This year has required substantial readjustment for students and teachers alike. Many students had not fully engaged in remote learning the year before and needed to adjust to both being around other students again and relearning what it means to be a student. Teachers, on the other hand, while prepared for some change in student preparedness, had to rethink their approaches to many things to accomodate both students who had become more independent learners as well as those who were working very hard to avoid anything that required effort on their part.

Technology has become an intregal part of both our lives, and how we deliver school. Helping students to use their technology as a tool, rather than a toy, is something we work on every day. Part of this process has been to encourage students to be in charge of their own destinies and having them reflect on the things they need to do to be more successful in school at least once a month, specifically organizational and time-management goals.

What I would recommend for the summer is helping your young person take charge of their progress on any activity that requires focus and persistence by removing distractions in ways that are non-threatening or not anxiety inducing. An example of this might be rather than take their phone away, have them put it on the counter across the room. This way, they can still see their phone, and see that it is secure, but it is a little less likely to be the primary focus of their attention. Help them turn off notifications for apps that don’t require their immediate attention, and set specific people’s contact information so that their messages can always ring through in an emergency, if you think that is needed.

For some of you, this removing of the phone distraction may need to be more incremental. First, they try putting it across the room. You may have to warn them a couple of times to keep it there for their own good. Finally, if they find themselves incapable of this self-management in the moment, take their phone away until they’ve completed the task at hand, using it as a tool to help them, not to punish them. This helps them learn that you are only seeking to help them improve themselves for their own good, and can also help them get better at taking initiative in this regard.

Finally, the one thing I’ve had to learn as a teacher is to implement what one professor calls “micro-affirmations.” The idea here is putting out a stream of positivity for every positive thing a young person does, even minor. The art of a good micro-affirmation is that it should feel affirming, not pandering, however. Here are a list of some I might say in any given week at school.

“Thank you for turning that in!”
“I can see you worked very hard on this.”
“I missed you when you were gone.”
“You’ve almost got this.”
“You’ve got this!”
“I appreciate that you let me know…”
“I hope you feel better soon.”
“Thank you for pushing in your chair.”

Non-verbal affirmations might be things like a fist bump for accomplishing a task that required persistence and effort, sending a cute Bitmoji with a text-based message, or stamping something as a form of acknowledgement for effort spent. Kids, even teenagers, often like a hand stamp if it’s novel and something they like, like a cupcake, for instance, or a holiday theme.

For more on micro-affirmations, visit this link.

We’ve been working on social emotional learning and self-care strategies throughout the year to help students better manage the stressors of our massively changed lives. I’m really proud of the progress many have made, and I think many of them are, as well.

Some of the things we’ve worked on:

Basic organization—setting alarms for the beginning of each class, how to organize online documents.

Self-care strategies—mindfulness, exercise, breathing exercises, listening to music, and taking a step back when it’s really needed.

Asking for help—our students are still struggling with this. It’s been very hard for many to feel comfortable enough in an online environment to request the help they need.

Strategies for disagreement—we practice scientific disagreement, so I also added a lesson in about disagreements, in general.

One of the things that became increasingly clear is that many students had ideas of how to be mindful of others, or how to help others, but when it came to themselves, they hadn’t considered the importance of being mindful of their own state of being, let alone asking for help when they need it. I compared this to the airline stewardess who always tells us to put our own masks on first before helping others.

These things continue to be difficult for our students. Helping to reinforce these things at home could be another way you can help your young person succeed as we move forward, working towards a safer in-person environment, and much changed world.

Kids often struggle to complete online work. It’s just an entirely new experience for most of them, and they aren’t all as acclimated to online thinking and learning as we often think they should be considering all the apps they seem to spend their lives staring at on their phones.

As a result, I have developed a short list of helpful tips to make getting started, and making progress, easier to do. I know you want your young person to get work done consistently, and I think most of them want to, too, but they need support to make that happen.

1. Music: have them put together a song list of HELPFUL songs to listen to–those that do help them focus on their work, and don’t distract them. Be sure to remind them they should skip a song if they find it distracting them, even if it is usually helpful.
2. Start Easy: if they have trouble getting started, have them start with the easiest thing they can think of…this makes it easier to make the first step in the right direction.
3. Make fun things a reward: teach them to put their phone across the room and set a 30 minute timer to make sure they work for 30 minutes before they pick it up again AND remind them not to access the fun stuff on your computer, at all—common distractions are TikTok, Instagram, and Among Us at the moment, but I’m sure you know what your kid is most distracted by. The goal is to help them have a sustained 30 minute focus before they think about something else.
4. Schedule break time: if they manage to work successfully for 30 minutes straight, they should once again set their timer for 5 minutes, and take a 5 minute break before they get back to work. Getting up for 5 minutes after a Zoom session, even if it is scheduled as asynchronous work time, can also be helpful. Human beings need to get up routinely and stretch their legs. Kids need this at least as much as adults.

