Annie DePiero inspects the library in her new classroom at South Salem High School on Sept. 1, 2020 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
When teacher Annie DePiero walked into her classroom this week, she said it felt “like a time capsule.”
She hadn’t set foot in South Salem High School since mid-March, when all Oregon schools abruptly shuttered. Returning on Tuesday, Sept. 1, she found a note still on her white board – a reminder to give a student sensitive to flashing lights warning about an upcoming fire drill.
Fire drills are now low on the list of teacher concerns as they prepare for an unprecedented school year where most won’t meet their students face-to-face for months in a best-case scenario.
“It’s just hard to think about so many things I took for granted,” DePiro said.
Salem schools don’t start until Sept. 14 or 15, but this week was the first officially back at work for educators. The weeks before classes resume, called “in service” days for staff, are a chance to set up classrooms, plan for the year and get training after a summer off work.
The scene at South will be repeated in every school across the district in coming days, with teachers wheeling carts of needed classroom supplies home or sprucing up classrooms for Zoom meetings.
The mood in the building was one of cautious optimism, with teachers saying they’ll miss meeting students in person, but eager to make the best of the circumstances.
“It’s going to be crazy, but it’s okay,” said Joy Anna Forsyth, who’s taught English at South for 21 years.
After months of working at home, many teachers are planning to stream their lessons from empty classrooms, taking advantage of white boards and other tools. Forsyth said she plans to split her time between the high school and her home because she has two children in school.
Math teacher Matt Smith plans to stick to the same schedule he would in a normal school year, arriving at his portable classroom around 7:30 a.m. That will make it easier for him to do his job without distracting his own kids, who are homeschooled.
“I’m going to treat it like any other day,” he said.
Though teachers have the summer off, many attend conferences or classes on education topics on their own time. This summer was no different.
Forsyth said technology hasn’t been her strong skill as a teacher, so she took a course over the summer to be better prepared. One takeaway from that training was the importance of class activities that let kids connect with each other and work together virtually.
“If they’re not connected to each other, then you’ve already failed,” she said.
The first week of school will include a school-wide virtual assembly, broadcast live from the gym, to get students clear on what to expect, Forsyth said.
Forsyth also runs a mentoring program where older students at South are paired up with freshmen to help their shift into high school. She’s hoping she’ll be able to bring some of those students into the school in small groups before the school fully reopens, but is also planning to host online events so students can get to know each other.
PHOTOS: South Salem High School teachers begin setting up classrooms for remote teaching
DePiero is one of South’s instructional mentors, helping teach the school’s teachers. In the weeks before school starts, that means training about effective online instruction, the district’s new software for managing remote classes and health protocols for entering the building.
Those trainings will all be virtual.
“We’re going to be teaching this material virtually so we should learn it virtually,” she said.
She said they’ve worked to give teachers more ideas for online activities to add variety to classes. Last spring, they suggested a modified bingo game as a possible fun activity for teachers.
DePiero said the suggestion worked a little too well – so many teachers adopted it that students were soon complaining they’d already done the activity in three other classes.
Like Forsyth, DePiero said she wants to help students in her classes get to know each other. Especially for freshmen who have never set foot in the building, her goal is “making them feel like they are true Saxons, not just these virtual bodies.”
Though she’s been teaching since 2003, DePiero said in many ways, this year feels like being a first-year teacher all over again. But she’s hopeful.
“We’ll get there, even if I don’t have all the answers right this second,” she said.
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Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
