Simon Youth Academies are more than just a school to their students. Our Academies provide a safe space, both physically and emotionally for students, where they can come to be seen and heard, to learn and to receive personalized support from their teachers. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many Simon Youth Academy educators to shift approach in how they would teach, communicate with and support their students.
The pandemic did not deter Simon Youth Academy leaders and teachers. While balancing their own families, SYF educators adopted new strategies for teaching and staying closely engaged with students in a virtual environment. Many logged more hours of work, often outside of a standard school day, so that the students working on the front lines have access to engaging, educational and meaningful experiences. Through it all, they ensured students reached graduation day because #SYFMeansGraduation #NoMatterWhat.
As the 2019-2020 academic year comes to a close, Simon Youth Foundation asked educators for their reflections on the challenges and successes of the year. In the following reflections, there is a consistent theme of being committed to doing whatever it took to help their students navigate both school and challenges in their personal lives – consistently going above and beyond what would occur in a traditional school classroom. SYF educators truly emulate that SYF Means Graduation, and nothing was going to prevent them from helping their students achieve this significant milestone.
These reflections are from some of SYF’s many esteemed educators, several of whom have been members of the SYF network for many years. Several of these educators have been named SYF Administrators and Teachers of the Year in the past, and are participants in SYF’s highly sought after professional development fellowship program. Read these thoughtful firsthand accounts of the challenges and opportunities of educating through a global pandemic.
Jill Graham, SYF 2019 Administrator of the Year, Simon Youth Academy at Burlington (Burlington, MA): The pandemic has definitely brought many unique challenges to my role as an educator and director of our Academy. I feel that remote learning disrupted the heart of teaching by interfering with the student-teacher relationships. While we could connect virtually, it obviously is not the same as meeting in person; it was difficult to read body language, gauge engagement, check for understanding, or even notice if a students was having a bad day. So many of my students are able to thrive at our academy because of the trusting relationships they had formed with their teachers. However, having a supportive group of colleagues definitely pushed me through; even if it was just a group of teacher friends to vent my frustrations to, helped me to move forward. Checking in with other schools and teachers gave me some great ideas to implement. If anything, I think this has made students, parents, and teachers all more appreciative about education and being in school.
Sonia Ledger, SYF 2018 Teacher of the Year, Simon Youth Academy at Outlet Marketplace (Orlando, FL): These past few months have been challenging to say the least. As a lead teacher I found it very hard to align my role with distance learning because my role is mostly about relationships and keeping the students safe at school, making sure day to day operations run smoothly, etc. This was difficult for me at first, but I realized that I could use my leadership of the school and relationships I had built with the students and parents to continue to support our teachers. I hoped that would free them to focus on content and best practices. I consider this new ability as a tool to add to my tool belt. I hope these past few months have taught adults, that if they themselves were finding it difficult to function through these circumstances (and we have fully formed brains that can differentiate and make critical decisions), then they should have learned to give a bit of grace where grace was due to young people.
Dennis Herzog, 2014 SYF Administrator of the Year, Huntington Beach Unified High School District (Huntington Beach, CA): I have been on the front lines of public education for over 40 years and as a school psychologist for 35 of those years. The current times are the most extraordinary and difficult in my working history. Not being able to sit across from students, not being able to see their facial expressions and not being available to them on a moment’s notice has been extremely difficult. Technology has been useful up to a point but does not replace the human contact or interaction that is necessary when you are trying to help a student through a crisis or difficult family situation. I will never stop trying to reach out to our students regardless of the circumstances.
Laura Meyer, 2020 SYF Bader Fellow, Simon Youth Academy at Port Charlotte Town Center (Port Charlotte, FL): This epidemic is certainly one of those life changing experiences-up there with the Vietnam War, Kent State, the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the 1987 financial crash, and more recently, and most upsetting, the 911 attacks. Events this large make one wonder if life will ever be “normal” again. We used our phones and texted, we used our computers and video chatted, we worked the electronics and the majority of our students graduated — but a piece of paper cannot replace the tears of joy and the hug at the ceremony that make the experience of going to school a measure of character and gaining a celebrated sense of success in making your goal a reality. That just has to be done for real and in person.
Darla Merrill, 2010 SYF Teacher of the Year, Simon Youth Coast High School Academy (Huntington Beach, CA): This has been a trying time for everyone. I continued reaching out to all of my students and when they didn’t respond, I reached out to their parents. If they were not responding to my texts, videos or emails, I would call and leave messages. I would continue to do that until I connected with someone. Always in the spirit of checking in to see how they were doing. After graduation, Brenda, a SYF scholarship recipient, texted me these words, “Thank you so much Ms. Merrill. Thank you for everything you taught me these years. I really do appreciate it that you always believed in me and told me I could do anything I set my mind to”. I just continued to believe in my students, give them hope that everything will work out and most of all, continued communicating with them when their world as they knew it was no longer as they knew it. I know as a teacher in alternative education, that many times school, the structure it provides, and the interaction with their teachers is the most consistent thing in their lives. I just tried my best to maintain that for them during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnike Shuler, 2020 SYF Bader Fellow, Simon Youth Judson Learning Academy (San Antonio, TX): These past few months as an educator, a mother, and a wife of a first responder have made me more grateful, to say the least. I know this reflection is about my perspective as an educator; however, I realized that when I work from home all my roles were being juggled equally and simultaneously (and there truly were no vacation days). These months have made me value relationships, communication, my support system, a self-care routine (which became extremely important) and the opportunities I have to impact the lives of the people (especially my students) who I come in contact with on a daily basis. As a teacher who has been in the classroom for 14 years, with 4 of those years at JLA, changing and adjusting to circumstances that are out of my control has become very familiar territory. This pandemic highlighted the importance of my role as an educator – meeting my students’ physiological, social emotional, and educational needs in an environment that is subject to change at a moment’s notice. Consequently, it is absolutely important that we, as educators, move forward with the mission of building relationships and educating our students.
Ido Ikudabo, Simon Youth Academy at McKinley Alternative School (Kokomo, IN): When I look back and reflect on all that we have been through in the academic school year 2019-2020, we graduated 17 seniors with Core-40 from our school. We also had one SYF scholarship recipient, Ms. Ciara Rose Jewell. This success is a credit to all of our professional educators, who rolled up their sleeves to work with our students by making phone calls, visiting homes, and more. These same incredible educators also served meals to people in our communities. During these uncertain times, I truly found out the fundamentals behind students choosing to learn. We, as educators, empower them to make decisions about their own learning while guiding them through the learning process. All in all, I think the distance learning experience was a success. Our staff adapted, rose above issues, and conquered the tasks that they encountered. They met students when and where they needed help, on their schedule. They were flexible on due dates, and really tried to accommodate students’ needs. I am proud of our staff and students.
All of us at SYF are so thankful for our dedicated educators for working tirelessly, especially these last few months, to ensure SYF means graduation – no matter what. If you’d like to read their reflections on the academic year in more detail, please visit this link.
The 2020-2021 academic year lies ahead, and no one is certain what surprises it will hold. All of us at SYF believe our students will persist because of the passion, dedication and support of their amazing educators.
Please join us in continuing to celebrate student and educator successes by following SYF on social media.
To help support our incredible educators in their mission to help students graduate, please consider making a donation to SYF in their honor: donate.syf.org/2020Graduate.
