“Are you the master of the computer?” Difficulties for teachers to adapt to the new standard in the classroom

A school in the context of a pandemic is a different school. In fact, for many teachers the way they were used to working has changed dramatically and they and their students are learning new ways to connect in the classroom in this face-to-face return to school. Protocols demand new routines – and new responsibilities.

Sandra Báez, teacher at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de Luján, in Pilar, expresses it in these terms: “This context is totally different from what we used to see and experience.” Formal classes have not yet started at this institution, but what they call the “period of intensification of teaching”, during which students come to review the content of the previous year. The three meetings with them were enough to realize that, from the staggered entry into school, everything is different. “From the initial reception, there can be no physical expressions of affection such as hugs or kisses and social distancing must be maintained. In class, you can’t work in a group or do a lot of the activities that we were used to. Yes emotionally boys can’t even see our smiles behind their masks“, Explain. The school provides the chin strap and the acetate mask that is placed on it.

For Fernando Protto, history teacher in the city’s public high schoolsIf previously it was natural to ask students to shut up, take off their caps or stop looking at their cellphones, now you have to ask them to keep their masks on and stay in their place. Dealing with teenagers is already a challenge. So try to speak from a distance, with a chin strap and a mask, and with the windows open on Corrientes Avenue, as happens in a school where he works. According to him, teachers at a nearby school are worse off. “An open patio is used which overlooks the Sarmiento train, which runs every five or 10 minutes. Imagine giving lessons like this, ”he explains.

From his point of view, the return to class last week had an unnecessary chaotic context: “No one is against the return, but a job should have been done with more time. The teachers joined the school on February 8, and protocols and information continued to arrive until the 17th. The school in pandemic requires a work at the health and educational level of at least one month, and more budget“, Explain. According to the account, in the Almagro Commercial School n ° 8 where he works, a factory with eight cleaners, today they only have 3. “How can the cleaning of a seven-year-old institution be maintained?” “In the middle is the happiness of many children and the pleasure of going back to school as a teacher. But we are made to discuss things that have more to do with safety and hygiene than pedagogy“, dice.

Fernando has students in grades two to five spread across five different schools in the city and he believes moving between them puts him at greater risk of getting infected with the coronavirus, as well as infecting others. One possible solution he sees to the problem is that public transport is once again reserved for essential workers. “It’s nice to see the boys again, but it’s also scary that seeing them doesn’t turn into tragedy”, Explain.

Yanina Florenzano she feels cared for in the public schools where she works. “We are happy to come back. With a lot of uncertainty and a little fear, but with all the claws on it. Yesterday a boy told me that what he missed most in school was to eat; It broke my heart. For many boys, school is the first home instead of the second“, He says. She works as artistic teacher in three public schools in the district of San Martín, in which he assures us that “everything has changed”. “From the start we saw how the boys were dying to kiss and we understand that it is difficult, because the school is to connect with the companion, but within the school, everyone must be in their space and with their chinstrap. “Since she can’t get too close to the boys’ notebooks anymore, she bought congratulatory stamps.

The biggest challenge that now worries Yanina is to coordinate her work schedules with those of her daughters’ school. “Schedules are a mess for teachers, a mess for mothers and a mess for teacher mothers,” she explains. In the schools where he works, they have tried to create bubbles so that the brothers who take different courses go at the same time. “We try to make life easier for parents and that all children can go to school“, dice.

Laura Fernandez, teacher of a Caballito’s private kindergarten, suggests following the protocol to the letter but also to use common sense. “I’m not going to let a child cry on the floor without making a fuss, or allow another to watch me with a tupper in their hand that they can’t open just because the snack has to be individual and self-sufficient,” As a teacher at two and five years old, the pandemic changed the typical kindergarten “hugs for everyone” pandemic, and completely changed most of the games and activities that took place in two rooms. According to protocol, if before eight children could play ball, there should now be eight balls that are not shared. The activities have become much more individual and less physical.

Is it possible for these young children to keep a personal distance? For Laura Fernández, after a year of not seeing peers, it is very difficult to ask children not to have contact with their peers “It’s very painful to go through all the activities and think about what they cannot do. I think a garden of no is not good “, Explain. But he also thinks it’s always a lot better than trying to comfort a child for Zoom. Or that another student asks: “Are you the master of the computer?”.

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