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Learning to teach during COVID-19

University of Maine student teachers experience the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic.

MAINE, USA — Editor’s note: The above video shows you how to make hand sanitizer. MaineHealth’s Dora Mills gave NEWS CENTER Maine the recipe. 

Learning to adjust to our 'new normal' has been strange for everyone. But for some students at the University of Maine who are learning what 'normal' looks like, it can be difficult.

"One of my goals at the beginning of the semester is finding ways to use technology and how I can implement it in my classroom," Olivia Murphy said. 

Murphy is student teaching in a 3rd grade classroom at Asa Adams Elementary School in Orono. She and her mentor teacher have been using Google Classroom and are finding that students are very engaged.

"It's interesting to see.. they'll like make comments like "HI! HOW ARE YOU!" or "I can't make it work!" Murphy said.

Down the road at Orono High School, Derek Gagne works with a different age group. But he also said engagement in the virtual classroom is evident.

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"Personally that's one of the biggest surprises I had was actually how many of them have been showing up and continue to show up at time and continue to be present and engaged," Gagne said.

Mia Morrison is an education professor at UMaine. She told NEWS CENTER Maine her students are taught in the classroom at UMaine, as well as the classrooms they're student teaching in, about how to get the education to students.

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She said the most important thing is, "How do e just connect with the students."

This may not be the typical student teaching experience, but it's an experience these student teachers are making the most of and they are hopeful it will better prepare them for when they have their own classrooms.

At NEWS CENTER Maine, we’re focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: https://www.newscentermaine.com/coronavirus

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