Citation #1
Bartlett, Lora. “Will the Pandemic Drive Teachers out of the Profession? What One Study Says.” Education Week, Education Week, 26 Aug. 2021, https://www.edweek.org/teachinglearning/opinion-will-the-pandemic-drive-teachers-out-of-the-profession-what-one-studysays/2021/08.


Summary
The article talks about the vast struggles teachers have gone through during the pandemic and how many are feeling burnt out due to the many changes that came with it. The author is an associate professor of education at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is currently focusing and researching on the teacher profession and schools as workplaces for teachers. She wrote this article to put a spotlight to the cries of teachers in the pandemic who felt unheard and
stretched too thin to the ever-changing conditions COVID-19 bring to their classrooms. From being constantly criticized by parents to the lack of help from their school’s officials, these were some of the countless issues they had to go through while navigating how to stay safe during a pandemic. The article also pays attention to the feelings and emotional toll teaching in a pandemic had on them.


Reflection
I agreed with the article and felt that this viewpoint is important and should be seen as a big concern because as the author mentioned, teachers have been feeling overwhelmed since the start of the pandemic and it can cause many teachers to quit if their problems and needs are not addressed. And seeing as the author is a professor in education and focusesd on these topics as a career, I felt she was most qualified to voice her opinions and state why the pandemic will drive teachers out the profession. And I feel like she efficiently cited reasons as to why that may be true and what is the current reality for teachers in the United States. And I found it realty interesting that not only do teachers feel out of place due to the new normal COVID-19 had brought along but from the actions and the inactions schools’ officials have been doing since the start of the pandemic. She mentioned one of them being their enforcement of old polices that doesn’t help with their current environment. The author did well in structuring the paragraph and sentences were everything was easy to understand and read. It also seemed like the audience of this article was for parents, schools’ officials, those who didn’t understand the hardships teachers had to face during the pandemic. And I would say that she did a great job as to voicing the needs and frustrations of teachers.


Quotation
“The pandemic continued, students were struggling emotionally, and teachers were stretched thin trying to adapt to the ever-changing conditions. But unlike the spring, when teachers felt they were part of a concerted effort, teachers now felt silenced and blamed for what others saw as the shortcomings of the educational response. They were inundated with a constant stream of criticism, particularly when they raised safety concerns. Some parents seemed to hold teachers
responsible for COVID-19 schooling conditions that teachers themselves found frustrating. Too often, teachers were beset by school decision-making that excluded their perspective and often required them to stick to policies that didn’t make sense in the new context. Emotionally exhausted and feeling unheard, teachers found it increasingly difficult to sustain the effort needed to teach students well,” (Bartlett).