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Remote Learning and the Importance of Students´ Wellbeing

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The world of education is changing fast and this is especially true this year with the rise of hybrid learning. We've seen educators and administrators across the world adapting quickly to build new methods of teaching and lesson planning that fit into the logistics of a remote learning environment.

As teachers, we know that the hours students spend at school are not only about grades but are also about their emotional health and wellbeing. Many students are currently facing new challenges with anxiety, mental health, and other wellness issues that they may not have experienced before, or that may be heightened. This has created a unique set of circumstances around how we can best support students in developing the problem solving and social skills needed to succeed academically, and socially, outside of a traditional school setting.

Remote learning has presented some uncommon hurdles that have truly changed many aspects of traditional school culture completely. In this new world of education, we know teachers are seeing the multiple ways students are not all coming to remote learning from the same place; whether it might be due to difficulties with lack of reliable internet access, emotional issues due to isolation, or some students who are even experiencing issues at home where their basic needs are not being met.

Many students may be processing the emotion of not feeling safe in the world right now, and as a teacher, you are assessing: what are the ways we can help to make them feel safe at school and safe in sharing their emotions and needs with us? As educators we recognize the impact, we have in being the next level of adult support in a young person's life after their parents and caregivers; exploring new ways to engage with students in conversations around wellbeing is so important in the post-covid world to ensure students see school as a place that is safe and supportive.

Student wellbeing is a vitally important issue to address as we acclimate to remote learning. We know part of achieving this is also about supporting our teachers by empowering you with tools that help provide information on how students are doing daily as they adjust to a new way of learning and school culture. Part of the success lies in helping you as a teacher identify wellbeing issues so you can open a dialogue with students to help them problem solve and feel safe. 


How does school culture influence student wellbeing?

You care about your students. So, you want them to feel that you are someone they can trust; someone they can open to. But how to carve out more limited space for this crucial component of your job? Teachers carry many responsibilities; responding to school leadership and administration, showing up emotionally to support colleagues, comforting and working directly with parents to ensure their kids are learning smoothly.

And of course, the most essential aspect of our job is our students, whom we help guide in growing to be the best they can and help to fulfill their potential. Eventually, we want our students to lead happy, productive lives as adults. There are plenty of strategies and tactics for helping us ensure our students' wellbeing. But how can you best measure their wellbeing?

What more can you do to make sure your students are engaged, excited to come to school, and eager to learn new things?? What can be done to improve student performance — and by extension, the efficacy of their learning methods and student success outcomes — above and beyond what we're already doing?

We know that students do better when they know that their trusted adults really care. With experience, we know students who lag in problem solving or social skills may be having difficulties in their home life. We recognize that school culture can play a role in poor performance for many students too. School Day was built to make difficult conversations easier, so you can save your emotional energy.

It can be challenging to know if there's a problem at home or in the classroom, where it is difficult to keep an eye on all social interactions the students have with each other. Figuring out if a child is acting out because their home life is unsafe, or if they haven't eaten before coming into school, or because of bullying in the classroom we've somehow missed. We can't know unless we find a way to get answers from our students. 


Make sure your students feel safe being open with you about their basic needs, bullying, and emotional difficulties alike

Figuring out what students need often means finding a way to ask them what they can't say yet, often when you have more than you can handle on your plate.

As teachers, we need resilience, both to manage our classrooms and adapt to the constant small crises of our daily grind. We must be motivational for both the children and their parents alike. We must dare to ask difficult — and sometimes, uncomfortable — questions to growing kids who often seem braver than we do, with their curiosity, passion, and hunger for the world and learning itself that we need to keep up with too. 


A simple, fast, and safe solution

Asking the right questions the right way is challenging. We don't want to intimidate the students. We want them to feel they can be honest with us, to trust that we will solve the challenges that are crucial to them. We need to make sure they are safe, and that they feel protected and cared for. 




School Day is a better way to benchmark student emotional wellbeing

Successful school days should:

  • Make the next day a new beginning, where building off the successes of the previous days and tweaking what wasn't working makes school a better place for everyone.
  • Be a safe place for students to learn and be guided by adults they trust to care: to be honest with them and open and supportive.
  • Be a place where collaborative teamwork, recognition of individual and team efforts and successes together, and celebration of student differences and uniqueness is the norm.

So, what is School Day? We believe our results better speak for themselves. Check out how others have succeeded in making their school days better with School Day here! 

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