by Sadie Jones

On Thursday, December 3rd, every middle schooler and high schooler enrolled in South Washington County Schools received an email from their education system. However, it wasn’t just an ordinary email, it was an invitation! The message read, “SoWashCo is seeking input from all secondary students (6-12) in our inaugural Share Your Stories listening session.”

Share Your Stories was established by SWCS’s superintendent, Julie Nielsen alongside long-standing district leaders, Leah Boulos and Ashley Ruka. Their desire to magnify students’ voices prompted the three women to form the series of meetings. Nielsen explained further, “The reason for the Share Your Stories event is to hear from our students. The voices of our students matter and we want to elevate the amount of input and feedback we are getting from our students.”

With this motive, the very first Share Your Stories Voice Meeting was scheduled for Thursday, December 10th. Its conversation would surround the topic of hybrid and distance learning. These two concepts have been familiar to SWCS since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in March of 2020. Due to the fact that full-capacity, in-person learning was no longer safe, the district arranged the new learning models. SWCS’s hybrid and distance learning generated struggles and successes alike among students. For that reason, it was vital for the initial Share Your Stories Voice Meeting to be fixated on hybrid and distance learning. Nielsen clarified, “This specific session is important because we want to make sure that we are taking what is working in distance learning/ hybrid and continuing those things. In addition, listening closely to what is not going well and using that information to share with building leaders and teachers.”

December 10th, the big day, arrived and The Share Your Stories Voice Meeting began. Right away, Nielsen sought for students to share a piece of their story by asking an “ice-breaker” question. “What is your go-to snack?” she wondered.

From there, the theme of prioritizing the student perspective carried on, beginning with students highlighting the positive aspects of remote learning. First, virtual assignments and online lessons were mentioned with appreciation. The young adults described that if they were ill or out of town, they could keep a grip on their responsibilities because everything was online. Before remote learning was enforced, students in these circumstances would often fall behind. Later on, participants expressed their favor for office hours; another beneficial outcome of remote learning. Office hours take place after scheduled classes. Any student who is in need of extra help has access to join video calls with their instructors during this time. A final improvement to education that was made through remote learning in SWCS is that students can learn at their own pace. In the voice meeting, multiple kids agreed that pre-recorded video lessons fostered their prosperity in certain classes. This is because pausing or speeding up lessons is available to them. As students narrated the positive parts of their hybrid and distancing learning stories, district leaders remained attentive.

Attendees were divided into smaller groups next. In each one, either Nielsen, Boulos, or Ruka initiated discussions surrounding the obstacles and worries caused by hybrid and distance learning. Most often, students expressed that they struggled with a dense workload. Too much material is being assigned and deadlines are too sudden. Also, the participants informed district leaders that they felt as if they weren’t retaining knowledge from past months because of demanding tasks.

See Remote Learning Stories Page 9