During the shelter-at-home directive ordered in resonse to the coronavirus pandemic, kindergarten teacher Karen Lee of Norfolk, Viriginia, shares the metamorphosis of caterpillars with her students online.

Every spring in her 30-year career, educator Karen Lee has introduced her classes of kindergartners to a lesson about caterpillars. This year, on the very day Karen introduced her young students to the caterpillars, her school closed down in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Karen took the caterpillars home. In the weeks since then, the veteran educator has been shifting her guided study of the caterpillars as they morph from caterpillars to butterflies into a lesson taught through distance learning.

Since the school’s closure, Lee told the Virginian-Pilot she has been recording and sharing online the metamorphosis of the caterpillars with her kids. The veteran educator has been sharing with her students everything they would have experienced in class. She’s posted videos of the caterpillar’s progress and let students know when they hatched last week.

It’s been difficult to adjust, Karen confesses. With younger children, it’s important to show them things they can see and touch. Digital lessons don’t  convey that as well as face-to-face lessons do. “I don’t know if I’m doing right or wrong,” she says. “I’m just doing what I feel like they need at the moment. They really need us.”

Karen earned her Bachelor’s degree in Science, Education, and Early Childhood Education and Teaching from Arkansas State University in 1989. She has been a teacher in the Norfolk Public Schools system in Virginia since 1999. Prior to accepting her position there, Karen taught for five years at Westside Consolidated in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Lee County School District for three years in Florida. She currently teaches at the Willoughby Early Childhood Center in Norfolk, Viriginia.