Kindergarten Behind the Screen. What Children Lost and Learned During COVID with Teacher Karin Tramm

Episode Summary:
When schools shut down during COVID, learning didn’t just move online. Childhood did too.

In this episode of Hidden Chapters, I sits down with Karin Tramm, a retired Department of Defense Education Activity kindergarten teacher and author of 100 Days Smart. Karin shares what it was really like inside a kindergarten classroom when the pandemic hit an American military school in Italy. From teaching five year olds through screens to preserving routine, connection, and emotional safety, Karin offers a rare and honest perspective from the front lines of early childhood education during a global crisis.

This conversation explores how children adapted, how parents became co-teachers overnight, and how teachers carried far more than lesson plans. They carried fear, resilience, and the responsibility of helping children feel safe in a world that no longer made sense.

What We Talked About in This Episode

• What kindergarten classrooms looked like before COVID and why physical connection mattered
 • How teachers tried to preserve routine, predictability, and emotional safety through screens
 • The “hidden curriculum” of social skills, community, and emotional regulation
 • The unique challenges and strengths of military connected families during the pandemic

The Hidden Chapter Moment

Karin’s hidden chapter is not just about teaching kindergarten during a pandemic. It’s about what children carried quietly behind screens. The loss of routine. The absence of touch. The confusion of learning emotions without faces, carpets, or closeness. While adults focused on lesson plans and logistics, teachers and parents were holding something much heavier. Fear, grief, adaptability, and hope. This episode reminds us that resilience was being built long before anyone could name it.

Resources & Mentions: 

🔗 Karin's Website:   https://karintramm.com/

🔗  FB: https://www.facebook.com/KarinTramm.author/
🔗  IG: @karintramm.author
🔗  LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-tramm-23086925a

📖 Amazon to purchase her book “100 Days Smart”:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BTS9SR34

Museum of the American Military Family and Podcast: 

https://militaryfamilymuseum.org

Transcript

Genevieve 0:00

This is Hidden Chapters, the podcast where we slow down and listen to the parts of our stories that often go unseen. Hi, I'm your host, Genevieve. Today I'm talking with Karen Tram. She's a retired Do Deo, Department of Defense Education Activity kindergarten teacher, and author of A Hundred Days Smart. A diary-style memoir about her experience teaching at Vincenza Elementary on the U.S. Army base in Italy when COVID hit on the 100th day of school. When the pandemic hit, everything changed. Her kitchen became the classroom, lessons moved behind screens, and Karen had to find new ways to connect with her students and their families overnight. In this important conversation, Karen gives her point of view of what it looked like inside her kindergarten class as the world shut down. Behind the screens, and in the hearts and minds of children and parents trying to figure out just how to be human in a world that was so strangely different. Here's my conversation with Karen. Well, Karen, thank you so much for taking time today to talk to me, and I'm really excited to have this conversation about just being a teacher in the time of COVID.

Karin 1:19

Well, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. I'm uh excited to be a guest here on Hidden Chapters.

Genevieve 1:24

Thank you so much. So I want to go and kind of set the stage before that pandemic reached Italy. Can you share with us a little bit? What did a typical kindergarten day look like in Vincenza?

Karin 1:37

So um Vicenza Elementary is part of Dodea, and I'll let me just jump in and explain what Dodia is for our listeners that don't know. It's um it's an American school in every respect except for location. We follow American curriculum. Our students, of course, speak English. We teach in English. Uh, we do have um, we had Italian classes and host nation classes, but it's just like any other um American school that you would find. Uh, we are in Italy, so we do have some of that influence. And, you know, we had talked about closeness and infection being a big part of the Italian culture there. Um, for the kids, I I'll say this, you know, closeness and infection is really important in a kindergarten classroom, regardless if you're American or Italian or German or Filipino, whatever. Because for me, as a kindergarten teacher, I I develop this relationship with my children, and that does include the the tactile element. You know, we we hold hands when we walk down the hall, I tussle their hair, I high-five them, I hug my kids when they need it. And you know, you you'll have school systems that say don't touch your kids. But honestly, for me as a kindergarten teacher, I I can't do that. That's right to me, that's part of building that positive relationship because you can't teach effectively until you have a positive relationship. So um, yeah, I was touchy feely in my classroom up and up until that point, but not because we were diddling, more because that's just that's just who we are as early childhood educators.

Genevieve 3:15

Yeah. Well, as a high school English teacher, I can attest to that too, that there was a lot of times I'd have big football players and and big uh students taller than me always wanting to give me a hug. And half the time I'm like, don't hug me.

Karin 3:27

Right.

Genevieve 3:28

Just because they were big kids. But they you realize that's how they were showing that affection, and it's what brought that relationship that uh at times, yeah, you know, that that it was always nice and heartwarming to hear at the end of the school year, you were my favorite.

