Reflections on a Teaching Career #9

The pandemic, teaching online, and retiring from Moraine

By January of 2020 Frank and I had gotten used to spending my brief two-week winter break in Palm Springs, California.

It became distressing when we’d leave the sunny and warm southwest in very early January only to arrive back to sub-zero temperatures and even colder wind chills in Chicago. I wanted to spend more time there. I had already spoken to my assistant dean Lisa at Moraine about possibly doing a spring semester teaching online. She didn’t seem to think it would be a problem as other faculty members had begun to take advantage of students’ burgeoning needs to take online courses.

Because DePaul operates on a quarter system versus Moraine’s semester system, I’d only need to teach the winter quarter online there and then return for spring in late March. So, in mid-March I approached my associate dean at DePaul who was responsible for scheduling courses. I inquired about teaching the next winter online. He also seemed encouraging about the possibility so I thought my plan might really work. However, at that meeting he and I talked about this pandemic that was racing its way around the world. I asked if he thought we’d be quarantined like other countries were. His response was, “it’s not if, but when.” The next day DePaul announced all classes would be held online for the next quarter. Moraine did the same. While I would eventually return to classes on campus at DePaul, I would never again set foot on Moraine’s campus.

The prospect of converting all my courses online was daunting but I relished it! For the previous 23 years I had been commuting between first College of Du Page and Moraine Valley and then eventually to the latter and DePaul. I’d spend anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes, depending on the time of day and traffic, in my car one way. I didn’t completely mind because I enjoyed my time alone listening to music and podcasts. However, I realized I was spending a large chunk of my days on the road when I could be doing other more fulfilling things with my time.

As I began converting my courses, I experienced a wonderful high having so much extra free time during the day. I could have a quick bite and be in front of my Mac in seconds and begin prepping or teaching. This was a revelation! So, while everyone was clearly and justifiably scared about the pandemic, I was thrilled to be at home.

Where I taught at home during the pandemic

Initially the experience was great and pumped new life into something I’d been doing for over two decades. Then the spring turned to summer and then another fall. Classes at both institutions would continue to be taught online indefinitely. A few cracks began to occur in the process though. One of the constant battles was keeping students from turning off their cameras during class sessions. I was told that we couldn’t require them to keep them on for privacy reasons, but I tried, nonetheless. I’d see a host of non-classroom behavior in my students while online. One guy spent class-time in his basement which had a bar set up. He’d be vaping and blowing smoke at the camera for what he must have deemed as being fun. (I told him to stop, I think.) Others would lay comfortably on their beds, hugging their pillows and not taking notes. One student wouldn’t turn on her screen because she said she was also at work. I thought, “why can she double-dip?!” Sometimes I’d call on a student who supposedly was present and get no response. Who knows where they went! Some would be in their cars during the Zoom sessions, others would have TVs or other family members making noise in the background. Essentially, it felt like a new kind of baby-sitting (which some students were also doing.) I began to realize that as much as I liked teaching from home, the experience with these synchronous online courses wasn’t always ideal.

In January of 2021 I began investigating the possibility of retiring from Moraine. Because the college was part of the state of Illinois community college system, I had been paying into the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), which essentially would result in a pension for teachers. I’d also had a year as an adviser at the University of Illinois at Chicago as well as a year doing the same at College of DuPage before I started teaching. Both contributed to my years of service in the state system. After some phone conversations with a representative of IMRF it became clear that with the amount I’d been making at Moraine, which had started to go down when I decided to teach less courses per term, I could retire and still make the same if not more per month. I’d be saving the time, wear and tear on my car, and gas money by eliminating Moraine from my teaching schedule.

So, I decided that after 24 years at Moraine I would retire from there in 2021. All my contact with the other staff and faculty at the college had been via email since the pandemic started so there wasn’t any warm goodbye, except for a few nice messages and a gift card sent to me to a restaurant chain. Basically, my time there was over. No more seniority in choosing courses to teach, no more film club, and no more student film festivals. I never went back to collect anything in the one file drawer I had in the adjunct office or the locker with some old tests, cameras, and student films. As far as I know, they’re still there or were thrown out.

A familiar card suggesting life be getting back to normal

This left me with DePaul. In the Fall of 2021, we went back to teaching on campus, but we all had to wear masks. This initially proved a challenge, but I was always able to project my voice, so I dealt with it fine. That first term back was quite special. Clearly, the students were glad to be on campus again interacting with us faculty members and their fellow students. There was a feeling of relief that we had survived through a crazy time and were ready to start life on the outside again.

Next Up: The Final Chapter: Teaching after COVID, Changing Students, Maintaining Contact with Former Students, and Retiring from De Paul

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