Learning Snapshot: Building Relationships and Classroom Culture in a Blended Environment

In this webinar recording, participants will capture strategies and tools to help check in on your students, give them tools to help them get ready to learn and walk through a variety of strategies to help you develop a positive classroom culture that could easily be implemented into your virtual classroom as well as in your physical classroom. 

Theme: Building Relationships: Making and Sustaining a Connection

Audience: For use by administrators and teachers for students of all ages.

Presentation:  Building Relationships and Classroom Culture in a Blended Environment (voice-over), Building Relationships and Classroom Culture in a Blended Environment (slides)

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Learning Snapshot: Supporting Mental Health Needs of our Students: An Integrated Approach

In this session, participants will walk you through the process and practical tools that our JCISD Whole Child Team is recommending to support the mental health needs of students utilizing an integrated approach. 

Theme: Taking a Holistic Approach to Addressing Student Mental Health

Audience: For use by administrators and teachers for students of all ages.

Presentation:  Supporting Mental Health Needs of Our Students: An Integrated Approach (Webinar), Supporting Mental Health Needs of our Students: An Integrated Approach (slides)

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Learning Snapshot: Building a System That Supports SEL

This learning snapshot is designed for district and building administrators and provides a brief introduction to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and tools and resources to support SEL implementation.

Theme: Integrating SEL Strategies into Virtual Learning

Audience: For use by administrators.

Presentation: Building a System That Supports SEL(voice-over), Building a System That Supports SEL (slides)

Additional materials: Return to School Roadmap: Mental Health Screening , Building a System That Supports SEL Checklist, Mental Health Screening Value and Purpose

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Learning Snapshot: Simple Strategies to Support Staff Wellness

Staff wellness is an important topic but it is more important than ever during this unique time in history. The goal of this presentation is it to narrow down some of the best resources on staff wellness that I could find and to hopefully help compile some simple strategies that leaders can implement with staff during this work from home period.

Theme: Self Care/Staff Wellness

Audience: For use by administrators to support their staff.

Presentation: Simple Strategies to Support Staff Wellness (voice-over), Simple Strategies to Support Staff Wellness (slides)

Additional materials: Discussion Questions , Staff Wellness Visual

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Learning Snapshot: Reconnecting With Your Students During Closure

This resource is intended to equip users with ideas for reconnecting with students while transitioning to distance learning. Relationships are forged through shared experiences and the “new normal” requires educators to meet these needs in creative ways. Here are a few tips to consider as you retool support for your students.

Theme: Building Relationships: Making and Sustaining a Connection

Audience: For use by teachers and administrators for students of all ages.

Presentation: Reconnecting with Students During Closure (slides) ,

Additional materials: Reconnecting with Students Accompanying Notes and Discussion Questions, Tips to Reframe Relationships for Distance Learning 

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Learning Snapshot: Take Note: Listening to the Voice of Staff, Parents and Students

Have you gathered the voice of staff, parents and students? This snapshot will go over why you should gather their voice and some ways to do it.

Theme: Building Relationships: Making and Sustaining a Connection

Audience: For use by teachers and administrators for students of all ages.

Presentation: Listening to the Voice of Staff, Parents and Students (voice over), Listening to the Voice of Staff, Parents and Students (slides)

Additional materials: Listening to Voice Flyer, Listening to Voice Discussion Questions

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Learning Snapshot: Taking Care of Yourself During This Turbulent Time

We are all going through a uniquely stressful time with COVID-19. This resource provides tips and resources for reducing stress and taking care of ones self. Intended for teachers, these resources could easily be adapted to be shared with students and their families. 

Theme: Self Care/Staff Wellness

Audience: For use by teachers and administrators, but can be adapted for students and their families.

