Many people consider teaching a calling; the profession is predicated on helping others while yielding little personal gain. A teacher's primary goal is to deliver a valuable and engaging educational opportunity. The onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020 created challenges to reaching this goal for many teachers across the United States who transitioned to a virtual classroom environment through emergency remote teaching (ERT). This qualitative descriptive phenomenological study examined how traditional classroom teachers' experiences with ERT influenced their opinions of online teaching. The site for the study was a northwest Florida charter middle school whose teachers transitioned from a face-to-face setting to ERT. The study used Davis's (1985) technology acceptance model's constructs of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of technology for developing research questions. Using the criterion-based random purposeful sampling method resulted in seven participants who shared their experiences through rich narratives. This study's findings revealed subtle positive shifts in teachers' opinions about implementing technology and online teaching, benefits of staying flexible, and keeping a growth mindset during challenges. One unexpected theme was the impact of Hurricane Michael on participants and students the year prior to COVID-19 and the lasting effects of those experiences. Further suggestions for research include ERT's impact on future classroom technology integration, COVID-19's effect on student learning loss, how transitional periods (e.g., shifting to ERT) affect teachers' mental health, and comparing how Hurricane Michael's impact on learning loss was compounded by COVID-19 compared to the rest of the state. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]