Quarantine.

A word that couldn’t be escaped throughout 2020. Being quarantined can easily triple a teacher’s workload and be one of the most challenging things they face all school year.

Special education teacher Jessie Allan lived through that nightmare for three weeks in November.

Two of Allan’s family members caught COVID, which meant she actually had to quarantine without having the virus. She spent each school day zooming with individual students and groups of students from her home.

“Being online all day, especially with having a second and third-grade child at home, was very difficult,” Allan said. “My daughter and I had to be home for two weeks after my husband was cleared.”

Trying to focus on her classes, her individual students, and her children and their school work was stressful. 

Allan doesn’t think people understand how hard teaching while in quarantine is. 

“One day, I had earbuds in, and (teacher) Scott Litterer and I were working with a student in one ear while I was working with a different class in the other earbud, all while I was helping my son next to me,” Allan said. “But I did it.”

Allan thinks it was challenging, but she also thinks the power a person has to overcome these challenges is amazing.

“Everything turned out okay,” Allan said.