Pandemic brings out creativity at St. Hugh School

By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -

Editor's note: While this story focuses on St. Hugh School, it also reflects the type of creativity and continued learning that took place at every other archdiocesan school as the COVID-19 pandemic ended in-person classes during the last three months of the 2019-2020 school year.

COCONUT GROVE | On May 4, first graders from St. Hugh School "Zoomed" through storybook roles via social media technology.

Each year, the children dress as characters from storybooks for the school’s annual Book Parade. This year, instead of parading through the hallways of their school, they used Zoom, an online meeting platform, in their own homes.

They showed off their costumes, character drawings, thematic wallpaper backgrounds (enabled through Zoom), and homemade story-setting displays.

Principal Mary Fernandez watched the online meeting from her home. She said she was amazed by how “normal” things looked, although the COVID-19 quarantine had been keeping teachers and students apart and at home.

“This is a first for all of us in education. We’ve never experienced anything like this,” said Fernandez, who has been an educator at St. Hugh since 1985.

Before the school closed its doors March 17, 2020 because of the coronavirus, Fernandez surveyed her students' parents online. Her three questions:

• "Do you have a device?"
• "Does your child have a device?"
• "Do you have adequate Wi-Fi?"

From their collective responses, Fernandez concluded that a transition to remote learning would be possible, and teachers began drafting schedules to adapt.

“Back then, we were only thinking 14 days [of closure],” Fernandez said. In fact, schools functioned remotely through the end of the academic year, June 3, 2020.

Zoom also was the platform for classes at St. Hugh. The school bought the safer, subscription-based version, which prohibits access to outside users unrecognized by school faculty who monitor each meeting.

Apart from being physically absent from the school, their daily schedule ran as routinely as possible. Every morning, via video recording, a student volunteer recited the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by Fernandez’s morning prayer and message. Then students were off to their virtual classrooms.

First graders, for example, started the day with reading, then math, then either music, art, or physical education. Then came a 15-minute stretch or snack break, followed by religion, science, lunch, social studies, and writing.

“We go all the way to the very end of the day, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.,” Fernandez said.

Teachers found the Zoom platform provides ways of working similar to a physical classroom. One challenge is to keep a virtual classroom quiet when students get too excited. As meeting hosts on Zoom, teachers have a "mute all" audio option.

For question-and-answer sessions, there's a “raise your hand” button on Zoom. St. Hugh’s teacher aides, who acted as cohosts in meetings, mediated the sessions and selected a student when the “raise your hand” alert popped up.

For the youngest students at the school, who don’t yet have personal electronic devices or access to social media accounts, teachers allowed them a few minutes of conversation via Zoom before class sessions began.

“They miss each other so much,” said Fernandez. “We take for granted that human contact. And since we don’t have it now, everybody is yearning for it. It brings you back to appreciating your blessings — appreciating the fact that you have a community of people that you share your faith with, and that you are learning with.”

Students also got to see each other every Friday, when the school gathered virtually for weekly Mass and adoration with their pastor, Father Luis Largaespada. Although she was not visible in the video stream, Fernandez was physically present at those Masses.

While the lockdown order in the City of Miami provided additional security for the church and the school, the empty buildings made Fernandez emotional.

“Just walking down the hallways, where you would normally see children singing, and laughing, and praying and eating and learning, it’s not happening," she said. "I can’t imagine where we wouldn’t be able to open schools up [next year].”  

While it is yet to be determined if schools will open in the fall, the focus throughout the past two-and-a-half months remained on what could be done this academic year. At St. Hugh and all the other parochial schools, that meant celebrating accomplishments of students and faculty alike.

During Teacher Appreciation Week, May 4-8, some teachers surprised students at their homes with drive-by visits. Fernandez believes that parents who have become at-home monitors and co-teachers gained a new appreciation for teachers.

“This has given parents a different perspective," Fernandez said. "By far, one of the biggest and most recurring comments I get from parents is, 'I cannot believe that you guys do this every single day. I only have one child and I can’t do it anymore.'”

St. Hugh’s eighth graders also received individual deliveries of their cap and gown, along with their yearbooks, goody bags and other surprises. The virtual farewell school Mass included an eighth-grade tribute, introducing which high school each student will be attending in the fall.

On the morning of June 3, 2020, a virtual graduation ceremony took place in St. Hugh Church. That afternoon, students and their families were invited to drive by the school for music, balloons and a festive atmosphere as students picked up their diplomas, trophies and awards.

“All of our graduates, whether it’s eighth grade, or high school, or college, they’re the ones that have felt it the most,” said Fernandez.

But whether graduating or not, as an educator, she said she hopes all of humanity has learned something during the epidemic.

“When this is all said and done, we should be a better society because of it,” she said. “We should appreciate humanity more. We should understand and help our neighbor more.”