Oral history interview with Torrelee Fisher-Sass
Title
Oral history interview with Torrelee Fisher-Sass
Description
Torrelee Fisher-Sass discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted both her professional career as an educator and her personal life. Specifically, she reflects on the adjustments she made to transition the reading lab at Richmond Middle School in Hanover, New Hampshire, to online teaching after schools closed on 26 March 2020. She describes scheduling remote sessions with individual students and implementing a reading club, "First on Fridays," where she read the first chapter of select books and used gaming as incentives. She had originally joined Richmond Middle School later in her career as a way to reconnect with students individually or in small groups and was able to employ different remote strategies than were available to teachers with larger classes. However, she shares concerns about some of her students' isolation and reduced contact with other teachers.
She also relates her personal experiences with COVID-19. Shortly after attending a professional conference in Boston in early March 2020, she became severely ill with respiratory symptoms, though testing was not available at that time. Once working from home, she and her husband formed a social pod with her nearby daughter and grandchildren.
Torrelee Fisher-Sass' career as an educator spanned over 20 years and included experience as both a teacher and a school administrator at Thetford Academy in Thetford, Vermont. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was a reading specialist at Frances C. Richmond Middle School, an interstate compact school serving students from Hanover, New Hampshire, and Norwich, Vermont. She retired from full time teaching in the second year of the pandemic and transitioned to a part-time role at Hartford High School in Hartford, Vermont.
Sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-251676-OMS-22.
She also relates her personal experiences with COVID-19. Shortly after attending a professional conference in Boston in early March 2020, she became severely ill with respiratory symptoms, though testing was not available at that time. Once working from home, she and her husband formed a social pod with her nearby daughter and grandchildren.
Torrelee Fisher-Sass' career as an educator spanned over 20 years and included experience as both a teacher and a school administrator at Thetford Academy in Thetford, Vermont. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was a reading specialist at Frances C. Richmond Middle School, an interstate compact school serving students from Hanover, New Hampshire, and Norwich, Vermont. She retired from full time teaching in the second year of the pandemic and transitioned to a part-time role at Hartford High School in Hartford, Vermont.
Sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-251676-OMS-22.
Date
2024-04-29
Subject
Source
Collecting COVID-19: A Vermont Story Project
Identifier
AudioFileCOVID-025
Format
MP3
WAV
Type
Audio file
Rights
Permission to publish material from the Collecting COVID-19: A Vermont Story Project may be obtained from the Vermont Historical Society.
Interviewer
Bosek, Marcia Sue DeWolf
Interviewee
Fisher-Sass, Torrelee
Duration
49 min., 11 sec.
Repository
Vermont Historical Society Library, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641-4215
Collection
Citation
“Oral history interview with Torrelee Fisher-Sass,” Digital Vermont: A Project of the Vermont Historical Society, accessed April 4, 2025, https://digitalvermont.org/vtcovid/AudioFileCOVID-025.