The closure of schools last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers, students and families to face one of the most jarring and rapid changes of perhaps any sector. Imagine you’re a kid. You couldn’t run off with your friends at recess. You couldn’t raise your hand to call your teacher over for help. And you often had to manage your own schedule, especially if you had working parents.
To mark a new school year that will again prompt adaptation with in-person and virtual instruction, KHOL spoke with Munger Mountain Elementary fifth grade teacher Libby Crews Wood about the transition last spring to online school and how it affected students. We also heard from students of Libby Crews Wood and Fabiola VanOppen, Ruby Hoelscher, Addie Binstadt, Mario Juarez Perez and Rory Prugh, who wrote and recorded quarantine diaries, documenting their strange new reality.