001hello I'm super Mike Morris and thank you so much for joining this livestream we are thrilled to have three counselors one from the elementary one from the middle and one from the high school level on today and the focus of our talks today and the Q&A will be about students supporting students emotional health and well-being we know this is a particularly difficult time for many of our students and families both in terms of the kind of fears that are out there in terms of virus but also because also due to the fact that school the school closure and the extent of that school closure particularly with the news this week that will last for the rest of this academic year and so we have three great people on to help talk with us about it
002and so each of them are going to spend you know between three and five minutes describing some common challenges students are facing and and some thoughts of how families can support their children and then the last 20 minutes or so will be Q&A so you may see that there's a question-and-answer there's a question or chat feature on this certainly can use it sooner but they can be better to wait a little later and we'll be opening up for more ongoing dialogue and support but our first person we're gonna have on is summit Academy counselor Jamie Knox and so I'll bring her on so she can share starting with the adolescent at the high school levels just some common challenges that may be happening and some tips again for you for families on how to support
003them so thank you Jamie for being here and I'm gonna scoot off so it's all Jamie thank you thanks everybody so again as dr. Maura said I'm going to be speaking with parents and teens about the adolescent crowd so just want to start today talking off about some typical signs that your adolescent is reacting to some stress and there is an abundance of that in our environment right now so these stress reactions may look like things physical symptoms often crop up headaches stomachaches rashes you may notice sleep or appetite disturbances some increase in agitation they may be more active or irritable decrease in energy they might be isolating more than usual or it just kind of has a different flavor to it they may be having some kind of increased concerns about stigma and in
004justices as they see them in the news in their daily life in general this is a good thing but if it's an or behavior or it has an edge to it it just might be an indicator of some increased anxiety and this is how it's being channeled you may notice that your teen is trying to exert control over the things that they can right now so they may be a little more rigid and less flexible and they're thinking they may want to sleep when they want to sleep watch things they want to watch and they may be slightly less open to your suggestions otherwise so just please everybody choose your battles safely and just choose your battles for your own sanity they may be resistant to or outright ignore some of the home rules that
005you've set in place around physical distancing and also lastly their coping skills and ability ability to tolerate stress may regress to a younger time in their life and so it may seem like they're handling these things like they did when they were 10 or 11 years old and as parents you'll be able to see that so here's some tips about how to manage that for both parents and kids so parents in regards to physical symptoms offer soothing do whatever generally makes them feel better and after the symptoms have passed let them know that stress does affect our bodies this is a helpful thing to be aware of and just be reminded of in the moment you know anyone get nauseous before a big test it's kind of something similar to that for parents and for
006all take care of yourselves first and foremost the two analogies that come to mind you know when you're on the plane and the and the flight attendant is saying you know case of an emergency put your own oxygen mask on first and also in the more challenging moments that it does take two to tango so what I'd recommend is just trying to spend a little bit of time thinking about your own triggers to stress and how you generally respond to stress as well as your teens triggers and responses because there is an abundance of stressors in our environment right and so in this case an ounce of prevention and thinking about these things is really worth a pound of cure general examples of triggers changes in routine lack of alone time we're all kind of
007on top of one another right now in our homes not eating well having to manage working from home and co-parenting and there's just so much out there so remember that when we are stressed we are far less effective communicators so if your teen is telling you or you sense that they are stressed or scared or upset don't minimize or avoid their concerns this can sound things like it's going to be fine stop worrying everything's going to be okay instead listen with interest and let you know let them know that you hear them that it's okay to feel scared and worried help them just sit with those feelings share - with words appropriate to their age if you also feel stressed or uneasy in this way you're teaching your child that's possible to feel really uncomfortable
008and awful and not fall apart under the weight of those feelings you're teaching them how to tolerate stress if you do fall apart and you have a less-than-stellar parenting moment congratulations you're human and if you don't please in the comments tell me your secret the trick with this is just to acknowledge and talk about without getting into too much depth if we've if we've made a misstep and let the let your team know that sometimes we break down and that's okay if you go there had a difficult time apologize own it acknowledge it this is known as a repair attempt and please remember to have compassion for yourself and do know that the most healing part of any relationship is when we've made a misstep and we make an attempt to repair it lastly just
