Our New Normal, Volume I

Since there’s very little in our daily routine reminiscent of the past, my plan is to continue this series from a variety of campus venues so that readers can get a flavor of the 2020 Collegiate experience. With a bit of luck, they’ll find my ramblings somewhat interesting rather than tantamount to a non-prescription sleep aid.

 

So…awaaaay we go.

 

From my designated “home base” in Flippen Hall, I first stopped by the faculty workroom where I found Melanie Gorsline, a Collegiate lifer, ’74 graduate, and Middle School art teacher since 1978, working on her laptop.

You’ve been around a while and seen a lot, I said. What are your impressions of the first month of school?

 

“I love being back on campus,” she replied. “It’s more fun teaching in my classroom than at my family room table. The children are wonderful. They love being here.

 

“But every day there’s a hiccup, so to speak. When I think I have something from last year to show them, I go to my file cabinet and it’s empty and I realize, ‘Oh, that’s right. It’s at home in a bag in the basement where they’ve been since we left in March. Every day is a whole new adventure. You just have to be really flexible and keep on moving.”

It’s easy to become set in your ways when you’ve played this gig for a while, I said. What’s enabled you to change with the times?

 

“This is an experiment,” she answered. “A lot of things are in progress. There’s so much technology. That’s usually my weakest part. I’m coming from a learning curve that didn’t come with a computer. Every day, there’re new things to learn. Thank goodness for all the wonderful teachers that pitch in and help.”

 

Yeah, I said. We’ve always had a collegial spirit. Seems like even more so now.

 

“Oh, absolutely,” Melanie responded. “Everybody is so kind. ‘I can help you with that. Don’t worry. That’s OK, I’ll hold your hand through that.’ That’s been so comforting. We’re all in it together.  One team. Whatever it takes, we’re going to help each other. I love driving up every morning and coming in. It’s different, but the world’s different, but we’re still at our beloved Collegiate School. That’s the best part.”

 

After bidding Melanie adieu, I walked out the front door into the sunny, 65-degree day and found Christine Waldron concluding a vocabulary-on-the-lawn session with her 6^th grade girls English class.

 

“We’re writing our own original short story using vocabulary from Lesson I of Wordly Wise,” Christine explained. “The reason why we came outside is because it’s really nice weather.”

 

Seems like a relaxed environment like this can inspire creativity, I observed. Sometimes, when you sit eye-of-the-tiger in a classroom with cinderblock walls, the words might not flow quite so easily.

 

“That’s correct,” she said, “but this isn’t a formal paper. It’s letting our creativity take us wherever it goes.”

 

Each of her students’ offerings, she said, is based on the Statue of Liberty, which is the theme of the story in the first Wordly Wise lesson.

 

“It’s just an exercise to see where they are as writers,” Christine explained of the assignment. “Some are writing it as science fiction. One story is about bugs. Some are fairy tales.”

Across the lawn, Wendi Moss was trying to convince her 8th grade boys class that there is a certain beauty in grammar, specifically the difference between independent and dependent clauses.

 

How’s that going, especially on a nice fall morning in the midst of a pandemic? I inquired.

 

“They were distracted by blades of grass and what noises they could make,” Wendi said with a laugh, after which I commented that not much has changed since I was an eighth grader eons ago.

 

“Overall, they did a nice job,” she said. “I thought coming outside would make grammar more enticing.

It’s actually incredible being outside. The masks come off. It almost feels like there’re hints of normalcy. I feel like the masks shield characters and personalities.”

 

Then, she shared a funny aside.

 

“Yesterday,” she said, “I brought a group of girls outside. I took off my mask and, I hear this, ‘Oh, my gosh. I had no idea you looked like that.’ I wasn’t sure how to take it.”

 

Despite the distractions, I said, do you feel like this outdoor education is working?

 

“It’s nice,” she said. “You take off the mask, and you can have a group discussion in a somewhat normal manner although you’re sitting on dots and keeping your distance.”

 

 

“Absolutely,” she replied. “And whoever would have thought that a grammar lesson would be the first stop on the road to normalcy.”

~ Weldon Bradshaw