Each classroom is fitted with plexiglass dividers, and students and faculty must wear face masks or coverings while inside the building.
Access to technology has largely improved for students, said Head of Lower School Amy Woodson. “We use technology to communicate, create, or connect. Teachers’ capacity has grown. They are working a math problem on an iPad that is projected onto a TV in the classroom and also uploaded to Google Classroom for students to reference when they do homework,” Woodson said. “We’ve learned that there are ways to connect remotely, and we are going through the process of deciding which things should or could stay, like a parent education workshop on Zoom attracting 45 families instead of planning for a parent supper and never knowing how that is going to shake out.” Lower Schoolers also have benefited from having more time outdoors, a belief LS has long held with its Young Naturalist Program, recess opportunities, and PE. With students eating outside too, they feel better because they are enjoying additional fresh air and free play with friends, she added. Head of High School Quinton Walker said HS faculty have learned to be more adaptive in their teaching, the value of communicating early and often, and how their new schedule instituted two years ago is sustainable.
The virus dampened the usual celebrations capping the senior year. The High School Leadership Team, College Counseling Office, and Alumni & Development Office packed and delivered gift bags to seniors on Tuesday, May 19 filled with sweatshirts designed by Waverly Tibbott ’20, class mugs and keys from the Development Office, notes students wrote themselves during their freshman retreat in fall 2016, cards for seniors & their parents, and markers to decorate cars for their upcoming parade.
Remaking School Traditions
“We are better now at making our thinking visible for students: here’s what we’re doing, here is why, and here is what it leads to. I hope we carry that lesson forward to be more intentional and vocal in our curricular choices,” Walker said. He’s also seen HS faculty push hard to experiment, refine, and “retool on the fly” to adjust to meet the stresses of teaching students in the classroom and in quarantine at home on short notice or even to modify lunch plans for weather while keeping students in cohorts. It’s doubtful that USN will return to be the exact school it was before the pandemic. If nothing else, it will be cleaner and more connected. nn
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The Class of 2020 culminated its USN experience with Commencement on July 24, 2020.
2000 EDGEHILL
