Like a bullet, the COVID-19 pandemic shatters our world and brings us to a startling halt where fear and uncertainty know no boundaries. This health crisis has transformed how our children/youth are educated and formed throughout the world — near and far. The walls of the traditional safe and nurturing classroom, where teaching and learning commence, are replaced with a sprinting race for innovative solutions and new ways to educate those entrusted to our care.

May 4-8, our nation celebrates Teachers Appreciation Week. Catholic schoolteachers throughout the diocese have shown a remarkable aptitude and resiliency for continuing education through distance learning during the most unprecedented crisis of our time, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the beginning of March, Catholic school teachers in the Diocese of Corpus Christi continue to amaze. From mastering such platforms as Google Classroom and Zoom to providing workbook assignments and take-home projects, students continue to learn and teachers are available for questions through Google Voice. On Facebook, teachers and parents of students post loving messages, indicating just how much they are missed.

During the Angel Outreach Day of Service, Incarnate Word Academy’s first grade students prepared and sent care packages to U.S. troops in the Middle East. The soldiers received the care packages on April 15. First Lieutenant Lyn Srinual expressed gratitude in a video on behalf of the soldiers, who deeply appreciated the letters, snacks, and other gifts the Angels put together for them.

From making personal home visits to using social media, and posting photos of finished S.T.R.E.A.M. projects, to shout-out videos and photomontages, teachers and staff throughout the Diocese of Corpus Christi miss their students and are showing they care.