009kind of give your team the benefit of the doubt if they're having a really hard time or if they've made a mistake they will its predictable it's age appropriate approach them when you're calm especially if there's a conflict of foot and be really ready to hear what they have to say be curious and listen and ask questions to help better understand their point of view and this keeps the conversation open and in general we all benefit from routines try to create them stick to them and most importantly right now let yourself and your kids off the hook when you stray from those well-intentioned routines like to hear my other colleagues as well so thank you and I look forward to the questions thank you so much Jamie for that insightful piece I'm thinking about our
010all the students in our district and we're gonna work our way down so the next up is going to be Hector Santos whose accounts there at our regional middle school talking about the pre-adolescent and middle adolescent student and I think there's going to be overlaps between what you hear from all three counselors but there are unique parts just developmentally where students are and how they're processing this information so I'm gonna get Hector on the line yes good afternoon my name is Hector Sanders and I'm the show's been canceled Amber's middle school and I recommend supona children wellness at home through the three C's color matrices and the first one is communication for our middle students just to talk into so on significant about the negative feelings can be very healthy so parents issues set aside
011a checking time during the afternoon especially like a 7:00 p.m. to ask your child about the day in general you could ask questions like how do you feel if there's anything new you learn today about these crisis and so on and I think that you should use what we call active listening which is like be attentive you know noting what you had you know convey that you listen attentively to what they have to say no interruptions so supervise what your child is watching on the media's you know there's a lot of competition for the you know the last news on the media so you should tell your children not to know all the information on the Internet is accurate and he he and he should consult with you if there's any questions about any information
012that he heard on the news in always communicate positive information you know say positive statements this is temporary our best days are ahead of us and this should pass soon the second strategies that we can use as consistency and on these difficult changing times and with the schools closed this is I think one of the biggest challenge for all of us and it's important to create rules and routines yeah parents should create a schedule with the student input because as you know this part of the developmental stage that they usually goes against everything that that we say to them so it's important that they have an input on when you create the schedule because these he's gonna be more likely to follow through so the schedule may include time to study time to play outside
013physical activity and even time to play video games so don't forget time to interact with friends and family as you know friends friends are the most important thing for the middle school and also important element on the schedule is that there needs to be implemented with fidelity so don't forget it once you create a schedule to follow through faithfully last one is the control in control in the form of a software plan the thing that is important to be proactive rather than reactive in school we call it prevention versus intervention so we should create a plan you should create a plan with your children in case of an emotional reaction this is gonna give your child a sense of control in case of any given prospective situation for example you can discuss well what do
014you do when you feel it over well will you feel in inches what what is help so because you're inside it could be things like deep breathing go for a walk or even listen to music and finally I think that this is the best strategy that any parent can practice with the children and he's and always work in his affection 15 the wish you heart over children many times during the day and let them know how much we love thank you so much Hector and as I have a student just entering a child rather just entering that phase of life that's its ring and true to me and I have another child who's going to be I'm looking forward to the advice of our next speaker which is Tara Luce who's going to talk more
015about the elementary elementary age student developmentally and what they may experience and some tips from them so I'll get Tara on here Thank You Tara and welcome thank you hi everyone it was so great to hear my colleagues speak they had really important and relevant things to say I wanted to start by just acknowledging that you know our families across the district are really experiencing a broad spectrum of challenges and they have really just we all have a wide array of different resources to meet them and so we definitely think about as counselors those basic needs being met are so important so if you as a family are having any challenge with basic food needs that kind of thing please reach out to your counselor please reach out to our Family Center because though that
016platform it allows us to be able to start thinking about the emotional needs of our families I also want to say that I've been just working so often in meetings with colleagues I've been on the phone with parents I am a parent so I really see both how hard our teachers are working and how hard our families are working and how really challenging this all is I will tell you from the perspective of having an 11 year old and spouse who's working full-time from home we're lucky enough to have our jobs and at this point I think my kid is feral and so just coming to that perspective of it's so hard to be balancing alright I have three minutes right now that I can attend to you is and so I really am thinking