Karin 3:43

Yeah, and that's why, because you did pay attention to that.

Genevieve 3:46

Yeah, yeah. So when schools closed, what was your first concern specifically for the children, not necessarily the curriculum?

Karin 3:57

So my main concern was to maintain our sense of community because again, like building that relationship, you have to build that sense of community. And your children have to feel my children, like class, they have to feel like they're part of a system and we learn together. And part of that is what I call the hidden curriculum. And that doesn't mean reading and math and all those other things, it means things like sharing and problem solving and decision making and being part of a group and being the good friend and self-regulation, helping others, we're basically treating others how you want to be treated. So once things went, I don't want to see went haywire, but once things changed for us during that time, you know, my question was how does that happen on a screen? How do how do we how do we approach those kind of things, which are just as important as the what we would call the pre-academics? How do we do those kind of things on a screen, on a computer? So that that was another concern, just maintaining that sense of community, but also still uh, you know, trying to facilitate that hidden curriculum and being able to help those kids learn those kind of social skills. That being in a group, you know, it's easy, but not being on your own.

Genevieve 5:18

That's hard. I'll share that for the listeners is that at during that time frame, I had a first and fourth grader. So for my fourth grader who had been in school already, knew how routine and schedules worked, it really threw her off. And so being used to being in the classroom, having a teacher right there, she absolutely hated the behind the screens and the lack of not having that hands-on learning available. And with my four my first grader, yes, she had kindergarten in in Hawaii, but when we had moved to New York, uh, as a first grader, she was still trying to learn that routine. And I, and she's my social gal. So for her specifically, she was learning that confusion, that sadness over the loss of the friends that she had made, and then the connection that she had made with her teacher. So I can understand that as a teacher, you're trying to make sure you keep those uh curriculums and that community. But on the other end of that, I was just seeing the personal of what my girls were trying to understand and comprehend about what this now looks like.

Karin 6:25

Right. So, so we all had important jobs to do at home and at school because they did have that void, that social void, and we had to figure out you know how to navigate that and how to create routine in their lives again because honestly, the adults, our routines were thrown off. We didn't know what to expect. And for kids, they absolutely need that. I was gonna um, if it's okay, read a little uh excerpt from my book about routine.

Genevieve 6:50

Yeah, let's do that.

Karin 6:52

I have a I have a whole chapter called Routine and Predictability, but I'm not gonna read the whole chapter, just a little bit here. It says, I strive for predictability and routine for my students. As military kids, their lives are a series of upheavals as a result of moving out, moving in, deployments, living in a foreign country, strangers, boxing up favorite things, living on loner furniture, and heartbreaking goodbyes are hard enough on adults. On children, it can be exponentially more difficult. It makes me happy that school is a safe place where they know what to expect when things at home are unraveling or unpredictable. Our school year had been predictable and routine for 100 days. So I am all about routine, not just for my kids. I have to be honest, as an adult, I need it too, especially in a kindergarten class because you need to have your ducks in a row, you need to be ready to go because if you have to stop and do something, then you lose them. So routine was really, really important for them because they needed to know what to expect. Um, and again, during the onset, the adults didn't know what to expect. So it was really hard to build something for the kids in the beginning when we weren't sure what we were gonna do. Um and how do you do that virtually? So, what I tried to do is I did not make a schedule that completely reflected our regular in-class schedule, but I did try to make a time every day that we're gonna all meet in the morning at this time, and we're going to do a little morning meeting just like we did at school, and we're gonna have some time to talk and at least that piece of their day remained the same, even though it was on a screen instead of on the whiteboard.

Genevieve 8:33

Yeah.

