PV Educators

In the past two years, defined by uncertainty and unpredictability one thing is for sure, the face of education has changed forever.

As we have seen right here on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on students and teachers. We all know that the coronavirus created a mass disruption of schooling in the spring semester of the 2019-20 school year.

The magnitude and speed of school closures were unprecedented and although all the consequences are still murky, the importance of students learning in a classroom alongside their peers and the role of the teacher have become crystal clear.

Educators in Palos Verdes are excited to be back in classrooms and engaging, in person, with their students once again. There is no question that classrooms are more than a vehicle for learning. They offer friendship and community, and they give many students a safe place to socialize and grow.

Today, our classrooms might look a little different but school is still happening and kids are still learning in large part thanks to the tireless efforts of teachers. Katie Rieder, a second-generation Palos Verdes teacher who was born, raised, and educated in PV currently teaches 6th grade Language Arts at Miraleste Intermediate. She has been teaching for a dozen years, is grateful to be back in the classroom full time, and feels especially gratified for the resilience of her students.

“I realized at the beginning of this whole thing that curriculum, though important, is not the whole focus and shouldn’t be. Focusing more on social and emotional development has really helped the kids feel safe and to advance in the curriculum,” Rieder says. “There is a hunger to be back in the classroom and a hunger to learn at an even greater pace now, that I haven’t seen before and I wasn’t anticipating,” she says happily.

A recent survey by the National Education Association found that the majority of educators felt under-prepared to teach online when the pandemic forced them out of the classrooms in March of 2020. In 2022, that same survey revealed teachers are extremely confident about being back in the classroom in person. We spoke to several teachers and support staff who work for the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District and the majority feel supported by parents and the administration. Teachers say a lot of that confidence to return to the classroom comes from safety measures that were put in place and also from their overwhelming commitment to lifelong learning and professional development.

“Well I am definitely more confident in my use of technology and so are the kids,” says Lisa Anne Larkin a Palos Verdes elementary school teacher who has spent time working with third and fourth graders at three different PVPUSD schools. Despite the tumultuous year teachers agree that the use of technology is definitely a positive outcome of the pandemic and will pave the way for future classrooms that are high tech. When on Friday, March 13, 2020 (yes it was Friday the 13th) schools shuttered buildings and went online there was no infrastructure in place and no training for teachers but just like their students, teachers are learners and they figured it out quickly.

One of the overwhelming guidelines for teachers, who took it to heart to help students in every creative way possible, was to just give a lot of grace. “The expectations at that time were anyone’s guess. We just wanted our students to keep learning,” says Larkin.

Josef Rieder, a Palos Verdes born and raised music and social studies teacher who has spent time teaching both middle school and high school students here on the hill, says he has happily taken some of the lessons of remote learning back to his classroom where he is thrilled to be, every day.

“This is my community and I value the fact that I can work in my community and contribute to it in a positive way,” he says. “The kids are doing a fantastic job. They’re being asked to do a lot and they’re doing it, every day. Against all this background stress that they have to deal with like, masks and tests and being called out of class for contact tracing and all of that. So, there’s a lot going on. In addition to the normal day-to-day stress of school, these kids are just having to deal with a lot and I’m proud of them for just being able to handle it because it’s not easy,” explains Rieder who uniquely understands his students and where they come from. Rieder’s mother and sister are also PVPUSD educators.

”These kids still need support, because it’s not like the last two years are just going to disappear from memory. I went to school here. So I feel I have a little bit of a sense of things,” he says, “but it’s good to be back. It’s fantastic. We have so many great things on campus. I feel lucky because I get to deal with work I enjoy on a daily basis. Being in school is great. Working from home is like purgatory for me. It’s not that every day at school is easy but I get to make music and the staff is great and the students, it’s good,” he says, definitively.

Some key things became clear as the pandemic wears on: Going to school in-person is how students learn best. Teachers are supporters, mentors, helping hands and resource specialists. Schools are more than a place to learn. They’re also safe places to be while parents are working. We know that schools support kids’ physical, mental, social, and emotional health and with proper safety measures, schools are doing a great job of limiting the spread of the virus. Teacher, Katie Rieder is exhausted and proud and feels uplifted by the work she and her colleagues are doing.

“I wish every parent knew how much we love their students and how much we give of ourselves our minds and bodies and everything in order to make their kids’ experience the best. I put in so many hours. Not for kudos but because I want the kids to have the best, most comfortable, and nurturing experience they can have in my class with as little stress as possible. If I could tell parents anything I’d say that we’ve been working nonstop in order to make that happen and it hasn’t gotten easier in fact it’s gotten harder,” Rieder explains passionately. “Honestly we were creating everything from scratch. Now, we have great online resources and paper resources and the challenge is trying to figure out what the best combination of those is, to keep students engaged, and also to make sure no one is falling behind. So it’s just a whole new ballgame. But we have been forced to pivot so many times so I’m definitely more confident in my choices now,” she says and with a glimmer in her eye it is clear this teacher and her teammates across the district are hitting the ball out of the park and keeping students in class, learning and engaged.