017about how to bring in ten and real focus in the times I'm with her I know my kid you all know your kids and so really thinking here's the time I have to really listen to them to pay attention and really bringing my full focus to them to her when when worked when I had those moments because she responds to that I think the other thing is so I've got my kid who sort of like tipping towards teenage years and so I'm also really paying attention to those moments when she's really honestly available to me and trying to jump in at those moments I think what I've noticed for the family as I've spoken to and for my own child is there are really big moments of temper tantrums or shutdowns there are times when
018the sir certainly sarcasm is on the rise and I think you know it's easy to react to that and I'm really trying to push myself to look underneath that look at the upset feelings that might be causing those sort of behaviors that I'm not necessarily used to seeing as regularly and then helping my child work through those feelings is really important so really sort of looking past the anger that your child might be showing you towards what could be underlying sadness or underlying worries or anxiety and helping them work through that Crocker farm we've been really putting out a lot of information about mindfulness there's a lot of really good science behind taking a minute to take a deep breath to take a minute to really pay attention to what's around us and staying in
019the moment you know interestingly that's not necessarily my home channel and so I also really pushing movement because when really super physically active that has so many layers of impact on our health and well-being including our emotional health and so I'm really encouraging families to find what is your home channel around movement is it a dance party is it yoga in the living room is it boot style workout boot camp style workout and how to engage and pull our kids into those things because moving our bodies is one of the ways that we really are able to stay emotionally healthy the other thing that I've really talked to a lot of families about is doing what works for your family really centering your family and your family's needs and setting up routines that work for
020you I know I've talked to a lot of parents and they're worried they're worried about what the long-term impacts are going to be on their on their child and I think one of the things that we can do for our kids is live as much in the moment week as we can and set up systems and routines that really support the whole family and so whether your kid is learning through cooking or learning through Legos or learning through puzzles that family time is really as part of what's going to be super key to that child feeling grounded and therefore do better have better outcomes I'm really looking forward to answering some questions thank you so much for listening Thank You Tara so at this point we're gonna get our whole team on here so that
021everyone can see them see if I can actively wow there we go and so we really I want to start by thanking the three of you in a relatively short amount of time I think you've actually described the developmental levels during a crisis and I'm glad we asked we have such talented folks at our staff because this could easily be like a Mass General Hospital conversation but you all are so grounded actual work with children no disrespect Ms General Hospital but in it was working with children and children in this community in this district that it was great to hear and and I think for many of our viewers I'm sure they agree with you could see the flow of the conversation from Jamie talking about our older students to hector then to tara and
022there was a lot of overlap and what you said and yet the differences are real in terms of developmental pieces so i'm going to look through the comments and if there's anyone who wants to have a comment or a question rather they certainly can i had a couple people who emailed me questions parents guardians in the district so i'll probably start with those and i'll keep an eye out for the comments but one of one of the questions i received was my child is expressing sadness of the loss of spring activities that let excision sports in the spring social events like dances trips to Six Flags and without school and these offense they're really really sad so what advice might you offer for for a parent who's whose child's expressing those kind of feelings and
023those those sorts of very reasonable emotions given that context and anyone could start and jump in that a world so I would say for and I work with the older kids Tara Hunter it was so great to hear your voices I just thank you for sharing your pieces I learned a lot and I've got kids at the elementary age so Tara thank you and so when I think about you know kids having a process through information coming at them the unknown of the kind of what's gonna be happening in the weeks and months ahead validation which I spoke to a little bit is just a really key part of kind of listening and helping your adolescent and child process some painful stuff and so what validation is is kind of listening with your whole heart
024not rushing to problem-solve as parents I think sometimes we are just desperate to help our kids feel better or provide them answers that we just may not have and so when your kids expressing some sadness and frustration about activities that won't be happening again sitting with them acknowledging their feelings seeing the wisdom and and that it makes sense that they're feeling that way reflecting that back to them again just not rushing into trying to problem-solve and if you see particularly teenagers if they've opened that door and they're actually talking to you which is like very exciting you know part of what you want to do is just be watching them if they start to kind of glaze over or you're losing them it might be just something for you to keep in mind that you
