Although my car has proudly carried the bumper sticker “Teachers Are My Heroes” for years, I recently had a co-teaching experience that super-confirmed that belief. This is a shout-out of aloha to a fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Keri Davis, and her colleagues at He‘eia Elementary School. Mrs. Davis herself is an alumna of He‘eia, where she says, as a student, “I wanted nothing more than to one day return to my beloved alma mater as a teacher and to be just like those that inspired me.” This is a story of a day-in-the-life of a dedicated pandemic public educator.

I had the privilege of collaborating for a day with Mrs. Davis as a member of the Ulu A‘e Transitions Grant team. This grant — federally funded through the Native Hawaiian Education Program — provides relevant experiential and tech-rich learning strategies that support students to strengthen their sense of belonging and personal resiliency as they transition from one school to another.

The project we worked on with He‘eia fifth graders was a careers exploration activity, through which students explored the requirements of various careers and their own interests and gifts to produce a short video featuring their own animated avatars. My part, as an artist-educator, was to provide a self-portrait drawing lesson to help students create their realistic avatars.

I was teaching via WebEx from the peaceful safety of my home office. Mrs. Davis was teaching — in person — 25-plus students in each of three 70-minute periods, some of whom were in two classrooms at school and some at home and all on the WebEx meeting. As I gave my step-by-step instructions, I watched the highly engaged students and responded to their work, and I witnessed Mrs. Davis moving around among them — affirming efforts, providing specific feedback and support — from one classroom to another, and to the home-bound as well.

One student at home stated plaintively that they hadn’t prepared and didn’t have paper and pencil ready. Mrs. Davis patiently counseled and questioned, “What could you write on and draw with: inside of a cereal box? Crayon? Marker? Let’s see how you can be resourceful!”

The first period went well. As the second period started, Mrs. Davis told us that she’d just been notified that her own daughter had been sent to the health room and would have to be taken for a COVID-19 test to be able to return to school. Mrs. Davis got prompt support from her school partners and arranged for another teacher to substitute for her for the second period, while she left to attend to her daughter. When the third period began, after lunch, I was surprised to see Mrs. Davis back at our class, now from her home computer, and as actively engaged as before.

At the end of the day Mrs. Davis stayed to meet with me for reflection and feedback before she began her next teaching work hours of reviewing student work and arranging for support for students who missed the lesson, had gaps in learning, needed extra help or other interventions, all in the context of pandemic-driven teaching challenges.

Teachers like Mrs. Davis — and she is multitudes — are everyday heroes. They are true first responders: first significant adults other than family who touch our children as they start school and the first to welcome them back from home after every break, whether vacation or trauma. Teachers like Mrs. Davis — and she is multitudes — hold the minds and hearts of our children in their own hearts and minds, every day, no matter what.

Kailua teacher Elly Tepper is an Ulu A‘e Transitions Grant team member.