Photo courtesy of Shawna Lewis, taken during an ACGC teacher parade this spring.

Teacher Appreciation Week is celebrated this year for the innovations educators have made in engaging their students online while school buildings are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One example is Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center preschool through eighth grade art instructor Shawna Lewis. On the second day of the school closure on March 17th, Lewis jumped onto her public Facebook page and live streamed art instruction for her students to take part in. Since then she has posted videos every week day, for anyone from preschool to older adults to unleash their artistic side. Lewis shares how it initially felt teaching virtually, “It was definitely weird at first. I was talking to myself at home and didn’t have the little interruptions of students or students raising their hands giving me direct feedback about what they didn’t understand or questions that they had. So eventually I just had to pretend that they were sitting there and do it just like I was standing up in front of the classroom because that’s how it was going to be the most natural, but yeah it did take a while to get used to because it was a very different experience for everyone to have to adapt to.”

While at times it’s been a challenge to come up with activities for Lewis to demonstrate and her students to complete with materials around the house, she’s glad that students have gotten to develop their fine motor skills and post photos of their finished work on her Facebook page.