As a 35-year career kindergarten teacher, Cami Stancil, like so many early education professionals, especially, keenly hoped to have the opportunity to teach her small students in person this school year. Her voice alone conveyed powerful emotion in a phone interview.
“Being here is what it is all about and everyone here will do everything that anyone can do to keep these children safe,” she stressed. Speaking at the end of the first month of school, she reported that kindergarten is going “very well” at Cook Elementary, while she is happily “exhausted.”
She has been amazed at her young students.
“We’re asking so much of them,” she explained, in staying within their own personal spaces. Kindergarten is a time of circles. This year, each child has their own number to identify assigned seating and the floor is marked in squares.
“They use that number to find and sit on their own spaces on the floor, when they line up at recess and for arrival and dismissal, so obviously – that’s different,” she laughed.
But she’s realizing that may be more different to teachers than for the children. It’s all new to them! They are accepting new safety procedures as well as they’re accepting the new experience of being in kindergarten.
Some of her before-school worries were needless. She admittedly couldn’t picture 5-year-olds doing very well at wearing facecoverings.
“They have really rocked their masks!” Stancil said. “I may have one or two I have to remind to pull up their mask. But overall, the kids have gone above and beyond any expectation I had for wearing a mask for almost 80 percent of their day.”
When seated at their own desks, which are spaced as far apart as the classroom space allows, children may take off their masks for quiet tasks. They all wear a lanyard to clip the masks on.
While Stancil misses the learning stations that formerly stood around the room, such as a reading corner or science area, the children adapt to exploring those activities in other ways. And they will do it without handling the same materials.
Each student has plastic tubs with their own math “manipulatables,” crayons and materials for different activities each day. Some kindergarten classics – sitting on the carpet (spaced apart, on their numbers, masked) to hear stories read aloud is still possible. Playing together while sharing blocks or toys is not permitted, but playing in the same way beside nearby child can be fun.
Stancil really misses hugs. Instead, there are heartfelt “air hugs, high fives and thumbs up.”
Her class is “on track” in the learning plan and will begin to use personal laptops this month.
Stancil said the children comply with washing or sanitizing their hands many times a day and discuss and understand “being mindful of our own germs.” Each child uses personal water bottles. Parental cooperation with new safety procedures has been excellent, she said.
“I had my fears that we were not going to make it a month,” she admitted. She is proud of everyone, parents, children, teachers and staff, for working hard to be as safe as possible.
“It’s been extremely difficult and so exhausting, but students are here and they are learning! Everyone in education has a positive mindset that we can continue to do more and more to keep these kids safe,” she said.
"Our teacher collaboration now, at Darby but also districtwide, is at an all-time high,” said principal Katie Kreimer Hall, describing this challenging school semester after school has been in session almost one month.
“I have been in awe of what teachers have been able to do and change within just a short amount of time,” she added.
Welcoming students back inside school buildings was the second stage of the most profound and swift changes educators have ever been called upon to make. The first stage happened before school began. The act of teaching, itself, had to be completely re-adapted to today’s public health circumstances.
“I had a very veteran teacher say, ‘I feel like I am a first-year teacher this year.’ Even our best teachers are having to relearn or reinvent what they do in the classroom,” the principal said.
While administrators and staff drew up safer ways for students to arrive, depart and move through schools, teachers collaborated on what students would be taught – and how.
The “how” relies heavily on technology. While Fort Smith Public School District has almost completed phasing in a “1:1” program – one personal computer device per student – the COVID-19 pandemic makes it imperative.
Likewise, teachers who have been gradually including devices in their instructions had to adjust to their daily use – immediately.
The district chose a platform, “Schoolology,” that every educator learned to use before school began and every student is now using on their district-issued Chromebooks.
“Our teachers are still presenting lessons like they have in the past; walking around giving feedback to kids,” Kreimer Hall said, “but instead of handing a student a worksheet, we have uploaded the worksheet. Teachers can make interactive worksheets and lessons.”
