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Sully Shields, like every other fifth grade student right now, is seeing the world around him change. He can’t spend time with his friends face-to-face, is adapting to virtual learning, and is missing out on basketball games. But, Sully recognized that what is happening in the world is much bigger than the changes to his routine. Sully wanted to help.
As an immunocompromised child, Sully understands the importance of protecting our nurses, doctors, and those with weakened immune systems. With the socially distant and safe help of family and friends, Sully produced over 350 handmade face masks and gathered drinks and snacks for local doctors, nurses, and other essential staff. The masks have gone to Children's National, Johns Hopkins, Inova Fairfax Hospital, The Blue Ribbon Project (AA County Foster Care), Anne Arundel Office of Emergency Management (for families in subsidized housing), Planned Parenthood, PM Pediatrics, and Annapolis Family Medicine. He also donated 77 boxes of LEGOs for the children at the Oncology Department at Children’s National and the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
In 2014 and just one month shy of his fifth birthday, Sully was diagnosed with stage four Neuroblastoma. After 1,667 days of treatment, 150 nights at the hospital, 29 rounds of chemotherapy, five surgeries, and five years of learning from home and the hospital, Sully is fully recovered and paying it forward. As Sully again learns and connects away from campus due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, it’s hard to forget his previous experiences with distance learning.
When Sully couldn't be in the Pre-K and Kindergarten classroom with his friends at St. Anne’s School of Annapolis, the teachers and staff had to re-think learning. The solution wasn’t dropping off reading materials and worksheets to him. They wanted to ensure he was still part of the class that he loved so much, and they never shied away from taking on the challenges that came along with this task.
St. Anne’s School uses a project-based learning approach empowering students to become experts on a selected topic. Sully’s Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Lane, chose medicine as the class topic. Sully and his classmates conducted hands-on research, were involved in firsthand explorations, and shared their learning and theories to their peers. By centering the class’s learning around medicine, he was able to learn from not only his teachers and classmates, but also from the doctors and nurses who were caring for him.
Long before Zoom videoconferencing became the norm, Sully was virtually present for many of his classes. And when he couldn’t be present, his teachers and classmates met him where he was. His classmates would often write letters to him and other children in the hospital that Sully then delivered. One day, the school hired substitute teachers, allowing the staff at St. Anne’s School to give blood at an off-campus blood drive that supported Children’s National, where Sully was receiving treatment.
While the circumstances of Sully’s virtual learning at St. Anne’s School are very different this time around, the experience has been the same: teachers and families are coming together to support social-emotional well-being and meaningful teaching and learning.
Today, Sully is a confident and caring human with a strong sense of self. He is committed to civic engagement and growing as a global citizen -- all this while missing over a year of “formal classroom learning,” giving reassurance that the right virtual learning is effective, and even powerful.
Sully continues to make masks for hospital staff and collect LEGO donations for little friends fighting big battles. If you would like to support Sully’s efforts, please email smilelikesully@gmail.com. You can also follow Team Sully on Facebook (@smilelikesully).
St. Anne’s School is hosting a Virtual Open House this Friday, May 1. For more information about its Virtual/Distance Teaching and Learning program and social-emotional approach to education, visit stannesschool.org/OpenHouse.