Try these things out and see how they go. Then let me know if you have any additional tips and tricks that work for you at your house!

The teen years are often quite challenging for kids and parents alike. Add online schooling and a restricted outings and social experiences to that and many fell ill-prepared for this moment. Below is a list of 7 things you can try to promote on a regular basis to help everyone navigate things more smoothly in the upcoming months until we are all back in school.

1. Move it or lose it. Be sure your kid is getting adequate physical activity. Students can stretch, do jumping jacks, push ups, crunches, and jog in place for 5 minutes between classes to stay active. Additionally, kids who need more physical input than average might benefit from having resistance fidget bands on their chair near their feet—even teenagers.
2. Saved by the bell! Make sure your kids have alarms set to go off 5 minutes before each class Monday-Friday, making sure they have both Monday and Tuesday-Friday schedules programmed correctly. Signing in early is the key to being sure to be present when class begins. Due to internet connectivity issues and sometimes glitchy software, this can help reduce stress and increase participation in class.
3. Give them a helping hand. Come alongside your child to help them check their grades tab in each of their classes, weekly. Choose a specific day to do this, so that it’s easy to keep track of. By the keeping the emphasis on “helping” as opposed to “catching them being bad,” you can keep things positive even when they have fallen behind and need support, which helps build internal motivation.
4. Got milk? While you want to be sure that young people have drinks and snacks in places that are not going to get on their electronic devices, setting them up with a tray that is separate, but nearby, and healthy snacks and drinks can help them keep that brain blood sugar balance in check.
5. Be a goal setter! Have your kid brainstorm what is going well and what is going poorly on a weekly basis, and help them set between 1 and 3 goals each week to work towards improvement. Making goals achievable and easy for kids who are really struggling can help them move to a better place, even when it seems like those goals are very small. Once they have some small successes, you can build on those.
6. Plan! Plan! Plan! Antione de Saint-Exupery, writer, stated “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” No doubt he was thinking of the painful discipline required to be a writing success. Help your student understand that planning for difficult moments and learning how to self-manage can go a long way towards their personal success. Hard to stay off the phone? Teach them to work 30 minutes for a 5 minute reward on their phone. They can plan to put it across the room and set a timer so that they have at least 30 minutes of sustained effort invested before they tell themselves they did a good job and then reward themselves, being sure to set a timer, if necessary (To Siri: “Set timer 5 minutes”). Teach them to recognize their own weaknesses and help them brainstorm ways to help them work around that.
7. Be sure to celebrate every day! Ask your kid to share 5 things they did right throughout the day and be sure to reassure them and tell them how proud you are off their successes, even if they are small. This can help them set themselves up for even bigger successes down the road.

While some struggle is inevitable and daily challenges will continue to present themselves, being an ally in your student’s success can go a long way to helping you both support one another during this unusual time.

If you would like additional support or have other needs, please feel free to reach out. While I am always busy, I’m always happy to help!

We got through our first week being back to school last week! It’s definitely more challenging to help students when they are stuck, but we continue to persevere, and continue to provide lots of positive feedback for everything students are doing well with as do the other teachers I work with.

Starting out
One of the things students asked for was a Remind message every time class was about to start. Realizing that they wanted reminders like our bell schedule when we are at school, one of their first assignments to students has been to set themselves up for success by creating a bell schedule on a device of their choice to be submitted via screenshots on Schoology.

Some students had some difficulty with this, forgetting to select the days of the week for the alarms to go off. I sent them messages in Schoology, but since this could really support them getting to class on time, this would be a good thing for parents to check to help make sure they’ve done it correctly and their alarms are working.

Helping Create Structure
One of the key aspects students have trouble with when working from home is creating the necessary structure to be successful. I created a PowerPoint to help them with this in the FAQs section of my course, but accountability to a study buddy or a family member can also be critical to student success.

Encouraging your young person to connect with others about homework should help them considerably throughout the year. One of the things most students missed about being in school this past Spring was the social aspect of school. If your young person’s friends will be supportive in this way, encouraging these kinds of interactions could go a long way. If, however, you know that they are more likely to be distracted and get off track, that’s when connecting with a family member or a trusted mentor may be a better fit. Either way, coming up with ways to encourage social connections with schoolwork could go a long way in supporting your young person.

Checking in
I like to tell the kids that I trust them, but I “trust and verify.” One way to check in with your kids throughout the day is to keep the focus on asking them if they need help. You can even ask them to show you something they did that day, even if it is a very small thing, “That’s great! Can you show me?” Coming alongside them as an ally as much as possible can help them better recognize that your goal is helping them, rather than policing them, something adolescents don’t always remember.

Let me know if you need something from me!
You are more involved in your young person’s education than you may have ever been—and they are learning more complex things than they ever have. It is normal and reasonable for you to have questions. Please reach out to me if you need anything. Email is probably the easiest way to reach me. I really am here to help!