Jess and Marina

At our weekly PST meetings, I’ve been hearing more of concerns in dealing with students who are experiencing difficulty with staying on task. It goes without saying that our students and families are dealing with many obstacles in daily living - and the virus has exacerbated all of it.   And, our kids bring bring their problems to the virtual classroom.

Here are two teachers who are meeting their students where they are at.  Their genuine care for these students is exactly what each student needs if the student is to be receptive to what is being taught.  

Jess has come up with a ten minute practice that is helping one of her third graders become more actively engaged with remote learning.  This third grader spends the day with her grandmother; the grandmother is not able to effectively monitor her granddaughter’s screen time. So the little girl was not only muting her screen, but also disconnecting her audio and shutting off the video.  Her father would come home to find out that his daughter pretty much accomplished nothing during the school day. The father eventually shared that he was overwhelmed with trying to catch up with his daughter’s school work. 

Jess decided to check in with the little girl for ten minutes everyday before school day. Jess chatted with the little girl about her interests, etc.  This little girl obviously needed and needed that additional attention from a caring adult.  Since starting this practice, the little girl has been actively participating in school work especially in the morning hours.

Marina is another great example of how connecting with a student can help improve a student’s performance.  Marina has a student who has a past history of disruptive behavior; additionally, this student didn’t even show up for the first month of school.  Marina spent time from the beginning trying to learn about the student.  She eventually established sufficient rapport to understand when he was distraught and needed additional support.  The other morning, she could see him crying on his zoom screen.  When she broke the students off to their zoom rooms, she hopped into his room.  He was upset about something that happened at home and someone in the background was calling him a cry baby.  Instead of digging into the problem or trying to teach the student, Marina took a few minutes to teach him how to play tic-tac-toe.  By the end of the breakout room, the student was beaming and had a great rest of the school day.  

Jess and Marina are surrounding their students with deliberate sustained care; and, because their students need this extra care they are able to achieve in daily learning in their virtual classrooms.  

Great outreach to these students, Jess and Marina!