Pandemic Pedagogy: Snapshots from a Year of COVID-Impacted Teaching in Three Artifacts

Abstract

This article describes my experiences navigating the terrain of pandemic pedagogy in the 2020–21 academic year. I examine three artifacts derived from classroom instructional materials to excavate and preserve that year's emotional, intellectual, and creative labour. These artifacts reveal strategies I developed to make students' experiences of the pandemic the site of critical and creative inquiry. This essay argues that validation of the grief and loss students were experiencing became critical to successful teaching, especially for those in the performing arts.