025might have jumped into problem-solving too soon you might have stopped validating and just sitting with them and you might be trying to problem-solve and so these things are going to take time to process and the more you can model just sitting with them the more comfortable they're gonna get doing that on their own over the course of their lives okay I think let's hire did you want to jump in I'll just just yeah you're totally right and I also think it's you know I read an interesting article that recently the title was it's okay to not be okay so our kids it's okay for them not to be okay right now and just especially for young kids it's a really good reminder that you're the way you feel right now that will change you won't
026always feel this sad you will always feel this mad that our feelings change naturally and so it's good because sometimes when you're in it so much it's hard to know that it this too shall pass yep for the next question I'm gonna try to display it on the screen see if it's our first go around at this technology but yeah it worked do we talk to young kids like for instance kindergarten about the long term process or focus in the short term if the former how do we have this conversation so maybe I'll start with you Tara given the age group that the question came from yeah first for sure I would focus on for kindergartners on the short term the developmentally they don't have the same sense of permanence in time that we do
027as of yet and it will be enough to focus on the short-term I think listening to our kids I think there's been a lot of talk today about really listening so if they have a long-term question you know I would answer it but I would answer it in a short and succinct way because I think living for the moment and living in the now is very kindergarten age way first of all and and it also living in the now is very a mindful way of living the living too far out in the future sort of breeds that anxiety thank you the next question I'm going to bring up talks about a certain age group but I will say that I'm hearing it from every age group in our district and it's about being a child
028being concerned about not being ready for fourth grade and I'm hearing that from families and children across the age levels banned including 11th graders who were concerned about what does it mean for 12th grade courses and you know can i still take this math class all the way down to the youngest students so Jamie do you mind starting us on this one and they maybe could all have all three respond because I think the concern is acute across it sort of it may feel different and be expressed differently but it is something we're hearing from families and students across the bands yeah sure so so there's kind of you know there's there's many different interventions with this one and so a couple of thoughts would be you know number one I think we are as
029a society so focused on being productive and getting things done and having to be ready that this is this is a time where we're all being kind of forced to slow down and what that does mean as we are missing some time and learning I have such tremendous faith in our teachers I have a I have a kiddo at Crocker and I'm so impressed by them I work closely with Hector and folks at the middle school and those teachers and teachers at the high school I just I have a lot of faith that one thing you can let your child know is that they are going to be received very warmly next year their teachers will be considering all of this we know the expectations have shifted and so that might be the answer to
030that piece and then the underlying is that there's some anxiety in there right and so there's some anxiety about not doing enough not not being prepared enough and so to Tara's point earlier about being intentional finding strategies to help your kiddos cope with anxiety using mindfulness and and other pieces Thank You Hector from the middle school level yes for the middle I think that like Tara was saying and Jamie before I didn't acknowledge is very important because you usually when when a fourth grader said I'm not ready to for the next you know I'm not ready for school I'm not ready for the fourth grader for the fifth or sixth grade whatever grade it is they don't really don't know he's really they're feeling so usually when you talk to the child you should go
031to the details okay you telling me you know feel ready could you tell me exactly one means not to be ready for the next grade and then when when they start talking about the details then with that's when you doing the work you know because they I'm pretty sure is like 80% for abilities that they won't give you any details you know is only a feeling you know they won't say although I need days I need more multiplication or I need to know geometry before go to the next level so I think that if you go to the details I think the person the child is going to convince himself or herself that is really a failing and this really doesn't have any reason not to feel that it's not ready it's not ready for
032the next grade level thank you Tara yeah you know I interrupted my daughter talking to a friend today about not being ready for seventh grade and not not all the things that they anticipated we're gonna happen this spring that we're gonna help them get ready for seventh grade and she said I used my counselor voice but I did interrupt and say you know they're smart people at the district and like directors and principals and teachers and and psychologists and alter are already trying to think like how can we vision next and how can we make it good and right so just reassuring your child that there are a lot of people who are already starting to look at this question and make this the softest landing that kids can have yeah yeah I'm gonna step
033out of my facilitator role and actually jump in on Terra's point there is that something that you'll see in a newsletter that's coming out today our weekly one is that we want students and families to realize at the beginning of the school year next year is not going to look like a typical beginning of the school year that our staff are highly cognizant both academically as well as socially that our kids are going to come in in a different place they haven't been in the same building with their peers and five well they won't have been in their buildings with peers for five months the adults haven't been together for five months and that's its own challenge because we're all as human beings were used to that social connections that are occurring much like we
