Remaking School Traditions

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.

“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

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.

The Class of 2020 culminated its USN experience with Commencement on July 24, 2020.

Unable to have their traditional breakfast, eighth graders still debuted their digital yearbook to classmates. Parents organized a drive-in screening at the River Campus with students and their families remaining in their vehicles with the 30-minute documentary shown on a large screen.

On the date seniors were originally scheduled to turn their tassels, faculty and staff met them with cheers, balloons, confetti, pompoms, airhorns, posters, and giant senior portraits during a parade through the River Campus. In decorated cars with their families, the Class of 2020 received gowns, mortarboards, and school memorabilia.

After a socially distant, 3.5-hour processional through the 19th Avenue parking lot, graduates and their families ended the day with a virtual program streamed on Facebook. Turkey Trot, a K-12 favorite, was reimagined with mask and colorful paper bag wearing kindergartners and seniors singing and dancing on the front stairs and Edgehill Lawn. Usually enjoyed by hundreds of parents, grandparents, and special friends packed into Sperling Gym, spectators instead were vehicles and pedestrians traveling Edgehill Avenue. Packs of fifth graders outside for their snack break mirrored the trot across the street on Magnolia Lawn, and some students inside the Main Building even opened school windows to cheer on their peers and sing along.

Share Your COVID-19 Story

We’ve saved hallway signage, USN-branded face coverings, and even vials for saliva testing to be enshrined on the grounds of the Edgehill Campus. Middle School Art Teacher Emily Holt also is working on a visual compilation of the pandemic’s impact on USN and welcomes submissions of 5-by-5-inch squares made up of any lightweight material to be connected together, digitally and physically, into a quilt that will be on display at USN in the future. To contribute to the quilt or share digital reflections that should be saved for future generations to understand this tough period our community is enduring, please email stories to jtraughber@usn.org or mail squares to:

University School of Nashville c/o Juanita I.C. Traughber 2000 Edgehill Avenue Nashville, TN 37212

Learning

from Home

Page 14, clockwise from top left: o Iliana Béhague-Mentzel ’25 and Luc Béhague-Mentzel ’26 play harp

and guitar during Middle School’s Virtual Cafe Night on May 15.

o E.B. Segall ’30 and Sammy Segal ’33 enjoy a socially-distant home

visit from Second Grade Teacher Megan Peterson.

o Andrew Knox ’27 studies at his dining room table. o Clio Cherry-Pulay ’29 is a tableau vivant of Delacroix’s “Orphan Girl

at the Cemetery.”

o Members of the Class of 2020 mailed gifts to their secret “Quarantenior

Buddies” to raise spirits while away from school.

Page 15, clockwise from top o Maggie Weiss ’28 and Peter Weiss ’30 grill hotdogs and s’mores on

their deck.

o Benjamin Jennings ’27 and Donovan Jennings ’29 read for 20 minutes

daily between remote learning lessons.

o Book buddies Alice Cramer ’28 and Rachel Pierce ’32 use FaceTime to

read together while away from school.

o Blake Resnick ’31 drops Mentos in soda for an explosive experiment as

USN parent Leeron Resnick watches from a distance.

o Liam Dixon ’28 waters his garden of tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers,

strawberries, okra, basil, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, and mint.

photos submitted by USN families

A

Responsible Restart

Page 16, clockwise from top o USN parent Kamal Tahiliani drives her daughters Ariya ’31 and Syra ’29 through the 21st Avenue

garage. Lower School families picked up school supplies and iPads during a drive-thru to resume remote learning in August.

o High Schoolers eat lunch on Vanderbilt University’s Magnolia Lawn. o Lower Schoolers line up for a dollop of hand sanitizer before entering school. o Kindergarten Teachers Jody Reynolds, Karri Leslie, and Jan Honsberger prepare to welcome the

Class of 2033 to their first days on campus.

o Lower School Librarian Emily Theobald waves Peabody to students during the back-to-school

parade.

o Dean of Students Nicole Jules, Head of High School Quinton Walker, and Assistant Director of

Admissions Scott Collins verify families have completed the daily health screening before allowing students to enter the building.

Page 17, clockwise from top o Luke Ammerman ’32 plays in his assigned spot during After School in August. Toys and games are

sanitized between each student.

o USN Health Director Margee Brennan receives her first COVID-19 vaccination during Winter Break. o Plexiglass barriers and face coverings are the new normal in classrooms. o High School student Gillian Flatt ’21 signs the Statement of Responsibility that 25 peers co-created

with their expectations and guidance around community norms while at school during the

pandemic. 19