The Power of Student Connection During COVID-19

Instead of binge watching Netflix or Hulu,  I have been binge watching and participating in several online webinars and conferences.  Possibly my indulgence may be due to the fact that I am missing the camaraderie I feel by regularly attending these conferences and trainings in person. This week alone, I attended two online trainings and I am going on my third this weekend. From one of the webinars I attended, I was really inspired by what the presenter shared about fostering connection with students. Out of my inspiration,  I hope you will find something helpful from her insights.  

About the Webinar

Each month, the Online Peer Mediation Platform sponsors a free webinar for educators in the field of conflict resolution.  This month's webinar was on connecting educators with their students during this period of extreme isolation.  From the webinar, I got some great tips that I will try to employ with my online students. I believe that some of these ideas would be helpful for school counselors and I think counselors can encourage teachers to reach out to students by giving them some best practices from trauma informed pedagogy.

About the Presenter 

Darby Munroe is a trauma informed educator who teaches math to students online.  In this presentation, Darby shared how she regularly connects with her students.  She believes that if teachers, administrators, and counselors can connect with students that our positive interactions will help students to regulate their central nervous system and avoid the tendency to fight (misbehave in class) or flee (avoid coming to class).  Darby says it is important for educators to employ brain science into their pedagogy as this changes how we interact with students. Here are three goals she suggested for educators in her webinar on how to effectively connect with students.

Goals of Connection

1.  Connection builds trust

When we build trust with students by reaching out, students are able to safely engage with an adult.  Researchers have found that connection increases motivation and decreases problematic behavior, truancy, and avoidance of missing assignments. As educators, we should take time for building connection and relationships inside and outside of class.  Some ways we can effectively do this as school counselors is to have time for a class check in, employ a class discussion, introduce an icebreaker, or play short games.

If you need a counselor class check in, please feel free to check out my counseling check in form that I created to check in on my virtual students.  Also, are you looking for some fun icebreakers or games to do online with your students?  I have compiled 43 activities to play with your students. Check out my list on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

2.   Connection is work, but pays off big

When we connect with students we must be consistent.  If you currently have a student who is hard to reach, it is important to keep trying. Not only keep trying, but use different avenues to reach them.  Last semester, I experienced several of my students dropping off the radar in my online group.  The more I reached out to these students, the more I found myself getting frustrated, jaded, and fatigued. However, I realized I was trying to use the same old methods of reaching out and it was not working.  Therefore,  I had to step out the box.  Here are some out of the box suggestions from Darby for reaching out to students who seem lost in the virtual world:

• Reach out to the student's parents, guardians, friends, other teachers, or employers about your concern for them.  This lets the student know that you are not giving up on them.  
• Create a video and send it to the student.  This video can explain why you are reaching out to them, it can be something funny, it can be some tips for taking care of himself/herself/themselves, and it can make a request for the student to send you a video back.
• Plan a home/worksite visit -- this can be as simple as driving by the student's house or talking to the student in the yard or parking lot.  Make sure you have your administrator's permission to do this...don't go rouge! 
• If you feel comfortable, attend the students extracurricular events (sporting event, concert, etc.). Showing up shows you care about the student. 

3.  Connection can be effective virtually

There are many ways to virtually connect with students in 2021.  If you don't feel comfortable visiting a student in person, find a way to make a connection virtually.  Here are some suggestions:

• Phone calls-schedule a time to speak to the student for 5 - 10 minutes.  If you do not have a work phone or don't want to provide your personal number, consider using the following platforms.

Zoom - provides educators with a number when you have a paid account.

Google Voice-you can use Google Voice to obtain a phone number to use when communicating with students and parents without you revealing your personal phone number. 

Google Voice Instructions

• Text messages-people would often rather receive a quick text than to have a conversation (sigh).  If you do not want to use your personal number, you can set up a free Remind account for student groups which allows you to send group or individual messages. You can send quick messages to students like Monday Motivation or Thursday Thoughts.  Check out how to use Remind if it is a new tool for you.

  Remind Guide

• Recorded videos-I really love the idea of sending video messages to students.  Video messages are personal, caring, and can be fun.  There are several video platforms you can use to send a message including Loom, Zoom, MS Teams,  or Power Point (which allows you to incorporate a video in a presentation).

Okay, this post is only a small sampling of trauma informed practices that are available from Darby.  If you want to learn more from her experience, check out her website, Traumainformedsolutions.com/blog.  Also, check out her past webinar on the Online Peer Mediation Platform.