Karin 8:33

And then we would break and they would work at high. I'd give them a little assignments to do with their parents, and we would come back together at the end of the day just for a wrap-up and talk about what we did, and we would uh write the news, and that was something that we did at school at the end of the day. Uh, we would write down what we did every day so they could go home and remember what they did, but also we took that and uh made it into a little newsletter. So at the end of the week, the kids were the editor of their newsletter, so that was another routine thing that I put in place right away. So it gave them opening and it gave them closure at the end of the day, too. Um, and I have to say, I had almost a hundred percent of my kids showing up every day, and that wasn't the standard. You know, our school said, okay, you need to be meeting with them individually or as a group twice a week for each kid. But they were, they came, I did it every day, and they came every day because they craved that routine. They really needed it. So that was one of the most important things we did right from the get-go was say, okay, this is what our day is gonna look like. And of course, we did have to kind of um we did have to kind of change things as we went along, but they needed that routine. And I did see some of the things that you're talking about, the sadness and the kids were asking me, when are we gonna come back to school? And it that would break my heart because I wanted to say, Well, I hope next week, but I couldn't say that because I didn't know. So, you know, I would just say, Well, when it's safe for us to come back, and that was hard for them to understand, you know. For me, my main job for my kids was to help them love school. When they learn to love school in kindergarten, everything else is easy, it happens. And they did love school, they wanted to come back, but I needed to make sure that I maintained that for you know the rest of that school year. And that was hard in the beginning to keep it interesting and fun as things went along. Um, I think that I learned a lot from my kids and about my kids uh trying to keep things interesting and fun and relevant, so and routine because that was important. One thing I will say is, you know, I noticed early on that the kids felt disconnected. And and that was a that was a concern too. And so I had kids that at the end of the lesson, they wouldn't log off because they want to stay on and talk. And and it wasn't just to talk to me, but to talk to their friends or, you know, they just needed that cohesiveness that was lacking in their life. So what I decided to do is before we started our little meeting in the morning and in the afternoon, is I would let them log on 10 five or 10 minutes early, and they could just chat with each other. And you know, it's like the Hollywood squares, all their little faces up there, and they're talking to each other, and I would just be organizing my materials, but eavesdropping too, like I do at school, just listening to them because I learned a lot. It's like when your kids ride in the backseat of your car. I would learn a lot just listening to them chit-chat. And um, and then I was teaching uh in the kitchen in my house because my husband was teaching physics upstairs in the office, and in my kitchen I had a bird clock, and whenever they would hear that bird chime, they know, okay, that's the one-minute warning. So in another piece of routine, hear the bird clock, and then we have to sing the hello song and then mute our microphones. Muting was another really important thing that I added to the list of social skills. Learn to mute your microphone. That was one of the very first things.

Genevieve 12:04

We as adults had to learn all that too.

Karin 12:06

Yeah, all that computer etiquette. You know, how do we take turns? How do you raise your hand? Because uh there there wasn't a little icon there to click to raise your hand. We had to make a chat box and you put an X in the chat box if you want to say something, and then you can unmute and talk. And actually, they were good at that, but you know, that was all some things that we had to learn. Okay, anyway.

Genevieve 12:27

No, that's a that was an important connection. So you made that, and then that's how you made those shifts and emotional learning for them as well. And I was just gonna even uh chime in and mention that as an observation as a parent, we moved from Hawaii to Fort Drum, New York, the summer of 2019, and then in September of that year, my husband deployed. So we had already had that missing parent element that my girls were getting used to not having their dad. And then when the pandemic hit, they were already having that communication with their dad from afar. And so I noticed just the loss already that my kids were experiencing the separation from their dad, that it was just another added element of learning now that they were separated from their teachers, they were separated from their friendships, and so um that was interesting. And then being having to help these young minds understand what COVID was, and they were so scared to, well, what if I get it, will I die? So there was a lot of just their little minds having to comprehend so much early on that I was really grateful for the teachers giving them that little bit of consistency and comfort because we were working as a team at that point. The teachers were trying to get some normalcy, let the kids have their time together, but also on the back end, I was trying to reassure them that it'll be okay.

