him to make sure we could get him caught up.
Well okay, and now Antoine let's turn to you. Now that most kids in
Georgia are in a virtual classroom, what's it been like for you?
I thought it was gonna be a lot more difficult than it was because all my teachers have
very well set up like Mrs. Farr for example, they all have the same icon you just
click on and their work is very neat and organized and they even have work from
the past set up, that way if you didn't- if you didn't see your assignment for
that day you can go back and get re-caught up and now that we got past
spring break, they have "We care Fridays," which is pretty much where they-
we don't have any new work and you can just get caught up from
the weeks before.
Wow, so your saying to this point it's been pretty
easy for you to stay on top of everything you don't-
Yes.
behind or anything like that?
Yes, the assignments- they're not very easy but
they they are quite challenging but it's not too much to where you
get overwhelmed. It's- it's manageable to do so you can do it, you can do it.
Okay that's great. Dana, one thing you've asked your students to do is
document life through the pandemic which you know obviously is a shared
experience that we're all dealing with right now. What have you been hearing
from students like Antoine?
So I think what has been really interesting is with-
I have them do an activity, I just call it you are CNN 10 because our students
in sixth and seventh grade social studies watch CNN 10, they watch Carl
Azuz every day. It was so funny when we took our broadcast came on a field trip
to the CNN center- where's Carl Azuz, where's Carl Zzuz, they were looking for
him and I'm like what, who? And then it clicked, oh it's CNN 10 because they are
obsessed and so I just kind of took that minor obsession and made it into an
assignment where I'm like no you are CNN 10, report the news for me every day.
Tell me what's in the news, what's going on in life and then I included you know
what's what your favorite TicTok. What stuff- you know what's your favorite meme
of the day What's something going on that you really enjoy and so they've been
documenting that. What I think is so interesting about the ones I've received
is the is the escalation of the pandemic and just to see the escalation in their
writing of how this is transpired is something that I'm hoping one day you
know five, ten years from now they'll turn around and look at it and be like oh my
gosh I lived through that, I remember that, that was something I went through
and I documented. And it's something I'm hoping that they can share with their
kids and their grandkids and talk about and remember and they'll be able to
remember better because they wrote it down.
Antoine, what's been the main experience for you? What's your biggest takeaway
from just living through this time right now?
My biggest takeaway is kinda like
Mrs. Farr's at the escalation. Some of the events happened very quickly but just
yesterday my mom went out to get gas, because you know she still has to go to work and the
gas was 99 cents and she was totally freaked out because that's- nothing
like that has never happened before and so since I really I'm I don't really
know what happened the past I have to go as people like my grandparents, did this
ever happen and did this ever happen? I had to do research like Disneyland, when
Disneyland closed I was like oh it's just an amusement park, there's no
big deal but it's only closed like three or four other times throughout history
and throughout is like its opening to now. And I just think it's insane that it
closed for this so early.
Yeah it really is interesting and speaking of that
Antoine, you're actually part of a broadcasting club in East Hall Middle
and you're helping report on the pandemic to the school by Zoom, which
we're doing right now. Why do you think it's important to tell your classmates
what's going on right now?
Because the students have to say informed like if-
say when we would pass out the lunches, if students needed those lunches and
they didn't know they were coming- we have to tell them that they can stay
informed, they can receive those lunches or if we're changing something like the schedules, say when
we change to "We Care Fridays," we have to report things like that, that way
students know and keep up with their assignments.
Has a moment like this kind
of showing you the importance of having a voice in in journalism or media?
Yes, you have to speak your voice and speak what you're seeing, that
way everyone around you knows what you're seeing but if you just stay silent- no
one no, no one's going to really know what's going on with you because we're all
isolated right now so we can't really talk to each other so things like Zoom
and things like social media really help get your voice out there and tell
people what's going on.
Okay, now we'll end on a question for each of you.
First of all Dana, for the many other teachers out there in Georgia and across
the country, what is your biggest piece of advice to them right now?
My biggest piece of advice would be that we are living in a time that none of us have
really ever experienced before. Even my grandparents who lived through the Great
Depression and World War II have- they never experienced anything like a
pandemic like this before. To just be there, be kind, show grace
exude kindness, be the one that's going to be there for them because at
the- 10, 15 years from now we're not going to- they're not going to remember the
content as much as they're going to remember did someone care about me.
And so I think that that's what as educators we have to keep in mind, that we're so
content driven and I am so content driven, I understand how
important it is to get across the content because I believe in my content
and I believe it's important but at the same time I'm a human and these children
are human and they are facing layers of human circumstances and to just, I just
want to show them grace and let them know that I'm here and that I love them.
Okay, Antoine there's just as many teenagers
out there who are having their lives kind of interrupted right now.
What's your biggest advice to your peer group?
Just stay strong, just keep going
because there are- like Mrs. Farr said, there is someone out there for
you. There are your teachers, your parents, your friends, reach out to anybody that
does care about you because there are people like that. Just keep up- keep on
keeping on, get your work done, go outside because it's very important for you to
go outside, drink a lot of water, eat healthy and we'll get through this.
You just heard that advice from Antoine Garner, he is a student at East Hall
Middle, you also heard from his teacher Dana Farr, who is an eighth grade teacher
there as well. Thanks to both of you for taking the time to join us.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And for more educational resources during this pandemic, you can visit us at GPB.org/Virus.