In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, educational authorities implemented school closures as one of the precautions to keep the students and families out of risk of coronavirus disease (OECD, 2020). With the closure beginning in March 2020, the education systems of many countries are faced with new challenges by practicing distance education. Especially, how traditional educational systems which are centered on teacher-student interaction in schools will be preserved throughout the pandemic becomes one of the critical points (Daniel, 2020). Turkey, as one of the countries which are facing challenges of distance education, was not prepared to maintain education services online especially in terms of preparedness of teachers and students. Teachers need some support to adapt to their new roles in which they can only communicate with their students online while students are losing their enthusiasm for learning (Di Pietro, G., Biagi, F., Costa, P., Karpiński Z. & Mazza, J, 2020). The distance education process also requires developing teachers' and students’ digital literacy skills (Moreno & Gortazar, 2020). 

With school closures, approximately 862 million children and young people are affected  (Viner et al. 2020). Various learning approaches are used in distance education throughout the world as asynchronous and synchronous learning, and a mix of them. The digital transformation of instructional delivery comes with several logistical and behavioral changes (Ribeiro, 2020). Thus, distance education has some drawbacks and benefits. It allows people who cannot participate in the traditional education system and creates a suitable learning environment for people who cannot express their opinions (UNESCO, 2002). On the other hand, distance education decreases social interaction among teachers and students and prevents students from peer interaction and learning. 

The effectiveness of learning on students and teachers was one of the important issues of distance learning. With many new implementations encountered, teachers, students, and families are challenged. Especially teachers challenged to maintain the best educational opportunities for their students. In that sense, their experiences in the Covid-19 period became crucial in identifying education systems' deficiencies and accomplishments. 

In this context,  the aim of this study is to investigate the teaching and learning experiences of teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the aim as mentioned earlier, the following research question is answered in the study:

• What are the reflections of the Covid 19 Pandemic at schools? 

This qualitative design aims to explore the teaching and learning experiences of teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic with an in-depth understanding. Qualitative research is a tool used to discover and understand the meanings that individuals or groups attribute importance to the problem (Creswell, 2009). Phenomenological research is used to understand the importance of events and interactions in particular experiences. It is assumed that an interpretive researcher doesn’t know what it means to people they are studying to understand the informant’s point of view (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007). In this context, the study focuses on teachers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included 12 in-service teachers working in different cities in Turkey who were selected through snowball sampling strategies to reach information-rich cases for study in depth (Patton, 1990). In snowball sampling, the researcher asks each participant to refer to other information-rich participants (Merriam, 1998). Thus, the researcher asks each participant to refer to another teacher since they have a communication network. Data are collected through semi-structured interviews developed by the researcher to get in-depth information. Two researchers in the Educational Sciences Department's expert opinion finalize the interview schedule, piloted with two in-service teachers. The introduction section tells the participant about the research, the demographic information is the first component of the interview form and the questions section begins with descriptive questions and continues with feeling and opinion questions to obtain in-depth information. After participants sign a consent form, the researchers conduct face-to-face interviews. The interviews, which last between 30 and 50 minutes, are taped and transcribed for analysis. The data is examined using content analysis (Miles & Huberman,1994). Encoding data, detecting themes, finding themes, arranging codes and themes, and interpreting findings are the four steps used in content analysis (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013). Following transcription, the researchers simultaneously code the data, organize it around significant themes, and analyze it in a comprehensible manner. External and internal validity are established by peer debriefing, detailed descriptions (Creswell, 2009), and analytic generalization.

Preliminary findings of the study indicated that there are three themes that appeared to investigate the teaching and learning experiences of teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic which are opportunities for distance education, challenges of distance education, and suggestions. Firstly, for opportunities of distance education, initial findings from in-service teachers implied that they have favorable experiences as using technological tools better as integrating animation and simulation-based learning tools to their teaching, integrating visuals more productively, and also effective time management. Some of the participants concluded that they developed their teaching skills to involve students actively in online lessons such as asking probing questions, making students share their screens while solving problems, and giving individual feedback to their students. On the other hand, for challenges of distance education, initial findings point out that they have unfavorable experiences such as lost time in education because of being quarantined as teachers, internet connection problems, lack of technological devices, decrease in student achievement and motivation, increase in working hours and workload. Moreover, some of the participants emphasized that it was difficult for teachers to identify students’ missing understanding since the exams could not be conducted during distance education, and this situation decreased students’ motivation. Suggestions made by teachers were mainly about communication. They put emphasis on communication with their students and their families to reduce the challenges of distance education. Preliminary findings of the study are presented above. With the completion of data analysis, the results will indicate the teaching and learning experiences of in-service teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results contribute to the literature in terms of revealing opportunities and challenges of distance education, and in that sense creating better distance education for all stakeholders.

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