Oral history interview with Susan Ahlbrand

Susan Ahlbrand, an 8th grade Language Arts teacher in Jasper, Indiana, has been part of a family of educators throughout her life. She shares her changing perspectives on education as she transitioned from a pre-COVID teacher who developed relationships with her students in a face-to-face environment to a COVID-era teacher who continues to strive to build those relationships with students while feeling the very real challenges of distance learning in developing those important connections with her students. Susan feels that while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to bring challenges of exhaustion, concerns about mental health and wellness, and anxiety of an uncertain future for teachers, there have been blessings of increased family time and opportunities for pausing and reflecting to question the ways we have done things for so long as we consider new ways of experiencing life. ; The COVID-19 Teacher-Poets Writing to Bridge the Distance collection is a series of interviews documenting the teachers' poetry and writing experiences during the 2020 COVID-19 school closings and the topics and insights that emerged.