Karin 13:52

And that was important thing. That was just as important as math and science and reading was was that piece. And um, you know, from for myself, it was really hard to let go of perfectionism because I like to have, I mentioned before, all my ducks in a row and I want everything to flow and be perfect. And I had to realize during that time that I had a lot of learning to do. I was not really a uh computer-based teacher. With five-year-olds, I just felt like they need they have enough screen time as it is. They, when they're at school, they deserve to see my real face and they deserve that. And so I had not really gotten into computer-based instruction as much as some of the upper grades had. So I really had a big learning curve and I had to lean in hard on some of my younger colleagues on my aid who was superwoman, um, because those were there are a lot of things I didn't know. And I was used to being the teacher. I'd been there for a long time. I was used to being the one that people would come to and say, Oh, how do you do this? How do you do that? And that completely reversed for me because all of a sudden I had to go and say, I need help. And and sometimes that's hard. Uh, you know, it's we teach our kids that's an important life skill to be able to ask for help, but as adults, we forget that. So I had to be able to say, okay, I need help. I had to give myself permission to fail because I sure did do that sometimes. And and well, try to keep everything fun. And that was something else, you know, as teachers were really pushed to try to stay on track and be academic and da-da-da-da-da. But honestly, you know, for me, I said before I want my kids to love school. And so I would always tell my parents during orientation, if you ask them what they did at school and they say, Oh, we played. Well, that's the plan because school is going to be fun and I want learning to be fun. So we had to try to keep it fresh and novel and fun. And that was a it was a huge um it was a challenge for me in that respect. I will tell you this the one of the best days we ever had, we did a little virtual talent show. So I told the kids on Monday, I said, okay, we're gonna have a talent show. And so on Friday, we had dog tricks, we had breakdancing, we had singing, we had kids showing their paintings. It was, it was probably the best virtual day we had because they were just joyful and they were so excited to do something different and fun. And we really had to kind of keep trying to spice things up and just make it different but engaging. My parents were rock stars, and I'm gonna just say that right from the get-go that they were on board from day one when we said, okay, this is what we're gonna try to do. And sometimes we'd have to go back and say, Okay, we're gonna change. Now this is what we're gonna try to do. But they were always there for us. And and I think that military families in general really roll with the punches because they're they're good at navigating change because of deployments and PCSing and you know, all of those things that living in a foreign country, all of those things that they take on, and many times the spouse does it on our on his or her own. So they're used to stepping up and being problem solvers and saying, How can I make this work? What comes next? And in this situation, they were they were rock solid. I'm just gonna say uh they were fabulous. Now, being part of the military community had its challenges as well, um, because the mission doesn't waver, they still have to go to work. So um, you know, we can't just close shop and say we're gonna come back after the pandemic. They still have to go to work. So um if you have dual military families, which we did have, sometimes little Johnny would come to the meeting at mom's desk or dad's desk because he they were at work with their parents, and that happened sometimes. Um, or the parents would take different shifts, and so one would be home and the other one would be at work and they would do that. Or when you had single parents, again, the kid might be at work with their with their you know, mom or their dad. So we had a lot of situations like that, but again, the parents made it work. How are we gonna make this work? And and they did, and I feel like the kids just were in such a good place because of that the parents' ability to change deal with change well.

Genevieve 18:17

Yeah. I I did find that really admirable. Uh being a military family, we were so used to pivots and changes and things. So knowing that and being with other military families, knowing how we were just navigating this, it was almost I'm not gonna say it was easy because none of that was easy, but it was kind of okay, it's the norm of what we've always done. So we're gonna do what we've always done. So I found that really admirable how everybody just took to that change and said, okay, we're gonna roll with it, because it was what our lifestyles had become accustomed to. I was gonna ask, because I know we had some challenges just being at home, but being home together, did that strengthen connections for some of the kids that you saw, or did it create new challenges for for others?

Karin 19:03

So I think that there's different answers to that for the kids and their parents. They had a lot more one-on-one time. And if that was a good thing, then you know, our our parents, they were really, they were, I called them the home teachers. Yeah, they were the ones who I would say, okay, today we're gonna learn about cylinders. And so, you know, I'm not the kind of teacher that's gonna put up a workbook page on the screen and the kids are gonna click the answer. I'm gonna say, okay, I want you to go to your pantry and I want you to pull out all the cylinders that you can find, and I want you to count them, and then I want you to draw one of them, and then I want you to tell me why you didn't draw a cereal box. So the parents they have to facilitate that. You know, that's the hands on learning that we would do at school. And you know, it wouldn't be the pantry, but it would be something else. Yeah. But I'd have to figure out what is the equivalent to that at home, and then send the parents on a you know journey to make that happen. And so they did have a lot of opportunities. Opportunity to do those kind of things. We did cooking projects. We did gardening. And those are things that we would have done at school, but they were doing it with their uh parent that was home. And so I feel like that they spent a lot more time doing one-on-one. And I liked that. I think that that really bonded them a little bit more. We also had, you know, kids with siblings that would join us. We had little uh brothers and sisters and dogs and cats that came to story time and they would all have story time with us. And I loved that because that was something that I didn't get to see when I was when they're in the classroom. And we had some older siblings that would come in and help with projects like pulling all the cylinders out or yeah, whatever. So we had that. Um now we did have kids that were didn't have siblings, and so that was that was harder because I did see loneliness. And I think those were the ones that would pop in. I would have individual meetings with the kids during the middle of the day, and they they're the ones that would pop in when it wasn't their meeting time. They would just want to see who was there and chit-chat, and you know, I'd have to say, okay, it's not your turn. You can, you know, you come on at two o'clock or whatever. But that was hard for them. And I think that that was a challenge because kids that had siblings had a different experience than kids that didn't. So that was yeah, so that's how that's a hard thing to answer.

