DUBLIN, Ga. — The pandemic has taken a toll on many people, especially educators, but one Dublin first grade teacher stayed positive for her students, and it landed her a feature in the state educator magazine "Page One."
Kimlyn Fernandez teaches first grade at Irish Gifted Academy in Dublin.
"It's not just a job, we are pouring into the lives of our future," she said.
She says the pandemic made her job a lot tougher.
"We were down some teachers and subs wouldn't come in, and we just took in classroom of kids," Fernandez said.
They went from distance learning to in-person learning, including hybrid students.
"Whether it's a child that was learning part-time at home or, 'What did they learn when they were out?' Or if they were on quarantine and came back," said Fernandez, but that wasn't the only challenge she faced.
Fernandez shares a classroom with another teacher. In October, that teacher got COVID-19, so Fernandez took on two full classes by herself.
"It was really hectic because no two days looked the same," she said, but Fernandez says it ultimately forced collaboration.
"We had the older kids helping the younger kids, just that cooperative learning going on," she said, and it taught her a new way of teaching that helped her students connect and learn.
"It's almost miraculous to see the things that students teach each other, because sometimes it goes above and beyond what we even are able to teach them because they do think outside the box," she said.
Camden Guyton, a first-grader at the Gifted Academy in Fernandez's class, said, "She shows us how she cares about us by keeping us safe and trying to make us work quietly."
Her message to other teachers is, "Have you done the best that you can for your students? Do you love them? Are they safe? Do they know that you care?" she said.
Fernandez says she hopes, moving on from the pandemic, we don't lose that personal, relational part of educating. She says it's important for children to learn and grow together.