Third in Series: Literature Teacher Adapts to Video Lessons

The teacher that I profiled is Andy Newman. Mr. Newman teaches sophomores and seniors. He teaches World Literature to sophomores, College Composition and British Literature to seniors, and English 12, which is also for seniors. This is Mr. Newman's fifth year teaching at Sidney High School.

"I have been transitioning the classes to an online model and making adjustments as we go," Newman said during the COVID-19 school closure.

To help his students stay engaged during this time, he plans to make videos for his classes.

"Some walk the students through new material; others explain assignments," he said.

He is in the process of planning Zoom meetings, one in the morning for sophomores, and another in the afternoon for seniors. In these meetings he will review what his classes are doing and take any questions his students may have. They will be 30 minutes each with the option to go longer, if needed by the students. Newman's future plans for his students is to use Zoom more. This is to help his

British Literature class when they dive into the Literary Research Project. He has the same plan to help the sophomores as they start their Multi-genre Project.

With the COVID-19 school closure, Mr. Newman said, "I have been going outside more, which has been nice."

He also stated that he tends to talk to his laptop quite a bit, in the sense that he has been making videos for his students.

"If I start talking to my laptop without the video software running, then I will start to worry," he said.

Newman's hope for the rest of the school year is that everyone will continue to make this work. He also has some advice for seniors that are going through this tough time. He gave an exchange between Frodo and Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring," as an example. It states as follows. "I wish it would not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with that time that is given to us."

Newman thinks that one good thing that will come from the COVID-19 school closure is that everyone will have been reminded that there are things we cannot control. Everyone learns individually but with all of this we are learning it on a larger scale.

Despite everything, we carry on," he said.

That is what everyone should take away and Newman is doing a wonderful job through all that is happening. Sidney High School is lucky to have him as a teacher.