At the end of every good theater production, the cast always takes time to give a nod or two to the folks who worked behind the scenes.
While most have heard a lot about the teachers and the students who pulled off a difficult last semester of distance learning, there are the unsung heroes who worked tirelessly behind the curtain to make sure that the experience went as smooth as possible.
“The biggest question was ‘how are we going to have face-to-face time with students?” said Kenny Strong, a coach, world history and computer applications teacher and technology director at Indianola Academy. “We chose to utilize Zoom, YouTube and Google Suite. Then once our Administration informed the faculty it was just a matter of showing them how to do certain things.”
Strong said that he arrived at the school each day around 7 a.m. to help as many faculty members and students as possible navigate computer issues and the new applications themselves.
“I would stay until 3 or 4 o’clock,” Strong said. “But it didn’t stop there. I was getting emails and messages at midnight or 1 a.m. from students. As teenagers most of their schedules flipped to being night owls and sleeping when they didn’t have a class meeting during the day.”
While classroom instruction went to Zoom and a new normal set in for most, Resource Teacher Lynn Schlatter faced multiple challenges in conducting one-on-one instruction with her students.
“Every student is at a different level, and I could not do Zoom as a whole classroom,” she said. “I had to respond to each student with Facetime on their phone so that we could go at their pace.”
Overall, Schlatter said she found that her students did very well working on their own.
“I truly need to give them the opportunity to work independently like that during the school year,” she said.
Guidance Counselor Rebecca Barrier also relies heavily on daily interaction with students.
“It affected my job a great deal,” Barrier said. “I have students come by my office quite often asking questions or coming to meet with me about personal issues. They also stop me in the hall when they need something. I love one-on-one contact with students. That is one major reason I love my job.”
Barrier said she sent emails to students and parents letting them know that she was still available, in spite of the distance.
“I probably talked to a student or parent every day,” she said. “I am still talking to students and parents even while we are out for the summer.”
Leigh Hargett, who is in charge of the school’s annual, faced her share of challenges in the weeks following spring break.
“The most difficult thing for the yearbook staff was having to wait until final decisions were made concerning whether we would return to school or not,” Hargett said. “We were on hold working on the book for over six weeks waiting to see which events would happen and which ones were nixed completely. Once we knew exactly what was canceled, we were able to proceed.”
Hargett said that due to all of the canceled events, 16 pages came out of the yearbook immediately.
“That was sad,” she said. “We added two pages of distance learning pictures that were sent in by students. We added a couple of pages of pictures sent in by students showing whatever they were doing during the quarantine. I feel like we were still able to capture the personality of Indianola Academy.”
During the final six weeks of the school year, Hargett was able to put together two videos, one a senior video and the other for sports.
“The athletic awards video was a different way to reveal awards but was still special,” she said. “Teachers are always flexible, but this took some extreme flexibility. I feel like both videos and the yearbook capture the current global situation and will reflect the unusual times years from now as the students reflect back.”
Strong said that one of the rewarding things about the final semester was seeing the students and teachers step out of their comfort zones and adapt quickly to get the job done, and it was his job to make sure things were running steady for everyone behind the scenes.
“For the students they have grown up with technology, but they had not seen it for all of its value until this happened,” he said. “For the teachers it showed some different formats to instruct our students to help them engage more. It brought the entire school closer together than we already were.”
Strong said that even as classes resume this fall, he plans to still stream his lectures for students who may be absent.
Each one said they are ready to get back into the classroom and see the students again.
As a coach, Strong is looking forward to getting back to athletics.
“Getting back to athletics will be different this year,” he said. “I guess I always knew how much the individual sport meant to the player. I just didn’t know the true level of that until this past season was lost. I’m ready to see them back to enjoying the sports they love.”
