Maryanne Agius

Though COVID-19 has been difficult for students, teachers are also finding this time to be challenging. 

“Personally, it’s been really challenging because I, as a teacher, am really interactive and creative, and I feel like I am in a cage right now, so it has been an emotional journey, I suppose,” Ms. Maryanne Agius, an SWR Spanish teacher, said. 

Given the unfortunate circumstances, Ms. Agius has been attempting to make the adjustment of quarantine easier and productive. She said she started limiting her screen time once she noticed that it was 11 hours per day when schools had first closed. 

In addition, Ms. Agius led a project made by the SWR staff. Along with others, she created a video that included many staff members holding up signs with positive messages directed at students. Ms. Agius said that this idea was inspired by others. 

“It was a decision made by a bunch of teachers on the staff advisory council. We saw that other schools, along with one of our elementary schools, did it, so we wanted to make one ourselves.” The intention of the video was to bring hope and positivity to the students, and SWR students actually responded to the video by creating one for the teachers. 

 Ms. Agius has also involved herself with healthy distractions when she is not grading her students work or constructing lessons for online classes by partaking in pastimes such as adult coloring books. 

She said that online school has been an adjustment for the teachers just as much as it has been for the students, but she has had a positive outlook on how teachers have been responding to the current situation. “Obviously nothing can replace in-person learning. I feel like we [teachers] have been coming up with creative ways of online learning so that we can challenge students and give them enough time to accomplish the work on their own.”

Ms. Agius added that another positive of online learning is that it has given her the opportunity to look at each individual student’s progress more thoroughly, which she might have not been able to do during a normal class period.  

 Although Ms. Agius acknowledges positives to distance learning, she said there are negatives, too. “I feel like my students have not been reading directions as much as they would in school, partially because I am not there to repeat them. This has resulted in them doing half of the work or not being able to understand it.” She also said distance learning has made students put less effort into their work.

But the worst part of online school for Ms. Aguis is not being able to hear her students’ voices or see their smiling faces. 

Ms. Agius said that COVID-19 has taught her the valuable lesson of making sure to always reach out to people and not wait to do so. She said that during this time, she has been reaching out to numerous people and is glad she has done so.