At C.W. Ruckel Middle School in Niceville, Fla., so many kids were using their cell phones in class鈥攁 violation of the school鈥檚 rules鈥攖hat administrators loosened up their policy of confiscating them. It had become impractical to enforce. Students had become heavily dependent on devices to help find answers quickly鈥攁 side effect of months of remote learning鈥攁nd were expressing frustration when they had to wrestle with a question or problem on their own, said Steve Chambers, a social studies teacher.
In a New York high school, one teacher has students who stressed out over their parents losing jobs. And at another school, teachers must help their older students re-learn classroom rules.
The individual anecdotes of frustration, stress, distraction, and anxiety students are experiencing this school year add up to a large, complicated reality of social-emotional and mental health needs that teachers must acknowledge and help address鈥攁t the same time that they must move children forward academically. It鈥檚 a difficult balance to strike.
鈥淎t the end of the day, if kids are dealing with mental health issues or families鈥� basic needs being met, that is going to hinder and has continued to hinder growth in the academic areas, and in academic skills,鈥� said Katrina Miles, an English and drama teacher at Temecula Middle School in Temecula, Calif.
Getting students interested and excited about learning鈥攁 challenge that predates the pandemic鈥攊s harder than ever, according to a December EdWeek Research Center survey of 630 teachers across the country. Low student engagement is the most widespread problem teachers pointed to as an impediment to helping students reach grade level, with 68 percent of respondents citing it. Large percentages of teachers cited four other major barriers as well: behavioral problems (59 percent), student quarantines (55 percent), and student mental health needs (54 percent).
Teachers, counselors, and district leaders alike acknowledge that a lot of these challenges existed prior to the pandemic鈥檚 start. But moving between remote, hybrid, and in-person learning and adjusting to frequently changing COVID-19 protocols, have intensified and affected more students. While some educators have found ways to navigate the balancing act, they also recognize it won鈥檛 be an easy journey.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still in a pandemic,鈥� said Stephanie Andrews, executive director of student and family support services for the Tulsa Public Schools. 鈥淭his is not going to be a fast fix.鈥�
Old challenges have worsened
At C.W. Ruckel Middle, the front office had been filling up every day with too many students waiting to pick up their confiscated phones, said Chambers. The principal, in a faculty meeting last fall, told teachers to stop taking phones away.
Though Chambers had seen students get more frustrated at not being able to use phones to help them with schoolwork, he now worries about building up his 8th graders鈥� drive to formulate answers rather than regurgitate them as they prepare for high school. The endurance kids need to complete their work has eroded in a larger number of students, he said.
鈥淵ou just have to continue pushing along and teaching the kids and taking the kids from where they are to where they need to be,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult sometimes, because the kids want to quit on you.鈥�
Julie Capossere, an English teacher at Brighton High School in Rochester, N.Y., said more of her students are going to see counselors.
Students are experiencing stress at home, stress from all the political turmoil they鈥檙e witnessing, stress from the fear of getting sick or their parents getting sick, and initially they lacked the daily in-person structure of school where they knew what to expect and where to be, she said.
And in Tulsa, Andrews said teachers and school staff had to re-teach behavioral expectations in middle and high school students, something that hadn鈥檛 been necessary before. Traditional things like classroom procedures and how to go in and out of the cafeteria had to be reset as a result of the pandemic鈥檚 disruption, she said.
Immediate strategies exist but plan for a new normal
Yvonne Alexander, a science teacher at Hopkins Junior High School in Fremont, Calif., said her students don鈥檛 want to sit still in their seats. We鈥檝e been locked in our bedroom and we want to be with our friends, they鈥檝e told her.
So she鈥檚 let students move their desks. They鈥檙e welcome to step out if needed to alleviate anxiety. She鈥檚 leading more classroom activities where students work together.
鈥淲e want to be productive,鈥� Alexander said. 鈥淚 have faith that humans are resilient, but we have to give them a space to be safely resilient in and fall apart, literally just go ahead, and let鈥檚 just fall apart.鈥�
Miles, the teacher in Temecula, has seen how isolation during remote learning impacted her 12-year-old son. His confidence in his ability to learn took a dip.
She was initially more lenient with him as with her students in giving the space and time needed to socialize and get re-adjusted to in-person learning. But now she鈥檚 stepping up to say, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care about the grade, but I do want your best.鈥�
She鈥檚 encouraging other parents to join her. She calls her students鈥� parents after school and on weekends to learn more about what challenges they are facing outside of the classroom and to let parents know what the students need to do to stay on track or catch-up and how she can help. She frames school work as a positive distraction from the stressors that are out of her students鈥� control.
Districts are weighing in with strategies as well.
In the Dallas Independent School District , schools were able to choose from three different calendars this school year that would allow for more time for instruction or professional development, time for additional academic support for students and more, said Juany Valdespino-Gaytan, the district鈥檚 executive director of engagement services. The district has hired more than 50 new mental health clinicians for students and required morning meetings and advisory periods, along with providing teachers with SEL lessons to use during that time.
Tulsa public schools have wellness teams in schools where a group of teachers, counselors, and administrators get together to figure out the students who seem to be in greater need for wellness, and determine how best to support them, said Andrews.
In the long-run, there鈥檚 no returning to what schooling was like prior to the pandemic, Andrews and others said. Even now with sporadic school closures, quarantines, and staff shortages, schools are struggling to offer consistency students need to progress both academically and socially-emotionally, Andrews said.
Her hope is that more educators work toward imagining what a new normal can look like that can benefit students and teachers alike.
鈥淚 think that this is a year for us to kind of be thinking about and dreaming in different ways and designing our lessons differently than we did in the past,鈥� Andrews said.
