Teacher lets creative juices flow
♦ Zach Mendence has brought the Pepperell Elementary community together through his internet videos.
On Friday, Zach Mendence was the cultured French artist, Monsieur Jean Pierre Pepe Lepew.
On Thursday, he was Count Zacula.
Last week, the not-so-graceful Carl Clumsy.
He’s got about 50 more personas, according to the fourth-grade Pepperell Elementary teacher, only some of which he’s let loose upon the world as the host of the Early Early Pepperell Show, an online show that features daily announcements and fun activities for the school’s students Monday through Friday.
“Especially in a time like this we want to go above and beyond to help families feel supported. I want to make it entertaining but also get the news out there to those families in a different way,” Mendence said.
What started as a simple set up of him sitting in front of a computer giving instructions to the students in his classroom has evolved into a production that includes segments from other teachers, faculty and students covering everything from the Pledge of Allegiance, school announcements, science experiments and a weather report.
It’s an idea born out of the closure of schools because of the COVID-19 outbreak in mid-march, when teachers transitioned to posting lessons online and checking in with their students virtually.
“To me, what I thought about was if we’re not in the classroom, let’s put our faces out there for the students so they have a little bit of normalcy by seeing us on a regular basis,” Mendence said. “It’s also us showing them they can do so many different school-related things while they are at home. It gives them some guidance. And for a lot of kids if they don’t have that then they can fall behind.”
Pepperell Elementary Principal Teri Pendley said at the beginning of the closures teachers were able to use the Google program Screen-castify to record videos and upload them to the school’s digital learning channel on Youtube.
“I remember way back when, he came to me and said, ‘Show me how to use that,’” Pendley said. “He started out first just doing them for his class. And then he pitched the idea to me. ‘You know, I could do this for the whole school.’ I thought that was fabulous.”
The word spread and other teachers began asking about doing something to help with the show.
“I’m so proud to be a part of Floyd County Schools. This could have easily been, ‘here’s some assignments and we’re done.’ We’re not built like that,” Mendence said. “We want to engage our students. This virtual learning stuff is different than what any of us is used to. If there’s no engagement, how fun is that?”
Each show’s “host” ties together the different segments, which are recorded separately by the other participants and sent to Mendence by email, including “Science Time with The Thompsons” where science teacher Stacy Thompson shows how to make things like slime and moon sand. One big thing doing the show has done is allowed Mendence to spend more time with his kids. More often than not he is joined by his 3-year-old daughter, Giuliana. He also has an 18-month-old son that he takes care of during the day while his wife, Andrea, works.
“It’s been a great experience for me,” Mendence said. “How often would I be able to be with my kids from morning all the way to bedtime while school was going on?”
A lot of planning, preparation and work goes into filming and editing Mendence’s parts, which he does all on his own. But even when he has to do 20 takes to make sure he lines up a move to a sound clip on his phone, he still has the drive to do things 100%.
“We want to make it special for our kids and try to put a smile on their face,” Mendence said. “There are a lot of unknowns right now in the world, including when school is going to start again. So if our school can bring 5-10 minutes of joy to them and make their day, the stress, the work has been worth it. That’s always been my mindset and approach.”