By Lindsey Costner
Chorus Teacher, Clyde A. Erwin Middle School
One of the highlights of the year at Erwin Middle School is the Spring Talent Show, held around End-of-Grade testing time, to give students and staff an outlet to build up positive energy and encouragement just before testing.
This year presented new challenges with traditional school being closed for students and the inception of a completely virtual environment. So what to do? Well, the show must go on, with a proper redesign for 2020. Besides providing basic needs such as food and assistance, Erwin staff were looking for ways to keep kids and families engaged, spreading some cheer along the way, especially as the end of the year approached. I couldn’t imagine a better way to accomplish this than by organizing a Talent Show, but this year, making it completely virtual, expanding its reach, involving teachers, students, and their families in a time where we need art, inspiration, humor, entertainment, and human connection more than ever.
So, how does one take part in a Virtual Talent Show? Any student, staff member or family member could submit a three-minute video act through Flipgrid, an exciting learning tool Buncombe County teachers have been using to facilitate discussions in a social media-type platform. It requires a lot of courage for any performer to record that video then submit it, and Erwin Middle’s Teacher of the Year, Tori King, felt that this was her year.
“Taking part in a talent show was not on my to-do list as an introvert,” she said. “I have been content to watch and celebrate my students and colleagues from a distant row in the auditorium, clapping after each brave and moving performance. It has always been an event I anticipate with great joy. This year, with many schools being forced to close their doors, I didn’t think I would feel any differently. However, when our school chorus teacher said the talent show was still on, I felt a strange compulsion in my core.”
Thirty-two acts total— 12 staff entries and 20 student entries including dance, poetry, clarinet, card tricks, video gaming, singing, comedy, gymnastics (by none other than Cindy DeWitt, one of our P.E. teachers), stringed instruments such as violin, ukulele, guitar, and many others— snagged over 10,000 views by the second day, engaging students in 233 collective hours of entertainment and celebration of self-expression and, most importantly, each other. Long-time hosts of this long-standing annual tradition, Project Lead the Way teacher James Holt and eighth-grade science teacher, Tanya Payne, did not waiver for a moment in their desire or commitment to put their hilarious spin on the year’s show, donning proper protective equipment and practicing social distancing in their act. Community response from students and staff was generous, through loving and liking videos, recording responses, and sending personal notes of encouragement and support.
This is a powerful reminder of the capacity for connection virtual school brings, despite the many challenges families, school officials, administration, and students had to overcome in such a short time to create any kind of finish to our 2019-20 school year. While much of our year felt incomplete, we were reminded of the value of the experiences interwoven within school life. Experiential education through the performing arts, art, fashion, and entertainment, culinary arts and family sciences, Project Lead the Way, agriculture, languages, clubs, and athletics are at the heart of the entire school experience. In the most beautiful way, they bring a community together in any kind of circumstance, even a pandemic.
Ms. King’s experience of facing her fears is but one takeaway she has regarding this challenging, yet memorable year.
“Virtual Learning is so much more than academics,” she said. “It is as fruitful as you make it to be, and I am proud to work in a school that values teaching the whole child. Virtual learning is not figuring out what’s essential and what’s not. Virtual learning looks like showing kids they matter. Virtual learning looks like showing kids how to take risks. And yes, sometimes Virtual Learning even looks like a talent show.”
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