PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 15, 2020
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Sustaining school spirit when there’s no school
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
When Gov. Kate Brown
announced last month the
cancellation of all in-per-
son classes for the remainder
of the school year, teachers
and faculty around the Sa-
lem-Keizer School District
were challenged with the task
of trying to teach virtually.
One of the big aspects of
virtual learning is making
sure that the school commu-
nity remains in connection
with each other. Ashley Gru-
ber, Lexxy Johnson and Todd
Layton have played big roles
in fostering those connec-
tions at McNary for the last
two months.
“The work of these three
has been instrumental in
helping our school have
meaningful
connections,”
McNary principal Erik Jes-
persen said.
Gruber, Johnson and Lay-
ton are all teachers at Mc-
Nary and have been heavily
involved in informing kids
and parents as to what’s hap-
pening with the school —
and it goes much deeper than
making sure kids are turning
in their assignments on time.
“We have been trying to
put together more of a cohe-
sive connection for the entire
school body,” Layton said.
“The idea is that we’re try-
ing to reach out to every kid
and make sure that they un-
derstand that McNary is here
for them.”
One of the biggest
points-of-emphasis has been
the graduating seniors. John-
son, who is the activities di-
rector at the school and runs
student government, has her
senior offi cers meet with a
graduation committee twice
per week — the committee
is made up of teachers and
administrators.
“We have a lot of people
that interact, then we have a
better feel for what’s coming
up,” Johnson said.
“The biggest goal of the
seniors is to still feel like there
is stuff to look forward to for
their senior year and it’s not
just fi nished in the spring.
So we are all trying to create
that school spirit atmosphere
Submitted
McNary teachers and administrators pulled out as many stops as possible to create a celebra-
tory atmosphere when students picked up their caps and gowns last week. It’s just one way
schools have had to adapt traditional school activities to the pandemic.
even within distance learning
community,” Johnson said.
Johnson and the senior
offi cers also created student
bios for seniors on the Mc-
Nary 2020 Instagram page
— which is run by Gruber
— highlighting where kids
will be attending college and
what they plan to study.
“They wanted to celebrate
their next steps, which is why
they have done those student
bios,” Johnson said.
Johnson also had her
students make a video for
Teacher Appreciation Week
earlier this month to show
their support for the teach-
ers at the school that have
worked so hard to maintain
balance in the midst of chaos.
“Many of our teachers
have done a tremendous job
reaching out to kids,” Lay-
ton said. “It’s been good to
engage and support all our
teachers here.”
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Along with running Mc-
Nary’s multiple social media
pages, Gruber is in charge
of putting content on the
recently revamped McNary
website — which features
parent resources, a news and
updates section and a feature
that allows students to speak
with a virtual counselor.
“It’s about fi guring out
what stuff should go on
what platforms. Parents are
on Facebook probably more
than Instagram. We want to
make sure that we get the in-
formation out to all the dif-
ferent places,” Gruber said.
Gruber is in her fi rst year
as the media production
teacher at McNary, while
Layton teaches graphic de-
sign and Johnson teaches so-
cial studies.
Virtually teaching classes
like media production and
graphic design has turned out
to be twice as hard according
to Gruber and Layton, par-
tially due to kids not having
access to certain software that
was needed.
But that doesn’t stop them
from working hard to pro-
vide engaging and interactive
assignments for their kids.
“I
want
to make the
projects fun
so when they
look back on
this time, they
will remem-
ber the class
being fun and
engaging and
something
that helped
them through
this
tough
time,” Layton
said.
W h e n
Gruber’s students meet over
Zoom, they are required to
introduce their pets and are
given extra credit if they are
wearing an animal onesie.
“It’s a whole new world of
teaching but it’s fun to con-
nect with the kids and see
what they are creating and
coming up with,” Gruber
said. “I just want to engage
with them and make things
feel more normal.”
Through
this process,
Layton
has
been remind-
ed, thanks to
multiple mes-
sages from his
students, how
important
the job of a
teacher is, not
just for giv-
ing instruc-
tion, but also
for the way
teachers fos-
ter and facili-
tate meaningful relationships
with their students.
“You don’t know how
much you’re missed. The
messages that the kids have
sent about missing school, it
helps me realize how import-
ant our jobs are,” Layton said.