For many during this quarantine, adjusting to life at home has been anything but easy. From poor wifi connections to network overloads, stress and anxiety have been prominent, yet it has not hindered how Glen Rock’s teachers have brought a well rounded education to their students. With curriculum being taught on school laptops now, teachers have had to adjust their teaching style, lesson plans, and even work style to keep up with the ever changing situation that COVID-19 has brought.

Many teachers have created ways to adjust their curriculum, for Math Teacher Brian Weinberg, he has been creating and posting virtual lessons on YouTube to allow his students to follow along and take notes with the ability to rewind the video for better understanding of a lesson or topic his students are learning.

English Teacher Kim Crooks, enjoys interacting with her classes through zoom, allowing a more face to face interaction and the ability to have a live conversation with her students, not only this but the use of discussion boards, shared documents, Pear Deck and Nearpod have helped students interact with crooks and their classmates while at home.

Health and Physical Education Teacher Michael Escalante has been using YouTube to link workout videos for his students to follow, allowing for P.E. to still continue, teaching the students how to use the objects around them to create a perfect workout.

History Teacher, Kathleen Walter, feels that the learning process has become longer, taking more time to take attendance and create files, when dealing with classes on Zoom, she believes that the process of posting the work is slow and possibly un-engaging for students. What seems to be the most difficult problem for teachers is gauging the understanding of lessons for the students, forcing teachers to better adapt to the problem.

When dealing with their work situations at home, much has changed from typical routine. Teachers have gone above and beyond to create detailed lessons for their students like Weinberg, who creates videos at home for the topics he is introducing. To prepare to present this he works throughout classes to create an adequate lesson while helping students with their questions. It seems as many teachers, such as Kim Crooks, sometimes forgets to stop working at the end of the school day since she feels as if she never leaves “the office” and is thankful for the Wednesday recovery day. When dealing with the Physical Education of his students Michael Escalante has had to create lesson plans to keep his students active while he himself keeps the same goal, when given freetime, he too is working out. Many in this time of social isolation believe they have been unable to leave the house, Walter feels as if she hasn’t been able to leave the house and has grown tired of grading hundreds of students papers online rather than on paper in which she believes her students would more likely read, not only this but the daily computer use has made her, like many other, begin to hate the constant use of their computer. Even with heightened stress to bring their very best, teachers have been able to do just that since the beginning of quarantine in March.

Although the nationwide stay inside order has been long, Glen Rocks teachers have been able to adjust their lifestyle outside of work in order to cope. Weinberg and his roommate have created theme nights to relax and create tasks to keep them contempt throughout the week. Weinberg also makes sure to exercise and read, recommending students to find some activities they enjoy doing to get away from screens. Crooks has used her free time to talk to her family and friends over Zoom, as well as baking and cooking recipes from scratch, truly enjoying her creations when she is done. Escalante has combated his extra freetime to get away from the computer and workout every day, Escalante has also made sure to stay in touch with friends and family more than ever, since the start of quarantine.