When schools closed because of the pandemic, Vickie McHale knew that her students at Mercy School for Special Learning would miss their daily classroom routine.
Parents told her their children did not understand why they could not go to school as always and see Miss Vickie. So McHale came up with an innovative yet safe way to continue in-person lessons for her students.
She calls it “Class Through the Glass.”
Every week, she goes to the home of each of her students, sets up on their patio, and teaches through the glass of their patio doors. She posts pictures and visual aids on the glass, she uses special glass-writing markers, and she talks with the student using cell phones, placed on speaker, on each side of the glass.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be doing something like this,” she says. It’s a way to keep students engaged, to give parents a bit of a break, and to keep up some semblance of the school routine.
“One thing I have learned in my 31 years as a teacher is that everyone has a gift,” she says. “My job as a teacher is to help develop my students’ God-given gifts.
“Going to homes and teaching through the glass is just my way of sharing one of my gifts with them,” McHale says. “In this scary and uncertain time, I hope I can be the smile that brightens their day.”