Genevieve 21:17

Yeah, yeah. No, and uh going back to being creative in the classroom at home. So because I was a teacher, there was a lot of things that I kind of had to go back and get creative myself and use some of my teacher skills. So things when we were talking about simple as static electricity, I remember how can I how can I illustrate this at home? And because we lived in Cold Fort Drum, there was a lot of things we couldn't do outside because it was zero degrees and it was still snowing out. So I remember one specific lesson that I had balloons. So the girls, we were still in pajamas doing lessons, but the girls and I, we all took the balloons, rubbed it across our our tops of our heads, and we're throwing balloons on the wall and just trying to stick it on the wall. So we were doing fun things like that. And we would even rub the balloon on my cat rascal at the time, and he would just tolerate us, be like, we're gonna talk about static. And so those little lessons, I think that was um a great time for me to have that with the girls because, like you said, you know, when they're at school, they learn all of these fun things. But getting to have them at home, there were some things I was able to bond with them, and we had those experiences. And then, of course, we did it together because I had the first and fourth grade uh ages, but my oldest daughter chimed right in, and then when she there were certain things that were relevant to her age group, she was like, Oh mom, we learned about that. So then she would share with her younger sister some of her knowledge, and so it was always great to see it firsthand instead of get the oh, so what did you do at school today? So that was really for me as a mom, that was a really neat experience to have them at home for a change.

Karin 22:53

Yeah. I'm glad that you're I'm glad you're smiling when you're saying it's a challenge.

Genevieve 22:58

It was. I mean, there were hard days. I had some challenging days where my daughters just didn't want to hear from me, and that's because maybe the closeness of being mom. So I know there were some challenges that fellow friends of mine who's kids that they would rather hear it from the teacher. They didn't want to hear it from from their parent. And that was just, I don't know, a dynamic the kids just want to hear it from somebody else other than mom who they're used to hearing it from.

Karin 23:22

Right, I I understand that.

Genevieve 23:24

Yeah. I know you had a a reading in the book for this one, but knowing that some of these families would PCS soon, how did that awareness shape the way that you showed up for your students?

Karin 23:39

Okay, so I yeah, I am gonna read just a little blurb here about um the last day of school because usually we always think, oh, it's the last day of school, yay! Summer vacation is coming. Well, for kindergarten, they don't really know what that is. They've never had summer vacation before. They know it's just a break from school and school's been there constantly. So it it's kind of a different thing. And then especially for a military family where we're gonna maybe leave. So uh maybe read this little blurb. It says that for military kids and others attending overseas schools, the last day of school is bittersweet. Summer's moving season for a large number of military families. On average, military schools experience a 30% turnover each summer. For students, the last day of school means freedom from teachers, freedom from classes, but it also means saying goodbye to friends, sometimes forever. And for teachers, it means freedom from lesson plans and admin demands, but also saying goodbye to students and colleagues, sometimes forever. We cry and wave hankies as the buses depart, joking that the tears are really tears of joy. And some of those tears are, but not all of them. So just setting the stage for summer for our kids. That was that's a I'm not gonna say a normal tie, but that's what we would do on the last day of school. And this time, you know, we it had been such a different year. So we obviously had to have a different kind of closure for the kids, and we brought them all together, the whole kindergarten. So it wasn't just my class, it was all of them. And each teacher came on and we had a little thing that we said and said goodbye to them. But I have to say, you know, on the last day of school, we do have kids that are going to PCS, but really saying goodbye to kindergartners on the last day of school, it is goodbye to the they don't understand that whole piece of time. And we used to have I used to have these teary goodbyes, and then I would see my kids like the next day in the commissary, or even that day. So then I quit having this big goodbye, and I would just say, okay, see you in the commissary. And that's what I started saying every year because it was so true. I would see them, and even I have to say this even years and years would pass, and I would run into my kids in the commissary on a different base, on a different continent. I'm not kidding you. I have the parents and the colleagues and the kids, because it is that small military world, and that is where everybody goes. And I will see my kids show up in the commissary all over the world. So instead of me saying bye, I just say see in the commissary because that's so much better than saying goodbye, isn't it? So and and and for that year too, you know, it was it was the same thing. It some of our kids moved, they left, and I never saw them again. And some of them came back and I saw them in the commissary.

Genevieve 26:31

So uh so we went to school on post as well at Fort Drum. And so I loved that the school got together and the teachers made rounds and they would drive through parts of the neighborhood, and so they would let everybody know when they were coming through. That uh I have pictures of my girls had poster board of saying hi and bye to their teachers. So waving at because we lived on a nice U cul-de-sac, and so all of us would come out and we everybody had their poster board of their teacher. So when their teacher came by and waved and honked, we were able to at least say bye in that way. So I thought that was memorable because we there was a few teachers that were PCSing, their husbands were ready to move on. So after that year, like uh for my oldest daughter, her teacher was not going to be there for the following year. And then with uh the way that the New York school system was working, they were doing a hybrid the following year. And since my girls did not like sitting in front of screens and and Chromebooks for that time frame, I had made that decision to homeschool them. So their second and fifth grade year, they were home. So there was a lot of changes. So having that interaction, even for a distant and for a moment, to say goodbye to their teachers was really important for them. That that's still a memory for them to have.

