As North East ISD teachers clean out their classrooms and wrap up the 2019-2020 school year, they’re more focused than ever about the things that called them to this profession in the first place: the relationships they forge with their students.
So we are taking a moment to let them reflect on what they found during this lost time.
“Every school year is so unique in that you have this group of kids in a room, each period, each class, and they each have their own dynamic,” said Karin Montemayor. “Knowing that that certain group of kids will never be together in that same room at that same time -- that’s strange.”
Montemayor is a ninth-grade biology teacher at Churchill High School. This year’s classroom cleanout was unlike anything she had ever experienced; she couldn’t help but stop and think about the pause left in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
“It’s like finishing a story mid-sentence. I walked into my room, and I had instructions for their first day back after spring break and assignments laid out and everything ready to go,” said Montemayor. “So, it was weird having to finish out and clean out your room knowing that you had so much planned for the end of the year.”
Like their students, teachers are resilient. The campus closure didn’t stop them; it couldn’t. They made new plans and took advantage of the situation.
“I feel like most teachers just rolled with it. They used Zoom to their advantage,” said Montemayor. “We were able to see some kids who don’t ever come to tutoring. Some kids aren’t morning people (and neither are some adults), so having the opportunity to stay up late to do that work, or do that work on their own time, has been beneficial for some for sure.”
And while she rolled with the punches and made the best of a bad situation, she misses her students and the relationships being made, especially with her “Five.”
“So at Churchill, we started this program called ‘Who are your Five’, where you choose five kids to mentor throughout the year. They don’t know who we pick or anything, just five kids you think might need that extra support, so I miss all my kids, but I miss my five that I was mentoring.”
She added, “One of my five wrote me a letter around Thanksgiving. She’s from Puerto Rico and she told me, walking into my room makes her feel like she’s at home. It was nice to hear that I could provide that for them.”
Whether it be five specific students or an entire classroom, our teachers are ready to be in front of their students again and making new memories.
“It’s the kids. It’s all about the kids. Those interactions and relationships. That’s what I miss for sure.”
This 2019-2020 school year will be one every NEISD teacher remembers for the rest of their life because of the plans that didn’t happen and for the memories made when everything changed. Karin Montemayor is just one of the teachers showing how #NEISDcares.
