Broadway Books First Class
Year Six
2020- 2021
Pandemic Edition
In Year Six we sailed into uncharted territory. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to move our classroom to a virtual setting for a while. It took some time to find our groove using the Zoom platform. It often felt like herding cats trying to get distracted children with short attention spans to function as a community of learners. However, by January I had been back in the classroom for several months with a small cohort of students. The rest of the class continued to learn online with my team teacher. With an inspirational nudge from three-time Tony Award nominee Mary Testa, I thought it was time to test the Broadway Books First Class waters and take the plunge.
Mary set the stage for us to continue virtually until it was safe for us to all gather together in person once more. As the months went on, more students returned along with my team teacher. By May, we were even able to hold some guest artist visits in the classroom!
Against the odds Year Six not only happened, it soared! My students illustrated a story entitled Nat's Cats written by two-time Tony Award nominee, Alison Fraser. We also filmed a music video in four languages (English, Spanish, ASL, and LSM) for the song Remember Me with Dickie Hearts.
We celebrated ASL and theatre, while learning so much from our incredible guest artists. It was a school year like no other, but we found pockets of joy. I thank the magic of theater for helping us pull though with shining spirits.