BY SYDNEY HOOVER
Eudora Middle School Principal Jeremy Thomas works from his basement storage room. It’s quiet and gives him a place to focus while his family is at home doing their own work.
Thomas said he spends time throughout the week at Eudora Middle School, but the silence without any students can be depressing.
“When I walk in the gym in the morning and there’s nothing, it’s just lights are off and it’s just quiet and it’s just kind of an eerie feeling,” Thomas said.
Eudora Elementary Principal Susan Tinich works from different rooms in her house, rotating throughout as she and her husband both work from home. Eudora High School Principal Ron Abel said he spends a lot of time working from the school, where he knows he’ll have good internet access.
For leaders in the three Eudora schools, education is a people business. With schools closed and classes moved online through May, Tinich said it’s hard not being able to see her people.
“I feel like I know that there’s issues, but they’re so far away I can’t touch them. It’s hard not being able to help that,” Tinich said.
Despite the lack of physical connection they’re used to having in the schools and classrooms, the principals said they’ve seen success in the first two weeks of online schooling.
They said for the last quarter of the school year, they’re focusing on relationships — as Tinich put it, making connections the primary focus, then allowing education to happen.
Thomas said they’ve connected with every student and have nearly 100% participation, only falling short due to issues with technology or internet access. Abel said he has seen similar participation and is continuing to reach out to students they aren’t hearing from.
The principals said Google Classroom and Zoom have become useful tools in their teachers’ online classrooms. Seeing students from kindergarten to high school connect with teachers through video calls has been rewarding for both the students and the teachers.
“There’s nothing that helps an educator feel better about what they’re doing than when they have a Zoom meeting and the kids are excited to be in the Zoom meeting and they’re having a smile back at the teacher,” Abel said. “That means as much as learning the math or the English.”
Above all, they agreed they hope to continue offering grace and understanding to families as they transition to a new normal, Tinich said.
Abel said he hopes parents and teachers can provide both consistency and flexibility in students’ lives in an unprecedented time.
“These kids have lost the one consistent thing they could count on everyday,” Abel said. “Providing some sort of consistency in their life is important.”
The school district continues to work to provide consistency to Eudora students. The food services staff provides breakfasts and lunches, and the IT staff installed locations outside of school buildings to connect to WiFi.
“This is a people business. When you go through a tough time, you have to be surrounded by your people to get through it,” Thomas said. “We’re in this together”
Reach reporter Sydney Hoover at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
We rely on donations to be able to cover the city of Eudora. Please email us at eudoratimes@gmail.com if you are willing to show your support to continue our journalism.
Comments