COVID-19 closed schools across the USA and forced teachers and students to navigate virtual learning with little guidance. This mixed-methods study examines K-12 teachers' beliefs about their teaching practices that were abruptly transitioned to online during the first four months of COVID-19. Surveys and interviews were analysed using sociocultural theory and the four-dimensional model of digital literacy. Teachers felt unprepared for online teaching and expressed an inability to meet their students' needs. Concerns focused on digital access inequalities, a desire for support to build digital pedagogies, particularly to enhance student engagement. The findings point to a responsibility to support digital pedagogies across pre-service and in-service contexts so that, at a minimum, teachers can operate efficiently. For greater educational equity and outcomes, teachers need to be able to build competencies to facilitate communication, critique and creative expression across contexts, digital spaces, media and for multiple purposes.