‘We survived it.’ How these Miami students coped with getting through the pandemic

Colleen Wright
·4 min read

Last fall, Glenda Moton greeted her ninth graders with a prompt on the white board: Hopes and Fears.

She had her own concerns about coming back to school to teach during a global pandemic. But she wanted to hear from her freshmen braving a new world at North Miami Senior High. Inspired by professional development she took over the summer, Moton surveyed her students.

They hoped for believing in themselves. Racial justice. A better economy, financial stability and a successful future. Freedom.

They feared depression and suicide, isolation, homelessness, abuse and hunger.

Moton had them pour it all out into a class paper, and she made it their end-of-the year project with a twist: She would compile their papers into a self-published book.

“Everyone’s got something to say,” Moton said, “but have you really listened to the students?”

Students’ names in print

On Monday, during the last week of a wildly unprecedented school year, 32 students in Moton’s Honors English and Pre-International Baccalaureate classes got to see their names in print in their own paperback copy of “Hopes and Fears: Learning Academically in a COVID-19 Environment.”

Glenda Moton and her ninth graders at North Miami Senior High worked on a book project, “Hopes and Fears: Learning Academically in a COVID-19 Environment.” The book details the students’ personal accounts of how they were able to cope during a global pandemic while learning how to navigate school from a virtual platform.
Glenda Moton and her ninth graders at North Miami Senior High worked on a book project, “Hopes and Fears: Learning Academically in a COVID-19 Environment.” The book details the students’ personal accounts of how they were able to cope during a global pandemic while learning how to navigate school from a virtual platform.

Sean Paulas thumbed to his own excerpt and read it out aloud. “If you asked me about what I hope for, I would say success / But if you asked me about my fear, success would always be one of them / Success is not always final / Which is why I fear it more than failure.”

“I feel accomplished,” said Paulas. “It’s heartwarming to see I accomplished something.”

Ludovica Rondelli shows a page in the book where she wrote about her hopes and dreams following a school year that took place during a global pandemic. Rondelli is a ninth-grade student in Glenda Moton’s class at North Miami Senior High School.
Ludovica Rondelli shows a page in the book where she wrote about her hopes and dreams following a school year that took place during a global pandemic. Rondelli is a ninth-grade student in Glenda Moton’s class at North Miami Senior High School.

Moton is already a self-published author who has published her students’ work. While teaching at Miami Norland Senior High in 2017, she published “iRead, iThink, iWrite: Adapted from “We Beat the Street” Our Lives Behind the Scene” which included personal student narratives reflecting on the journey of “The Three Doctors” — three Black men who overcame poverty to become medical doctors.

This time, Moton paid for the self publishing with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing out of her own pocket.

The book as therapy

“When they take the pen to the paper and just let their thoughts flow, it’s just so beautiful,” she said. “I think. that any student would benefit from this. It’s a form of therapy, release and healing.”

The book, “Hopes and Fears: Learning Academically in a COVID-19 Environment,” produced by Glenda Moton and her ninth-grade students at North Miami Senior High.
The book, “Hopes and Fears: Learning Academically in a COVID-19 Environment,” produced by Glenda Moton and her ninth-grade students at North Miami Senior High.

That rang true for student David Narcisse.

“Especially as a young male, we’re taught to stifle our feelings,” he said. “Just having an outlet to talk and pour it out, it really helps.”

Leeyahna Lawson said she was sad to see her school year come to an end. She learned mostly online and feared that COVID-19 would lead to another uneventful summer.

“Fear is like a chain reaction, but so is hope; it all depends on your perspective on certain situations,” she wrote. “You can choose to face it, or you could allow that fear to control your life.”

Devonne Malcom’s aunt caught COVID-19, but did not have any symptoms.

“This virus has taken a vile toll on my life, yet the same question still looms in my head, “Will things ever get better?” Malcom wrote. “Of course, one day this will all be over, but what does that say about us? How will we manage? The only being that can answer these questions is the Savior up above; therefore, if we put our trust in Him, who’s to say we have nothing else to hope for?”

And Moton’s hopes and fears?

“My hope is that one day, one of these young people in here will be an author,” she said. “My fear initially was coming back to school. I’ve resolved that I’m going to be OK. Even through this whole pandemic, we don’t have to panic. There is hope.”

Ninth-grade students Ashley Joseph, Chenaya Gerifin and Devonne Malcom look over the books their teacher Glenda Moton, center, at North Miami Senior High recently had published: “Hopes and Fears: Learning Academically in a COVID-19 Environment.”
Ninth-grade students Ashley Joseph, Chenaya Gerifin and Devonne Malcom look over the books their teacher Glenda Moton, center, at North Miami Senior High recently had published: “Hopes and Fears: Learning Academically in a COVID-19 Environment.”

Moton, 66, was worried about being vulnerable to COVID-19. She constantly sprayed and wiped down her classroom as more and more students returned from learning online to learning in the classroom.

Guide to lessons learned amid pandemic

Moton is putting together a curriculum guide about how the book came to be, and what lessons were learned, to use next school year — her last year teaching after 21 years in the district.

Much like a yearbook, Moton’s students ended their class by signing each others’ copies.

“We were there, we lived through that, we survived it and we wrote about it,” she said. “It’s like proof that you’ve survived it.”

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