UNION, Maine — For many students, the transition to online learning amid the coronavirus pandemic has likely had its hurdles and learning curves. For teachers, it's no different.
"I am not very technology savvy. You know, two weeks ago we were sent home so I had been reading books on my computer, learning how to download and upload the videos," Karen Strunk, a first grade teacher at Union Elementary School, said. "And I thought 'okay I feel good about this' and I wanted to give the word work a try."
When Strunk instructed her students, via video, to write the five vowels (plus "sometimes y" of course) on a white board, she didn't anticipate how difficult a task it would be for herself. She quickly realized she was not only trying to write upside down, but the camera was also reverse imaging everything she wrote.
One of Strunk's colleagues sent her a video of her daughter watching the video with all the letters upside down and....it tickled everyone's funny bones.
"I just laughed so hard. She laughed so hard. And I thought...Okay, I've got to share this. This is hysterical," Strunk said.
Strunk said she knows other people must be feeling the same way as she is, and said it was an eye-opening experience for her to feel what it's like to step into the shoes of one of her students who may be struggling with a concept.
"I think the reason I kept the video was to show I do model perseverance and I really had to struggle," Strunk said. "I tried really hard and then afterwards I thought, wow, when my students say 'I don't get this' or 'I'm really tired,' it really made a difference for me. I thought 'yeah, I really could have used a nap after that. That was really tough. And so it was kind of eye opening for me as well."