see VOTER

Mary Brown

Powhatan Elementary fourth-grade teacher Mary Brown asked to be assigned to full virtual to avoid risk of exposure to her mother and mother-in-law, who are both in the age range of adults at risk and have underlying health concerns. She and her husband also decided to keep their 4-year-old from going to preschool to avoid the risk. She knew the virtual route would bring challenges, but, for her, they paled in comparison to potential exposure and/or risk to their loved ones.

The hardest challenge for Brown is connecting and forming relationships with her students virtually. In March, every teacher mourned all that was lost when school suddenly closed, but their relationships with students were already formed, so it was easier to maintain that closeness via online assignments, phone calls, and even some FaceTime/Zoom with families, she said. This year, virtual teachers, were well aware of that challenge and worked hard to plan activities that would help foster relationships.

Brown, one of four fourth grade virtual teachers in the division, teaches language arts (writing). When the fourth grade virtual team began to plan in August, they were persistent in planning activities that provided opportunities to know their students and to allow for interaction.

“We also gave ourselves three weeks to get to know one another. We knew that if students didn’t feel seen or heard then we would not be as successful in making gains academically,” Brown said. “We, as a fourth grade team, did not meet any of our students prior to the start of the school year because we followed CDC guidelines and it was important to respect the families who chose virtual for their own personal reasons.”

The teachers are developing connections with students, but they are seeing stronger connections with students who are regularly participating, she said. Brown has started adding incentives to encourage participation. For example, if a student participates daily, turns in all assignments, and follows Google Meet etiquette, she offers a show and tell on Fridays. This nine weeks there will be an added incentive such as Lunch Bunch (eating lunch together while NOT on mute), which will allow them all time to socialize.

“This additional time together will allow students to share stories and have a more realistic classroom experience as a class. We are all super excited about this,” she said.

Most children by nature are social beings – their stories are endless, their words are endless, and their ability to communicate knows no bound, Brown said. Addressing this in the virtual forum is tricky because they can’t talk over one another or others can’t hear. Students have gotten much better at waiting their turn and at staying muted until given permission.

Building in times to socialize with one another is crucial because they do need peer socialization. Although not impossible, allowing students to work together on academics is diffi cult and takes creativity, she said.

“One way that students interact a great deal in my class is by walking one another through an assignment or technology problem. I can’t always see a site or assignment the way that they do so it’s not uncommon for a student to ask if they can ‘share the screen’ to help walk another student through something that seems tricky. That’s so encouraging to me because they are learning something far greater than academics,” she said.

Class size remains a struggle for many virtual teachers. It’s hard to get to everyone, assess them academically, and to monitor progress, but they are fi nding new ways daily, Brown said. She has fi nally found an organized system on the virtual platform to interact with students to answer their questions and to ask questions that allow her to gain insight into where they may need more clarifi cation. As a virtual teacher, Brown battles technology issues daily, but she said she has become a fantastic problem solver when it comes to fi nding different pathways for students to access the curriculum. Teachers and students have also learned to practice patience, understanding, and grace. Technology isn’t fl awless even when in the classroom setting, she added.

Encouraging movement tends to lead to more positive reactions and student partici-

see BROWN, pg. 8

VOTER

Continued from pg. 1

The Offi ce of Elections has been burning the candle at both ends for weeks

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PowhatanSheriff’sOffice|DivisionOfAnimalControl Phone:804-598-5672|Fax:804-598-5109 as employees and election offi cials held 45 days of early voting, and those numbers climbed even higher last week, said Karen Alexander, director of elections. She started noticing a decided increase in voting numbers after Columbus Day, and they became even more noticeable after Tuesday, Oct. 27.

As of the end of the fi nal day of in-person early voting on Oct. 31, 7,761 of Powhatan’s 23,159 registered voters had cast a ballot in the drive-through early voting line, Alexander said. When combined with the 2,217 mail-in ballots the offi ce has received, 43 percent of registered Powhatan voters cast their ballots before Election Day.

Overall, the entire early voting process went pretty well for such an ambitious new undertaking, Alexander said.

“It was exorbitantly harder than I ever expected it to be and exhausting to a level I can’t describe. I believe more voters were excited about the process than those who thought it could have been done better. … But overall, considering we had never done this before and were dealing with a pandemic, I think it went extremely well,” she said.

Alexander praised her staff and election offi cials, who have been slammed with work, sometimes under very diffi cult circumstances.

When the polls opened for business on Thursday, Oct. 29, the line of vehicles was wrapped from the early voting tent, down Tilman Road, all the way down Skaggs Road and hitting Old Buckingham Road even before the polls opened at 9 a.m., Alexander said. Some voters told her they had been there waiting in line since 4 a.m.

