A magical teacher

Chester resident Sonia Gonzales shared a heart-warming photo of her granddaughter being visited by her teacher for story time — at a safe distance.

“We need to recognize the heroes in these hard times that we are living,” said Gonzales in a letter to the newspaper. “These are 5 and 6-year-old kids and I am sure it meant so much for them even though they may not really understand what’s going on.”

The Kindergarten teacher, Ann-Marie Herman, teaches at Berea Elementary School in Montgomery. She scheduled a time to read to each of her students in person as part of a unit on fairy tales. She went from house to house dressed as a princess, set up a chair outside each child’s home and read a fairy tale.

The lesson comes full-circle: in addition to the special visit, students are learning the various components to a fairy tale, and encouraged to create their own magical stories while learning from home.

It was thirty-eight degrees and about to start raining the morning Ms. Herman visited six-year-old Emeliya Ruiz.

“She loved it,” said Emeliya’s mom, Yaritza. “We didn’t tell her, so we were like ‘you have a surprise at the door!’ It was so cute.”

At the end of the story, Ms. Herman had her students close their eyes and make a wish as she waved her magic wand.