Karin 27:49

And that is such a nice thing. We yeah we did not have anything like that for for us. One of the hardest things was I had to go in the classroom and find all their stuff and put it in bags.

Genevieve 28:01

I remember reading in your book. Yeah.

Karin 28:03

Yeah. And that was, gosh, that was a hard day because I had to go and get all their little rest time blankets, and some of them weren't labeled with their names. I had to take pictures of them and post them, say, okay, who's this this? Who's this? And find their pencils and find their, you know, all of their just their little things that were there in the classroom. And it was that was hard for me. And then the parents came and picked them up from the office. I guess they had to come. I'm trying to remember, they had certain days when they could come because they had were only allowed to have a certain amount of people in the school at one time.

Genevieve 28:32

Yeah.

Karin 28:32

But as far as us getting to see them or wave to them, that that did not happen for us. But we did have a a final meeting and you know, said goodbye, seeing the commissary to everybody.

Genevieve 28:47

Yeah. And I did love that because there were a few times, you know, you think it's a final goodbye, but you do get that happy encounter with them at the commissary or at the PX. The parking lot. The parking lot somewhere. That's true. Well, I did love reading your book, 100 Days Smart, and I know it captured just a very specific moment in time. So when readers finish your book, what is the hope that you have that they understand differently about young children during this pandemic?

Karin 29:17

Well, the one thing that I hope that that that we remember most about these kids is that they were adaptable, that was and that resilience is our survival skill, especially for military-connected kids. They need that to develop. And we all, kids and adults, we had social challenges, we had emotional challenges, we had educational challenges. But we should be proud of them and ourselves for making that work. And not just during those 100 days, because that's what my book covers. But we know that beyond that onset, we had two more years of disrupted education. And, you know, that was different for everybody. Some schools remained virtual, some were hybrid. You homeschooled. We uh went back face to face right away in the fall because the mission didn't change. We had to, we had to make that work. So, you know, there were things during that time that were particularly painful for me, like so the social distancing, putting five-year-olds at six-foot tables and and expecting them to stay in their chairs. They fell out every five minutes. Um, they pulled all our carpet, so I couldn't have story time on the carpet anymore. That was that was probably the hardest thing for me because that's such an intimate time, intimate time with your class where you're really connecting with them, reading those stories. And I really missed that. But I had to remember my kids coming to kindergarten, they didn't miss that because they'd never had it and they didn't know. So, so it was on me to make it fun and to make them love school. So, really, I was the one that had to have the attitude adjustment. I had to do that, but but we made it work. We tried to keep our masks on in our kindergarten way. We did the best that we could, and they remained joyful learners. And I and that's one thing I that I really hope people remember is that yeah, we made it through this time and that it was different for everybody, but we did that, and that that needs to be recognized and appreciated.

Genevieve 31:24

Yeah. And I think it's such an importance to for someone listening today who lived through the COVID with children in their home. I know from as a parent standpoint, there were a lot of things that did change for a lot of these kids, even after six years that I have seen in my seventh grader that have been a challenge from that.

Karin 31:44

So, so I will say this that I did I uh retired after those two years of disrupted education. I had retired in 2022. So, as far as following those kids through school, it's hard for me to speak to academically or emotionally, honestly, how that change has come about for them because I'm out of the school now. But uh what I will say is that it was a collective event. We all experienced this and we all experienced it in different ways, the kids, the adults, everybody, but the stories are valid. Everybody's story is different, but it's valid, and we have to ask ourselves, you know, what did we learn from that challenge? How are we gonna move forward? Um, you know, what are we going to take out of this experience to make ourselves better? So it's hard for me to say about the kids' experience now moving forward. I uh have been reading some articles about that, about some of the um challenges that children are having. Uh the kindergartners are moving into middle school now. So the middle school teachers are going, oh, well, this is our beginning of the pandemic year. And I will say, you know, comparatively, I was teaching kindergarten when the 9-11 babies came in. Yes. And we were too, we were shocked that year, going, what the heck is going on here? What where what's going on? And then we realized, okay, these are the kids whose parents, whose mothers were pregnant during that stressful time in their life. And this is what stress hormones can do to developing children. And I'm not saying that all of them were like that, but I think we looked at it and said, could this be why this year is such a struggle for us? So those things absolutely do have lasting effects. We we can't say, okay, we fixed all those problems that year and we moved on. There are things that are gonna pop up here and there throughout their lives, probably, but we have to remember, okay, you know, we had this, we had this story, then we had this thing that happened, and um it may not be uh an excuse for things that are going on, but it's a reason, if you understand the difference. Yeah.

