112: Amy Diggin

Elementary School Teacher

Amy Diggan is a veteran teacher who has seen nothing like the last year in all 29 years of teaching. As echoed by other teachers, it has clearly been  the most difficult year she has ever experienced. 

Amy teaches Grade 4 in the Governor Mifflin School district. Everything she prepared for class needed to be prepared for virtual classes as well as face to face classes. Children were sometimes in and sometimes out of the live classroom. Some children maintained virtual classes the entire time. At one point,  6 children were present in class and all others were virtual. This constant variable required her to be flexible and patient each day. 

Amy was very impressed with her students’ ability to cope with all the changes. Students had to keep their desks separated from one another, and if they worked as partners, their time together was limited to 10 minutes or less. Students were cooperative and were very happy to see one another.

Only one student in her class had covid though many were quarantined sometimes more than once. Amy feels an academic impact showed. There will be gaps that need to be made up.

Something positive that happened was that students’ computer skills improved greatly. They learned to participate in both virtual meetings and groups. 

Mrs. Diggan is clearly a positive influence on her students and their families. She is grateful her family gave her lots of support to get through the year.