Allison Berryhill 12/12/2020

Allison Berryhill, from Atlantic, Iowa, has taught for seventeen years at her current school. She has taught a range of English and journalism classes. Allison shares how teaching in a conservative community stretched the challenges of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some families decided to do remote learning, while others preferred face-to-face. During the early months of the shutdown, Allison and her colleagues organized a learning community, co-teaching a daily Zoom class with students from all four grades. Allison felt she needed to reconsider and make some modifications to the curriculum to make it more meaningful for her students. The pandemic also helped her poetic thinking, drawing her focus to what really mattered at that moment. Writing poetry encouraged her to think about memorable things, such as the importance of collaboration among teachers and giving more freedom to her students.