How These Teachers Make Social Distancing Fun?
By: Jesús Salazar
Tags: Children, Life Lessons, Education, Covid 19, Inspiration

How These Teachers Make Social Distancing Fun?

These desks transformed into jeeps are the answer

© Kim Martin/St. Barnabas Episcopal School

“The mediocre teacher counts. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

— William Arthur Ward

The most admirable profession can be thought of as being, for example:

Lawyer (Because he is in charge of defending the innocent and the guilty as well.)

Doctor (Because in his hands is the life and physical integrity of the patient he has to attend to.)

Scientist (Because he is dedicated to the research and study of a science to achieve positive results that impact humanity.)

And if each of these professions has an important place in our world. But we wouldn’t have lawyers, scientists, or doctors without the work and dedication of a good teacher.

We all had a teacher in our childhood who showed us the path of knowledge and is an integral part of our development as human beings.

I ask you.

Do you remember your first day at school?

Many of us may remember with nostalgia some memories from our childhood. As it was our first day at school, it was great fun having new classmates and a real desk to sit on. And that meeting with our teacher who carefully prepared the decoration of the schoolroom, to give us a warm welcome.

For the children this year, things are a little different.

It will still be exciting to be in a new environment, to wear a special uniform. But it could also be a little scary to be sitting at a desk surrounded by strange plastic screens when you were six years old.

These two Florida teachers have discovered a way to make those plastic dividers, installed on desks to protect children during the age of COVID-19, less stressful and more totally and cheerfully bright.

© Kim Martin/St. Barnabas Episcopal School

First-grade teachers Patricia Dovi and Kim Martin of St. Barnabas Episcopal School in DeLand, Florida, have turned coronavirus dividers into the windshields and windows of, yes, Jeeps.

“Anything we can do to add some goofiness and creativity to excite them will be really important in the longevity of this school year,” Patricia Dovi (1st Grade Teacher) told Insider.

The school supplied the Plexiglass; Dovi and Martin paid for the decorations out of their own pockets. Martin estimates that the desktops took about a week to complete.

Wasn’t all that work worth it?

Family and friends of these two inspiring teachers helped turn the desks into colorful Jeeps with personalized license plates.

“A good teacher is like a candle: he is consumed to light the way for others.” –Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

© Kim Martin/St. Barnabas Episcopal School

Each student arrived and found their own “car” waiting for them.

The work of these teachers is admirable, just to make their students smile and help them cope, they used their creativity and achieved such a beautiful result.

“It’s going to be more fun to say, ‘Hey purple Jeep, you’re drifting out of your lane,” joked Kim Martin (1st-grade teacher)

“I think it will be a smart way to keep the kids engaged.”

We have no doubts about it.