Teachers grappled with using different modes of instruction this semester as they taught their classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But they adapted. They always do.

Allison Castle, who teaches eighth grade at Clark Middle School in St. John, said she’s found her groove since the beginning of the school year, which has consisted of her teaching online and in-person learners simultaneously.

“I tend to look at the positive of things,” Castle said, speaking of teaching both forms. “There’s not issues with ‘what do I do when I’m absent?’ especially this year with the absences usually being extended, so that’s helped. I think overall, teachers are just very good at adapting to changes.”

The school year began with many teachers, such as Castle, feeling stressed as they adjusted to teaching both sets of learners simultaneously. In early September, Castle said she was feeling more beat down and tired than she ever had, and felt like she was doing a job for two people.

Since then, Lake Central School Corp. has begun releasing students 90 minutes early every Wednesday, giving teachers 90 minutes of preparation time every week.

The extra time is welcomed and has helped, Castle said, but it has given her more of a chance to catch up and do things such as grade papers rather than prepare lesson plans.

“The consensus from the Language Arts Department, from my teachers, was that although we appreciate it and it has obviously definitely been helpful, for us it’s still maybe not enough in what we want to accomplish,” Castle said. “Some of that can just be Language Arts teachers tend to be a little type A personality, and we do have a lot to grade … because of that and because of the writing component, there’s a lot that we’re doing and a lot to grade.”

Though the concept of teaching online and in person at the same time is still not easy, Castle said looking back on the year, she sees that both she and her students have adapted in ways she wasn’t expecting.

“Everything that we were worried about maybe behavior wise or just changes in their ‘normal’ routine from the past — they’ve been fine,” Castle said. “They’ve been extremely helpful … I think it’s been a good experience for them.”

Kristi Sikora-Blankenship, who doesn’t teach in-person and online at all times but rather when students in her class specifically are quarantined, has had to change both the layout of her classroom as well as some of her teaching methods. Even with the changes, she said she’s just grateful for the opportunity to be with her students in the classroom.

“It’s a mindset that I had to take on to make this year fabulous for them,” Sikora-Blankenship, who teaches fourth grade at Kolling Elementary School in St. John, said. “This is the only fourth grade year they’re ever going to know — they are so happy to be back in person, they missed their friends, they wear masks without a concern … they’re just great.”

At the beginning of the year, elementary school students who opted for online learning went to specific online-learning classes for their grade. After that, students who were learning in-person and had to go into quarantine were taught by their respective teachers.

Only three of Sikora-Blankenship’s students have been quarantined this semester, along with Sikora-Blankenship herself, so she said her experience teaching online is unlike her middle and high school counterparts, though it has still been difficult.

“At the end of the year I had two online and 23 in person, so we had to start doing both, and it’s hard,” she said. “It’s excruciatingly hard, as an educator, to pay attention, get all the resources prepped for online, while still doing everything in person. It’s very, very hard. I don’t know how my middle school friends and high school friends have done it all year.”

In addition to adapting to teaching online and in person simultaneously, Sikora-Blankenship has had to redesign her classroom.

She previously taught her class in a flexible seating arrangement, using things such as couches and exercise balls in place of desks. This year, she had to give away her alternative seating and opt for regular desks, which has been a heartbreaking experience for her.

“My once-beautiful room now has 28 student desks in it and that’s a bit harsh,” Sikora-Blankenship said. “But it’s also OK, because these kids don’t know what it used to look like. That’s only hard on me.”

Many of the students in her class have shown resilience throughout the semester and Sikora-Blankenship said she has found them helping each other as some students have gotten quarantined or as the district has moved to complete online learning.

Sometimes while she’s teaching in person, a student online will struggle and one of her in-person students will go to the computer to help. Other times, in the instance of group work, in-person students will volunteer to work with those who are online.

“They just stand up and help (online learners),” she said. “There’s a gift in that, that I don’t know that 9- and 10-year-olds would have developed if there hadn’t been this weird crisis.”

Hannah Reed is a freelancer for the Post-Tribune.