Ironically, it took a note from her principal for this kindergarten teacher to get a COVID test.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK: I'm pretty sure I contracted it on the four o'clock southbound M7 bus after school one day because as a teacher, I really didn't have much time to do anything other than teaching. It was packed like sardines with kids coming home from school, sneezing, and coughing. This was before we knew about coronavirus. So there was no masking. There was no social distancing.

 I contracted it on the four o'clock southbound M7 bus after school 

All throughout the month of February, I had a one-degree fever every day and I didn't know why. I chalked it up to my arthritis. I went to the doctor and he had no idea. He tested me for the flu. He tested me for strep. He said, “You probably just have a virus. Don't worry about it.” A couple of weeks later COVID started to become a thing. And I started to think, is that possible? No! Nobody really has it. In the whole state of New York, 12 people have it. It can't possibly be COVID.  But I started to get more and more symptoms.

Schools closed for students and teachers had to go to school for three days to learn how to use Google Classroom, do professional development, and take things home to do remote teaching for two weeks.

Then, I found out that somebody who works in my school tested positive. The next day I woke up with a 102℉ fever. So, armed with my fever and an email from the principal to the whole school that somebody else in our building had tested positive for COVID, CityMD gave me the test. It was the combination of my fever and that note from the principal because they were being very stingy with tests. This was March 19th. If not for that, they would not have given me the test. Ten days later,  it came back positive. I was so relieved because otherwise, I had no idea what could be wrong with me.

armed with my fever and an email from the principal to the whole school that somebody else in our building had tested positive for COVID, CityMD gave me the test.

When I first got sick with Corona, nobody knew much about it. So, my first instinct was not to call one of my own doctors because I knew they would be very, very busy, called away to help out in hospital emergency rooms, but to call two former students of mine -- sisters who were in my first-grade class, many, many years ago. They're both in Florida now.  One is an emergency room doctor, and the other is a nurse. 

I kept them abreast as to what was happening up here (in New York) to help them know what it was going to be like when the virus got down there and they would get back to me about what they were learning about the virus. 

Things come full circle. At one time, I was the one who gave them information and tried to let them learn about the world through me. Now, here we are years later and they are a doctor and a nurse and they are filling me in with what I need to know… which is beautiful, but also really lets me know how old I am. I look in the mirror and I want to feel like I’m 30, but I can’t because they’re 30 and 23.

The schools wound up being closed through June. So, teachers all worked from home. I brought home all of my things and I set up my little kindergarten classroom in my living room.

I brought home all of my things and I set up my little kindergarten classroom in my living room.

This was before teachers were doing all the Zooms and Google Meets. We were mostly putting things onto the Google Classroom and kids doing the lessons. Well, this is kindergarten, so the parents would read it to them and they'd do the lessons and send them in.

When we did start doing Zooms, I tried to take some of the technology out of virtual teaching. I like to have that personal touch so I would hold a book, come really close to the screen, and point to things. So it felt like a teacher reading them a story, not like they're looking at a story on a screen.

Schools being remote, worked out really well for me because being as sick as I was, there was no way I was going to be able to go back to the school building even when I didn't feel like I was contagious anymore. I just didn't have the energy. I had diarrhea everyday on and off. I had no energy and you can't teach kindergarten without having energy. 

Teaching was very important to my mental health because knowing that I had a reason to get up every morning, kept me going. Knowing that I was responsible for the education of 25 little kindergarteners, kept me from the fears that would only creep in at night: What if I can't finish out the school year? What if I get really, really sick and I have to go to one of those tents over in Central Park? What if I have to go to the hospital? What if I have to go on a vent. And if so, am I going to be one of these people who say goodbye to my family on an iPad that a nice nurse gives me? What if I don't die but I never really recover? Because I had to teach during the day, I didn't have the time to think about that. I was very grateful for being able to continue to teach and have a responsibility I needed to do that kept me going. 

I told all of the parents of my students in an email that I had coronavirus and they were really, really supportive. One dad told me he has connections and could get me a ventilator because back then that was the big thing that we didn't have enough of. He's like, “Don't worry! I have connections. I'll get you a ventilator. Here's my private phone number. You send me a text if you need one. Send it to me from the hospital. I will make sure you get one.” Thankfully I never had to make that call. But, I emailed his information to both of my brothers and my husband with a note, “If I'm in a hospital and they don't have a ventilator for me, call this guy and he's going to get me one. If anybody ever asks me in my career what was the nicest thing a family ever did for you? I would say, “In 33 years, let's see, probably the nicest thing was when I had coronavirus during the pandemic and one dad said “I have connections to get you a ventilator.” 

PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: psoriatic arthritis, which is psoriasis and arthritis combined and asthma.

Leni was a teacher of pre-K -second grade  for over 30 years. She just retired this year, but she still volunteers occasionally for her school and helps the current teachers. She can’t wait until the pandemic is over to volunteer in person!