“Back to School” Webinars Recap

Fall is around the corner and an unprecedented school year brings a host of questions. How is the school system changing? What education is going to be best for your family? What are the mental health effects of the coming weeks and months? Over the last two weeks, Be Strong Families has dedicated both of our English and Spanish daily webinar series to the theme of "Back to School” in order to address these questions and more. These webinars have given attendees and presenters the chance to engage in a variety of conversations around the concerns, questions, and reality of this school year. Each webinar focused on a new and different aspect of this year’s school experience. The grounded dialogue and interactions led to a sense of community as we listened to different life perspectives and found common themes that connected our experiences. Let’s go through a recap of some of these webinars and the presentations and discussions that brought each of them to life. 

On Mondays, we had open conversations. In the initial presentation, common questions about the unknowns of the coming school year were addressed, leading to productive conversations as we talked through our fears, stresses, and hopes. There was a recognition of huge disparities at play for many families, such as access to technology and internet, work-life situations for parents, and more—but at the same time, there was a sense of positivity. While this pandemic is unnerving and scary, we also have to consider the possibility for momentous change to a school system that needs to prepare our children for the present and future, instead of holding onto vestiges of the past. 

The following Monday, open conversations about change continued as we discussed COVID as a catalyst for transforming public education as we know it. Many inequities have been pushed to the forefront by COVID, and we revisited how the school system inadvertently trains its students for the past. The current system is rife with leftover elements from our previous agrarian and industrial societies. With information now serving as a commodity through the internet and the digital age, education must evolve away from rote memorization. The discussions and material in this webinar reinforced the understanding that while there are clearly negatives to the shutdown, we can utilize the changes it has brought about for good. 

Samantha Peterson, a Title I Director, joined us on both Tuesdays to talk about inclusion and growth for students. In the first session, Samantha clearly laid out the purpose, history, and benefits of Title I programs. Overall, the presence of Title I on a local level has helped students find programs that they otherwise might have never heard of, and attendees saw examples of Title I students who have flourished as they found opportunities to try new things and discover previously undiscovered passions. The resulting college and career programs, mentoring programs, and many other examples of Title I programming continue to be instrumental in furthering efforts for inclusion and diversity in the education system. 

For her following webinar, Samantha Peterson began a dialogue with attendees around the challenges of remote learning that children will face this year, and what potential hands-on solutions could look like. Attendees were put into breakout rooms, where they were able to dig deep and have conversations that were crucial, with many centering around how important one’s mindset is during this time. For many students, it’s a matter of having a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset, as the former stifles creativity, while the other encourages development. While remote learning may be seen as a challenge, within that challenge also resides an opportunity for adaptation and growth.

In both of our Wednesdays webinars, host Phyllis Alongi, joined us to discuss the psychological dimensions of our kids’ engagement with online and hybrid learning. In the first presentation, we had a conversation about the need to consider the uncertainty, anxiety, and disappointment that is going to occur for children, adolescents, and emerging adults as they see how their education has changed this school year. Throughout the “Back to School” webinars, a big theme that connected everyone is change. While not all change is good, we should always remember that the American educational system’s status quo was not sustainable or equitable for most students. The sudden changes caused by the pandemic are bringing to light the necessary conversations about inequality in the school system that we need to confront in order to improve our outdated educational system.

In her next presentation, Phyllis honed in on the wealth of knowledge we’ve learned over the last six months. We’ve learned lessons on how to slow down as a culture, how resilient our children are, and why parents need to talk about stress—and these lessons will be crucial moving forward. With the changes from COVID comes questions, especially from children. Simply ignoring these questions won’t make the situation better. Anxiety is on the rise, and we can confront that by letting our children vent their fears and then validating those fears while discussing tough political and social questions. In doing so, we have the chance to let children build and develop the empowerment, resilience, and “I can do anything” attitude they’ll need for this coming school year and beyond. 

In both of our Thursday webinars, educator Tracy Kirchmann gave presentations on the tricks that parents can use to teach more effectively. Let’s be honest—education during COVID is tough, and there are no wrong answers for parents when it comes to figuring out what is best for our kids and family dynamic. Attendees were able to discuss how to create a support network while utilizing Tracy’s top five teaching points for parents to focus on this school year, while recognizing that engaging, hands-on teaching will be different for each family. 

Tracy’s second presentation continued the discourse around teaching. The cohosts took questions from attendees and started a dialogue about how to encourage and sustain children’s motivation for learning. Tracy analyzed the pros and cons of both public education schooling and homeschooling, and emphasized there is no one right answer—each family must take into consideration their own needs in this national conversation. 

Both Friday discussions revolved around parent engagement, and the first webinar featured Nilofer Ahsan, a PTA President for a middle school in Oakland’s most diverse school district. By getting an overview of the challenges the district faced before and after the pandemic shutdown, attendees were able to have revealing conversations about the massive challenges that schools across the nation are going through. While these challenges are daunting, that main theme of change returned—there are no right answers to this situation, and by acknowledging the issues and tackling the problem head on, we are seeing a massive change in how schools can educate children, and how they are engaging and involving the parent community in that process. 

The final webinar in the “Back to School” series was hosted by Mirlene Dossous, a Family and Community Engagement Manager for ‎Chicago Public Schools. Mirlene outlined when it comes to ensuring a good education, it won’t just be children who have to be engaged during the school year—parents are critical in this process as well. By being engaged, parents offer a unique role in the educational development of a child. Attendees discussed the challenges we will face in the coming school year, and what we can do collectively to ensure the best possible education for our children.  

We hope that you enjoyed these webinars and discussions, and if you’re interested in watching these webinars, you can check them out on our YouTube page! We want to thank Lori Sanchez for organizing the Spanish webinars, and stay tuned for a “Back to School” blog with information on those wonderful sessions! We will continue to have daily webinars in both English and Spanish that encourage conversations about Staying Strong and Positive. Register for future webinars and be sure to invite your friends! If you or your colleagues would like to host a webinar with us, contact us at: COVID-19@bestrongfamilies.net.  

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