Crossing Tightropes: Teaching in the Age of Corona

Written By: Kleo Balares, JC Manangan, and Gab Dumalag

Art By: Belle Vivo

Anxious, overworked, but with the same unfaltering passion for teaching. With the resumption of classes, students’ concerns were in the spotlight; but backstage, educators are scrambling just as much. Preparing course packs, recording lectures, attending webinars, creating a work from home teaching set-up— all to ensure that as much as possible, none of their students get left behind. All while maintaining their own sanity and keeping their own families safe during the pandemic.

All art pieces within this article are made by our very own, Belle Vivo. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Amid the global health crisis and nationwide lockdown, all schools were urged to get ready for the resumption of classes. Teachers were expected to innovate their ways of teaching and see this as a challenge to forge new paradigms as if they don’t have any more duties beyond their profession. If juggling 5 classes already seems overwhelming for us students - can one even imagine how teachers are handling dozens of students all at the same time?

For teachers, the crisis did not begin with the pandemic. Teaching in the Philippines has always been a challenge: the great amount of effort and money teachers invest to ensure that their students are learning is met only by low pay and poor working conditions.

Teacher Pauline Palola, a Senior High School Teacher at Calasiao Comprehensive National High School Pangasinan, experienced these conditions firsthand as her regular teaching day begins way before the 7am call time and ends way past it. Outside class hours, she spends what could have been personal time preparing lectures, checking papers, making exams, giving grades and so much more. It has also been a reality of many teachers to spend their own money for class materials on top of being severely underpaid.

The transition to online modalities also proved to be a struggle for teachers adept in face-to-face classes.

"Most of us have no prior experience in facilitating learning in an online modality so I think this was also a challenge to us," said Ms. Pauline.

The majority of the teachers in the Philippines are trained to effectively deliver lessons and courses only in face-to-face classes. In June, DepEd Usec. Diosdado San Antonio revealed in a Senate hearing that only 300,000 of the country’s 800,000 public school teachers have been trained for distance learning. This fact mixed with poor pandemic response in our nation has left us ill-prepared for online classes— teachers and students alike are doomed to bear the brunt of it all.

"We were caught off-guard." This was how Ms. Pauline and her co-teachers felt after the suspension of physical classes earlier this year, not knowing that they’d have to endure this set-up up to this day.

There are a few days left before classes resume in some schools and others that are three weeks into the semester already. With these facts, we found it important to get to know them and their profession in the time of a global pandemic. How are things now for them? Have things become a little bit more tolerable than the beginning of the lockdown? Or did it only worsen their already daunting situation?

Unknown territory

Unlike the old normal, teachers now have to deal with issues on internet connectivity, familiarize themselves with different online platforms like Google Classroom, Google Meet, and Zoom— all while gauging the situations of their students and their adjustments as well.

"Contrary to what others might think, I find online classes more tiresome compared to face to face classes," lamented Ma’am Pauline.

"[‘Kung] dati nakakatulog na ako nang 12am, ngayon parang lunch ko pa lang ‘yan," said Ms. Sherryn Castro, a grade school teacher at GCF International Christian School.

Even before the pandemic, she shared that she would finish work in their faculty room until 10pm because her apartment unit doesn’t have a good internet connection. Even more work greets her as she comes home every weeknight, demanding to be accomplished until she can fall asleep.

For Ms. Sherryn and thousands of educators like her, the lines between work life and personal life have been blurred by online schooling. What used to be a space meant for relaxation and reprieve after a long day became a space for the stresses and pains of work.

Balancing act

Some teachers also juggle teaching with other jobs and responsibilities, making work from home set-ups even more challenging to handle. Sir Janvic Mateo, a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Diliman and a full-time journalist at PhilStar, experiences this firsthand. He teaches a five-unit, seven-hour course on Researching and Reporting the News which requires both lecture and legwork. Since shifting to remote teaching, he had to completely overhaul his teaching method on top of making an entire course pack for the semester. He conducts classes every Monday and fulfills his responsibilities as a professional journalist the remaining days of the week. “Working from the comforts of our home” is not the case for Sir Janvic, as his set-up negatively affects performance and productivity.

“The threat to health and the uncertainties brought about by COVID-19 also resulted in more bouts with anxiety and triggered other mental health concerns," shared Sir Janvic.

All art pieces within this article are made by our very own, Belle Vivo. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Our educators are exploring unknown waters; they are struggling with this highly technological mode of teaching and all the big and little difficulties it comes with. The sudden transition to online modalities requires a learning curve with a peak hidden way up above the clouds. As if that was not hard enough, they have also received a significant amount of flak from unaware social media users and content creators like Vincentiments, who uploaded a short film about remote learning that attempted to put the blame on teachers for the premature reopening of classes. Not only was it toxic for our already struggling educators, but it also gave the higher-ups a chance to avoid due accountability.

Compensation well-deserved

All art pieces within this article are made by our very own, Belle Vivo. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Even pre-pandemic, we’ve tended to put teachers on a high pedestal. They have always been expected to have strong fronts as persons of authority in the classroom and to be invincible superhumans on whom the entire class depends; but the woes of online class show that they are just as human as anyone else.

"Remote learning made me feel that I am still far from my family kasi kahit na weekends, I am just inside my bedroom doing my schoolworks... My hair starts to fall off due to stress, I have bruises because of lack of sleep due to working overnight." says Teacher Sherry, when she shared how the current set-up has affected her life. Burnout is an imminent threat to educators' mental and emotional wellbeing just as much as it threatens the quality of their output.

Teaching in the Philippines has never been easy and remote learning has only highlighted these existing struggles and injustices. For these determined teachers, however, education is as much a vocation as it is a career. It is a job that requires a great amount of love and dedication. “The new learning environment has not diminished my love for teaching... I feel that I am more committed now in ensuring that none of my students would be left behind in this new setup.” This is what Sir Janvic shared with us when asked how the current set-up affected his love for teaching. The undying passion of our teachers clearly shows how huge a commitment it is to keep on teaching despite the circumstances.

Teachers remain loyal to their craft, but their passion is not met with support by our government— one that has failed to empower them in these trying times. It would be a disservice to romanticize their resilience, to praise them and leave it at that. Repaying their passion and dedication must translate into how they are being compensated. This is the time to stop being tolerant of the system that has continuously brought our educators hardship. We must now acknowledge that behind their heroic facades, they are human beings too— normal people who are juggling responsibilities and dealing with the weight of a global pandemic.

Getting to know more about our teachers’ situation and understanding how they are coping at the time of a global pandemic is one thing, but to extend this knowledge into action is another. However, beyond helping them set up Zoom rooms, taking the time to respond to their emails, and calling them modern heroes, don't you think there is much more we can do? After all, the call to leave no student behind is only justified and empowered if our educators are not left behind either.

#NoStudentLeftBehind #NoTeacherLeftBehind

#LigtasNaBalikEskwela

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We would like to extend our utmost gratitude and respect to our interviewees, Teacher Sherryn Castro, Sir Janvic Mateo, and Ma’am Pauline Palola, for wholeheartedly entertaining our request for interviews despite their busy schedules.