CONNECTING DURING COVID

ELEMENTARY

As I reflect on recent months at Phoenix Christian, I am so proud of our elementary students, families and faculty. We transitioned into a distant learning mode very quickly once Governor Ducey put our city into lockdown.

We quickly supplied devices to the families who needed them and put learning packets together for two-week periods immediately. It was a joy to see the students and families when they came to pick-up and drop off packets. Even though we were not together, thanks to Zoom, we had morning pledges and prayer daily, weekly Chapels, Kindergarten Graduation and Honors Ceremony together. Nothing was going to hold us back from the learning process and family connections…way to go Cougars! In a renewed sense of what makes Phoenix Christian special, we adjusted and were flexible as we navigated the new and unexpected “waters”. A huge shout-out to all our families, students, and faculty on a job well done!

As we enter a new school year, we are embracing a scripture from God’s Word, “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.” (Psalm 118:6). Our theme this year is “FAITH over Fear”. When God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).

- Mrs. Ruth M. Zappe, Elementary Principal

1st grader, Brecken, getting a little help from his dog!

Packet pick-up – students made sweet signs for their teachers!

MIDDLE SCHOOL

The Middle School team met this challenge with creativity; with many schools in our area closing for the year early, we were happy to continue teaching last Spring.

Face shield project - our students built over 16,000 shields to donate to our front-line healthcare workers.

The concept of distance learning was learned quickly and as a team we sought the best way to navigate a whole new learning atmosphere. We became more familiar with the terms ‘synchronous’ and ‘asynchronous’ which describe beneficial time allocation in a distance learning classroom. Synchronous time is spent together in short instruction while asynchronous time describes students working independently while still together in the video chat classroom. There are many benefits to purposefully working in this style such as student engagement increasing and the feeling of a simulated classroom. We have Mr. Feely, MS Math Teacher, to thank for his research on this topic and spearheading optimized teaching in the distance learning platform. Just because we were away from campus did not mean we could not learn!

Teachers also became intentional about making distance learning socially engaging as well. In a time where we all felt some degree of the unknown, it was comforting to have quality time with our PC family. We did our best to make learning fun and tap into the everyday lives of students. At the end of an educationally fruitful week, some classes might watch a movie together through video chat. Students loved this opportunity to spend time with their friends, even if it was only digitally. The Middle School Boys’ Bible study continued meeting on Wednesday afternoons through Zoom and made it a point to check in on how each other was doing. A prayer requests channel on GroupMe was very active with students encouraging each other every day. Our MESA students spent much of their down time building face shields for hospitals including the Mayo Clinic. We celebrated with our families at 8th Grade Promotion Drive-In which was a beautiful celebration in the parking lot at North Phoenix Baptist Church. All of this gives us hope for the new school year and we cannot wait to be together soon!

Drive-in 8th Grade Promotion was a special time of celebration.

HIGH SCHOOL

Humanity and society require consistency. This simple statement is especially true for the children and teenagers of our society, since they are unable to create consistency for themselves and are instead reliant on adults to create the consistency for them. Obviously, the nationwide transition to distance learning in March of 2020 was a great disruption to the consistency upon which many of our youth subconsciously depended. Therefore, I sought to make the remainder of last semester to be as consistent with in-person teaching as possible. All my classes met every other day for their allotted time slot, just like if we were still on our rotating schedule on campus. Students were required to attend the class on-time, and they only received full participation marks if they were oncamera, engaged, and active in the lesson. Just because the students were in pajamas did not mean they were getting less of an education!

I teach two Advanced Placement classes, where students were preparing to still take the AP exam at the end of the school year in order to receive college credit. To get ready for these high-stakes exams, I was available every evening for students to ask questions, review concepts, and work through practice exams together. Some evenings, I was assisting students from the early afternoon until after dark. We even had a live Zoom meeting on a Saturday which all the students taking the AP Government Exam attended in order to review the last few concepts and pray before Monday’s exam. The hours were long, but my students were not going to be cheated out of their education simply because they were attending school in 2020. After receiving their AP Exam results this week, I am beyond impressed at the level at which many students rose to the occasion and even exceeded despite the drastic change in consistency.

- Nathan de Laet, Social Studies & Theater Teacher,

Humanities Chair, Class of 2010

CELEBRATING OUR SENIORS!

As a school, we also wanted to make sure our seniors felt loved and celebrated. Each senior received a special home visit from members of the administration. We brought a yard sign along with a basket filled with special senior celebration items including a donated gift card from Canes. We also had the privilege of honoring our excelling students in a Zoom Honors Ceremony and celebrated our seniors in Senior Chapel and College Signing Day virtually through Zoom. Finally, we had one last celebration— Graduation! What a sweet time to reunite with our seniors, celebrate their incredible accomplishments, and worship the Lord together, drive-in style of course!

Families gathered to pray over their seniors.

College Signing Day