HANCOCK — Teacher Appreciation Week occurs the first week of May. But this year, teachers have worked harder than ever to earn a far higher level of appreciation. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every school in the nation has been compelled to suspend classroom learning, while trying to maintain a high level of teaching. They have been racing to develop new methods of educating children, in what Barkell Elementary School Principal, Dan Vaara, calls “these challenging times.”

Teachers who have long relied on classroom activities to keep students engaged, and keep learning enjoyable, have had to come up with new degrees of creativity in leaning packets they have struggled to create.

“It’s not traditionally what you would think teachers do,” said Vaara. “We’re in a situation that’s new, so there is no playbook for how this goes right now, so everybody’s just kind of trying to figure out the best way to educate our kids and help our community.”

With the rapid increase of the virus in downstate Michigan throughout March and into April, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was compelled to suspend in-school classes, before a completed plan for distance learning could be put in place. The sudden situation change caught schools, intermediate school districts, and the Michigan Department of Education off-guard. With social distancing in place, the governor called for districts to continue with education, but allowed some freedoms to individual districts, such as developing their own plans.

“It seems like the whole state is flying blind right now, right?” said Vaara. “Basically, we’ve taken what the government has said, and we are trying to make sense of that and decide for ourselves, what does that look like for us?”

One of the major challenges for teachers and school officials has been trying to create new ways of learning, while at the same time, keeping in mind the difficulties and challenges facing parents and students at home.

“We are being conscious of the limitations that families face,” Vaara said. “Like, some families don’t have internet, or they have internet, but it’s really slow.”

In the case of households with internet access, in many homes, the parents are working from home, drastically limiting, or eliminating students’ access to the internet. There are other challenges, too.

“We’ve got families with maybe five, or six, or seven kids at home, and they can’t all be on there at the same time,” Vaara said, “so those are some of the limitations; those are some of the challenges involved.”

As teachers are working with ways to create online learning, learning packets continue as the essential tool. In the packets, teachers must find ways to be creative, said Vaara.

In putting the learning packets together, he said, guidance has been teachers’ attempts to engage the students, creating engaging activities.

“Trying to touch on new learning as much as possible,” said Vaara. “They’re trying to create activities that will help the kids retain what they have learned, so there certainly is some review, but like I said earlier, there is a new learning component to this as well. But, you’re sort of limited on what you can introduce, as far as new concepts, under this format, but the teachers are being really creative in figuring out ways that they can design lessons that will allow for kids to learn new knowledge under this new format.”

The priority therefore, Vaara said, is being aware of attempting to provide students with the highest quality of education possible.

“It’s not an easy road to walk,” said Vaara. “You’re kind of on that fine line all the time, but you’ve got some families that can handle a bigger work load than others, so you’ve got a wide variety of situations out there, and we’re trying to design packets that work for everybody.”