Middle School

What was the most challenging part of your 2020-2021 school year?

The most challenging part of last year was the uncertainty. Educators like to have a plan, know what the answers are, and this pandemic forced us, like most professions, to be more adaptable than ever before.

What surprised you about last school year?

A pleasant surprise for me is how well the students and teachers adapted to multiple new procedures and some students being online and not in the physical classroom.

After each school year, we analyze how we can make the next one better. With the trials and tribulations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, what has changed for the better?

One thing that has changed for the better is that communication between students and teachers has drastically increased in more ways than just face to face.

Jeb Blackerby '99 | Middle School Principal

After remotely educating our students for the final quarter of the 2019-2020 school year, it was a welcome sight as our middle school teachers and students returned to the UMS-Wright campus on August 11, 2020 to begin a new school year. The 20202021 school year was going to be unique with its own set of challenges, but the best news was that we were open and together! New words and phrases became part of our everyday vocabulary: face masks, social distance, temperature checks, cleaning of the desks, Zoom, and cohort grouping. Some traditions such as assemblies, field trips, break parties, Crimson & Grey Day, and others had to be tweaked or postponed until later dates. Our classrooms even looked different with a smaller number of students in each class, groups of students traveling together all day long, desks being spaced 6 feet apart, and less group work.

Throughout the school year, technology became more than just a tool; it became a way to connect with our students. For those who were learning remotely, Zoom sessions became a necessity. In addition to using technology from a classroom perspective, it also was used as a means for me to stay in touch with students. Instead of face-to-face meetings, students were given the option to communicate with me through email, chat, or Zoom. This allowed me to continue to build relationships with our students (my children) even beyond the hours of the regular school day. Our teachers creatively adapted lesson plans to work within our safety guidelines, and students quickly adjusted to their new environments. In keeping with the mission of UMS-Wright and educating the whole student, our middle school students learned lessons that went beyond the scope of our curriculum, for they learned life lessons. They learned to be caring, kind, selfless citizens who know that one shouldn’t take anything for granted for it might be quickly taken away. Life is going to throw challenges at us, but “our ability to handle life’s challenges is a measure of our strength of character.” In true UMS-Wright fashion, our middle school teachers and students met the challenges of the 2020-2021 school year head on and forged through them so that we can say we didn’t just survive, but we thrived.