Colchester's Teacher of the Year reflects on teaching during the pandemic
Susan Rosato, Vermont’s 2021 teacher of the year, has learned the hard way how to best conduct a class from her home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rosato teaches at Colchester High School, where she works as an English Learner teacher for grades nine through 12. She knew that her students needed videos when the pandemic hit, since many of her students do not understand English well. She set up a studio in her garage, where she prioritized one-on-one zoom conferences.
Rosato has always been an advocate for her students, and feels that her students learning English have been given a lot of extra responsibilities to handle. She says that there are “extra barriers,” since they do not always have the strongest internet connection, or may have to babysit their siblings.
Rosato uses this as a learning opportunity, saying that the pandemic is teaching her students all kinds of things that could not be learned in the classroom.
“Everyone needs to understand that it does not have to be this ‘we have to catch up’ or ‘this is so horrible’. Kids are learning, they might not be learning what we would have prescribed for them to learn, but look at all the stuff they are learning,” Rosato said.
With all these added responsibilities comes emotional toll. Rosato worries about the emotional damage that the pandemic has had on her students. She explains that the state should provide funding to get the right counseling and social workers for schools when the pandemic is over.
“I think everyone is suffering a little low grade trauma on a daily basis. I am very mindful of my crew of ELL students. But in a bigger picture, I am sure that there are some students who have fallen off the radar and they will need to be circling back and making sure these students are well. That’s my biggest fear” Rosato said.
Rosato, being a parent herself, has felt very proud of the Colchester school administration for what it has been able to do for students and parents. She congratulates Amy Minor, the Colchester School District Superintendent, for what she has been able to provide.
Rosato is a part of many different committees at Colchester High School. When schools were reopening for the fall semester, she was part of the Reopening of Schools Committee, where she focussed on her ELL students having the right information to register. She just joined a Reopening Committee with the Secretary of Education Dan French, where she will help school districts across Vermont to reopen.
She is staying very positive with how the pandemic has affected students, and has been able to draw benefits out of it.
“I think the more voice and choice that you can give a student and the more they can control their learning and participate in how the learning is structured, the more successful and more engaging and more fun the classroom is going to be. I think COVID has helped with that because you don’t want someone to not show up and to not be learning. I think a lot of teachers have given students a lot more choice and a lot more voice out of necessity,” Rosato said.