Genevieve 33:54

So I appreciate that you brought that up too, because the 9-11 was a big world event too that did affect a lot of the students for those that had lost a family member or or just the way the world changed too.

Karin 34:06

Our military family members, I mean, my husband was deployed the next day. That was like, okay, he didn't even get to say goodbye to the kids. They said, get on the ship, you're going. And that was it. So, you know, that was this was a stressful time. So it comparing, I mean, comparing. They were both Yeah.

Genevieve 34:23

But I think too, the it's important, I think, that we have these conversations because you're right, it's not the reason for it, but it's at least a little bit of an understanding as to how can we make this better or what can we shift? There are reasons why things are the way they are, the way the kids now think and react. So having that compassion and understanding. I know for myself, just as a observation as being a parent, you know, I had that first and fourth grader. And with my first, with my youngest daughter being in first grade, having that half year, then homeschooling with me her second grade year, she went back to the classroom in New York, her third grade year, then we moved again, and then her fourth grade year, we retired in Alabama. So she had within four years four different school systems. And then being, of course, military kids, you know, they move every three years that depending upon the states that they are uh in, some academics, there's gaps. So I'm even seeing as she is a thriving seventh grader now, there's still things that as she's moved, there's still gaps that she has that she goes, Mommy, I don't remember this. I I don't remember this concept. So there are even after six years, there's still things that I'm seeing. Well, like you mentioned, you're now retired and you volunteer with the Museum of American Military Family. You can share a little bit of that because that is really interesting.

Karin 35:52

So this is a great organization. Um, I'm currently serving on the board as director of education, and the museum is there's so many museums that are out there for our military members, but nothing for the family until this one. And so this museum is dedicated to honoring military families, preserving their history through their perspectives, and educating the public about what it was like to be or what it is like to be part of that military or military connected family. Um, so they maintain a research library and a workspace here in the States. Uh, the director right now is in Stuttgart, or yeah, I think so. And then so we have uh European outreach in Germany, but in other places in Europe as well. And then also um a significant online presence. And I became involved with them about five years ago when they were working on an anthology collection of stories about Dodd schools because it was the 75th anniversary of Dodds, and I thought, oh, I've got some story. So I sent something in. It was a story about teaching in the Philippines, and that was my very first time meeting, meeting the people there involved with the museum, and I continued to send stories in to their uh later anthologies. They have, I think, 16 different ones out now, not all about the schools, but about military families. There's some about moving, there's some about living in foreign countries. They've got one coming out this month about the um University of Maryland, the Munich campus. That's done in as a community project with uh the Germans. So they they work on telling stories. And so that's how I became involved because I'm a storyteller too. And um they do this, they have a podcast called Host Nation Hospitality. They've made three short films, they do fine arts and performing art uh workshops, traveling exhibits, so a lot of those things. Right now, I'm collaborating with the director and with the artist in residence, and we're working on a children's book about deployment that's going to be we're working with a German teacher and she's going to translate it, and it's gonna be published in German. So we're excited about that. That's gonna happen hopefully in the fall. So, so many different things that are happening, but the main thing is this preserving story and of military family members. And the one last thing that I want to say about that is that because grants are drying up, we are trying to keep the museum afloat with a sponsorship program that's gonna um offer businesses and individuals to sponsor the museum for a day, a month, a week, whatever. There'll be more information about that on our website and more information about the program itself, the museum, the podcasts are there. Um, so that's just a little plug for the museum. It's a great way to preserve the legacy of the military families.

Genevieve 38:49

I love that. And of course, you know, I have such a genuine awe for people's stories because that's really how this whole hidden chapters podcast came about. You know, my husband has his experiences that uh his book shared, and the spouse, the families, they also have experiences that they've been through. And they are hidden chapters, they are things that sometimes don't get highlighted because, yes, we we are so proud of our veterans, but the children serve too. The spouses serve too. So I love I love that you brought this up, and I'm definitely gonna go and check it out some more because the you're right, the stories are important, they need to be heard just as much. And this is really great that they they have that for the families. So I will make sure to have that in your show notes.

Karin 39:35

Thanks.

Genevieve 39:36

Well, the other exciting thing, because this doesn't end here, your book 100 Days was definitely not the end. You have another book that you are uh in the works with. Can we tell you a little bit about that?

Karin 39:48

So I can So my next writing project is um about my first two years as a teacher when I worked on Huam, and my last two years as as a teacher, which would follow a hundred days. Smart. So it's kind of a prequel and a sequel, but really it's about the challenges and changes that you make as a beginning teacher, where you're at, and then where you find yourself at the end. And at the end, it was during the pandemic for me. So there was a lot of challenge and change there. I talked about it, happened to have some big attitude adjustments on my own part. Um, in the middle of those two, I've got a uh some other story about my son who became a Peace Corps worker in Thailand and his first two years as he was working with the youth and development program. So I've got my first two years, his first two years as an educator, and then my last two years. And this was a this was a project that I started before the pandemic, before the other book, and I had to put it on the back burner because the pandemic happened and the other book just popped out. But also I realized now that um it wasn't the right time for it because it didn't have an ending yet. Yeah. It but now it does, kind of, because really the ending of that book is just a new beginning of another part of my life, because that ends when I retired and that's not the end. It's the beginning of something else.

