First Year Teacher Chloe Evans-Cross on Educating Through COVID-19

2020 has been the year of reflection for communities across the board. Most notably, the education system has had to restructure its methods and surroundings, affecting thousands of teachers and students internationally. Looking at our community specifically, this Sunday, December 13th, via our Year End Education Convention in partnership with our friends at Eto Ano, we’ll be sharing the stories and anecdotes of NYC based educators, education administrators & students who have been navigating working under the confines of school shutdowns due to COVID-19, messy re-openings and the education agenda of Betsy Devos under the Trump administration over the past four years.

Below, Spurge Carter of Eto Ano, chats with first year teacher, Chloe Evans-Cross at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School in the Bronx, on teaching for the first time during COVID-19.

POND: Where are you currently working and what is your current role? 

Chloe Evans-Cross: I work with 9th and 10th grade students at a public high school in the Bronx. I teach ‘English as a New Language’, which some people may know it as ESOL. I also co-teach all my students’ classes, STEAM (math and science), three humanities class (which is like English language arts and social studies) and then I co teach an advisory class, which is somewhat like a homeroom.

POND: This is your first year teaching, correct?

Chloe: Yes. I did a training program. I was student teaching or what not in the Spring. I had trained in a classroom from January to May in a third grade classroom in a public school, and then went remote. So I had some teaching experience, but this is my first full time role teaching. 

POND: You started in August? 

Chloe: I should have, but there was a hiring freeze because of COVID. I got hired and started on the first day of school, which was September 21. 

The training program I did, through the New York City Department of Education, was called New York City Teaching Collaborative. The program exists to fill the teacher shortage in the highest need schools in New York City. There's a lot of public schools that need teachers and can't fill their positions.

Typically, you're hired in the spring or summer, but because of COVID, there was a hiring freeze for budget purposes so that the city could save money. Certain subjects they were still hiring, but English as a New Language was a subject that they froze until maybe the week before school started. I got the informal offer back in April, but then the freeze restricted them from extending this offer. 

I knew the school from my last job at a nonprofit. We worked with the school and I really respected and admired it and had some relationships with people who worked there. I reached out to them to ask if the hiring freeze was going to lift anytime soon… And they were like, “We have no idea when it's going to lift. But if it does lift, would you want to work here?” And I said, definitely… The day the freeze lifted, the principal called me at 8am and asked, “Can you come in today?”  I came in that day, it was more like on-boarding, and then I was teaching the next day on Tuesday.

POND: What should’ve been the normal process for you then? 

Chloe: There’s no guaranteed timeline for anyone, it is dependent on where you get a job. But I personally would have gotten this job in April because the school already expressed wanting to hire me. The time in-between then was obviously a frustrating feeling of uncertainty. We didn't even know if the freeze would lift. We didn't know if we would get jobs. 

I think the thing that would have made the biggest difference, if we were able to be hired in the spring or summer before, would’ve been having time to prepare. As a first year teacher, preparation is key, doubly given the situation. And since we're remote, just being able to thoughtfully plan and lesson plan ahead of time would have been really useful. 

It was definitely frustrating to feel like the city was willing to save money and not hire teachers, but that also meant that we kind of all went into this scrambling. I found out I was teaching five classes on the day that I started. I was really willing to do it, I'm happy I am where I am, I got so lucky, but I obviously would have loved to have had a few weeks to intentionally plan ahead.

POND: How were you orienting around knowing whether you were going to actually teach in-person or teach as well, while you were waiting?  *********

Chloe: It's so funny, ever since I started teaching, everything feels so long ago. I honestly can't even remember when I found out that there would be a hybrid model. Different schools do it differently. I was unclear about when some teachers would be able to elect to be remote, and others would be in-person with everyone being hybrid. I just remember being very confused. And when we would ask the program, which was run by the Department of Education, who are the ones making the plans, alongside the mayor, and the Union, they were giving us very general answers, no real details. It was like, “it will be hybrid, it will be some sort of in-remote and some sort in-person, depending on the school.”  

POND: What has the situation been at various points for the teachers?

Chloe: When schools opened back up in person October 1st, everyone at my school, basically, unless you were teaching fully remotely, everyone was teaching in person twice a week. So from like, October 1, until I guess, two-ish weeks ago, whenever it was that in person teaching stopped. I was in the building, teaching students in person on Mondays and Wednesdays and then, I was at home remotely teaching students Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And when the state shutdown, in-person school, like two-ish weeks ago or whenever, my Monday/Wednesday in person students would now be remote as well.

POND: How has it been meeting your students for the first time socially?

Chloe: When my in-person students, now that we’ve switch to video calls, saw me, they were all like “Oh my god, Chloe. I didn't know what you looked like. They've only seen me with a mask in person.” 

I met this teacher, right before we went fully remote, who I'd been in like two meetings with her a week, over a laptop,  for two months. Then I finally saw her in the hall and I was like, oh my gosh. In some ways, it feels like I don't know people as well. But in other ways, it feels like we are in this really weird situation together and that we're all trying to help each other out. I feel grateful that I work in a school that really prioritizes collaboration, because I think it can feel isolating if you don't have that. 

I do feel like I can go to any of my colleagues with questions and we already have a good relationship where we're helping each other out just because of the nature of this year. That kind of feels like a default reaction of let's help each other because we all need it type of thing.

POND: Has the school been doing anything specific in terms of programs or building websites to account for any differences in accessibility for students? 

My school did build online websites for each student to showcase their portfolios. We are a portfolio-based school — so students build portfolios throughout the year to showcase their learning — and school staff worked hard to get those updated and running. We also have this thing called Panels, which is kind of like a group discussion. A select amount of students will go at a time. So it'll be five students, let's say discussing a certain topic, and it would present their viewpoint and share evidence, like having a discussion together and other peers give them feedback on that. 

