Fourth in Series: Sidney Teachers Discuss Coping Strategies

The teacher that I profiled this week is Chandra Lewis.

Lewis is a kindergarten teacher at Central Elementary school. This is her fourth year teaching in the Sidney Public school district. She obtained her teaching degree from Hastings College in 2009 and then earned her masters from Morningside College in 2016.

She and the rest of the kindergarten teachers are keeping their students busy with the kindergarten take-home packets. The teachers put together a Bingo card with activities from each subject. The goal is for the student to complete the bingo card by the end of the week and send a picture to their teacher. All of the elementary schools also participated in a virtual spirit week.

"I plan to use Zoom once a week so my students can still talk to each other and I will read them a story," she said.

While she does still find time and ways to interact with her students, she said it is hard to find a good balance. She has two kids at home ages nine and six and she said it is hard to find a good balance between helping them with their school and still making time to do her own school work and interact with her kids in the classroom.

"I definitely miss my students and being able to talk and interact with them all every day," she says.

Along with once a week Zoom meetings, most elementary schools

use an educational app called Class Dojo to also interact with students. While this closure has been hard on both ends, for teachers and students, Lewis found a positive side.

When asked how it personally affected her as a teacher, she replied, "Overall, I think that in the end it will make me a better teacher because it will make me get out of my comfort zone and try things I normally wouldn't do in my classroom."

While Mrs. Lewis has only been teaching in Sidney for four years, her teaching career goes back further. She first taught fifth grade in Red Cloud, Neb., for three years and first grade in Meade, Kansas for four years before moving to Sidney. She is married to Austin Lewis, a Sidney High School teacher. They have a nine-year-old daughter Kinslee, and a six-year-old son, Pace. After her hours in the classroom, Lewis enjoys playing volleyball.