For New Trier High School special education students, the sudden change in their daily routines due to school closures amid the coronavirus pandemic has proved daunting.
“We have some students who are really struggling without their normal routines, their people, and without a concrete answer as to when they can go back to school,” New Trier special education teacher Colleen Koulentes said.
So, when a fellow teacher mentioned they hoped to walk their three golden retrievers outside the home of a special education student who needed some cheering up, “the idea snowballed,” Koulentes said.
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On April 3, a contingent of New Trier special education teachers held an impromptu motor caravan down local streets, remaining mindful of social distancing rules as they waved signs and played a carefully curated Spotify list with their students’ favorite music from their cars.
“Being separated from our students has hit us hard,” New Trier speech-language pathologist Rachel Rescorl said. “We love our jobs and working with our students, and knowing how much this quarantine has impacted them and their families seems so unfair.”
While teachers have been meeting with their students online in video conferences and sending them letters, Rescorl said the outdoor caravan was, “one more way to show them that they matter.”
“We are doing what every teacher at New Trier has done since March 12. We just have to reach our kids a different way,” Rescorl said. “We think car horns, signs, bubbles and cartwheels might’ve done the trick.”
Twitter @kcullotta