A Shift in Mindset
A New Orleans woman’s journey teaching kindergarten and adjusting to new motherhood amid a pandemic.
By Forest Gaines Jr.
Amber Powell was both excited and worried when she learned last July that her school would be returning to in-person classes. Powell, a New Orleans native and kindergarten teacher at Noble Minds Institute for Whole Child Learning in Uptown, had spent the spring logging onto Zoom calls with the sixteen 5-year-olds in her class. She tried everything in her teacher toolkit from fun videos to sing-alongs in order to capture their tiny attention spans from behind the screen. It wasn’t easy, she said.
“You only have a few minutes of their attention before they want to go to their room to play with their toys or to look at the TV that’s in the background or talk to another adult that’s in the house with them,” Powell said.
Powell knew her students desperately needed in-person instruction. A big part of kindergarten is simply learning how to be in school, something they were missing out on virtually, she noted.
She also had big concerns. She had just given birth to her first child in June. The thought of sitting in a classroom with more than a dozen small children each day and then returning home to her infant daughter was scary. What if she contracted COVID-19 and brought it home to her family?
“My main goal was to never get anyone from my family sick,” said Powell, who returned to in-person instruction in August 2020.
Once back, she was diligent about hand-washing, mask wearing and social distancing rules in her classroom. It was a lot of work with a group of 5-year-olds, but “I knew how easy it could be to bring this virus home with me,” she said.
Powell said the pandemic also caused a shift in her teaching mindset. Before the pandemic, her worries centered on the classroom. Were students doing their homework? Did they remember to bring their backpack? The pandemic made those worries seem small in the big picture. Instead, Powell began to ask students if they were getting enough to eat and getting a good night’s sleep.
Kindergarteners typically experience separation anxiety in school as they adjust to being away from their caretakers, Powell said. The pandemic made those feelings more intense for children, she said.
Powell learned to be more intentional in asking students about their needs, acknowledging their feelings and “to show my students that I cared for them and their well being.”
More than a year later, Powell is grateful that her daughter is safe and that no one in her family has fallen ill with the novel coronavirus. Still, she said the past year has been mentally draining. Powell noted COVID-19 stripped away some of the best parts of teaching, like hugging students, group activities and play.
“I lost my spark for teaching a little… It’s just not the same,” Powell said.
Powell decided to step away from the classroom for the time being to recharge and protect her 1-year-old daughter. She is now working as administrative assistant and data coordinator at Noble Minds.
Powell still believes returning to in-person instruction sooner rather than later was the right call, especially for young children. The highlight of last spring was watching her students flourish and be children in spite of the circumstances. She noted one of her students last year had a non-verbal learning disability and was struggling with being in the classroom when school first re-opened in August 2020. Instead of getting close to the student and guiding him through activities as she normally would, Powell had to keep a distance, which was hard, she said. Still, after a few months of in-person learning, the student was taking part in lessons, engaging with classmates and working hard for rewards during activities, she said.
“Sometimes they need that hands-on approach,” Powell said. “Sometimes they need to physically touch something. Sometimes they need to see it on a chalkboard or on a screen. You just don’t have all of those resources at home.”
Forest Gaines Jr. is a Lede New Orleans Spring 2021 Fellow. Gaines, a graduate of St. John’s University, works as a video production associate for the New Orleans Sainst and New Orleans Pelicans.
Lede New Orleans is a nonprofit that trains emerging BIPOC and LGBTQ storytellers and equips them with skills and tools to tell the stories of communities in and around New Orleans that are often overlooked by the media. For more info on our mission and programs, visit www.ledenola.org.
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