Genevieve 41:12

So absolutely exactly.

Karin 41:16

So really it's about um it's about evolving as a teacher, evolving as a human being, because change and challenge, those are those are our catalysts, those are the things that move us forward, being personal, being professional, spiritual. However, you know, when you have those events in your life, you have to say, okay, how can I make this work? That's what leads to our growth and to our success. So that's that's what the next project's about, is about challenge and change.

Genevieve 41:42

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm excited for that. So whenever that does uh become a published part, I'm I'll definitely be picking that up and we'll have you on again so we can chat about that one.

Karin 41:52

I would love that.

Genevieve 41:54

Well, I just want to end this because I know that uh there's a lot of people that are going to resonate with our conversation, the experiences that we both shared in in that season. If you could speak to the parents, educators or who might be listening who still can qu who still quietly struggle with pieces of that season, what would be something you would like them to hear?

Karin 42:19

So the most important thing that I have to say about this is that our kids got through this. It's not over, you know. Like we said, things are gonna linger, but but it happened. And we can't change that. But what we can change is how we respond to our situation. That, yeah, maybe we have a blip in reading, maybe we miss some math concepts, but really there's some other important things to consider here besides the academic. Uh, we as parents and educators and kids, we've learned to be flexible, we've learned to be resourceful, we've learned to be creative, and those are all really important qualities, especially for our military connected students. They need those things. Like I said before, they're survival survival skills that they need to have. So learning to navigate those challenges, that's that part of the hidden curriculum we're talking about. Um, with our kids, we want to make sure that their hard work is noticed and then it's valued. Just as parents, your hard work is noticed and valued, and you need to hear that, and the kids need to hear that too.

Genevieve 43:30

I love that. Thank you so much, Karen. Because yeah, as a parent, it is sometimes hard to take that. But yeah, it was valued. So thank you for that. We value you. Thank you. We value you too. Thank you. Well, I want to end this and say that if anyone would like to reach out to you, what would be the best way that that you uh prefer to be uh contacted?

Karin 43:53

So um I have a website and you can contact me through my website. Um it has links to my Facebook page, to my Instagram, to my LinkedIn. Uh also I have an email, it's Karen Tram.author at gmail.com. So that's another way as well. So anyway, I love to hear from my readers if you've read my book, or if any of you read the book and take a picture of you with my book. I have a on my website, I have a slideshow of my readers, and I'd love to include your picture on my slideshow. So if anybody out there has read the book and has it, take a selfie with it or have someone take your picture, and I will put you on my website in the slideshow.

Genevieve 44:32

Oh, see, that's something I need to do. Okay. I want you to. Thanks for reminding me on that one. I will definitely do that. Well, thank you, Karen. I do appreciate this, and I think this was such a great conversation to have, and I'm looking forward to that second book. I will make sure that all of this uh resources and information are in the show notes for anyone to uh check out. And please do. I think the Museum of American Military Family is a great resource to help uh sponsor or just get some more information on. And these books that you have written and the book that you will be having out soon are important. So thank you so much for sharing those stories and having them really be preserved on paper.

Karin 45:12

Well, thank you for having me as a guest. I appreciate I've really enjoyed our conversation and look forward to the next one.

Genevieve 45:19

Thanks so much. Before we close, I want to pause for what I call a hidden chapter moment. This is the part of the story that wasn't obvious at the time, but looking back changed everything. Karen's hidden chapter isn't just about teaching kindergarten during the pandemic. It's about what young children carried quietly behind screens. The loss of routine, the absence of touch, and the challenge of learning emotions without faces, classrooms, or closeness. Teachers and parents were holding far more than lesson plans. They were holding fear, hope, and resilience all at once. If this conversation stirred something in you, especially if you were a parent or teaching during that season, you're not alone. Karen's book, 100 Days Smart, captures the start of this story, and her next book coming soon will dig deeper into what came after. You can find a link to her book and ways that you can connect with Karen through the show notes. You'll also find links to the Museum of American Military Family, where Karen now volunteers. If you'd like to continue these conversations off the podcast, I share deeper reflections, behind the scenes thoughts, and other hidden chapter moments on Substack. You can find the links all in the show notes. Hidden Chapters exists to honor the stories we don't always see.