Everyday Heroes- Andrew Krops

    Heroes that don't get enough credit or enough appreciation during the pandemic are teachers. 

    Over the last few months, everything was and still is unclear about the future of schools. Throughout all this preparation, many people criticized teachers and schools for various reasons such as why some schools aren't opening.

     It can be very easy to take teachers, and our education for granted, however, we have to retrain our thinking. 

    From the very beginning of this pandemic, teachers were thrown into an entirely new method of schooling, yet very quickly during quarantine, it was almost expected that it would be a natural crossover since most of our work was online. This is not the case at all. Even now, yeah its not the "first time" doing virtual learning but it's still quite challenging on both ends. There is a huge barrier that inhibits our day to day school life. 

    I can say this with certainty because my mom is a teacher and our basement has turned into a one-room schoolhouse. Just from the looks of it, it's incredibly hard to teach now. Especially elementary kids; which is who my mom teaches. All the time I hear them accidentally interrupting each other, or getting kicked off the class, or better yet an announcement that someone's tooth fell out. I am almost positive three kids have already had their birthdays so there have already been three mini birthday parties in our house! This is really just a few of the many things that used to just apart of school in-person and now have become somewhat distracting when only one person can talk clearly at a time online which can stop the class momentum while they are learning. 

I've always been amazed and inspired by teachers, but my appreciation this year has particularly soared. The amount of stamina it takes to teach online is high, and all to help us, their students succeed. For instance, making slideshows of notes and presenting them. I remember I had to present a slideshow for my science class and having trouble presenting because I couldn't see anyone, I was only looking at the presentation. I cannot imagine doing that daily. 

    We're currently in the middle of a global crisis, yet teachers are hauling through educating their students on new material. They truly are the world's heroes. 

Circling back to online classes, this picture just about sums it up.