034are in a virtual context right now and so it is we're going to be doing a lot of work over the next few months to plan how that works but it won't be business as usual it won't be okay we're gonna open up our math books and we're gonna start out with the fourth grade curriculum and that's going to start on day one we're gonna be very cognizant that it's going to be a definite different spring and we're gonna have some really smart people as Tara said including counselors teachers and others they're working on what that entry point looks like but but I think until we get there I know it's hard but if it does help to communicate it to your child or even to know yourself as a parent as as many of
035us talked about in the call we have these dual roles that we're not planning next September 2nd to look like a typical September 2nd a typical first day of school the first week or first month of school because not we're not a typical environment right now and we're you know it's the terrible cliche about I always get cliches wrong but round pay square peg round hole right all those kind of things we consistently as a district priority look at the whole child and the whole child's gonna look different this fault and they did last fall that's just the nature of it so I agree with whatever and said but I wanted to say even from a district perspective terrorists spot on that we are going to approach this task quite differently than we have in
036the past there this is another one going to display that I've seen quite a bit and I don't think well it's talking it in at the elementary level it's not the only ones that only place I've seen it which is some level of shyness anxiety about being in an online class with teachers I think for some students they're incredibly excited about that and for other students we've heard this from significant number of people that you know getting online and seeing people and being aware of this format is really new for students and students who may be very comfortable in an improv aeronaut everyone's been comfortable in an online environment so I didn't know if anyone wanted to jump in some tips or some thoughts of how to support families with that Tara no so yeah
037I've been just because I've been hearing this a lot and I think experiencing it with my own child I think we all come to the online platform with different experience but also you know different strengths and weaknesses around I think young kids especially can get really visually an auditorium overstimulated it can be really challenging I think that like any new thing it's worth making attempts to to practice it because what we get what we practice we get better at I would say start short and sweet and structured to the extent that you can and maybe even smaller so maybe similar video chatting with a close relative or a close friend it are all ways to sort of build up that callus for a kid and I also think like it is definitely not worth picking
038a huge fight over it's not worth the battle or to cause that upset or disrupted experience but so you know really pick that balance but start slow and short and small enough Hector Jaime anything you'd like to add yes I think there's some things we need to be careful in we need to find out if this is lack of will or lack of skill you know just something you know children at that age they don't have the skills to go in a video conference like even for us at all completely mere never mind time you know so I guess we need to determine first this is lack of a will or lack of skill you know it does lack of skills we need to teach the skill first and then with a child feel comfortable
039with the skill then we go to the next level which which will be the bit wilt yeah I think the last thing that I would say would be you know I think we are also cognizant and aware as counselors and and dr. Morris is superintendent that we do have you know there are some students and families for whom you know there especially with the older kids a lot of battling about doing homework and that creates an tremendous amount of stress and so please if that's what's happening in your home we we do not as educators and counselors and administrators want you having to battle with your kids about doing work we don't want you recreating that stress at home further kind of upsetting everybody and making things so much more painful and difficult you as
040Tara said so so wonderfully earlier you know your children this is during this time especially when there is so much stress and uncertainty on a good day this is about remaining connected with your family and so if you're if you're struggling around those school pieces please reach out to you know parents please reach out to to educators and people and their teachers in the building and try and problem-solve with them so that this isn't this isn't a painful thing on top of everything else to be dealing with at home something I with my Parenthood on I've seen other parents try and we tried it this week is also for some families for some children getting on but not having the video on is a safe fourth entry point so that they can be experienced in
041and in my case wonderful the teacher asked much knew that my child does not ask the question my child answered it went back to mute so that for some children may be a strategy as an entry point that feels more comfortable for them I agree with everything that said not to disagree with you know any of the points the three counselors made but I hadn't really thought of that until I saw another parent do it and and I see another thought from actually another staff person so I'll just read it out loud I'm really enjoying this technology sorry a sticky tape over their own picture you know it is I'm still not used to looking at myself when I talk I'm on these calls not YouTube calls but video conference calls way more in the
