Coronavirus closed classrooms, forcing Sacramento teachers and young students to adjust
Christina Marie Setzer and Yvette Lee are used to teaching hand-in-hand.
It had been routine for years to be surrounded by children who cling to their every word during group reading time or sing-song cheer when the toddlers didn’t climb over each other like a gym drill. Now the longtime child-development educators in the Sacramento City Unified School District work with young pupils through electronic means in a new normal that doesn’t feel so normal.
Known as Ms. Christina and Ms. Yvette by their students and their parents, Setzer and Lee are coping with a sense of loss while trying to be uplifting voices of strength. The kids they see grow before their eyes feel very much like their own. The disconnect is an adjustment for the littlest learners and their instructors during this coronavirus social-distancing mandate to help quell the spread of COVID-19.
But the teaching does not stop.
The SCUSD’s First 5 Playgroup is for newborns through age 5 with sessions dotted across Sacramento campuses. Parents would sit in and participate in learning activities and parent-education workshops. Like those of all ages and grades across California, teaching is done from afar while trying to maintain a connection.
“We have the youngest students in the district, and Yvette and I have been creating as we go,” Setzer said. “Everyone was caught off guard when this all hit. There was a mourning period in the early part of this – suddenly, we don’t have anything. Our entire world is up in the air. The plug is just pulled. Everyone is grappling to answer the needs for families and these kids. It’s a huge loss and it’s pretty sobering.
“Our classrooms were a safe place for a child to explore and learn, and that’s gone. Parents have lost their routine, too. I feel for them. Kids are active and (now) they’re cooped up. They need to move. They need to knock things around, dismantle the room.”
Providing a link to the classroom
The youngest of students learn academic routine through these sorts of First 5 Playgroup programs – early rise, comb that hair, off to class. Staying at home doesn’t mean playtime without instruction, Setzer and Lee said.
“Everyone craves and needs routine, and infants and toddlers are keyed into that,” Setzer said. “It’s such an important part of their development to have that consistency, even something like morning reading time or to listen to songs. What we’re doing is the least we can do to provide some link to the classroom.”
Setzer and Lee continue to work together and brainstorm. They have used YouTube to share reading and songs to their students. They will introduce Zoom Video Conferencing to get even more connected.
“Zoom with the playgroup will help so kids can see each other’s faces, thank goodness!” Lee said with a laugh.
Lee and Setzer said it could be months before they see the young faces they have grown to adore. Parents are explaining the disconnect to teachers and classmates to their children along the way.
“The hardest thing is the children can’t play with their friends,” Lee said. “They don’t understand why they can’t go next door to play with a friend. That’s the toughest thing they’re facing. It’s not tangible.”
Setzer and Lee also have grown close to parents of their students over the years. That trust and bond has aided in the education of Sacramento’s youth.
“It all makes me feel bittersweet,” Setzer said. “Yvette and I miss the kids and parents. It makes me feel good to know that we still have a connection and it motivates me to provide some sort of content.”
Setzer added, “This is not an academic crisis. It’s a health crisis. It’s important for people to know that kids of any age are going through their own emotional processing, isolated from peers, routines are off. Giving them some time in this new normal is the right thing before launching into a hardcore routine.”
Vina Steffan was a regular to the playgroups in the SCUSD. She has a 4-year old girl, Coraline, who soaks in Ms. Christina’s every word through YouTube from her living-room floor.
“It’s great that Ms. Christina and Ms. Lee have been able to do this, and we’re thankful,” Steffan said. “The sessions brighten Coraline’s day. She’s so used to going to school and seeing her teachers and her friends. We’re trying to explain it to her as best as we can why we can’t do what we normally do and we stay inside, that people are sick.”
Setzer and Lee are Sacramento natives who grew up through the SCUSD system. Their own kids are also SCUSD products or graduates, so all of this hits home hard. With schools shuttered and extra bodies packed inside homes, Setzer and Lee have found ways to keep their own kids involved while not losing their sanity.
Setzer and husband Jed, in local real estate, are avid runners. They regularly hit the trail to unwind and prepare for marathons.
“Running,” Setzer said with a laugh, “is going to help us get through all of this.”
Lee said she is the “fun mom” at home while co-parent Damon, a computer professor at American River College, is the hard-line pop to the kids when it comes to at-home education. The parents do not share the same activity to release steam, however.
Lee has for years been involved in hula groups. But even that is done online now.
“It’s still moving, but like teaching, I’d rather do hula in person,” Lee said.
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM.