We ask a lot of our military kids. They have to adapt quickly, handle change well, and build a new community for themselves from one military move to the next. They navigate being kids while a parent or loved one serves our country, often away from home. April is designated as Month of the Military Child, a time to pause and recognize the service and sacrifices of military kids of all ages. Here are some thoughts on how to celebrate military kids each month of the year.

April

Month of the Military Child is an official month of observance in the United States that occurs each year in April. We wear purple. We decorate our schools with flags and posters. We highlight our military students and invite them to share their stories. We honor their contributions. Collectively, we do a pretty good job of making military-connected students in our schools and communities feel seen and appreciated. But as the month ends, let’s not let awareness fade of the unique challenges faced and contributions made by our youngest military family members.

May

As we remember our fallen heroes, it’s important that we be mindful of our young survivors too. Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) offers care to anyone grieving the loss of a military loved one. If you know a military child who has experienced this kind of loss, TAPS Good Grief Camps are safe spaces for military children along their healing journey. TAPS military mentors (serving military members and veterans) and legacy mentors (survivors who have graduated from Good Grief Camp) are buddies to these children and remind them they are still important to the military (and us all). Learn more about how you can help TAPS serve grieving military children.

June

Peak summer PCS season is well underway. According to Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Global Logistics Support Household Goods Program Analyst Deloma Miley, it is estimated that more than 65% of military moves occur each year from mid-May through August 31st.

It’s the Season of Leaving. This means that military children at home and abroad are once again packing up life as they know it and making plans to start again someplace new. Make end of school year celebrations a time to recognize the military-connected students in your classroom, especially those who may not be in your school district at the start of the next school year. Give them an opportunity to share with their classmates where they’re headed (if they’re permitted to divulge that information) and what they’re looking forward to in their new location. Equally important, give their peers the chance to say goodbye and let them know how much they’ll be missed!

July

Freedom isn’t free and military children know that better than most folks. As we celebrate our nation’s independence, let’s also remember the children who have missed out on birthdays, holidays, and other important milestones while their military family member has been away in service.

In many parts of the country, there’s no better way to start off the holiday weekend than with a walkathon or marathon. Grab your kids, family, friends, and neighbors and walk, skip, run, or dance in honor of the special military children in your life.

August

If you’re the parent or guardian of a military-connected student and you haven’t yet done so, now is a good time to put together an education binder to help with their transition to a new school. This binder should include information and documentation such as birth certificate, immunization records, unofficial transcripts, and teacher notes.

If you’re an educator, ask for an education binder to help integrate new students into your classroom. As the year progresses, your input will be invaluable for maintaining the binder for the duration of the school year and beyond as these students head off for new school placements at their next duty station.

September

Make time to welcome new military-connected students in your classroom. Have them point out on a map where their military life has taken them. Invite them to talk about their experiences as a military child. Set up a buddy system with other students in the class. Let these newest members of your school know you’re an adult who’s here to support them.

October

October 26 is Day of the Deployed. That makes this month a perfect time to have students in your classroom put together care packages for deployed service members. If one or more students at your school have a loved one deployed, consider having your class or school adopt their unit. If possible, personalize the packages with special items, such as artwork and handwritten notes from your students.

Read books about kids going through a deployment. Talk about what it feels like to miss someone and ways to keep in touch when you’re apart from someone you care about. All students can participate in this kind of discussion and share their experiences of missing loved ones.

November

November is Military Family Appreciation Month, a time to recognize all military family members. Special days this month include Veterans Day, honoring US military veterans, and Thanksgiving, a time for sharing our gratitude. In the classroom, consider recognizing the contributions of service members and their families by reading stories about their service, sacrifices, and lifestyle. Several good children’s books about military life can serve as a conversation starter.

If it’s your family’s tradition to share things you’re grateful for at Thanksgiving, include military members and their families who often spend holidays apart while their loved ones serve. Better yet, if you know of a family separated from their military loved one for the holiday, invite them to join your celebration!

December

Put together a special treat for a military child you know over the winter holidays. Bake some cookies. Make a gift bag with fun stickers, puzzles, games, and candy. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive; it just needs to come from the heart.

Want to do more? There are many organizations that coordinate Adopt a Family programs for military families. Find out what they need and how you can support their mission.

January

As you’re making your New Year resolutions, consider how you can improve your understanding of and support for military-connected students. Perhaps you’ll make this the year that your school district takes advantage of professional development opportunities through the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC). MCEC trains professionals to address the unique challenges facing military children. They also provide resources for parents and guardians. Resolve to support military kids year round.

February

This is a month to share the love. If you’re an educator, work with your class to make handmade cards to be delivered to a local veteran’s home or mailed to service members overseas. Remember to make Valentine’s Day cards for the special military kids in your life!

Bonus activity: The Operation Purple Camp application window opens mid-February. This well-loved and highly regarded program of the National Military Family Association provides free weeklong, in-person, overnight summer camps for military-connected kids across the US. Spots fill up quickly, so you’ll want to register sooner rather than later.

March

In March we celebrate National Reading Month as well as National Medal of Honor Day, a day to recognize the heroism and sacrifice of Medal of Honor recipients. This is a great opportunity to have your class read about military heroes and discuss what it means to be a hero and to sacrifice for your country. The military-connected students in your class can talk about their own loved one’s service and what it has meant for them and their lives. Students can create their own badges of honor and exchange them with fellow students who exhibit those heroic traits.

The Medal of Honor Character Development Program is a free resource that teaches students courage, commitment, integrity, sacrifice, citizenship, and patriotism through lessons developed by teachers for teachers.

There are many more ways to recognize and incorporate military-connected students into celebrations all year. The Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission (MIC3) has created a list of ways to celebrate our youngest heroes to spark your creativity during the Month of the Military Child and beyond.

Randi Cairns is a mom of military teens, a leader in the military spouse community, coauthor of Stories Around the Table: Laughter, Wisdom, and Strength in Military Life, and associate publisher at Elva Resa Publishing.

More about celebrating military kids:

• Month of the Military Child: Teen Perspective
• Purple Up to Step Up in the Season of Thriving
• Purple Up for Military-Connected Students
• Month of the Military Child in 2021: In-Person, Hybrid, and Virtual Celebrations

The post Celebrating Military Kids Year Round appeared first on Seasons of My Military Student.

Month of the Military Child is widely celebrated in schools throughout the United States in April. As a military kid (MilKid) myself, I grew up seeing it first-hand and I appreciate the efforts adults everywhere put into celebrating us. But I find Purple Up celebrations often feel focused on supporting elementary students instead of teenagers (MilTeens). Schools and families should include MilTeen voices in planning events too to ensure celebrations are meaningful to all students. Here are a few ideas for ways schools can plan a successful Month of the Military Child for students in high school.

Why We Celebrate

The first thing to consider when planning Month of the Military Child is understanding why we celebrate. MilKids and MilTeens are celebrated because of the sacrifices they make so their parents can protect our country. During Purple Up, schools recognize the times military families moved and had to start over. They acknowledge all the nights military students went without a parent because the parent was deployed for a long time, or the parent was on Temporary Duty (TDY) for a short time. Schools thank MilKids and MilTeens for all their hidden sacrifices that allow us to sleep in peace at night knowing our country is safe.

Another important thing to remember is that during April’s Month of the Military Child, schools are celebrating the military child. Though important to celebrate their military parents too at other times of the year, such as Veteran’s Day, this month is not about the parents.

Military parents and children make different sacrifices and deserve separate recognition. Celebrate MilKids and MilTeens during Month of the Military Child.

Planning the Month

As schools plan out Month of the Military Child activities, there are many people who should be involved in planning.

A Mix of Students

Make sure that both MilTeens and their non-military-connected peers are included in the planning.

• Start by inviting student leadership clubs and student council to participate in the planning fun.
• If your school has JROTC, Student2Student, or Military Kid Clubs, ask them to join as well.

Mixing military students with students who are not connected to the military when planning activities will ensure the events are fun and meaningful to all students, no matter their military connection. Non-military classmates will be able use this planning time to get to know and understand their military-connected peers better. They can start to see MilTeens as real teens and not just stories of adventure or travel. Inviting a diverse group of student planners to share perspective allows MilTeens to spend time with their peers and help break barriers to friendship or social connection. MilKids and MilTeens may be different from their peers in some ways, but they make amazing friends. Having MilTeens and non-military teens mix encourages new ideas and new friendships.

Adult Leaders

It is also important to have a counselor, teacher, or other school official share perspective and look over the students’ plans before they are shared with the rest of the school.

The adult leadership will help keep plans focused and achievable. They may also offer ideas that the school would like to see too. Perhaps the school has extra money to spend in April or knows a community partner who might be willing to buy every MilTeen an ice-cream sandwich. Student planners won’t know unless the adult sponsors help.

Ideas to Celebrate MilTeens

Collect and Share Stories

One way to celebrate high school MilTeens is to ask them to share their story.

Reach out to MilTeens in a military-focused club, if the school has one, and MilTeens in the classroom to find stories that accurately describe the life of a military student. Students can submit their stories or be interviewed to create the stories.

Here are a few great questions to ask any MilTeen:

• Where was your favorite duty location?
• How is this school similar or different from your last school?
• What is a great way to keep in contact with your friends from past assignments?

It is important not to ask: “Where are you from?” This is a really difficult question for MilTeens to answer and it could mean a lot of things. Instead, ask more specific or individual questions, such as:

• “Where were you born?”
• “Where did you live last?”
• “Where have you lived the longest?”
• “Where was your favorite place to live?”
• “What is a special memory you have from one of these places?”

Once the stories are collected from around the school, share them! Consider putting stories in the school newspaper or on the school broadcasting system. Another great way for them to be shared is to put a few of them into the yearbook.

The stories will help MilTeens see they are not alone and help their classmates see what their military peers have lived through.

Maps

A second way to celebrate MilTeens is to set up maps around the campus, where they can put a tack showing the places they have lived.

Classes could take a walking field trip around campus to look at and compare each of the maps. This way, students are able to see all the amazing places their military peers have lived.

Wear Purple

Another idea to celebrate MilTeens is the classic way to show support during Purple Up: wear purple. Encourage students to all wear purple on April 15 or whichever pre-selected day works best for the school calendar.

In high school, the best way to get student involvement is to make Purple Up a competition between the grade levels to see who wears the most purple.

Make it Fun!

When celebrating Month of the Military Child, the most important thing to remember is to make it fun. This is an opportunity to connect the freshmen, seniors, adults, and anyone else in the school involved in supporting military teens. Enjoy your Month of the Military Child!

Emily Trimillos is a military-connected teen and a freshman in high school. She has experienced five military-connected moves, within the United States and overseas. In her six different school transitions, she has implemented military kid clubs and student ambassador programs. Emily finds unique opportunities to speak to school and district leaders on how to best hear and support her military-connected peers.

More about Month of the Military Child celebrations:

• Purple Up to Step Up in the Season of Thriving
• Purple Up for Military-Connected Students
• Month of the Military Child in 2021: In-Person, Hybrid, and Virtual Celebrations

The post Month of the Military Child: Teen Perspective appeared first on Seasons of My Military Student.

COVID remains a steady topic of discussion, but the stress associated with this pandemic is anything but steady for most families and school communities. Stress has continued to increase for all of us—children, parents, and educators—to a point of exhaustion. Many school policies continue to fluctuate regarding face masks, social distancing, and virtual learning. This relative uncertainty creates an environment ripe for anxiety in our youth.

Pandemic stress manifests in a variety of forms for students: limited in-person time with friends and extended family, cancelled travel plans, struggles with changing learning environments, loss of extracurricular activities, increased anxiety or depression—their own or within their support systems. Children and teens are particularly vulnerable to stress when faced with unpredictable and changing conditions, and they present a large spectrum of reactions. Our current environment, within and outside school, makes the challenge of balancing a student’s mental and physical wellness even more profound.

Watch for Signs of Stress

Caregivers, parents, and educators play a key role in helping students of all ages develop and exercise stress-regulating skills. The first step is to watch for specific behaviors in five key areas of development that indicate a student may be enduring severe stress:

• Physical: illness, lack of energy, increased or decreased weight, injury
• Psychological and emotional: depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, heightened emotional responses to normal situations
• Social and behavioral: isolation, lack of interest in past activities, increased risk taking
• Cognitive: lack of educational involvement, lack of curiosity, lack of critical thinking
• Relationships: increased conflict, increased arguments, disconnectedness, loneliness

Although this list is not all inclusive, it is a starting point. Have you observed some of these behaviors in your students? If yes, have you talked with them about the stress they may be feeling? Some students may be afraid to talk to parents or teachers about their feelings or may not want to worry others. They may not realize the impact of their stress or may think the stress is normal when so many stressors are present around them.

Share Strategies for Coping

Whether or not you believe your student is experiencing stress, starting a conversation now can help them cope with current or future elevated emotions. Sharing these strategies with your student will also help you optimize your own stress management. A few ways to get started:

• Validate: Try not to tell your student what they should be feeling. Instead ask them how they actually feel, allowing them to share their emotions. Listen. Adults often feel they want to fix everything and make it better. Try not to solve a situation immediately. Let your student express their feelings the best way they know how.
• Establish boundaries: It’s normal during challenging times to let boundaries slip, thinking it will help alleviate stress. However, the opposite is true. During uncertain or highly stressful situations, giving children and teens consistent boundaries, roles, and responsibilities can help them feel safe and less confused. Promote positive behaviors by setting clear expectations and examples.
• Rise to the challenge: Young people are hyperaware of changes to their home and school environment. They often experience daily, even hourly, reminders of ways their lives have been turned upside down. Remind them that we are all facing challenges in our own way, and we shouldn’t be afraid of the difficult things we encounter in life. Every difficult circumstance prepares us to face future challenges.
• Reframe: It is easy to wallow when the world feels heavy. We have a choice about how we navigate through the current environment. Instead of getting distracted by setbacks, focus on forward movement even if it is only one step at a time. Highlight the good you see, positive recent changes (in relationships, empathy, personal growth), and the strength they’ve built as they’ve persevered through challenging circumstances.
• Recover: When the time is right, express the importance of self-care. Try different positive recovery techniques such as exercise, journaling, peer support, quiet time, breathing (mindfulness, in particular), or counseling. You can develop new, creative ways to let them express their emotions. If they are angry, get a punching bag or let them pound clay or dough. Even better, create group activities around these positive coping ideas that you can enjoy together in the classroom or at home as a family.

It’s important for your student to know they are not alone in feeling stressed. Neither are you.

School counselors, school psychologists, professional counselors, doctors, support groups, religious affiliations, friends, and family are just a few resources available to help. COVID stress is real. By using these strategies to manage it, we assist our students and ourselves.

Jannell MacAulay, PhD, is a combat veteran who served 20 years in the US Air Force as a pilot. A mother of two, Jannell is a consultant, speaker, and executive leadership coach who leads mindset workshops.

Kendra Lowe, EdD, NCSP, LSSP, is a veteran, military spouse, mom of three, and school psychologist. Her first-hand experience with the stresses of military life informed her book Milspouse Strength: Changing the Way You See and Respond to Military Life Stress.

More about supporting students in pandemic circumstances and transitions:

• Building Sustaining Advocacy Teams in Challenging Times
• Bringing School Home: Focus on the Possibilities
• Start Early for a Strong Student-Advocacy Team

The post Helping Students Identify and Manage Pandemic Stress appeared first on Seasons of My Military Student.

Even before the school year opened its doors to students this year, conversations have taken place on many levels on ways to best meet student needs. Teachers are discussing how to catch up students who missed material in pandemic learning environments; parents are talking about how to tackle struggles their children faced in schools; and students are wondering if they really are prepared for a new school year.

Consensus is that this is not the year to chase curriculum. To chase the missed curriculum is to ignore the idea that many students are not yet ready for the quick transition back to a fast-paced learning environment. When we meet students’ social and emotional needs first, curriculum mastery will follow.

Recognize and Understand Student Concerns

To meet a student’s needs, we must first recognize those needs and put them in context. The Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) 2020 survey exposed the following student concerns, which have a direct impact on a student’s ability to focus on learning targets:

• Making friends
• Feeling accepted and fitting in
• Building self-confidence
• Dealing with parental deployments
• Managing stress

In 2021, these concerns still hold true.  But, military-connected students also find themselves facing these added pandemic-centered concerns that continue to impact their ability to focus on curriculum:

• Returning to campus for the first time (for many it is their first time on campus even though they moved to the area last year)
• Another cycle of pandemic PCS equals two years of new students on campus
• Learning gaps cause by differing learning environments
• Learning gaps caused multi-state PCS and new state standards

Looking at typical PCS concerns in combination with added pandemic-created concerns, it is more important than ever for parents and educators to communicate and partner together to meet the social and emotional needs of students, so that we can start to also meet their academic needs.

Support Students With a Variety of Strategies

Start with a Parent-Teacher Conference

Spend time this year building relationships between teachers and parents to build a student-advocacy team. Remember to invite any other adult on campus who can support the student (counselors and coaches are great advocates!). Talk about how the pandemic impacted the student both socially and emotionally as well as academically. Did the student thrive in the new learning environments? Or did the pandemic learning protocols create challenges to learning? What about friendship building? Does the student have a friend group on campus this year?

Focus on classroom teambuilding activities and get-to-know-you activities

This strategy is important for all students, but especially for military-connected students who PCS’s during the pandemic. These students need added supports to feel welcome and supported in their classroom. The best way to build this support system is to plan dedicated time for teambuilding activities. Once students feel supported, they will be ready to learn.

Purposefully assign group and partner assignments

Teachers can purposefully plan assignments early in the year that depend on low-threat group or partner assignments. As students are rebuilding friendships in the classroom it is important to do a mix between student choice groups and teacher directed groups.  Teachers can help build lasting friendships simply through grouping strategies.

Talk about opportunities to get involved in clubs or sports

Many schools shifted club and sports opportunities last year; many schools are still deciding how clubs and sports will look this year. Student advocates can discuss together which type of extracurricular activities would be a good fit for a student. Then different adults on the student-advocacy team should offer a personal invitation for the student to join. Maybe it is a new club; maybe it’s a longstanding club. The goal is to help ensure the student builds a connection on campus.

Invite students to volunteer for service opportunities

This idea is very close to the extra-curricular strategy, but some students are not ready to join a larger club or may not have interest. These students might find a better connection on campus with a mentor teacher who can open the doors to service opportunities. They can be simple yet meaningful tasks on campus that will help the student create a strong connection. Who on your campus raises and lowers the school flag? Who helps hang school posters? Who helps re-shelve library books? Perhaps these are ways to encourage students to become more involved on campus.

When the student-advocacy team collaborates about meeting the concerns of the student, they can add the conversation about academic needs. The student’s willingness to learn and take academic risks in the classroom will blossom.  The key is to continue to be flexible to meet the student’s needs. Academic supports may include on-campus tutoring, library tutoring, peer tutoring, or online tutoring. Tutor.com/military is still free for military-connected families, and they are available 24 hours a day.

The goal in taking this approach is to ensure that student advocates, parents, educators, counselors, and coaches focus on supporting the whole student. When we work together to recognize each student’s social and emotional needs, in addition to their academic needs, we support all students on campus.

Amanda Trimillos, EdD, is a military spouse, mother, and National Board-Certified teacher with extensive experience teaching military students in the United States and overseas. She is coauthor of Seasons of My Military Student: Practical Ideas for Parents and Teachers and wrote the essay “School Choices and Changes” in  Stories Around the Table: Laugher, Wisdom, and Strength in Military Life.

More about supporting students in pandemic circumstances and transitions:

• New School Welcoming: Student Sponsorship Programs
• Bringing School Home: Focus on the Possibilities
• Five Ways Military Kids Clubs Help Students and Schools

The post Don’t Chase Curriculum: Focus on Student Needs appeared first on Seasons of My Military Student.

Military-connected students adjusting to a new school commonly experience feelings of isolation, confusion, and searching for support. Students switching schools during the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to experience these feelings even more intensely.

In an online round table discussion, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona hosted a Zoom call with a dozen military-connected students from across the globe to chat about how their lives have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. What was learned from students and their experiences can be applied not only to schools that are still in hybrid or virtual environments, but also as a basis for programming to help military-connected students feel more welcome when entering a new school anytime in the future.

During the round table discussion, which included students ranging from elementary school kids to seniors in high school, every child, without exception, talked about their struggle to finding their footing after a move and the need for a universal student sponsorship program.

Erik,* a high school freshman in Northern Virginia, moved during the summer of 2020 during the height of the pandemic. He describes his experience as confusing and isolating.

“Moving from a state that stayed in person for five days a week to a state that went 100 percent virtual for seven months—it was confusing. The entire community seemed locked down. I understood why, but it felt like no one could see me. For a new student, how are kids supposed to process and embrace a new school when they don’t even know I’m here?”

Other students echoed Erik’s experience and concerns. Students and parents attending the call said there was a need for connecting new students with their school, peers, and community—especially during school closures. PCSing during the pandemic exaggerated feelings of isolation for new students. There was a resounding consensus that a student sponsor program would help new students—military-connected or not—feel more supported in school.

Many schools already have a student sponsor or student ambassador programs in place. And military kids remembered fondly their past experiences with sponsor programs and how they connected them with peers when they most needed it.