042last month and the rest of my life combined and so just thinking about that I think that's a really sticky note that's KP tape but yeah as she notes in a later comment I think that's a really helpful tool as well and I think thinking of strategies again to get kids started to avoid the conflicts that people said but just because you're on a call it doesn't mean you have to have your facing either by anyone or you have to see yourself on it so thank you Emily I love that idea see a couple more questions that came through there the next two are sort of both about transitions so why don't we start with this one which is about the high school transition seniors who are grieving the loss at the end of their
043high school careers traditions and rites of passage that come with senior spring so I think I'll ask Jamie to respond to this one because I know you have a couple graduating students at your site and yeah yeah so I think you know one strategy might be depending on how your senior is talking about this and like let's always take a moment it's heartbreaking to think that they're not going to have this this moment and so their grief is completely understandable and if you need to cry with them and share in that pain that's a really powerful moment sometimes and so one thing that I would offer and something Hector said earlier got me thinking about is sometimes in the details and so if your student is seniors worried about not having these kind of rites
044of passage maybe talking through with them what would it have meant to have had that what feeling do they think they would have experienced walking across that big stage and so if they there is something about being able to kind of narrate that that fantasy that allows them to access what those feelings would have and we'll help them process a little bit better so that's one strategy another is just appreciating that the grief process is varied and in fact this may be a grief process for many of them and so you can just kind of google the the seven stages of grief and you may notice anger and bargaining and acceptance and and it may go back and forth all the time and they may express you know anger at the schools being closed again
045validate listen don't rush to kind of create any answers or tell them that what they're feeling doesn't make sense so those would be some of my initial thoughts on it yeah and I'll jump in on that one also to note that this was this is it's a really good question and it's a gigantic gigantic thing four students were seniors and to the point where if then if you watch the press conference for the governor to close schools for the rest of the academic year he made a specific point to speak in his way directly to seniors and he offered some language so I think also acknowledging perhaps even that you know at the highest level of the governor recognizes how hard this must be I know at our high school there were surveys that went
046out to students and families about end of year activities and that the intent was that not just to gather feedback and have students be involved decision-making that was certainly true but also to give them some ownership and so I think if there are similar things that they can have any feedback for the schools we're really open to hearing that we want to make decisions that give students that feeling that agency that even in this situation they're still they have some sense of control in some sense of how graduation and and what will happen to some of those end of your activities and we've gotten some fantastic ideas from students so thank you and from families thank you for participating but you know it is my heart goes out to them you know it really is
047a rite of passage and I think transitioning to a similar or not similar but I think maybe some similar you know because some of that senior piece is the loss of the end of your activities some of it's the normal anxiety that happens when high school students graduate it's all wrapped together and it's really hard to untangle but this question is looking at a sixth grader worried about a jump to middle school and not being prepared so I think I'll have a hectare start maybe Terra jump in also yes good yes like I said before I think that one of the good questions for that is asking you know what why are you being that being prepared what you need to be prepared for for middle school and then go to the details so that
048way you're gonna see better what he really meant by by now being prepared for middle school so I think that that will be - just to start you know with the conversation as the student give you the details you're gonna have a better picture how to answer you know he will say something like I'm not sure I don't think that I'm a baby I'm not mature enough and whatever they say you know you're gonna have a better picture so to answer any questions that they may have and also he would be also good like the way like I miss it before go to sixth grade before go to middle school you know to our school visit is that possible you know it's all in there that's one of you there the strategist later my sixth
049grader is definitely feeling this and it's similar to answer the question or the fourth grade parent I think we're gonna we're gonna figure this out together and we're that your sixth graders should know that the vast majority of sixth graders feel this way and we're gonna figure it out all together and make the landing as possible so I'm just going to call that director very good yep and we're nearing the end of our time I'm just gonna respond to a couple of other comments so there's a question about the parameters for online interactions with virtual outreach to students and I you know I can answer that one which is there's a wide berth for teachers to make the best decisions that they have students that they have and it's a hard decision to make as
