It’s perhaps not surprising that in recounting the many changes and challenges teachers have faced this year, Jandi Hanna, a speech and language pathologist who lives in Falls Village, Conn., starts with the negative. On top of the threat of spreading COVID-19 this year, there has been the existential threat. Teaching children, which relies on in-person conversation and, often, tactile learning, has been turned on its head.
Of course, what hasn’t been called “an existential threat” these days? Hanna’s response to the transitions of 2020 has been to not give up.
“When people say ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ it’s often because they feel that transitioning from one set of expectations is too much. It’s not fun anymore.
“They’re not incapable of doing it, they’re just not enjoying it anymore.”
Hanna has taught speech therapy throughout Connecticut’s Region One School District, but currently works with students in kindergarten through eighth grade in both Cornwall Consolidated School in Cornwall, Conn., and Lee H. Kellogg School in Falls Village.
“I’m still enjoying it,” she said. “It’s hard, it’s stressful, but I still like it.”
Hanna recalls with a laugh those early days, when she still believed quarantining in the Region One schools would only last two weeks.
“It was so abnormal. It was such a shock to the system.”
Stuck at home, she created what she describes as her version of the electronic board monitoring the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the New York Stock Exchange.
“I used the Venetian blinds in my bedroom as the board, and had stickers all over the blinds: which child goes into which list … It was really hard. But one day I woke up and I didn’t need the blinds anymore. The week was going smoothly.”
Hanna’s students have needs that range from improving speech articulation to language skills. Some older students might feel stuck in a literal mindset, struggling with understanding figurative expressions or drawing conclusions based on verbal inferences, for example. Multiple choice and matching tests can also prove to be difficult for these students, something Hanna addresses in her virtual lessons with a system she created on Google Docs.
“A lot of children who have delayed or special needs are not very good at advocating for themselves,” Hanna said. With that in mind, it might be easy to imagine that delayed students would struggle this year, feeling particularly isolated while learning from home. Hanna found the opposite was true. The spring turned out to be a positive turning point.
“Some students really do have school anxiety. Some of the trauma is actually being in school.”
Hanna heard from teachers that some of her students felt more comfortable in the virtual classroom, able to ask questions privately to the teacher, free from facing the anxiety of drawing immediate attention to themselves.
Because of virtual learning, Hanna said, “Several students I worked with were turned into better self advocates. And they still came back to school this fall. There were two in particular who wonderfully surprised me by wanting to come back. They’ve grown up, they’ve become better self advocates, they missed their friends and they want to be there. Now we have these touchstones. ‘Remember this-or-that was difficult before, but you found a strategy during virtual learning; so what did you do?’”
Back at school once again, Hanna is facing new challenges as she holds her sessions in a booth in the school gymnasium, with two partitions divided by plexiglass.
“It’s everything in graduate school they taught us not to do. The gym has all kinds of ambient noise. You can hear the furnace there.…”
For Hanna of course, the show goes on, as she and her students wear face shields (put on before removing their masks) so they can see each other’s mouths.
She described going from virtual learning in the spring to a new kind of in-person distance teaching in the fall as the musical progression from the blues to jazz.
“Blues are blue, we missed each other, but with jazz we feel better now. We’re happy to see the students. Though the challenges are enormous, we really have the support of the administration, not only from the principal of each school, but from the superintendent’s office. There aren’t any unrealistic expectations.”
On a cloudy Wednesday at the start of October, my girlfriend, Taylor, and I decided to enjoy the autumn afternoon by getting off our laptops and into the woods for some much needed movement. Having just moved to Norfolk as a new reporter for the Lakeville Journal, I was on the hunt for panoramic views of the landscape I now call home, accessible with the hour and a half of daylight left to us. Haystack Tower it was.
I’m not entirely unfamiliar with the landscapes of the Northwest Corner: I visited family and friends in the region as a child and would drive up on high school joyrides from my home in Westchester County. But calling somewhere home brings new meaning to a place, and I was eager to see a familiar view with a new sense of belonging.
To extend the walk a bit, we chose the yellow trail loop, starting from the bottom of the road leading up the hill off North Street. Our journey began on a neatly mowed path through a gently sloping meadow, with stands of purple-white New England asters poking out from a mosaic of green and red leaves and grasses on either side of the trail.
Our trail took us into a forest sporting half-autumn colors: some maple stands blazed gold and orange while others remained dark green. The occasional fiery swamp maple glowed bright red below the overstory, catching the glints of sunlight that managed to penetrate the cloud layer and canopy.
As we trudged up the forested hillside, my field of vision was so washed in texture — a chaos of rocks, roots, bark, and leaves of every shade — that my eyes almost started to ache.
The trail plateaued after a short climb into a new type of forest: three-story oaks underscored with hickory saplings. With a new composition, the forest assumed a browner and yellower hue than that of the maple-dominated lower hillside.
We eventually reached the imposing stone tower at Haystack Mountain’s summit, and we quickly climbed the winding stairs to find what we came for: 360-degree views of forested hills folding over one another as they spread into the distance, interspersed by patches of valley farmland. A copse of orange maples framed Route 44 as it passed through Norfolk below. This was the beautiful patchwork landscape I am lucky to now call home.
A relaxed jaunt down a wide carriage road took us around the mountain’s northeastern flank as eastern hemlocks leaned overhead and clung to the steep slope below. Reaching the car with daylight to spare, we decided to prolong the outing with an evening pint.
At Norbrook Farm Brewery, we were asked if we wanted to join a game of jukebox bingo. It looked like fun, but we couldn’t get enough of the October evening air, so we headed outside instead to sit fireside on the patio. Settling into an Adirondack chair, I sipped the brewery’s brown ale (the “Beckley Furnace Ale”). It was malty and crisp, and certainly one of the better in the style I’ve had recently. Taylor is partial to seasonal beers and opted for their pumpkin ale, joyously titled the “Gourdo.” I’m usually not a fan of pumpkin-flavored anything, but I agreed that this was a nicely balanced beer and enjoyed the few sips I took.
As the light faded on the hills, we noted that the foliage across the fields looked to be nearly peaking in the soft glow of the evening. A chill settled in and I huddled closer to the fire, eager to lean into the swiftly changing season in my new home.
Chilly rain sprinkles did not keep area art lovers away from the opening of the Kent Art Association’s Fall Juried Art Show on Sunday, Oct. 13. Judges for the event were association members Liz Maynard and Conrad Levenson. The show will continue until Saturday, Nov. 2, during the association's open hours.
Kent artist and long-term resident Carolyn Millstein (above) paused for a photo next to her piece, “Near Oakdale."
“SHELTER,” an art exhibit supporting The Gathering Place opened on Suday, Oct. 12, at the Royal Arcanum Building in Norfolk, Conn. Featuring works by fourteen area artists, proceeds from sales will benefit The Gathering Place based in Torrington, Conn., which provides essential services to the homeless across 26 towns in Litchfield County. Open weekdays, this vital resource offers everything from hot showers and laundry facilities to housing assistance. The exhibit runs through Nov. 24.