“One way our school helps military students is by having a military student ambassador welcome the new student. This helps ease some of the socialization stress we face from going from one school to another in such a short period of time,” says Elizabeth, a twelfth-grade student at Knob Noster High School in Missouri.

Abby,* a seventh-grade student in Virginia, says her experience with student sponsor programs made her feel more accepted into the school community more quickly. Her last school in Florida had a family match program set up by the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), which matched similar families—fourth grade with fourth grade, military families with military families, and so on. Existing families in the district “sponsored” new families.

“It was fun. We had ice cream socials with our new friends, and they were someone we could call if we had questions, too. It really made a difference how new kids felt about being new,” Abby says.

Ways to Create a Student Sponsor Program

A student sponsor program can work at any age and any grade and through a range of platforms and executions. While PTAs are great for organizing sponsor programs because they are often more flexible in planning events and providing funding, a school can easily adopt a sponsor program in the form of a student ambassador program through their Student Government Association (SGA) or through after-school clubs. As a tool for SGA or a club, a sponsorship program can offer leadership roles for middle and high school students and allow new students, once settled, to pay it forward to the next family.

However, the most overlooked place for a student sponsor program is likely in the classroom. Teachers have an opportunity to let students take the lead in helping a new classmate feel a little more settled. Small gestures like sitting together at lunch, showing new students around the school, and handing out a helpful guide of the area can bolster confidence in students that are new to the school. The class can develop a living document, like a community fact sheet, where students can jot helpful tips and tricks, favorite places to eat, or best places to have a birthday party. That information can be given to new students upon arrival as a welcome packet.

Support Students Upon Arrival, During the Year, and When They Leave

A good start to any student sponsor or ambassador program is to support the student as soon as they arrive at a new school. Then students need support throughout the school year too—and many military students leave before the end of the official school year. A student sponsor program should help those students when they exit a school as well. In the military, it’s called “Hails and Farewells.” And it’s an easy way to emotionally support students who live a highly mobile lifestyle like military kids.

Hails: A student sponsor program’s priority is to welcome all new students—military connected or civilian—to their school with a welcome. It could be as small as assigning one peer to help the new student find their way around the building or have a buddy to sit next to at lunch. Or it could be a larger, broader program that allows student sponsors to have socials, school spirit wear, and more. The goal is to make new students feel welcome, connected, and included on their first day so they can focus more on school and less on being new.

Farewells: It’s hard to leave a school mid-year or before school has officially ended. A student sponsor program focuses on ensuring all moving students feel like they were valued at the school and will not be forgotten by giving them a send-off gift from the school. From ensuring they get a yearbook at the end of year to coordinating letters of farewell from their teachers or gifting a simple school t-shirt, any supportive gesture will help a student who is feeling anxious or emotional about leaving their school.

Benefits for Students Who Stay in the School

A school student sponsor or ambassador program is an essential program for supporting highly mobile students like military kids. But it’s also a great way to teach empathy and build leadership for students who will stay in the district for a long time—perhaps the entirety of their school career. Students who volunteer as sponsors will better understand the challenges of their military-connected friends, which will broaden their perspectives in their own lives while also helping them welcome the next new student even better.

Benefits for Military-Connected Students (and Other Mobile Students!)

It’s vital for the emotional well-being of tweens and teens changing schools to land at a school that understands the challenges of being in a military-connected family. Sponsor programs need to be more than a plan on paper. Programs need resources and commitment from school organizations like the PTA or from the school and parents themselves. Student sponsor programs help all new students thrive in school faster so students can focus on academics rather than the social and emotional part of settling into a new community. For military families that’s important, because orders to move often come when they least expect it.

In whatever way a school plans and executes its student sponsorship program, the most important aspect is to truly commit to helping new students and providing resources they need at the time they really need them. When the Secretary of Education asked for final comments, Abby said it best: “My school said they wanted to start a school wide student sponsor program, but they didn’t do anything that related to helping new kids settle. My mom did all the work for them, and they didn’t really try. Nice teachers, but they didn’t get us military kids.”

*Erik and Abby are the children of the author.

Stacy Huisman is a mother of two, Air Force spouse, and freelance writer. An advocate with a passion for military-connected children and their families, Stacy is coauthor of Seasons of My Military Student: Practical Ideas for Parents and Teachers. She’s dedicated the last decade to understanding the challenges military kids face when changing schools. 

