Preschool teacher takes her classroom to students' yards
A Texas preschool teacher who missed her class full of 3 and 4-year-olds came up with a way to bring her classroom to her students' driveways.
Myra Garza, a teacher at Holy Spirit Catholic School in San Antonio, packed her car full of preschool activities and drove to the homes of each of her 15 students, all of whom are doing virtual learning after the school closed in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"I just wanted to connect with them somehow," Garza, a 13-year teaching veteran, told "Good Morning America." "I was thinking how can we do it to where we still respect all the rules that we need to be following, and it just came to me, what if I did it outside their house and tried it that way?"
Garza said she spent about 30 minutes at each student's home and received a memorable flurry of questions and stories from each student.
"I’m so glad you’re here. Why did you come? Why don’t you come back? Can you come tomorrow? Can you come inside?" Garza said, recounting the questions she received. "They wanted to show me everything -- their entire yard, their garage, their swimming pool -- and just wanted to tell me all kinds of things that they hadn’t told me in seven weeks."
"I thought back to when I was a little girl and how I would have loved for my teacher to show up to my house and I think they were just equally as shocked," she added. "They were fascinated with my car. They had no idea I could drive. My hair was up and they had never seen my hair like that. A lot of them were fascinated with my clothes because I wasn’t wearing what I would normally wear to school."
Garza has been recording videos for her students and talks with them on FaceTime and Zoom, but seeing them again in person for the first time since March brought her to tears.
"A couple of times I left their houses and I cried because I missed them," she said. "I knew I missed them but there’s a lot of joy and a lot of happiness when you’re around a child like that."
"They have no idea what’s going on in the world," she said. "It was a complete mood booster, just to put everything in perspective, all the things we took for granted."
Garza's home visits were mood boosters for the students and their parents too, according to Amanda Wise, whose 3-year-old daughter Paloma is in Garza's class.
"We miss seeing her and interacting with her," Wise told "GMA" of Garza. "We see her on video and talk on the phone but it’s different than being around her and feeling her energy and all the passion that she puts into her job."
Wise and her daughter made a banner to welcome Garza to their house and gave her a blanket and a bottled water to have while she taught Paloma from afar on the driveway. Wise described the 30 minutes Garza spent at their home as a "sense of normalcy" and a "breath of fresh air."
"We still talk about it and Paloma wants her to come back every day," said Wise. "I had neighbors walking by and they had the biggest smiles on their face. It really brightened everyone’s day."
Garza is one of about 50 teachers at Holy Spirit, a school of 420 students. All have quickly embraced virtual learning and many are, like Garza, going above and beyond with home visits to make sure no student is left behind, according to Holy Spirit principal Margaret Webb.
"It warms my heart," said Webb. "The teachers here are very committed to having no gaps in the kids’ education. We’re going to do everything we can to help them and to help their parents, many of whom are having to work from home too."
Garza said she has shared a consistent message with the parents of students in her class.
"I tell them, ‘You’re doing your best. Your best is good enough,'" she said. "Everybody has a story of how they’re functioning right now ... the last thing I want to do is add to their plate."
