The Au Gres-Sims School District

With the extension of the order suspending in-person instruction for high school this past week, I want to take a moment to speak directly to our high school students and families. I know that virtual learning can be tough. I have been a virtual student myself for the past year, as well as several other times in the past, and I know first hand that it takes a lot of self-discipline to sit down and devote that time to doing your virtual work. Juggling this with other things going on in life can be tough! Having a few years of experience as a virtual learner myself, I want to share a few pieces of advice that have helped me tremendously along the way.

The first piece of advice is to build yourself a schedule and stick to it! Think of it in the sense of being here at school, being on a sports team, or having a job. There is a schedule written to tell you what classes to go to at certain times, when you have practices and games, or what day and time you are working a shift. This should be no different! You should write yourself a daily schedule (for example, school is from 9-1 each day) and then follow that schedule like you would any other. If you don’t feel confident in writing your own schedule - then follow ours!! 1st hour starts at 8:15, 2nd hour at 9:13 and so on. This will keep you on track and give you the structured schedule that is needed to be successful.

I also recommend setting yourself up with a designated area to work. I set up a desk in my house, and before that I worked at the dining room table. Sitting on the couch in the family room while Mr. Socha was watching ESPN after work was not working for me!! I set up an area, put on headphones to listen to instrumental music (lyrics distract me) and I was able to get things done much faster!!

My last piece of advice is to connect with others. Not sitting in a classroom and seeing the faces of the instructors and other classmates can be difficult. If I knew another person that was in my class, it was SO helpful to have that person to discuss assignments with or even to remind each other about due dates. I would recommend making a connection with a classmate or two and help each other to be accountable. You can work through things together just like you would if you were in class. It was also super helpful for me to connect with my teachers, both for the online Zoom meetings, over the phone, and through email. I especially found the class meetings (like Google Meets) to be the most helpful. Someone always had questions about the same things that I did, which oddly made me feel better to know that I wasn’t the only one with that same question! I always felt more prepared to tackle an assignment, once I had all of my questions answered and knew exactly what was expected. I can’t stress enough how important it is to attend the Google Meets that your teachers are hosting and to reach out to them for questions. They are here each day and they would love to see more of you attend the Google Meets. Many of these meetings only have 1 or 2 students show up. This is an opportunity for you to not only engage with your teacher, but also your classmates. I highly encourage you to make this a priority.

So much can stress us out - the upcoming holidays, living through a pandemic, school shifting to an online format, not seeing friends and family as often, and a host of other things. What if there was an easy way to manage that stress to feel more at ease? There are many proven methods to successfully manage stress. One of them is Mindfulness.

Mindfulness is the simple act of living in, and experiencing more deeply, the world around us. It necessitates slowing down enough to fully appreciate our environment. By concentrating on each of our senses (seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting and touching) we can more fully take in the moment.

Here is a basic example: eating a peanut. Put one peanut in your mouth and become mindful of what is happening. Can you taste the different layers - salt on the outside and more bland on the inside? Are you moving the peanut around with your tongue or crushing it with your teeth? Do you like the taste? Can you even smell the peanut? Do you hear it crunching as you chew? How does your mouth feel? As you chew is the texture changing? Is your body telling you to swallow the peanut? Just by slowing down and thinking more deeply about this simple act you may feel more relaxed.

Of course mindfulness can be applied to all sorts of different experiences, but is most effective when you can zero in on a single action. There are no wrong feelings or sensations when you practice mindfulness, but try to be non judgemental. For instance, in the peanut example above, telling yourself that you shouldn’t be snacking would be an example of self-judgement. Try to simply experience the moment.

Even if you don’t have extra time, incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine can help you to accept the feelings and situations around you. Try this relaxation technique a few times over the next week. You may find practicing mindfulness and the self-awareness it brings to be a relaxing experience. To learn more, the link provided here offers deeper insight into the benefits of mindfulness.