Instead of stacking written papers on a teacher’s desk, students save documents into teachers’ digital folders.
Within subject departments, such as English or mathematics, and within grade levels, teachers have collaborated to make lessons more consistent and effective, the principal said.
“Teachers meet weekly at Darby and I know at Ramsey and Kimmons,” Kreimer Hall said. “During a schoolday, it is not uncommon to see them meeting in the classroom during lunch, in twos and threes.” As their principal, she does everything she can to support them.
Students, she said, are outstanding in their acceptance of everything that is new. Junior high students, she emphasized, as a person who really loves kids of that age.
“Our students have been great. We haven't had any trouble with students keeping masks on – they may be better than adults,” she said in praise. “Junior high kids just want to talk and want to be social. It's harder to keep them away from each other before school, after school or after lunch. You'll see them kind of group up, but they always have their masks on and they're quick to separate when reminded.”
“We made it very clear up front that teachers need to communicate why we're doing what we're doing,” she said. “Students understand what's going on and I think they understand the concern and caution and seriousness.”
“Before students were on campus, we thought about procedures and practices we needed to change, and we did. Doors are now enter or exit only and stairwells are up or down only. We like them - we'll probably keep them that way.”
“Lunch was a challenge. We'll feed 200-250 who use the school cafeteria. They eat one at a table in the lunchroom, the tornado shelter and at picnic tables in the courtyard,” she said. Students sit in the gym for the rest of a lunch period.
Even with an additional factor of ongoing construction, Darby is doing well, she said.
“Our people come here and truly give school the best they have,” Kreimer Hall said, with a rise of pride in her voice. “In the spring, when we went to online instruction, it happened overnight! I'll admit, we struggled. Because at that time, our technology skills were good, but I wouldn't say they were great. And now, our teachers have learned so much and we are so much better.”
Who better than band directors to enforce a specific distance between students? But, how can they teach students who, because of precautions, can almost never play together in one space?
Music programs – band, choir and orchestra – have the largest class sizes in junior high and high schools. The band directors of Northside High School and Darby and Kimmons junior high schools who teach these popular programs as a team sat in a precisely spaced circle in the NHS Fine Arts building to explain how they are teaching band in a pandemic while protecting the health of their students.
They sat exactly 12 feet apart, as the floor is gridded with a white, taped “X” every 6 feet. Band classes must follow extremely detailed state guidelines, down to the specs that trombone players require 9 feet of spacing and flute players should be 12 feet apart.
With band sizes of more than 200 kids, the only place a whole band can assemble is outdoors, head director Gordon Manley explained.
This summer, faculty had to devise strategies from how to divide the huge classes into groups of permitted sizes, to how to make masks through which players could blow into their instruments.
But first – and foremost to this caring team – they wanted to see how their students were doing or if they would even return to school in person.
“March was the last time I saw my band,” Aaron Durham of NHS explained, recalling the sudden school closings in the spring semester. The directors around the circle all nodded, remembering the shock of the emergency closure.
“Out of 300+ kids, we got them out the door with instruments,” director Adam Coats added. “We thought they’d be back after spring break.”
Instead, school buildings remained closed through the end of the school year.
As with all teachers, the music programs scrambled to teach their classes virtually. Teaching remotely, completing normal spring band curriculum was next to impossible. They improvised. Angie Clark, director of the Darby band, said staying connected was their goal.
“We wound up holding (virtual) group meetings on Mondays, with 120-130 on a meeting at a time. We played together a little, but it was really more of a check-in than instruction.”
“Our biggest concern was the emotional well-being of our kids,” added Gabby Chandler, who also teaches the Darby band.
“Our bands love to play together and they love each other. We tried to give them a sense of normalcy in such an unstructured and unsure time.”
Of about 300 kids at Darby, Clark and Chandler said about 80 percent stayed connected through the end of the spring semester.
