Teachers create quarantine song to bring smiles to fellow educators
Social distancing has transformed the way people talk to one another.
“It’s a very new experience for everybody,” Ashley Carlson said.
Carlson is the music teacher at Stone Oak Elementary and said when faculty meetings went virtual back in March, it was an adjustment for the close-knit staff at her school.
“Our faculty is a lot like a family; we enjoy being together. We enjoy doing all kinds of activities in and outside of school, so it’s been very different for us to be at our houses and separated,” Carlson explained.
She teamed up with fellow educator Rhonda Cruz to uplift the staff by writing a fun song about teaching while in quarantine.
Cruz, the administrative assistant to the principal at Stone Oak, said she got the idea to give it a Brady Bunch tune from social media.
“I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw a post that said, ‘This is what faculty meetings now look like on Zoom,’ and it was the picture to the opening credits on the Brady Bunch,” she said.
The lyrics talk about kids being stuck at home, teachers learning how to use new technology, and the new way faculties have staff meetings:
“Here's the story of a quarantined faculty
Who were asked to distance teach some boys and girls
All the students stuck at home with their mothers
Yearning for more than watching squirrels”
“It's the story of homebound teachers
Who were busy checking Seesaw on their own
There were lessons shared over email
Yet they were all alone”
“Til the one day when the internet helped these fellows
and they knew it was much more than a hunch
That this group must somehow "Zoom" together
That's the way we all became the Stone Oak Bunch
The Stone Oak Bunch, the Stone Oak Bunch
That's the way we became the Stone Oak Bunch!”
“We’re just trying to have some fun a difficult time right now,” Cruz said.
Even though teachers are physically separated right now, they want others to know they’re not alone.
“We can come together and use the technology to our advantage to still feel like a faculty,” Carlson explained.
And, as the school year comes to a close, it’s important to stay connected and look ahead.
“I love the ending where it says, ‘This is where we became the Stone Oak Bunch,’ that just sums it up right there,” Cruz said.
Because #NEISDcares!
