Advisory- What's Working?
As the 2020/2021 school year began, Carver students shifted into a brand new schedule. Part of that new schedule was an extended advisory every morning, mandated by the School District as part of their Healing Together initiative. According to the District, schools were supposed to use advisory as "one way to strengthen sense of community and connection to school." In some Carver advisories, students are experiencing just that—community and connection.
This is the Discord chat the seventh Graders created.
New students in 7th and 9th grade classes, students have to find ways to create some type of interaction. So what were techniques or methods were used as communication? Seventh grader, Adriel Jimenez, was explained how he was able to connect to other 7th grade students as the school year began.
“I wanted to talk to people because I love to interact with others," Adriel said. "So I made friends to help me create a discord with different servers. There were servers for all girls, all boys, and a welcoming community for all.”
The seventh grade as a whole was able to assemble together and bring forth ideas that are most helpful during this school year. These students were able to create a safe place to express not only themselves, but topics about the world around them.
Another seventh grader, Ke’Mahni Washington explained how this connection goes beyond simply making friends.
“There are study groups so that if you need help, you can ask anyone in the grade," Ke'Mahni explained. "There is also a place where we could talk about different events that happened and how they made us feel.”
Communication is not the only factor advisory has to offer. The purpose of the Healing Together initiative was to give schools the opportunity to focus on social-emotional wellness of students.
“We usually have meditation sessions with our advisors and counselors because it is good for our mental health," Ke'Mahni said. "We check our emails every morning to see what work we have due. Personally this helped me keep up with my work by turning things in early. The meditation itself help with all the stress that school work has given me. These small sessions are even important out of school."
Meditation is one of the ways students spend their time in advisory
With results of a huge success, the seventh graders and their advisors are able to spend useful time in their advisory and look forward to it everyday.
Ke’Mahni gives her opinion on these results. “I would recommend this website for kids in middle school and high school because there are bots in the servers and can make things difficult. Other than that, discord and other activities have proven to help us during online school.”
While this method has worked for the seventh graders, there are still many other classes that have their own way of spending time in advisory. For some students, advisory is mostly extra time wasted.
“I mostly sleep during advisory because the advisor and students don’t usually talk," one student admitted. "Maybe 1-3 students talk but it’s not an everyday thing. I know for a fact advisory has not helped my emotional well being this whole school year. It creates added on stress for me to make sure I log in on time even with technology problems."
Though this extra time in the morning has not worked for everyone, the success with 7th grade proves well enough that there are ways students can take care of their wellbeing. Not only is it possible to build community and connection, but it also should be the number one goal for students across all grade levels.