First-year teachers overwhelmed, but ready to start their year, careers

Edwards uncertain about how Trump’s unemployment plan will work for Louisiana
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Helen Naquin
August 12, 2020
Edwards uncertain about how Trump’s unemployment plan will work for Louisiana
August 11, 2020
Helen Naquin
August 12, 2020

For first-year teachers, there is an equal blend of nerves and excitement that accompany the thought of having their own classroom full of students for the first time with whom they get to spend the entire school year. 


 

However, when it comes to a school year defined by remote learning, rearranged calendars, social distancing, masks and safety regulations put into place in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, there is an added layer of emotion for these young teachers. 

 

“Everybody’s kind of overwhelmed,” Cami Guidry, a first-year fourth grade English Language Arts teacher at St. Charles Elementary School, said. “The kind of good [thing] about being a first-year teacher this year is that everyone’s a first-year teacher…Everyone’s kind of leaning on each other for everything.”

 

It is no secret that the shift in the way school is set to operate has changed the way that teachers have to prepare.


 

Katie Bouzigard, a first-year first grade teacher at Southdown Elementary School, said that such preparation has centered on virtual approaches, including the use of Google Classroom.

 

“We definitely learned more virtual and online resources, we had several professional developments and different meetings and videos on different technology resources that they have out there,” Bouzigard said. “Even as being a young person that just graduated from college, there’s so many things that I didn’t even know, so we’re all learning how to navigate all of that.” 

 

While teachers were equipped to prepare the content they were set to teach in alignment with the educational standards for each grade level, the “how” aspect of delivery was up in the air. 


 

Guidry said that preparation for lessons has been a challenge, not knowing at the time how lessons were set to look, with virtual learning and social distancing creating complications. 

 

“What you learned in [college], based on what’s going on now, is totally different, and what I’ve heard from teachers that I know is totally different,” Guidry said. “You don’t know how your lesson’s going to look. Usually you’ll have like your set inductions, and then you’ll do your teaching model, and then you’ll do a group work activity, but all of that doesn’t happen in virtual learning. They can’t even sit by each other.”

 

Guidry and Bouzigard will both be experiencing their respective school years differently, with the Lafourche Parish and Terrebonne Parish school districts taking varied approaches to learning.


 

LPSD schools began instruction this week in a remote learning format that is set to last for two weeks. On Aug. 24, students will begin to attend in-person instruction in an “A/B” format. In the A/B model, students will be assigned to two groups, with Group A attending in-person instruction on Mondays, Wednesdays and every other Friday, while Group B attends on Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Friday. The group that is not on campus on a given day will participate in virtual learning.

 

The start date for TPSD schools, on the other hand, was pushed back to Sept. 8. Families were given the option to choose between virtual learning and in-person learning. 

 

For Bouzigard, who said she has been planning for her first say of teaching since she was in kindergarten, the later start date is a setback. However, she said she recognizes the necessity of the decision. 


 

“It was upsetting not to go back on the beginning–on Aug. 8–that we had planned on, but the school board, they have some really tough decisions to make, so I know that they are making decisions in the best interest of the teachers, students, faculty, staff, principals and everybody…I know we have to do what we need to do for the safety of the kids and us.”

 

For Guidry, who will be teaching through the A/B model, one of the hardest parts of this new way of teaching is knowing that her students will not all be in a classroom together making face-to-face connections with each other. 

 

The priority moving forward is to continue to foster those relationships through any available means.


 

“Connecting with students is a big deal…so everyone’s kind of collaborating and sharing creative ways to do that, so I know [there’s] Google Meets. We’re going to have a couple of those a week, so having conversations with kids over that, that’s something you can do,” Guidry said. 

 

Both Guidry and Bouzigard said that newer teachers and more experienced teachers have been leaning on each other for advice and support ahead of the school year.

 

For Bouzigard, in particular, this mutual help has been personal.


 

“My mom is a teacher. She’s taught at Oakshire [Elementary School] for almost 20 years….For her, technology is not something that she’s used to, and a lot older teachers are just not used to it,” Bouzigard said. “I’ve been helping her a lot. We sit at home and go through all of this stuff, and it’s funny because I’ve always learned so much from her, but now the tables have turned, and I’m helping her.”

 

Despite the uncertainty, Bouzigard and Guidry are remaining open to change, confident in their preparation for the upcoming school year and trusting in the unity that they share with their fellow teachers as they navigate the “new normal” together.

 

Both alumnae of Nicholls State University who saw their student teaching experiences cut short this past semester, the first-year teachers are, above all, excited to be in their classrooms forming connections with their students.


 

“I’ve been wanting to do this all my life, and they’re going to be my first class…so we’re going to be doing this whole virtual schedule and A/B schedule together,” Guidry said. “I’m excited to start seeing them learn and helping them grow.”

 

“I’ve waited forever to meet them and…I can’t wait for them to get here and just tell them that you’re finally here and that this is going to be a school year that, even if we don’t know what’s coming, they’re safe here and that they’re our priority. At the end of the day, if I think about one thing, it’s just all about the kids.