|
 |
St. Mary’s School
A Blessed and Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year
By Kathy Ayette
Ever wonder what it feels like to be a rat in a maze? Come to my
classroom and find out. In order to further protect the students
from Covid, each desk now has a three-sided plexiglass shield.
Unfortunately, the sides of the shields protrude about four inches on
both sides of the desks, making my already interesting classroom
arrangement even more interesting. With the new shields and the
dividers on the tables, which also stick out beyond the tables, it is
impossible to move from point A to point B in a straight line. In
order not to knock shields and dividers to the floor, as I wind my way
through the room, I usually put my arms in the air and sway from side
to side, looking like a rather strange hula dancer. And don’t
even get me started on how often the shields are knocked to the floor
by students and teacher alike. Let’s just say that the sound of
crashing plexiglass no longer makes me jump.
This year, due to Covid, St Mary’s is not having a Christmas program,
well at least not the usual type. Instead, my kindergarten
through third grade music class will present their performance
online. (What would we do without YouTube?) This will be a
whole new experience for me. Like I haven’t said that this
year. Teaching music during the pandemic has been
challenging. When the weather was nice, I taught outside.
Now that winter is here, we are having class in the cafeteria, socially
distanced and wearing face shields. As we practiced, I wondered
what had happened to my usually enthusiastic singers. The volume
was just not there and all I could hear was my own voice. Then I
switched from my shield to my mask. What an improvement!
Duh! We are recording Monday, December 21 with help of our trusty
tech wizard and all-around good guy, Rich Hadden. This will be
the only Christmas performance I have ever directed with “do overs”
possible!
Usually during December my first and second graders make the “world’s
longest paper chain” and we see how many times we can run the chain
through the hall and down the stairs, through the cafeteria and back up
the front stairs. Like so many other things, our chain has fallen
victim to Covid. I just couldn’t think of a safe way for the
students and their big buddies to run the chain through the
school. So instead, my students traced their hands on green
construction paper and cut them out. We used the hand to build a
Christmas tree on the wall outside our door. We are going to
decorate the tree with angels, first and second grade angels. The
kids are going to glue their pictures on some cut out angels. I
always knew my little guys were angels. Now everyone will know it too.
The student council’s latest “out of dress code” fund raiser was July
in Christmas. For a donation, students could dress in summer
attire for the day. The money raised would be used to buy winter
outer wear for the needy. The event was scheduled for Wednesday,
December 16, but needed to be rescheduled due to a snow day.
Don’t you love the irony? The new date is Monday, December 21,
which happens to be the first day of winter. Just saying…
First Reconciliation was held for the second graders on December
2. Our temporary parish administrator, Fr. David Doseck, heard
the children ‘s confession. Father was kind enough to visit our
class the day before so the children could get to know him and ask any
questions.
Father David has several parishes for which he is responsible and is at
St. Mary’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are very happy to have him
with us.
The junior high religion students have been studying the
Beatitudes. The students combined Bible study with technology and
presented what they learned using Power Point.
Tuesday, December 22 is the last day of school before Christmas
break. Unless the weather is very inclement, the students will be
caroling in downtown Greenville, beginning around 10:00. This
year we decided to try something different. We will be splitting
the students into two groups, with one group on each side of
Broadway. After singing the students will return to school for
our traditional hot dog lunch and then enjoy their classroom Christmas
parties. Christmas break officially begins at 2:22.
On behalf of the staff and students of St Mary’s I would like to extend
our warmest wished for a Blessed and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
|
|
|
|
