Connolly School teachers and students say ‘I miss you’ through slide shows

Posted Thursday, April 16, 2020 12:00 am

Julia Leone holds up a sign saying “Miss You All,” next to her doggy. The photo was used in a slide show from Connolly School kids to their teachers.

Courtesy Lia DiPaola Leone

Melanie Suhr, a speech pathologist and speech teacher at Connolly School, holds up a sign saying, “I miss you.” The photo was used in a slide-show from Connolly teachers to students.

Courtesy Melanie Suhr

Wyatt, the son of Nita Pughkem-George, who helped make the slide show from the children, holds up a sign telling his teachers that he misses them.

Courtesy Nita Pugkhem-George

By Jennifer Corr

After weeks of distance learning passed by, Connolly School speech pathologist and speech teacher Melanie Suhr wanted to let the students know that the teachers were thinking about them.

When she saw a slide show of teachers holding up signs to their students on Facebook, Suhr wanted to try implementing the same thing at her school. So, she asked her daughter Natalie, who is in fourth grade, if she would be willing to make a slide show of teachers holding up signs with messages to the students. She said yes. The video was posted on April 4.

“It was a lot of fun and it was very emotional because we see our students every day, all day,” said Suhr. “It’s like our second family.”

And surely, the students missed their teachers too. Lia DiPaola Leone, a Connolly School mom, said that her daughter, Julia, misses her fifth-grade teacher Mark Glaviano. She said he has been keeping in touch through assignments on Google Classroom and that she receives phone calls from him each week. Julia added that it feels good to know that he’s worried about her and that he cares about her.

Stacey Karathanasis, a mother of a Connolly School kid, said that there were tears when her and her family saw the slide show. “It was very touching,” Karathanasis said. “We were all in tears. Then one day we were sitting down and I was like ‘we should do something similar to show them that we’re thinking of them’ and once I put that idea out there everybody wanted to do it.”

So Karathanasis took to Facebook, privately messaging other parents in the school and asking for pictures to include in a slide show to the teachers. The slide show would be done by Nita Pugkhem-George and her husband. The video was posted on April 6.

"[The teachers] were very happy to see the kids and their faces,” Karathanasis said. “They all miss their faces. That’s what they said and they’re wishing all the best for everyone.”

Suhr said that when she saw the video, it made her day. “I was so happy,” Suhr said. “It made my day because we all have our ups and downs, especially the last week has been difficult. So it was great to see that our students are doing okay.”

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