{"id":481,"date":"2020-06-12T15:04:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T19:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/easternmennonite.org\/today\/?post_type=article&#038;p=481"},"modified":"2020-06-12T15:14:59","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T19:14:59","slug":"glimpses-of-ems-covid-19-experience","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/article\/glimpses-of-ems-covid-19-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Glimpses of EMS COVID-19 experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Creative Classrooms<\/strong><br \/>\nTeachers navigated PowerSchool Learning Management System, various video-making tools, Google Meet, Zoom, and other technologies to deliver creative content and engage with students 1:1 and in groups.<br \/>\nSee videos from many of these activities on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCrZ6-LmDtwj2-rbZ6QTTS8Q\">EMS YouTube<\/a> channel.<\/p>\n<p>CLASS WORK INCLUDED:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A smoothie making lab in each person\u2019s kitchen with Ms. Haarer<\/li>\n<li>Watercolor tutorials using supplies picked up from school with Ms. Gascho<\/li>\n<li>How to bake a cake, in Spanish, with Ms. Yutzy and Ms. Eshleman-Robles<\/li>\n<li>Real-time AP Lit discussions with Ms. Cranston<\/li>\n<li>Virtual field trips<\/li>\n<li>Video messages from the principals<\/li>\n<li>Elementary \u201cshow and tell\u201d Zoom meetings<\/li>\n<li>Google Meet math work groups<\/li>\n<li>Presentations of work for peers<\/li>\n<li>Sixth grade Friday challenges<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>PE at Home<\/strong><br \/>\nEMS students stayed active through home-based \u201cOlympics\u201d events and challenges. Weekly videos featured interviews and demonstrations by alumni athletes, area coaches, and fitness experts. Students shared photos and videos with teachers and classmates.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Lost Spring Sports Season<\/strong><br \/>\nGolf, boys tennis, track and field, baseball, girls soccer&#8230;<br \/>\nMissing an entire season and thinking about what might have been was hard. Andrew Gascho, athletic director and girls varsity soccer coach, shared an Open Letter with Athletes, and the Daily News-Record ran a lengthy story about the potential of our girls varsity soccer season. See both at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/about\/news\/\">easternmennonite.org\/news<\/a><br \/>\nMeade Slonaker was looking to repeat as individual golf champion in the VIC as well as VISAA. As a team, the boys were well positioned to make a run at both conference and state championships.<br \/>\nThe lasting relationships and lessons learned from past seasons became the focus for coaches interacting with disappointed student athletes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/teachers_photos.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-491 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/teachers_photos-1024x754.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"754\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/teachers_photos-1024x754.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/teachers_photos-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/teachers_photos-768x566.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/teachers_photos.jpg 1462w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>#FlamesStrong Together AND Apart<\/strong><br \/>\nTeachers and staff shared images with each other from their home offices on the first day of online teaching.<br \/>\nPhotos: (clockwise, from top left): Anna Haarer, family consumer science teacher, with Zoey;\u00a0Maria Lorcas, strings teacher; Jennifer Young, PE, driver\u2019s ed, and first aid teacher; Mr. Elliot, 5th grade assistant teacher; Susan Melendez, 6th grade teacher; Lizzy Miller, math teacher, with co-worker, Owen<\/p>\n<p><strong>Library Book Exchange<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More than 60 students requested books \u2013 some as many as 20 titles \u2013 for the first library exchange day organized by librarian, Julianne Ross, April 29. A second exchange followed in May. Especially fun, said Ross, was filling requests for \u201csurprise\u201d books based on student interests. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/2020\/05\/book-exchange-day\/\">Full story here<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Student Council Stays Active<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SCO met weekly to keep the #FlamesStrong spirit high and share student perspectives with faculty sponsors and principals. See results of the Virtual Spirit Week on the playlist by that name on the EMS YouTube channel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Faith Formation Continues<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Faculty met to pray daily for students; counselors met 1:1 and with groups; students had drop in support groups; \u201cmini chapels,\u201d and online K-5 Gathering were posted; the girls varsity soccer team held Bible study; Bible classes continued. See examples at EMS YouTube.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some Good News from EMES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fifth grade students created their own version of the popular SGN (Some Good News) series with John Krasinski. SGN saw their Instagram post and wrote: \u201cThis is a teacher curriculum we can get behind!\u201d Sample EMES learning videos, including the SGN segment, on YouTube. Search \u201cEastern Mennonite School.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/2020\/04\/elementary-online-community\/\">Full story here<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Virtual Choir Blesses 1,000s<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the early days of closure, Jared Stutzman produced a video with our choirs, inviting faculty, staff, and alumni to sing along. The message of John Bell\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Be Afraid\u201d resonated with more than 33,000 listeners online. Find the link on the EMS Touring Choir Facebook page and YouTube channel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/2020\/04\/ems-virtual-choir-reaches-more-than-30000\/\">Full story here<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Service in Seclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Students in all grade levels served others even from home. Older elementary students read books on video to younger students. Others created handmade cards and wrote notes to first responders, health care workers, and residents of retirement communities. Sixth graders helped out by cooking, organizing cupboards, and taking care of younger siblings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Creative Classrooms Teachers navigated PowerSchool Learning Management System, various video-making tools, Google Meet, Zoom, and other technologies to deliver creative content and engage with students 1:1 and in groups. See videos from many of these activities on the EMS YouTube channel. CLASS WORK INCLUDED: A smoothie making lab in each person\u2019s kitchen with Ms. Haarer&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":492,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"issuem_issue":[26],"issuem_issue_categories":[],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"class_list":["post-481","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-spring-2020"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}