I went into school on Tuesday to teach some year 12 students in person. Walking into my classroom was like walking into a time capsule. The date on the board still read Friday, March 20, 2020. In some ways, the reality of how long we\’ve been away from school only really hit me then. And as the extended time of being away from traditional schooling continues, I am only starting to realise the long reaching effects of this trauma our students are facing.
I started doing live video lessons as soon as my school opened this up as a possibility, which was in May before half term. I met with my exam group classes (a year 10 triple chemistry class, a year 10 combined science class, and a year 12 chemistry class) as well as my year 7 form/tutor group.
From the beginning, my form group were mostly comfortable with chatting and having their cameras on. It was a great time to see each other, catch up, and check in on each other. My triple year 10 class, which have always been a very boisterous and animated group started out with some discussions, and my other two classes were pretty quiet.
Now a few months later and after doing several lessons with all groups, I\’ve noticed a trend. The students are speaking less and less. They rarely turn on their cameras or microphones. Some will interact, but only in the chat box. It\’s so erie teaching lessons when you can\’t gauge the room. I thought perhaps this was just due to them being tired of online lessons. I know how draining my meetings can be, and I hoped with the return to school for years 10 and 12 it would be better.
On Tuesday, when I was working with the students I was teaching, it wasn\’t any better. The students are so quiet. It\’s like they have forgotten how to interact with each other, how to carry conversations. The silence is uncanny. Getting students to answer questions was difficult.
In speaking with my colleagues, I\’ve found that my experiences are not unique. Some of our most talkative students aren\’t speaking at all. Not to us, not to other students. Students have started communicating solely using text means via apps, phones, X-Box, etc.
When we started closing everything down the message was all about social distancing. Staying home. Keeping away from others. It was absolutely necessary to keep people as healthy as possible, but the long reaching effect of these acts are going to take some time to address, to help us heal.
When we return to school in a much more normal fashion, hopefully in September, I think we\’ll find that our biggest obstacles have nothing to do with teaching content. It won\’t be about \’catching up\’. We will need to help our students process what has happened and how it has changed them. We need to help them feel comfortable being around other people again. We need to help them find their voices.
As school staff, we\’re already having these conversations on how to best support our students. We know it\’s going to take time and effort, but we also know it\’s very important. I certainly don\’t have all of the answers, but I know I am going to have to work with my students to get them more comfortable being together, being in school, being in groups. Talking.
What have your experiences been? Have your students lost their voices, too? What ideas do you have to help them find their voice again?
As a student in college this has also happened with every class I had moving over to online. Being a student I think it’s not only happening in our classes it’s happening at the family table, gatherings, social media, etc. Social media might actually be the culprit in the spreading of the silence. For us younger generations social media is a defining factor of our identity wether we want it to be or not. I can’t speak freely on a matter without having my idea belittled, harassed or threatened. Even simply liking or not movie is cause for hate on most platforms. So most of us adapted by not saying anything at all. Even educational institutions patrol what is said even if it is a fact or not, because if I say something that is not agreed upon, I lose my education. Simply put, we’ve adapted to not speak in fear of public humiliation / retaliation.
Firstly, it’s so great to hear from you! I hope you are getting on well despite the times. It’s interesting you’ve noticed the same, and you’ve definitely brought up some great points I hadn’t even considered. As a student, and someone who’s been in my class previously, can you give any suggestions of how we can support students? I want my students to talk freely without that fear of being judged. You know how important I think it is to talk thing through while learning.
You’ve given me more to think about, and I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment!
The root of the issue is that of a societal one so trying to deal with that as a whole is nearly impossible but I think the best course of action is try to facilitate a place of free thought without ridicule but definitely allow critique. An issue is that those 2 things get blurred more and more each day by people claiming constructive criticism when it’s just pure hate or vice versa. A good way to make a “place of free thought” is to make the students have a debate something that truely interests them. For an example, you can do something low importance ie. “What movie should they make a sequel for…” Or something more high importance like political topics. Granted politics are extremely heated in the current climate but having a lower stress environment might bring more light to both sides. Now, as you are science teacher having the students do experiments DIY style can be interesting. Such as making crystal/rock candy at home can be a nice stress relief.
But I feel there should be a caveat for any action you formulate for your students, it has to be 100% transparency or be “Frank”.
“What do you mean by that?” I bet you’re asking; if the students are doing a lab or a debate etc. I feel it is the upmost importance to give them the cold dry facts of thier task. Ie. “This debate is to teach xyz… And how to calmy address criticism/arguments.” It’s almost like explaining what your goal as a teacher is to them for every task if that make some form sense. The reason is to show them “why am I here?”. It’s a bit hard to put into words honestly.
Another action I thought that might do some help is some form a public/motivational speaker but on a way more down to earth level and comes in Multiple times over a period time. Almost like thier a sponsor for that person/persons. It is important that it be a person who is extremely humble and radiates confidence. The thought process behind that is it’ll almost be like a role model. But it has to be done in a way of not comparing your students to this person but more of a “I can be like that person.” I feel this would best be done by someone who’s of younger age (27 & below) as to still be able to relate to the students and them to the speaker to build a good bond. Multiple speakers might do a better effect depending on the size of the school etc. I think a good person to look into that might be willing to try something is a unicyclist by the name of Ed Pratt who unicycled around the whole world over 3 years and documented all of it with minimal funds and the kindness of strangers. He has a YouTube channel and a couple documentaries if you wanted to see for yourself.
I have given an obscene amount of time to solutions for younger generations due to the fact I’m in BSA and we are all about character improvement for boys around the world. If you would like to discuss more on the topic I’m going to put my email here as I’m using Twitter web browser from my phone to type this out lol.
althow234@gmail.com