I teach at a community college, and we're experiencing the same issues. I talk with my students, and the reasons range from work changing their schedule weekly (me: "Have you considered talking to your manager?") to helping with the family (picking up/dropping off siblings). However, I've noticed more students increasingly relying on anxiety and "not feeling it today". And this is where you wrote something that really stood out to me:
“I’ve never been more prepared to support students who have missed class in getting caught up; AND I’ve never had fewer students utilize the supports/materials when they are absent.”
I point students to our Psychological Services. I personally know some of the counselors, so I'll do the "warm handoff". Yet...nothing. Students have given me the "it's not you, it's me" and I don't know how to respond to that. Thanks for writing this
Very much relate to this, and I think there are incredibly difficult challenges to navigate going forward in terms of how schools respond to and support the struggles students are bringing with them—including mental health, along with myriad other issues.
I don't have an answer for this, or even an inclination of which direction we need to move towards. I just wanted to write about the experience purely from the teacher's perspective of trying to maintain momentum with so many student absences—including many for completely understandable reasons!—and how exhausting this year has been in that landscape.
I teach at a community college, and we're experiencing the same issues. I talk with my students, and the reasons range from work changing their schedule weekly (me: "Have you considered talking to your manager?") to helping with the family (picking up/dropping off siblings). However, I've noticed more students increasingly relying on anxiety and "not feeling it today". And this is where you wrote something that really stood out to me:
“I’ve never been more prepared to support students who have missed class in getting caught up; AND I’ve never had fewer students utilize the supports/materials when they are absent.”
I point students to our Psychological Services. I personally know some of the counselors, so I'll do the "warm handoff". Yet...nothing. Students have given me the "it's not you, it's me" and I don't know how to respond to that. Thanks for writing this
Very much relate to this, and I think there are incredibly difficult challenges to navigate going forward in terms of how schools respond to and support the struggles students are bringing with them—including mental health, along with myriad other issues.
I don't have an answer for this, or even an inclination of which direction we need to move towards. I just wanted to write about the experience purely from the teacher's perspective of trying to maintain momentum with so many student absences—including many for completely understandable reasons!—and how exhausting this year has been in that landscape.
Glad it resonated, and appreciate your response!