We were doing one on Friday and one of my students who is a multilingual learner and definitely more comfortable speaking in front of people in Spanish than in English, wasn't sharing, and I was probing and trying to get him to share. One of the other students typed in the chat box and was like, “Can he just type it in the chat box?”  I was like “Yeah, of course”. And then he started sharing his opinion in the chat box.

It was one of those moments where, if that had taken place in person, I don't know if we would have thought of an option for him to participate in the discussion in any way that wasn't verbal. But in the setting, where he didn't feel in this moment comfortable speaking in front of his classmates, he did feel comfortable typing his viewpoint and typing his evidence. There are little moments like that that I think make me just think outside the box a little bit.

I definitely think there are students who are less comfortable speaking in person in front of their peers, and now you can share in this way that's still you showcasing your knowledge and participating and interacting with your peers. It's just in a way that schools have not really provided typically.

I have always taken issue with the education system. And I think it's really flawed and inequitable. I'm always questioning if the structures that are in place in many ways are helping or hurting the structures. I also think it's been a practice for me and hopefully other teachers to just rethink. Rethink how do we think learning can take place and to be more open minded and to think outside the box about how school can happen and to shake ourselves of that traditional model because I don't think it serves us well.

I luckily am in a school that already does try to, you know, think outside the box and make learning happen in ways that we've never thought of, but I think the pandemic, at least for me, personally has pushed me even further to think about how can we make this work in a way that's best for the student and forget about bureaucratic BS. 

POND: How have you or other teachers you work with been dealing with all of this? 

Chloe: Zoom fatigue is definitely real. And after having a taste of what teaching in-person is, it is a just a different energy. I feel personally like way less tired at the end of the day when I get to be with students in person versus when I'm like, staring at a screen, especially when like, everyone's camera is off. I feel like I'm in a dark void all day long.

POND: Are you feeling like you are generally supported through this by the mayors office and the DOE? 

Chloe: I've been frustrated. Granted, we are all people and everyone that works in the DOE and for the mayor's office are also people who also were thrown into this weird situation that no one expected. 

It's definitely been another experience where I'm like, dang, I wish there was a little more transparency. That's what I think people want. This is a time that's so uncertain. I would have appreciated someone saying, “I don't know the answer to X right now, but I can tell you this.” There have just been a lot of little moments where I felt like I was getting radio silence and zero information. Obviously, there was a lot out of the government’s hands, but communication was in their hands and I thought there just could have been more frequent and more transparent communication from the DOE. When I see indoor dining is still a thing that does make me upset and it feels like we've prioritized certain facets of living. In person schooling for kids wasn't one of them. 

POND: What is your outlook on the next six months? The next year even?

Chloe: I haven't even thought six months from now because I am so uncertain about what next week will be. Like, am I going to teach a person? Am I going to teach remotely? Do I need to make remote plan or an in-person plan or both? The looming uncertainty of the day to day has, I think honestly, taken over my mind. Now, when I think of planning ahead, I think of planning for, like, the upcoming days

POND: You obviously are a generally positive person, but how would you say you’re dealing with it? 

Chloe: If we talked last week, I think my answer would have been different because this has been a really, really hard week. I feel really grateful for the place I am, personally and just how I feel at peace with where I am as a person. I am happy I started teaching this year of all years. I studied systems change and then worked in nonprofits before this. I feel like I had a lot of work to do on myself before feeling like I was the best person that I could be and the most at peace with myself to show up as a good teacher.  

I've also had experience outside of schools where I've learned really good skills like setting boundaries between work and personal life and knowing when I need to rest and take time for myself. If I was where I was when I was 22, I think I would be drowning.

The heaviest thing weighing on me right now is definitely seeing how people are talking, struggling and going through really hard shit. And this week I had four different students who were going through horrible things and that really weighed on me and it really made me feel somewhat helpless. How can I support this person going through this thing? I think all of the horrible things that people are going through right now are exacerbated by the social inequities that already existed, but COVID heightened. That has been definitely the most troubling emotionally. I just try to meet them where they are and provide support.

POND: Anything else? 

Chloe: I want to highlight that I'm thankful that I do feel like a lot of people during these weird times realize that public education is so vital, maybe in a way that they hadn't thought of before. And I really want people to continue to fight for public education, because we have a really inequitable public education system. It's usually taken for granted. I want that sense of urgency of putting more money in public schools and having public schools that work for students and putting students at the center.

POND: Call to actions? 

Chloe: I think that there are a few things that people can do. One is learning more about the history of our education system. I think the more you unpack that the more you understand how our education system is so inequitable and how it wound up that way. 

Two podcasts that I love that I encourage everyone to listen to  is School Colors by the Brooklyn Movement Center, which is a community led organization in central Brooklyn. It’s eight episodes about the history of education and race and power in central Brooklyn. You will listen to it and be walking around Central Brooklyn and be like, holy shit, there is so much history here of racism and of Black people standing up for themselves and giving themselves education that they were neglected of and those effects on public schools are still here.

The other podcast that I would recommend listening to is Race Through Education. You can go through and see different topics and find what you're interested in learning more about. I think there's so much history in our education system that is worth learning about to fully understand. Beyond that, you can help out by supporting schools, whether it's going on Donors Choose and contributing to a project that aligns with your interest. 

You can look at what other projects teachers have put up there, buying books for their classroom or supplies for a science project, or whatever it is. I think learning more about history and finding ways that you can authentically support are great avenues. 

Tune in to our Year End Education Convention this Sunday, December 13th on Baby TV.