050we heard from people who who students in terms of being online live calls are not participating and so their sensitivity around that there's also sensitivity that many families have parent or parents who are working in the homes of being online at a specific time is it a isn't available or isn't possible for many families who don't want their children online without them being in the room so you know I think what we've said is that two staff members is try to make the best decisions we have a survey going out today to gather feedback both on that and you know I know there's a see there's another comment about being challenged and what I would say is educators but their whole career is preparing for something and this isn't it but it's not what people
051went to school for and I think our staff have done a fantastic job in five weeks trying to transition from what we know is school to something very different to what we know is school understanding that there was technological differences emotional differences and how people were processing this and the fact and you've heard a couple of you mention it that many of our staff members have their own children at home which sometimes in my life I will say happens that sometimes get in the way of me doing what I want to do at a certain moment of time and so we're putting out that survey so we gather feedback so we can understand how staff members are experiencing distance learning how families are mentioning or experiencing distance learning and we'll share that feedback so we
052can continually improve this process over the rest of the spring now that we know it's lasting all spring and so I see a couple comments but I think the big thing I say on that front on academic front is please share that feedback with us we're open to it and we want to hear it and I'm interested in hearing both of the staff and the parent feedback and how do we match those as we move forward you know and I see some comments about more live zoom meetings I'm an anti zoom person so I'll leave that for another day but that product I guess I shouldn't say that on a live stream but but in any case I think there's been a real mix and I'm looking forward to the feedback because the question before
053and the question about some people not getting on so people liking that and is it to have 21 six-year-olds analyze Rihanna's zoom column what's what are some of the benefits of that and even in sixth grade you know I think it's it's a real real challenge so I would I acknowledge those comments I'm just concerned because we've got about two minutes before you have to wrap up but there was a comment I'm not going to display it on the screen but just a sixth grader who's been crying each night about how much she misses her teacher and won't get back to her again and so I just wondered if for my counseling point of view would advice you to give that parent and I think we've just spoken to it a bit but just the
054acknowledging the sadness acknowledging that it's a real loss and look up the stages of grief because it will go back and forth and this self-care you know just you know there's mindful apps that you can download and you and your child could listen together for a few minutes to a mindful app before going to sleep and just sort of start disrupting that pattern a little bit because it's good to feel the sadness and we're such conditional creatures and see it's easy to see bedtime all the sudden as the cry time which can be good so you know walk that fine line but you know having some deep breathing mindful moments but my child is definitely grieving the loss of her sixth grade teacher who she sees you know during each week but she's definitely grieving
055that loss as well so I feel that here are the thoughts from Hector Jamey about I mean even though I may be an elementary question I know the same things true may manifest itself differently the secondary level but that structure consistency and kind of connection and relationship I should say with teachers at the secondary level anything you'd add to what Tara said yeah I mean I think what I would what I would add is just you know parents caregivers foster parents out there watching you all know your child's best and so please be thoughtful and thinking about is is this crying that's happening normal because we all cope differently and it takes some of us a little bit longer to process if you're starting to get worried that this is a little bit a little
056bit more than maybe some sadness and missing the teacher and that you're needing some extra help please please please connect to the resources that you already have if you're at Crocker maybe call Tara if you are at the different levels you know Hector and I are certainly available please know that you can definitely reach out there's a lot of mental health resources in the community CSO service net if you want to speak to their intake workers about what's going on it's been my experience as I've transitioned over to kind of telehealth with all of my students doing individual sessions that the online format isn't as awkward or uncomfortable as I thought it might be so please don't hesitate to reach out and and try and kind of expand your circle a little bit if you
057notice that your child's reactions are are getting a little bit more intractable and you're having a harder time figuring out how to how to help them general rule we should always validate children's feelings you know there were minimized and always be legitimate and genuine then you know show respect and I'm pretty sure that will by showing respect you're gonna start with a very good working relationship so it's three o'clock when we said we'd end certainly there's incredible amount more that you could have and I see some of the comments about perhaps doing more of these but I really want to thank Jamie Hector and Tara because I've learned a tremendous amount I know about 130 hundred forty people a live stream at the highest point so I appreciate that this is being recorded so for
058people that couldn't get on at this time we'll try to provide that resource for everyone but thank you all I really appreciate your time and all the work you're doing and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend thank you thank you thank you