Among the countless things affected by COVID-19, a child's education is the most important to 6th Ward Lima Councilman Derry Glenn. He’s helping out by donating tablets and other school supplies to young learners.
When schools were mandated to shut their doors during the pandemic, teachers across the country turned to online education for their students. The problem that many teachers are running into is that some of their students don’t have the resources to do their schoolwork from home.
Vickie Shurelds, 5th and 6th grade ELA & reading teacher at Heir Force Community School, says she's facing these troubles in her online classrooms.
“You can see as we’re going to our online classrooms, you know, ‘where’s so-and-so? I haven’t heard from them,’ and you’re calling parents and you’re trying to connect," says Shurelds. "And they’re saying, ‘well they’re trying to do the work, but they’re trying to do it on their phone,’ and I teach language arts. So, to ask someone to type a five-paragraph essay on their phone--it’s a little challenging.”
Glenn is organizing a donation of 20 tablets to the students at Shurelds' school. This comes just after he organized a donation of 85 tablets and other school supplies to students across the Lima City School District. All of the tablets have been generously donated by families in the Lima community.
Glenn says, “A lot of kids do not have tablets or a computer, or internet in their homes and education is number one, and we have to continue, all of us working together, to make this happen.”
And Glenn is going beyond just making technology available for students. He started an initiative to get retired teachers and college students to act as tutors for the kids who need extra help at home.
Dr. Willie Heggins, the executive director at Heirforce says, “We’re all dealing with a tremendous amount of uncertainty, but this is what makes communities great. This is what’s making the city of Lima great, people willingly giving up their time, giving up their resources.”
If you have any tablets or computers you want to donate to a student in Lima, or if you would like to volunteer as a tutor, contact Councilman Derry Glenn at 419-905-9572.