Heavy rains forced them to temporarily move the voting machine inside, which slowed down the process. She appreciated voters for their patience and dedication and election offi cials who were working in the cold and wet.

Meanwhile, work began on Friday, Oct. 30 to start opening, verifying and counting the 2,072 mail-in ballots that had been received at that point, she said.

“To put that in perspective, the last presidential election in its entirety, we only had 700 mail-in absentees,” Alexander said Wednesday. “We are going to have three times what we did in 2016, and there is no way we can complete the process with just three CAP offi cials on Election Night with that many ballots. It is going to take several days of running them through the machine.”

The offi ce has already been partially checking the mail-in ballots to make sure everything is correct, said Jamie Swemba, deputy registrar. Prior to Friday, the ballots were sealed inside an envelope that had to be returned inside another envelope. Election offi cials have been opening the outer envelopes as they were received to make sure they have all the correct information and calling voters in to make corrections if necessary.

“They were all minor things, but they have to be fi xed,” she said.

After checking to make sure all the information on the envelope was correct, election offi cials took the ballots out and put them in a ballot box for the correct precinct. All of the ballots for each precinct were run through together. They were also counted at several points during the process to make sure the number was correct.

“We just want to make sure everybody’s vote is counted. We don’t want anybody to get left out. By the same token, we don’t want more ballots than we should have,” she said.

Alexander pointed out that the results reported for Powhatan’s numbers this week will be considered unoffi cial until Friday, Nov. 6, when the fi nal canvas of the electoral board is complete.

If someone mailed in an absentee ballot, as long as it was postmarked by Election Day, her offi ce will count it if it is received by noon on Nov. 6.

CHURCH DIRECTORY

St.Luke’sEpiscopalChurch SUNDAYS LiveStreamWorship! www.stlukespowhatan.org

AllareWelcome Formoreinformationvisitwww.stlukespowhatan.org Route711atThreeBridgeRoad794-6953 Genito Presbyterian Church TheBridge Church “BuildingaBridgeofHope” Isaiah58:12 2910GenitoRd.Powhatan,VA Sundays: 372-9074 WorshipwithusthisSunday MorningWorship10:00AM Wednesday: FamilyLifeNight7:00PM

Churchservice@9:30AM 2480AcademyRoad Sundayschool@10:30AM 598-7159 Pastor:JohnathanM.Whichard

EVERGREEN COMMUNITY CHURCH (PCA) Proclaiming&PracticingtheGospelofJesusChrist IndoorWorshipServiceat10:00AM MeetingatthePowhatanWarMemorialBuildingat 2375SkaggsRd,Powhatan,VA23139 ECCPCA.ORG 598-8844 Rev.RobertBarnes

Meetinginthegym

1801Huguenot Trail SundaySchool 9am SundayWorship 10am WednesdayBibleStudy 6:45pm BryanM.Holt, Pastor 378-3607 www.EmmausChristianChurch.org

MeetingSundaysin Amelia,Farmville, ForkUnion,Midlothian, PowhatanandOnline. Visitpccwired.netfor servicestimes&locations. 598-1174 pccwired.net

MountCalvary BaptistChurch 2020RedLaneRoad Powhatan,VA23139 Pastor,LarryB.Collins SundaySchool9:45a.m. SundayWorship11:00a.m. WednesdayBibleStudy 7:30p.m. Office804-598-2398

Providence Presbyterian Church

WorshipService11:00am SundaySchool10:00am 598-4970 Located1950RidgeRoad (Rt.627) 2/10thofamilenorthofRt.13

Powhatan United Methodist Church LivingAsChrist’sDisciplesWithinOur HeartsandBeyondOurDoors 2253RossonRd. JustoffRt.13intheVillage Worship: 8:30&11a.m. 598-4438 SundaySchool: 9:45a.m. www.powhatanumc.us WeekdayPreschool(ages2-5) 598-6090

CommunityChurch

Dr.CavellW.Phillips,Pastor WherethereisUnity,thereisalwaysVictory. Achurch“Whereyouarewelcome”

JoinUsForSundayWorship Wednesday:BibleStudy

11:00AM–12:30PM 6:30–7:30pm(60Minute

PowhatanVillageBuilding WarmUpToSunday) 3910OldBuckinghamRoad Powhatan,VA 804-256-4411 ucc4me.org PowhatanChristian Fellowship SundayMorningWorship 11:00a.m. SundaySchool10:00a.m. WednesdayNight7:30p.m. 3308PleasantsRoad, 1/4mileoffofRoute711 RussCress,Pastor 598-0733

St.JohnNeumann CatholicChurch

Rev.WalterG.Lewis,Pastor Saturday-5p.m. Sunday-8:30a.m.&11a.m. 598-3754 www.sjnpowhatan.org LocatedbehindFlatRock VillageShoppingCenter

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