Teaching during fall 2020 was so unbearable for Georgia educator Nikki Colwell, she nearly said goodbye to the profession. Her school had returned to campus after a brief pivot to virtual instruction the previous spring, and her job had quickly become more difficult than ever before in her seven-year career.
“I was teaching students in person and online at the same time, dealing with students who were quarantined, trying to maintain social distance in a very small classroom with 20-plus students,” she said. “I gave some serious thought to leaving teaching altogether, even though I didn’t necessarily want to leave the classroom. I just knew that I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing.”
