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With schools closed down throughout the Bay Area for the remainder of the school year, Lucy Targonski and her mother, Jenny Poree, are adjusting to a new normal.
Distance learning forced the Orinda mother and daughter from Orinda to find creative ways to stay sharp while juggling school and a full-time job under one roof — indefinitely. One bedtime story session with the Thea Stilton children’s book, “The Missing Diary,” a story about mice becoming journalists, sparked sudden inspiration: Lucy wanted to create a newspaper with her classmates at Glorietta Elementary School.
That’s how the bi-weekly “Third Grade Lockdown News” was born.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, 9-year-old Lucy holds a Zoom editorial meeting with 15 friends and classmates. The editorial staff, which started out as a small group of her closest female friends, has expanded into a full-functioning, co-educational experience with 13 girls and two boys.
Lucy acts as the editor-in-chief, of sorts, narrowing down her classmates’ many story, comics and photography ideas into an organized list. As part of “distance learning” — home schoolwork that must be completed by Bay Area children under parent and guardian supervision — the “Third Grade Lockdown News” runs on strict deadlines. Then, Lucy and her mom format the newspaper as a Google document, trying their best to replicate the fonts and headlines you’d typically see in a classic print edition for authenticity.
The family distributes it digitally to all their third-grade classmates and teachers. A couple of printouts are carefully placed in neighbors’ mailboxes, too.
Educational unorthodoxy is commonplace now, as families seek to strike a work-and-fun balance at home — and this offers both. It’s a fun project that has improved Lucy’s writing skills.
“Once we had to go into lockdown, there was nothing we could do for writing,” Lucy said by phone. “Sometimes I struggle with writing in school, but I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better.”
For Jenny — who works full time in finance — it’s been a life-saving tool to ease her new responsibility as sudden homeschool teacher.
“I’m not a teacher by trade, so it’s challenging to teach a 9-year-old when you aren’t trained to do so,” Jenny said. “Having something like a newspaper that she enjoys, which helps her learn writing skills, has been great.”
Lucy, who can write full paragraphs now, has written articles that range from a travel story about a Costa Rica trip to a profile on Oakland A’s outfielder Mark Canha. And her peers have written short stories ranging from the coronavirus’ environmental impact to tea cake recipes, book reviews and recaps of “The Voice.”
“The paper gives the children the ability to collaborate, discuss and be creative — even without the proximity of being near other students,” said Alison Stout, one of the Gloretta parents. “They’re learning they can be effective collaborators through technology, and yet they still have to be courteous to one another, listen to others’ suggestions and give positive feedback, just as they do while sitting in a classroom.”
In a recent edition Stout’s daughter, Madeline, contributed a photo of herself in a tree delivering treats — while maintaining social distance — to her grandfather with a long-rodded claw. Beneath it, there’s a photo of Madeline’s parents decked out in hazmat suits
“My parents now have a new fashion image,” Madeline’s caption reads. “They are taking this VERY SERIOUSLY. They are wearing Coronavirus protection outfits.”
Other articles have explored the joys of a trip to Shanghai, a history of the Summer Olympics and coronavirus-related breaking news. And the students are reading the New York Times to learn how to craft news stories.
“I see an interest in being aware of current events and what’s going on around us, both socially and physically,” Stout said.
Lucy says she hopes to keep the paper running even after the shelter-in-place orders are lifted and school is back in session next year. She may even aim for a career in journalism.
“Yeah, I think that’d be really fun,” she said. “You can talk to new people every day and you can learn something new every day.”
