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School's out: Teachers regroup after tumultuous school year

COVID-19 made for a school year that was difficult, frustrating, emotionally draining, physically tiring and something else.

INDIANAPOLIS — COVID-19 made this a school year like none other.

But is finally over. 

Teachers are catching their breath and some are already thinking about next school year and how they will help students catch up.

Heather Peacock, like tens of thousands of other Indiana teachers, is cleaning up from a school year she will never forget. As she put one box of supplies into a cabinet, another one fell out spilling its contents on floor.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. Kind of like the year has gone? "Yeah a little bit." Peacock answered.

COVID-19 made for a school year that was difficult, frustrating, emotionally draining, physically tiring and something else.

"Exciting!" Peacock said. "As in it was moment-to-moment, day-by-day, hour-to-hour, changing."

Wayne Township Schools, like other school districts, switched from in-person learning to virtual learning to hybrid learning and then back again. Students became pictures on teachers' computer screens. They struggled to meet youngsters' social and emotional needs from a safe distance and worked extra hours answering emails from students and parents.

Was it heartbreaking at times? 

"It was, yes. Yes," Peacock, a first-grade teacher, said. "In my heart knowing what the boys and girls are going to need and then in my head trying to figure out how to provide all those opportunities and experiences."

Without breaking pandemic safety rules.

With students on summer break, all school districts are determining how much students learned during the tumultuous year. 

Standardized test results from Wayne Township students show they did not lose as much knowledge as administrators feared. But they didn't learn as much new material as they counted on.

Even with summer school and other remediation learning programs when classes resume in late summer, teachers will be challenged to help students catch up. Peacock is optimistic. 

"We are always filling in gaps and the gaps from this school year and probably for continued school years may be larger than from the year before," she said.

By many accounts, some students will need years to recover from a school year no one will forget. 

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