Presentation: Taking Care of Yourself During This Turbulent Time (slides), Taking Care of Yourself During This Turbulent Time (voice-over)

Additional materials: Discussion Questions, 30 Tips for Self-Care

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Learning Snapshot: Connecting with the Hard to Reach Student

The purpose of this resource is to offer an organizational framework to your efforts communicating with students. As we transition to a remote learning environment some students will have regular access to online resources while others will need alternatives.

Theme: Building Relationships: Making and Sustaining a Connection

Audience: For use by teachers and administrators for students of all ages.

Presentation: Connecting with the Hard to Reach Student (voice-over), Connecting with the Hard to Reach Student (slides)

Additional materials: Discussion Questions , Tips to Communicate with Every Student

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7 Ways to Make Distance Learning More Equitable

Many students lack internet and technology access at home. High numbers of parents and caregivers are now unemployed and struggling to meet basic needs. For parents and caregivers who work in essential jobs outside the home, older students are sometimes responsible for their younger siblings, making at-home learning a challenge. And teachers, administrators, and families of students with special needs are questioning whether it will be possible to provide students with disabilities equal access to a high-quality education under these circumstances. 

1. Check in with your students regularly

2. Help your students' families get connected

3. Choose tools that are mobile friendly and/or can be used offline

4. Try to keep online lessons asynchronous vs. synchronous

5. Double down on project-based learning

6. Maintain extracurricular activities

7. Partner with community based organizations

Supporting Teens During Remote and Hybrid Instruction

In this article in Usable Knowledge, Emily Boudreau (Harvard Graduate School of Education) reports on ways that families and schools can foster adolescent development during the pandemic:

• Peer connections – Relationships with fellow students are central to teens’ developing identities – and their academic growth. To fill some of the gaps created by school closures, teachers can:

- Orchestrate group projects that require collaboration;

- Build time into the schedule for students to socialize;

- Include social media as a tool for students to connect (although it isn’t a substitute for in-person interaction, and many families are concerned about too much time on devices).

• Opportunities to feel competent – Teens’ sense of efficacy can be undermined during remote learning. What helps:

- Plenty of support with WiFi connections, devices, and tech problems;

- Not letting up on standards; insisting on less, says Boudreau, “sends the message to students and their families that they are unable to keep up.”

- Meaningful community service, and connecting classroom work to the wider world.

• Loose-tight parent supervision – “Teens and parents often clash around questions of autonomy and control,” says Boudreau, and these conflicts may be heightened if parents try to micromanage students’ academic work. A better dynamic is providing scaffolding, opportunities for individual check-ins with teachers, counselors, and coaches, and ways to connect with other adults who can provide support.

• Mental health – A recent study found that 81 percent of students reported an increase in anxiety, loneliness, isolation, and other psychological concerns. Schools can help by:

- Connecting students with an advisor or mentor who sees the whole child;

- Not responding reflexively with punishments when students are absent and have academic lapses, but considering underlying explanations;

- Starting school activities later to allow teens to get enough sleep;

- Working to establish trust with families, especially across racial and cultural lines.

• Safety – When schools are closed, there are greater opportunities for teens to get in trouble, especially if parents work outside the home. Schools can:

- Partner with local parks and recreation departments and other community organizations to provide a supervised space;

- Talk to teens about developing a peer network committed to safety;

- Form social pods or partnerships with others in the community;

- Set clear schedules, routines, and expectations.

• Self-sufficiency – Educators and families need to work together to get teens advocating for themselves and taking greater responsibility for their schoolwork, says Boudreau. Parents can help by:

- Encouraging teens to create a plan for getting their work done, taking responsibility, and learning time-management skills;

- Being sensitive to teens’ biological clocks, which lean toward late bedtimes;

- Recognizing that socializing is an important developmental need;

- Being willing to engage with teens when they ask why certain parts of the curriculum are worth studying.

“Supporting Teenagers in a Pandemic” by Emily Boudreau in Usable Knowledge, August 27, 2020; Boudreau can be reached at emily_boudreau@gse.harvard.edu.