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In This Issue...
- Reflections from Gabrielle Sharaga, Student Partnerships Coordinator and School Counseling Intern
- RESOURCE: Online Advisory Groups Can Rebuild Connections
- VIDEO: Let’s Make a Podcast!
- RESOURCE: Communication Guide for Students while Distance Learning
- INSPIRATION: Ted Tilles' Cooking Club @ Home
- LINK: Stress Management for Educators
“Finding Closure"
Reflections from Gabrielle Sharaga, Student Partnerships Coordinator
and School Counseling Intern @ Gateway High School
For school counselors, a huge part of our role at the end of the school year revolves around closure. This means supporting students in reflecting on all of the different ways they have grown over the course of our time together and all of the ways they can build upon this in the future. It marks the end of one experience while also planting the seed for the growth of something new.
Two months ago, a form of closure came suddenly and quite literally as we exited the Gateway halls and found ourselves sheltering in place. All of the milestones we typically experience at the end of the year, whether it be prom, yearbook signing, or senior celebrations, look radically different or may not be happening at all.
My heart breaks for our students, and especially our graduating seniors, who do not get to commemorate these important life moments together in person. For many students, these are some of the most memorable parts of being a young adult, a time when they can celebrate all of their accomplishments from the previous year – and all four years – in community.
My work as a counselor is all about building connections with others, and it’s never been more apparent how such a huge part of that is being able to do so in person. People need people, and this pandemic has disrupted such a key way that we connect with one another.
Despite all this, I am continuously inspired by all of the creative ways that Gateway faculty and students are finding ways to create a sense of community. We are so lucky that we have all of these tools at our disposal to connect virtually. Whether it be Senior Week Padlet pages full of hilarious and heartwarming tributes to seniors, advisory game hours on Zoom, or student shout-outs from faculty during our weekly Monday Morning video announcements, Gateway is doing whatever it can to bridge the physical distancing we’ve experienced over the last couple months. Some of the tools we have discovered have actually opened up new possibilities for ways we can support our students and families in the future.
We did not expect to close out the year sitting in front of computer or phone screens. This pandemic has further entrenched the inequities in our society and caused massive stress, hardship, and heartbreak for many members of our Gateway community. I am grateful, though, that even in these extremely scary and uncertain times, to be a part of a community that is doing whatever it can to create a sense of closure and connection for its students, families, and faculty.
RESOURCE: Online Advisory Groups Can Rebuild Connections
Advisory groups have long been a key element of school culture at both Gateway High and Middle School.
These small cohorts of students across all grades meet twice a week with a faculty member to build relationships, get academic advice, and develop social-emotional skills, staying with the same students and faculty member the entire time they’re at Gateway. This allows students to be well-known by students they may not meet otherwise, and have a faculty advocate who can get to know them outside the formal structure of a regular class. Recreating that dynamic online isn’t easy, but Gateway teachers are finding it key to getting in touch with otherwise hard-to-reach students.
Even if your school doesn’t have an official advisory structure in place, you may find it useful to incorporate informal meetings with students so kids can catch up on each other’s lives and loosen up a bit. Gateway High School physics teacher Tim Woolgar and colleagues have compiled tips, resources and links to make these meetings fun and useful. Suggestions include:
Have a format to reduce awkwardness, build routine, and keep conversations moving. An effective structure could be as simple as starting with a fun question for everyone to answer, whip around-style, moving into an ask-and-answer time for students to ask for and receive advice about Distance Learning, then playing a game and finishing at a hard end time (for the purposes of ending on a high note).
Don’t be discouraged if attendance is low at first, and don’t be surprised if you have zero or only one student for the first few meetings. Kids have a lot going on right now and are still learning how to manage their time. Send invitations via your online classroom, email, or as many channels as you have available.
"Assign” your students who are attending regularly to each recruit another student for the next session. This can quickly double or triple attendance.
Be flexible. Use surveys or take votes on Zoom about what meeting times work best for students and how they think the time would be used most effectively.
