I have been gathering my thoughts about COVID and the school year we have had so far. I live in Indiana, just west of Indianapolis. Our Governor gave schools permission to be open, and our district has done an outstanding job. One of the most helpful things we did was give parents the opportunity to send students to school or to work at home. Our district designated a teacher at every grade level to be an at home instructor, so the classroom teachers could focus solely on the students who were present with them. Parents had the opportunity second semester to make that choice again- if they were at home, they could go to school, and if they were at school, they could switch to being at home. This helped many students who had sick family members.
I am the counselor at the alternative high school. Beginning in August we saw a shift in the students our two districts were sending us. Since we were all at home learners during March-May of 2020, many of those students got behind and didn't complete any work. Those students came to us and are getting caught up. They love the small environment and staff. We have 2 teachers for each core subject (Math, English, Science, and Social Studies), so we are really a miniature version of the main high schools. Our teacher to student ration is 1:16 or less.
What we have noticed is that more and more students are becoming withdrawn and anxious during COVID. Students have admitted to me that once they were home for 6 months or more (starting in March), they got comfortable at home and were afraid to leave the house. Once these students gave us a chance and they began coming, they wanted to stay with us second semester. The main reason is that we are a small school and we have a caring staff. They also feel like they can be themselves at the alternative school. Everyone has a different story of why they come to us.
We need to remember that "People need people"- any amount of time we invest in someone else is worth the extra mile, the extra question, the extra compliment, the extra phone call, the extra e-mail. We find that our parents need support just as much as their students do. It's very simplistic, but it works. Students are wanting someone to look up to and listen to them even if they are quiet themselves. I have never had a student get mad at me for asking how their day is going or how I can help them. I have had students come back and say thank you. We must overcome our fears to help our students overcome theirs. This will reduce everyone's levels of anxiety. Isolation only breeds more depression and anxiety. Let's get back to the basics!
