The Chaos of Covid in Texas Schools: A Conversation with Zane Messina and Benjamin Sterling

In this week's Episode 12, Season 2 of Warriors of Education I speak to Zane Messina and Benjamin Sterling two teachers from Bastrop Texas, outside of Austin.  Zane is now a former ELA teacher after leaving Walsh Middle School due to the struggles with decisions made around returning to the classroom.  Ben became the president of his union fighting for the safety of his students and teachers during the pandemic ( which he is still fighting for currently).  We talk about the struggle with online learning, the dangers of teaching during the pandemic and the insane board meetings about mask and vaccine mandates.

Ben Sterling is the president of the Round Rock Teacher's union Education Round Rock.and a theatre teacher in the district as well as a parent of a school age child.

Zane Messina worked at Walsh Middle School where he taught 8th grade ELA for  5 1/2 years. In addition to his ELA classes, he also started a tabletop game design class where students designed, developed their games. Since resigning from teaching in Dec. 2020, Zane has become a full time game designer, developer, and freelance writer.