The full document includes a wealth of links to party games appropriate for middle and high schoolers, along with suggestions about how best to adapt them for a Zoom meeting or video chat of your choice. How are you keeping things fun with your kids in quarantine? Let us know to be featured in a future issue.
Whether you’ve long had ambitions of becoming the next Ira Glass or never considered getting near a microphone, there’s lots of good reasons to think about launching a podcast as a project for the impending end of the school year. For one, it requires simple equipment and can be recorded, edited and published remotely. For another, this is an incredible moment in history – capturing your students’ take on current events, what they’ve learned this year, or a whole new creative project is an interesting artifact for posterity. And it’s fun!
Our resident tech expert Sam Kary will guide you through everything you need to know in this 90-minute webinar, from the basics of podcasting, to planning, recording, editing, and publishing your own short podcast. This webinar is perfect for elementary, middle, and high school teachers with little or no prior experience in podcasting.
Check it out! And once you have your great idea underway, consider signing up for Soundtrap, where teachers can get a FREE 120 day license to help you put it all together.
Resource: Communication Guide for Students while Distance Learning
For as long as our students have been in school, their weekdays have been highly structured and scheduled meticulously by adults. It’s a structure in which a lot of kids thrive and one that by middle or high school they’re well-equipped to navigate. Now suddenly, we’re asking them to manage their days like remote workers for a high tech firm – it’s a big leap. If you’re inundated with random student requests at all hours of the night or your normally chatty and inquisitive kiddo has gone MIA, a struggle to communicate in this new paradigm could be to blame.
Gateway educators have compiled this quick tip sheet to help students understand how to reach out to teachers appropriately and effectively, going over the basics of business email and video chat etiquette, and even providing a sample email students can use to help them organize their thoughts when they need assistance.
We recommend sharing and going over this with students if you think the lines of communication could stand to improve. After all, these tips aren’t just useful for getting help from your teacher while quarantined, but are essential for reaching out to professors in college and for any career they may pursue in the future – they’re just getting a bit of a head start.
Inspiration: Ted Tilles' Cooking Club @ Home
Gateway High School is home to the popular Cooking and Sustainability Club, whose members learn their way around a kitchen with a focus on meals that are healthy for themselves and the environment. Students are unable to meet on campus for the time being, but with only an internet connection and access to a kitchen, they’re still turning out impressive projects!
Using funds raised earlier in the year, club advisor and Math Teacher Ted Tilles partnered with local West African restaurant Bissap Baobab to have meal kits for a family of four delivered to each of the club’s members at home. Students made the meals together over Zoom if their schedules/internet access allowed, or independently and posted the results to their club Padlet. How did they do? See for yourself – but be warned your stomach might start growling!
The club is already identifying other restaurants to work with for the rest of the school year. Beyond cooking, the virtual meeting and Padlet format could work for clubs centered around crafting, fitness, the performing arts, and more. Does your school have a club that’s found new life online? Let us know and we’ll feature it in a future issue.
LINK: Stress Management for Educators
We hardly have to sell educators on the benefits of meditation, but let’s give it a shot just in case: it’s mid-May, which would be rough for anyone working in schools during a normal school year (and this is certainly not a normal year.) Chances are, you’re feeling it, and it doesn’t feel good. These guided meditations and activities, most coming in at less than fifteen minutes, have been handpicked by the experts at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center to help teachers squash negative self-talk, get better rest, and cut themselves some slack. Doesn’t that sound nice? Of course it does. Check out their offerings and take a few minutes today to breathe – you deserve it.
And while you’re there, check out the rest of Greater Good in Education’s resources, designed to help infuse pro-social skills and behaviors into your academic content and help improve your relationships with colleagues, students and families.
What Do You Need?
Gateway Impact’s mission is to serve as a free resource and partner to educators across the nation – and that means you! Email us with a distance learning challenge you’d like help troubleshooting and a Gateway educator will address your question in a future issue.
Alternatively, is something going well? Find a great resource to share? Let us know and we’ll highlight your bright spot.
Know a friend or colleague who’d be interested in HomeRoom? Forward along and encourage them to subscribe!
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