GRANITE CITY, Ill. — The 2020-21 school year is off to a start unlike any other. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, students, teachers and parents have been forced to adjust.
For teachers, part of the new school year is learning names and making everyone feel welcome. For two teachers in the Granite City school district, that meant getting creative.
"I kept worrying about how I was going to put a face to a name," said Maryville second-grade teacher Michaela Genovese-Moss in a video posted to YouTube by the district.
What Genovese-Moss and her fellow second-grade teacher Carolyn Pirtle came up with was putting student photos in their assigned seats.
The teachers said the students can see their own pictures as well as the photos of their classmates while learning from home, and they hope it will make the students feel a little more connected.
What both teachers wanted students to know is that there will be a time there they are back in the class room, and everyone is looking forward to that time.
"This is just temporary, it's not going to be forever," Pirtle said. "And, it's amazing what you can do when you are challenged to do so."
"The smiles, the hugs, the giggles and the stories," Genovese-Moss said of what she's looking forward to most. "The little stories they come in with just light up your day."