More about supporting students during transitions:

• • Early Planning Helps School Transition
  • Five Ways Military Kids Clubs Help Students and Schools
  • How to join the Seasons of My Military Student Cultivation Team

The post New School Welcoming: Student Sponsorship Programs appeared first on Seasons of My Military Student.

Traditionally, the end of the academic year signals the beginning of summer camps and long hours at the pool for students. While the fun in the sun activities take place, parents express concern behind the scenes that academic skills begin to decline with each passing summer day. This decline in reading and math skills is often termed summer slide.

For military-connected students, this time of year often adds a different experience. Summer means packing the house and moving across country or an ocean to settle in at a new duty location. These students follow their active-duty parent to wherever the military determines is their next home and may miss opportunities for summer camps and extended hours at the pool.

Unfortunately, what they do not miss in a PCS summer is the summer slide conundrum. Military-connected students may not see a decline of academic skills because they were playing by the pool, but rather because they were in a car or plane relocating to a new home. For them, the summer slide becomes the PCS slide.

Thankfully there are several ways to beat both the traditional summer slide and military-connected student PCS slide!

Teacher Recommendation

Start planning ways to prevent a summer PCS slide by first talking to the student’s teachers. They know your student’s abilities and upcoming learning expectations, and they often have ready-made resources to support students. The partnership of the student advocacy team in creating a PCS slide prevention plan is pivotal to ensuring student growth.

1. Skill Recommendation: Ask if they have any recommendations on specific skills the student is either lacking or that will need strengthening prior to starting at a new school.
2. Teacher Resources: Ask if the teacher has any workbooks or skill packets she can build for the student prior to travel.
3. Online resources: Ask if there are school sponsored online resources the student can continue to access through the move that directly meet the student’s need. If the current school does not offer online resources for summer access, reach out to the new school and request early student access.

Read, Read, Read

The best way to beat a decline in reading skills is to ensure students have access to books and other reading material. Reach out to the new school to see if they have an already designed summer reading program, suggested reading list, or set of summer reading assignments.

1. E-reading: Help students download audio books as well as e-books. Since these books are downloaded on a device, they can go anywhere with the student without worry about returning to a physical library. A mix of audio and e-books allows students to alter between reading on their device and listening to a good book through headphones. Or enjoy a family audio book together to break up the trip. The Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) site offers a free digital library system. To access the resources, select from the featured items or use the search app. Certain libraries may require you to register and create your own account, but the resources are still free.
2. Magazines: Prior to the move, help the student stock up on reading material. Consider holding magazines back from moving boxes or purging exercises. Magazines are often small and light enough to travel in a student pack. The beauty of magazines is that as the student finishes reading, the magazines can be donated or recycled throughout the journey.
3. Incentive Reading: Use the base library at the PCS destination. Many base libraries participate in summer reading challenges through DoD-MWR Libraries Summer Reading Program. These reading challenges track how many minutes a day students read, and offer prizes for meeting weekly goals. It is possible to sign up with the program at the future base, keep track online of reading minutes, then collect prizes upon arrival at the new location. The reading theme for 2021 is Reading Colors Your World.
4. Car Games: Before heading out on the long PCS drive or flight, brainstorm travel reading games that help pass the time and support reading skills. Games like Car Bingo, I Spy, and the ever-favorite ABC sign games are all simple games that encourage reading as well as family conversations. To play Car Bingo, create or buy bingo cards with items you may see on your trip. Mark out those items as you drive. The first person with Bingo or a blackout wins that round. For Car ABC, search for road signs with the different letters of the alphabet, starting with A and ending with Z. Each family member calls out the word that has the next letter in the alphabet, and the first person to Z wins!

Everyday Math:

Just like supporting reading skills during a summer PCS, the best way to beat a decline in math skills is to ensure students continue practicing their daily math.

