Donations, art lessons and bagpipes: Beaufort County helps students during closures
Beaufort County School District is on spring break this week, but students won’t return to school next Monday.
Instead, they’ll log on from their own homes, as coronavirus case numbers in South Carolina rise.
In March, Gov. Henry McMaster ordered public schools across South Carolina to close through at least the end of April. On Monday, it will have been one month since students were last in their classrooms.
But even as schools go online, teachers — and community members — are finding ways to connect with students.
Teachers go online
At Mossy Oaks Elementary, dance teacher Ashton Crabb posted a Facebook Live for his now-weekly “Funky Friday” class, teaching students choreography and leading them in exercises.
Parents commented on behalf of their kids as he taught: “Hi from Bella”; “I miss you from Allen”; “Schranz kids are in!”
“The cool thing about right now is there are a lot of dance resources that are available,” Crabb said while taking questions. “Oh, I miss you too, Allen!”
At Hilton Head Elementary, studio teacher Helen Ashton posted a tutorial for students to make a nurse finger puppet with a toilet-paper-roll body, a laundry-detergent cap, produce-bag hair and a scrap-paper face mask.
“See what kinds of things you might normally throw away inspire you to recycle, reuse and create something new,” Ashton said in her sign-off to students. “Until next time, keep being creative.”
Tricia Fidrych, a former teacher and current school board member, said Friday that she’s been checking in with teachers who are all working to stay in touch with students. She’s not surprised at how quickly teachers have adapted.
“There are so many fabulous things going on out there in classrooms, and teachers have kept up those fabulous things,” she said. “I am proud to be a part of that profession.”
‘We know they’re talented’
Beaufort Middle School librarian Amy Trask knew the school’s annual talent show would be different this year, even before schools shut down.
Along with band director Amanda Trimpey, she’d inherited the event from the school’s former chorus teacher, who retired last year.
And she knew how much the talent show meant to students: Several of the students who won this year were repeat performers who had offered to help her plan the event before schools closed.
She didn’t know what they’d do when they heard McMaster’s order. But in the span of two weeks, they pulled it together.
Trask describes Trimpey as the “mastermind” behind their solution: students would join a Google Classroom, where they could submit 2-minute videos of their talents, and other classmates could join to vote for the winners.
Trimpey filmed a video asking for talent submissions in her backyard, with a steel drum she’d taken home to paint for the band. By the time the students’ videos were due, around 40 had joined the Google classroom to compete or vote.
The video submissions were varied: Several students sang and played instruments, in their cars or their living rooms. One girl performed an improvisational dance in her garage. Two submitted time-lapse videos of themselves painting after art teacher Emily Raymonda posted a pottery video as an example to the talent show’s virtual classroom.
“To me it’s just showcasing the kids,” Trimpey said. “We know they’re talented in more than just what we teach them.”
Once submissions were up, more students joined the classroom. By the end of the competition, more than 100 students were in the classroom, an environment both Trask and Trimpey called “so supportive.”
Students, parents and teachers alike asked them when voting would end, and when the winners would be announced. After three rounds of competition, the field was narrowed to six finalists, who were then judged by a panel of former Beaufort Middle teachers.
The eventual winner was Adelaide Rogers, who sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” while accompanying herself on guitar.
Fidrych, who worked as a special education teacher at Beaufort Middle before retiring and getting elected to the county’s school board in 2018, described her experience judging as “fabulous.”
“You know, these are middle schoolers,” she said. “For them to be filmed and willing to be judged, that shows how courageous they are and how safe they feel.”
When asked who she thought stood out, Fidrych referred to John Pridgen, whose bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” took second place in the competition.
Trask said she got a call from another winner’s mother, thanking her for the distraction from everything happening in the world.
“She said, ‘I can’t tell you how much it meant for us,’” Trask said. “‘It gave her something to focus on in all this.’”
And she said she’s considering a hybrid virtual/in-person show next year: “It was a great success for the first time out. Maybe next year we’ll do both!”
Devices for ‘the little guys’
Though every district student in the third grade and up had a device to take home when school closures were announced, younger students didn’t.
“I don’t think a lot of people are considering that these little guys still need to get their education,” Bluffton Realtor Catherine Donaldson said.
With the help of Jennifer Harsta, Donaldson began putting together a grassroots effort she calls “KindlesForKids,” first reported on by WSAV.
“Once we realized these little Kindle Fires, which are $50 on Amazon, work for these kids, we just put out a call on social media asking for people to donate them,” Donaldson said.
The Kindle Fire is an e-reader tablet produced by Amazon. It doesn’t have a word-processing program, but it can connect to the internet, display documents and send emails — pretty much everything a student needs to connect to their online classes, she said.
Donaldson’s first goal was to supply Kindles to students in need at Red Cedar Elementary, a Bluffton school with a high percentage of low-income families. The principal there, Kathleen Corley, told her there were about 100 kids that needed devices.
As of Friday, Donaldson had gathered 80 Kindles to give to students, with another shipment of 10 expected to arrive Saturday. Between her effort and another donor, the need at Red Cedar has been met.
Now, Donaldson is shifting her attention to Whale Branch Elementary, where she said about 200 devices are needed.
“If we can meet that need and have a surplus, we’ll move on to the next school,” she said.
Anyone interested in donating can call Donaldson at 843-338-2069. She’ll tell them to order the Kindles on Amazon and ship them to her house, where she’s connecting to students through their principals to deliver the tablets to kids without devices. As of Wednesday, they can also donate to a GoFundMe.
“I’ve done lots of fundraisers in the 16 years I’ve been here,” she said. “I’ve seen firsthand the generosity of this area. There are people out here, if they knew about this, they would donate.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2020 at 3:43 PM.