Oral history interview with Brooke Paxton

Oral history interview with Brooke Paxton

Brooke Paxton discusses her experience as a school guidance counselor at the Flood Brook School in Londonderry, Vermont, during the COVID-19 pandemic. She describes in detail both the initial move to remote learning in March 2020 and their later transitions back to in-person and hybrid learning. She talks about the different strategies and technologies she employed to stay connected with students, noting that internet access was a persistent limitation for some students' remote learning. She also shares her observations about the pandemic's impact on students' mental and social well-being, including their feelings of loneliness or isolation. She touches on her role as union president and interactions with other teachers and school staff, especially around the spike in disciplinary issues when students returned to in-person learning. More personally, she mentions starting a new relationship in early 2020 and changing her grocery store habits to avoid larger supermarkets.

Brooke Paxton of Manchester, Vermont, joined the Flood Brook School in Londonderry, Vermont, as a school guidance counselor around 2014. Her school includes grades K-8 and is part of the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was also a union president.

Sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-251676-OMS-22.

2024-05-19

Collecting COVID-19: A Vermont Story Project

AudioFileCOVID-062

MP3

WAV

Audio file

Permission to publish material from the Collecting COVID-19: A Vermont Story Project may be obtained from the Vermont Historical Society.

Wingerson, Amber

Paxton, Brooke

1 hr., 39 sec.

Vermont Historical Society Library, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641-4215