“Okay, you want to get your information from Snapchat? Go right ahead.”

Greg Hey is a middle school teacher in Burridge, Illinois. He has been a teacher for 27 years and has dealt with nothing that compares to the struggles of Covid and misinformation in his classroom.

Natalie Hey: can you introduce yourself?

Greg Hey: Hey, I’m Greg Hey I am a sixth-grade science teacher at Gower Middle School in Burr Ridge, Illinois.

Q: You have been a teacher for about 28 years, what initially inspired you to teach?

A: Both of my parents were Educators and I kind of grew up knowing that was the norm for me; having Educators in the family. My mom was the superintendent of the school district, and president of the school board for as long as I could remember. But I honestly didn’t want to be a teacher. I was going to be a psychiatrist. I went to the University of Iowa as pre-med and kind of struggling. It’s not really easy to do pre-med. I was at the point where I was taking organic chemistry for the second time, sitting and questioning whether this is something that I really wanted to do to myself for the next 4 to 8 to 10 years of my life. I was sitting in that class and heard two kids in front of me talking about how they were not going to help another kid study for the test because if he did better, he would move up in the class rank and that was sort of the epiphany moment. Like, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” I had a conversation with a good friend of mine about what we could do. She was also in the science education program she was like, “you have got to try this it’s really cool, the people are great,” and that sort of started me down that road of how I’ve always loved science and other people.

Q: How has teaching changed though the pandemic?

A: At the root of what we’re doing, it hasn’t really changed. You’re still trying to communicate ideas, get kids to think, get kids to produce and demonstrate their learning, so not that much has changed. But from what was March 14^th, of 2020 everything just kind of stopped. We went away for spring break and then never went back to school in person. That year-that was rough. The mandate was given by the district that essentially the kids were not going to be held accountable for any assignments. Everybody was going to pass, so there were the kids who didn’t care anymore. Getting kids to connect with stuff that I thought was really interesting and that I really loved and watching their disinterest was tough. Through the Zoom meetings, I felt a little bit like I was creating some sort of podcast YouTube special something like that every single day. That was a huge challenge to try and get kids to again connect with material. So much of science is hands-on. Since no one really knew what okay. We didn’t do a lot of labs. We didn’t do a lot of hands-on stuff. Then we got to connect with kids in school and as the year went on, you got a few more kids trickling back. We were probably about 80% in person and only about 20% at home. Even then some of the kids at home you never saw. Even this year changed we started out masked, socially distanced. Pretty much the same as the school year and end of the year before. But as the years gone they’ve gone mask optional. what’s an interesting couple of weeks to look at how the first couple days I have the kids wear masks except for the 8th grade which was about 80-90% of the kids were just like, “I’m taking my mask off, I can’t stand this anymore, I’m done with it.” Some of the teachers became a lot more relaxed with masks and then I started to feel that the kids that were unmasked had a little heir of cockiness about them like, “look what I can do I can walk around without my mask.” At that point, the first couple days I was still wearing my mask and when you’re still wearing your mask and it was it was a really strange vibe that I was getting from some kids. It was they were like they were getting away with something and there was nothing anybody could do about it. So after the first week I decided, “well let’s go maskless, let’s see what happens.” And so I didn’t wear my mask and more after that first week and that vibe kind of went away and I don’t think it’s because I took my mask off, I think it’s just because kids kind of just adjusted to it and it stopped having it be a big deal.

Q: What has it been like returning to in person teaching and have you had any difficulties with parents or kids surrounding covid?

A: Not at all no. Parents directly to me have never said anything other than positive things, “thank you, we love what you’re doing, you’re you are sacrificing so much, we appreciate everything that you’re doing.” I’ve had a few kids push back but mostly centered around appropriate wearing of a mask. And I tell almost all of them all you had to do was point and they would fix it and some of them you’d have to point more often you know more often than others but there was no real resentment no resistance fake they spoke badly about it they hated wearing them and that was completely clear they think there was a little bit of I don’t know why I have to and I like to just rely on the science. Then the complete one-eighty of well now everyone should wear masks inside and then these are the types of masks that are better than these and don’t. From a science teacher standpoint it was a gold mine to talk to the kids about the scientific process about how back in March of 2020 we had no idea what was going on so there was no guidance about wearing masks. Once scientists figured out what was going on and the guidance was, “all right we need to stay away from each other and if you’re near each other we got to wear masks” was a complete reversal so that was really that was an amazing experience to just be able to share with students and I think when you frame it that way in terms of what’s actually going on science related and they work.

Q: how do you get information you can trust?

A: My wife! Just kidding – I listened to what the CDC was saying and what the recommendations were coming down from our district who is getting their information from the Illinois Department of Health and listen to what the majority of scientists were saying.

Q: Is it your responsibility as an educator to step in when you hear misinformation?

A: I don’t mind engaging in that conversation. I think there are some teachers that would feel uncomfortable because they know that the potential would be for that kid to go home and say, “so and so said we were wrong” and then get that blown up in their face but I don’t mind engaging in those conversations because I always took at it in the route of what does the evidence say? And okay you want to get your information from Snapchat? Go right ahead. Might not be a hundred percent reliable maybe find some other sources that are saying the same things, but if there’s a preponderance of evidence says the other thing then let’s go with probably where most of the reputable scientists are saying and not what some dude perfect said on YouTube or whatever.

Q: With students like that, do you notice tension with other students?

A: I don’t know if I know enough to answer that because I have to assume that they’re getting their information from their parents because the guidance that went home from The District said talk about this as a family and do what your family decides. There are kids that their family has told them, “you must wear masks” that will put a mask on when they leave the house come to school take the mask off and before they get home put the mask back on so their parents think they’re wearing their masks as well. I heard one comment from one boy whose like a really high level super smart kid parents are doctors he’s wearing a wearing a mask all year our principal was making an announcement said something about masks being optional she got all done and he said but you should wear a mask that’s what my parents say and I thought kids were going to jump on that and you don’t attack him or you know it’s my choice or whatever you can’t tell me what to do is let it go. It’s kind of just letting everybody sort of be themselves. I guess it speaks to the sort of the resilience of kids that yes they’ve had to put up with this really horrible thing like we all have but they’re kind of bouncing back and bouncing out of it.

Q: of all the things you teach in your class, what is the most important lesson you want your kids to take from you?

A: Think critically about everything and don’t accept somebody saying something question. Yeah that’s it.