Dina Cunha, College Counselor

The Catalyst (TC): What do you think about the announcement to continue online distance learning until December?

Dina Cunha (DC): I think it would have been difficult for us to switch over right in the middle of a semester. Once you start training kids on how to use zoom and Schoology, everything’s loaded up. Sometimes it’s hard to shift back out of it, especially in the middle of a semester. So, the logistics of it might have been difficult, especially with having to be six feet away from each other and in the classrooms. I don’t know how to pull that one off. I think it would have been easier, following the rules of San Mateo, and just go into December.

(TC): Do you prefer to be online or on-campus?

(DC): It would be nice to have some sort of a hybrid or something because I know girls are aching and so are we to see guys, and to have some sort of contact in some way. Personally, it was also a little easier because my kids are also remote. I have three kids in elementary and middle school. I’m in Santa Clara County, different counties, so that meant that if I was going back to school, but they were remote, I’d have to drive to work with them. It’s easier if everyone’s doing the same thing at the same time, I guess, you know, especially if you’re living in different counties. I think hopefully we’ll have a plan going into January, we’re just sort of waiting on what the county and the government tells us to do. See, with college counseling, it is a little different. 90% of it is online already because you guys are filling out college apps online, and you’re finding out information online and financial aid. Everything’s pretty much online. In terms of the process of college counseling, it is a little different than teaching. So it wasn’t a big deal, the big deal is trying to get students into student meetings, like the hundred of you that I could drag into the dining room and go over certain technical items, and now I have to zoom that and that’s hard to capture if kids are missing the steps. Connecting common app and Naviance, blah blah blah. That’s hard to do in a zoom meeting, and that’s easier to do in person, but the application process itself is online. I guess it’s a combination of both right now. I mean, in person is always the best because you can capture the kid, you can say hey so and so come in here, you forgot to do this item, or so it’s easier for me to get girls on task that way in college counseling. When you press submit, that’s all online. I think I’ve had it a little easier than the teachers who’ve had to move everything online, lesson planning and stuff. All I’ve done is Schoology, but it’s not a course, so just really showing you where to go to get the information, which is ultimately online.

(TC): How has online distance learning changed your teaching or counseling?

(DC): It has been much harder to get into contact with students. On campus, I can pull a kid out of class to say hey I needed you to do X, Y and Z. I can’t do that in the world of virtual reality, you know, virtual zooming. I also think kids are just kind of zoom fatigue, as I call it, they’re kind of over the zooming a lot. I noticed that I don’t get as many appointments. Normally, I’m booked two weeks out and I’m wide open. I think it’s just kids are fed up with it, you know, they do this all day already with teaching, now counselors are doing it with you too, so unless they have to see me. I’m quite open, so it’s good in that respect. Normally, I’m totally booked in person.

(TC): How do you feel about teaching on campus with others who might not be careful with hand washing, mask wearing, or social distancing?

(DC): I think it is kind of nerve wracking. You know I’ve heard of stories and I don’t know if this is true or not, whereas you know somebody will have a birthday party and then all of a sudden all the girls will show up, and no one’s wearing masks and then they take that to school, right, sort of that exposure possible. That’s what I’m worried about, as some of our teachers who may have health issues that we don’t know about or who might be susceptible to being more exposed. I think as young kids, you guys might not go down for the count as quicker as maybe the older adults. I’m okay health wise, but my colleagues, I don’t know and I think we’ve had a lot of concerns from faculty and staff going. I don’t know who everyone else has been around. That’s probably the only concern I see, if at all.

(TC): How has working from home affected your home or work life?

(DC): I have three kids who are constantly fighting for real estate, meaning where do I get to sit. They can’t hear each other because we’re live zooming and so, I have my daughter in her room, my boys in their room, but they were annoying each other, so now I got my little guy downstairs and I’m in my room. I’ve had to actually get a desk for my room because I can’t be downstairs. We’re all kind of fighting for space. It feels a bit isolating, but it was originally kind of okay in the beginning.