Local elementary students meet with Virginia’s Secretary of Education

A screenshot from the Tuesday, April 28th Google Meet session with students, teachers, and administrators from Warren County Public Schools as they meet with Virginia’s Secretary of Education, Mr. Atif Qarni.

Since March 16th, when the school-closures began due to COVID-19, Mrs. Amy Mawyer and Mrs. Lori Cockrell, 5th-grade teachers at Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School in Front Royal, Virginia, meet twice weekly with their classes through the live video chat platform, Google Meet. Typically, during this time, Mrs. Mawyer and Mrs. Cockrell check-in with their students and provide them time to socialize with their teachers and classmates. To provide some fun interaction during a stressful time, these sessions have included scavenger hunts around their houses, showing off pets, introducing family members, and sometimes welcoming a special guest, or several.

On Tuesday, April 28th, Mrs. Mawyer and Mrs. Cockrell’s classes had some very special guests join them. The students had the amazing opportunity to meet with Mr. Atif Qarni, Secretary of Education for the State of Virginia. They were also joined by Mrs. Nikki Taubenberger, Principal of Hilda J. Barbour, Mrs. Jessica Vacca, Assistant Principal, as well as the Warren County Public Schools Director of Elementary Instruction, Ms. Lisa Rudacille, and Warren County Public Schools Interim Superintendent, Mrs. Melody Sheppard.

This opportunity presented itself when Mrs. Mawyer saw a post on Facebook about Mr. Qarni offering to join students in classrooms throughout Virginia in a virtual learning activity. On a whim, Mrs. Mawyer reached out to Mr. Qarni via email to extend an invitation to join one of the classes’ weekly Google Meet sessions. Mr. Qarni responded back quickly, “sure thing.”

Mrs. Mawyer began preparing her students for the meeting by assigning them a virtual research project about Mr. Qarni. Students learned about Mr. Qarni’s past and current jobs, as well as his viewpoints on education. Every student was asked to write two questions that they would like to have Mr. Qarni answer. Mrs. Mawyer selected ten questions overall from the bank of questions students formulated. Students then signed up to pose the question to Mr. Qarni in the Google Meet session.

Students were excited and engaged while learning a lot of information about him, his position, and education in Virginia, as he answered their thought-provoking questions.

One student asked, “What was your favorite part of being a teacher?”

Mr. Qarni, a former eighth-grade teacher, responded, “My favorite part of being a teacher, besides putting together a field day for eighth-graders, was listening to students come in with their different stories and what they were going through and what they were enjoying about school, [and] about learning.”

Another student asked, “What is your favorite book?”

Mr. Qarni answered, “I have a few favorite books. One book that I really enjoyed the past couple of weeks… is a children’s book that is great for everyone, it’s called What Do You Do With an Idea? It’s by an author named Kobi Yamada, and it really encourages creativity.”

While answering students’ questions, Mr. Qarni wanted to acknowledge the tough decision to close school for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year. He shared that through numerous meetings and after looking at various models, it seemed as though this virus was not going away anytime soon. He assured the students that this decision was not taken lightly, knowing that students would miss their friends and all the great things that usually happen in the last quarter of the school year.

The final question posed was, “If you could give teachers and students any advice for the rest of the year, what would it be?”

Mr. Qarni, commenting that it was a really good question to end on, said, “My advice would be to do two things. One is that this is a new type of crisis that we’re dealing with, especially young people, and we have not seen this for generations… I would definitely make notes and see how everybody is handling the crisis because when you are in a situation where you are making decisions… as you grow up, if you see pandemics like this, you can be better prepared. The second one and you already do this, I can tell, everyone is really kind and caring on the phone call, is to really show empathy as much as possible towards everyone because we’re all in this together.”

After the near hour Google Meet session with 26 students joining the call at various times, Mr. Qarni wrapped up the meeting by thanking students, teachers, and administrators for allowing him to visit. Hopefully, these members of the Class of 2027 will look back and remember this opportunity as a memorable event during this trying time.

The Royal Examiner thanks Amy Mawyer and Lori Cockrell for sharing this story with us.