“My surprise was it wasn’t always kids not doing well in school who disappeared. Some of the kids we didn’t hear from were high-achieving ones,” Chris Ha, director at Kimmons.
“A stark realization to me was that it was band that brought some of the kids to school,” Manley said. “I was shocked by the number of kids we lost touch with.”
But the team kept several band social media sites active during the summer. They were delighted to discover solo musical performances their students posted.
“They would make videos of themselves, even accompanying themselves,” Durham said. “We created a hashtag, #grizzlybandcovidjam.”
Using recording apps, some students played duets or even quartets, playing all the parts.
“It was a glimpse into their world,” Durham said, “– of how creating music is such a valuable part of their lives.”
Ha explained that Fort Smith Public Schools’ band program made a free subscription to an online music library available to students.
“A lot of kids went on that program and found music on their own. Some were quite complex and difficult,” he said.
“That’s a direct reflection of our philosophy, teaching kid to love music and to take it however far they can go with it,” Manley said. “We’re not that interested in teaching them only how to play a part, but how to find a love of music.”
When band educators officially returned to work in the middle of July, the June 1 guidelines from the Arkansas Department of Health applied: Bands were allowed to march, but prohibited from playing instruments together. Traditional summer band practice simply didn’t happen for junior highs.
The high schools held a combination of virtual and in-person summer practice.
When high school students came in person for marching practice and team-building, the directors immediately realized they would have to teach fundamentals of following safety rules first.
“The first night, the kids hadn’t seen each other since March,” Durham said. “We had to figure out how to teach them to stay apart!”
At that time, daily screenings were mandated before students could attend - asking each person if they had symptoms; any contact with people who had tested positive or were ill; and taking forehead temperatures.
Those protocols were refined during summer band time, as they were still being developed by the state Health Department and Department of Education. Band and athletic programs were early tests. Unanticipated questions arose. Faculty erred on the side of caution and referred to the activities director and board of health for guidance.
Such as it was, summer was little preparation for the start of the school year. Directors had made strategies. There were the aforementioned distances between instruments, custom masks and bell covers. But there were more requirements. Divided into smaller groups, students may play together, inside, for 30 minutes, followed by a 20-minute break to air out the room. The large NHS band had to be divided into four groups.
Fortunately, Northside has a newer Fine Arts building. With two big rehearsal spaces, the puzzle of shuffling four groups during one class period can be managed. That includes a turn outdoors. Even indoors, students stand to play to cut down chair-sanitizing time.
At the junior highs, the divisions of one band rehearse apart in the fine arts rooms, cafeterias and tornado shelters. At all schools, the entire band can only perform together on the field.
“Whatever we have to do to keep our students safe,” is the faculty’s mantra. Directors remind one another to be safe, as well. While they give their students high marks for complying with new rules, the adults have to change their own norms.
“I just didn’t realize how much we touch the students’ instruments,” Clark said. “It’s hard to help a beginning clarinet without wiggling their instrument’s headpiece or adjusting a player’s fingers.” Directors also are used to taking an instrument from a student’s hands to fix or adjust it. “That’s just the nature of education in general,” she said. “If a kid needs help, you help them.”
In a regular school year, bands would be marching a full halftime show at home football games and rehearsing for a fall marching contest.
NHS has learned a show and performed at one game, with less than the full band, due to distancing requirements. Any game, or the marching contest, could be cancelled.
Always staying positive, the directors said they are coping with these circumstances by encouraging individual musicianship.
“We have excited kids who are excited to play, regardless of what season it is,” Clark said.
“The band we do have is awesome,” Manley said proudly.
Band directors in Fort Smith Public Schools teach as a team, teaching at more than one school. Their primary assignments are:
Gordon Manley - Head Band Director, NHS
Aaron Durham - Band Director, NHS
Adam Coats - Band Director, Kimmons
Chris Ha - Band Director, Kimmons
Angie Clark - Band Director, Darby
Gabby Chandler - Band Director, Darby
