Outbreak Wisconsin: ‘I’m Spending My Days Laughing And Teaching’

Julie Welch has taught middle school for 30 years. But she never imagined she’d be instructing 23 sixth graders over Zoom from the basement of her home in West Salem.

“I sort of have a love-hate relationship with (technology) truthfully, in the fact that I like some of the things it can do, but I’ve always been pretty vocal about wanting kids to be off the screen,” Welch said.

Welch, 54, said health reasons pushed her to apply to teach for the Coulee Region Virtual Academy, which the School District of La Crosse offered this school year as an alternative to in-person classes. Had she not shifted to the new position, the risks of coronavirus exposure from in-person teaching would have forced her to take a leave of absence from work, she said.

“I’m close to retirement, but I’m not quite there yet. So I still want to teach, I’m still able to teach, but I just needed to be able to do it safely,” Welch said.

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After honing her online skills last summer, Welch said she started the school year by meeting one-on-one with each of her students and their families on Zoom.

“I was very upfront and very honest and said, ‘Hey I’m going to do the very best I can, and I’ll expect you to do the very best you can. But we’re going to have to help each other,’” Welch said.

Learning the new mode of teaching proved difficult, Welch said. But her expectations of a “boring and isolating” school year didn’t come to pass. The transition instead rekindled her love of teaching.

“I am amazed how much I love online teaching. What I find is that I’m spending my days laughing and teaching and working with kids,” Welch said. “I’m spending the whole day teaching, and I’m not spending a lot of time doing a lot of other tasks that often regular teachers in the school day are pulled to do. I’m not doing bus duty and recess duty and hallway duty.”

Welch said she is also surprised by how well her students are learning through online classes. While some kids struggled and had to switch back to in-person learning during winter break, she said most students can work independently and reach out for one-on-one help when they need it.

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But while Welch’s experience has been largely positive, she said that’s definitely not the case for many teachers during the pandemic. Her colleagues have faced constant challenges throughout the school year as changing community infection counts and evolving safety guidelines from health officials forced them to adapt.

“Stress is the No. 1 thing that I’m hearing from my coworkers because they’ve been having to change and adjust on a sometimes weekly basis,” Welch said. “It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s because of this situation we’re in and because our school district is trying to be responsive to what parents need, what students need, what the (federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says is safe, and those things have changed, and they’re constantly changing.”

Welch said teachers are being asked to do even more during the pandemic, from cleaning surfaces around their room to making sure students keep a safe distance from each other.

Teachers are willing to take on the extra load because they care about their students, Welch said, adding that worrying about students’ safety throughout the day escalates stress that she hasn’t had to experience while teaching from her basement.

“I really, really feel for my coworkers that are in-person. They’re doing it, they’re not complaining, they’re not quitting,” Welch said. “But they are exhausted, and they need all of the support we can give them.”

Outbreak Wisconsin is a collaborative project by Wisconsin Watch and WPR following Wisconsin residents as they navigate life during the coronavirus pandemic. The residents will contribute diary entries, in the form of audio, video, text, drawings and photos of themselves, their families and personal and professional lives. That content will be supplemented by interviews and digital content to provide a full picture of how the pandemic is affecting all aspects of life in Wisconsin.