1. Flashcards: Bring or create a set of flashcards that support the student at their math level. These can be plus and minus math facts for younger students or multiplication and division for older students. High school students can create math flash cards that relate to the formulas and measurement conversions that best align to their higher level math classes like algebra, geometry, and calculus.
2. Gas Math: Before traveling, have the student calculate the number of miles to the end location. For multiple-day travel, the student can figure out how many miles will be traveled each day and estimate how much gas will be used throughout the trip. This exercise will lend itself well to determining price per gallon and estimating how much money should be budgeted for gas during the trip. Follow up with each gas stop to update actual calculations. By the end of the trip compare budget predictions with actual gas usage and cost.
3. Food Math: Use a similar budgeting practice for food vs actual cost of meal and snack purchases to help students learn real-life math and budgeting. Encourage students to practice quick calculations of taking family member meal orders, adding the menu price plus tax, and calculating the meal cost before the cashier or waitress delivers the bill. How close to the final bill was the student able to estimate, round, or calculate? Add in the next quick-check challenge of determining returned change when paying for snacks with cash.
4. Car Games: Math games in the car are often just as easy as reading car games. For younger students, Car 1,2,3 games (the ABC sign game above but searching for numbers one through 10 or 100), Shape Searches, and What’s My Number guessing game (one person thinks of a number, the others try to guess the number in as few tries as possible; after each guess the person says whether the number is greater or less than the guess).

Social Studies and Science

These two academically core subjects are not typically discussed in supporting students during a summer or PCS slide. The skills needed for these classes are often but not always supported through strong reading and math skills. But military-connected students have unique opportunities to support these skills during a PCS and can bring an atmosphere of extra fun during the trip.

1. Map Planning: Give the student several different maps and help them map out their route. If traveling across several states, a map that includes the entire trip helps the student visualize the move. When looking at the map, the student can point out geographical points of interest to include national parks and important cities or landmarks.
2. Research It: Prior to pulling out, help the student find books at the library about the end destination and any stopping points along the way. Grab a book for each state, historical event, or famous (or not so famous) location. The student can make notes from the books and prepare to be the tour guide throughout different stages of the trip. If you borrow physical books, remember to return the library books before the actual move!
3. Map It Bingo: Print off a map of the United States. Have players watch for license plates from different states and color in the map accordingly. By the end of the trip talk about if there were any states missing or states they did not expect to see on their trip.
4. Data Collection: Choose a category and a designated amount of travel time to collect data. Perhaps track car colors, building types, or animal sightings. Keep track through tally marks and compare data results at the end of the collection time. This game easily transitions into a classification game.
5. Classification Games: Pick a category (perhaps a category already determined by the data collection above). Categorize objects into classifications such as living/nonliving; species/classifications; food-chain placement.

While many military-connected students and parents worry about the effects of a summer slide and the even stronger impacts of a PCS slide, the good news is these times of transition can be used to open new opportunities for real-world learning. With a little planning and some creativity, military-connected students can use their PCS transition to strengthen skills. Summer does not have to mean a regression of academic skills. Rather than a slide backward, summer can offer opportunities to experiment with and practice real-world math, reading, social studies, and science skills even if a student is on the move.

Amanda Trimillos, EdD, is a military spouse, mother, and National Board-Certified Teacher with extensive experience teaching military students in the United States and overseas. Amanda has experienced multiple PCS transitions as both a teacher and parent, always looking for ways to make a PCS academically meaningful for her students and her own children. She is coauthor of Seasons of My Military Student: Practical Ideas for Parents and Teachers.

More about supporting students during transitions:

• Early Planning Helps School Transition
• Exit Plan Cultivates a Healthy Season of Leaving
• How to join the Seasons of My Military Student Cultivation Team

The post Tips to Avoid Summer PCS Slide appeared first on Seasons of My Military Student.

Many schools across the nation developed grand plans for Month of the Military Child celebrations in April 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to cancel those plans with little notice. A year later, these same schools have adapted to virtual and hybrid learning environments—and Month of the Military Child celebrations must be augmented for social distancing environments and virtual atmospheres.

The good news is that with a little planning and a lot of creativity, celebrations for Month of the Military Child can still take place across the nation with just as much fanfare as previous years. To successfully celebrate Month of the Military Child, schools should plan ahead and include as many organizations as possible. Administrators and educators should have a record of how many military-connected students are part of their school community and be able to identify who those students are, but educators shouldn’t limit participation to just military-connected students or groups. Parent-Teacher Associations or Parent Partners, student clubs, school counselors, and student leadership groups can all take a part in planning events to recognize their students and peers connected to the military. When educators encourage student leaders and different clubs on campus to take charge in planning and participating, it builds school spirit and comradery. The more students who participate, the more their peers will want join in the fun! The more groups involved in the planning, the more fun and personalized events can be!

Highlight April as Month of the Military Child

Planning a celebration while managing the challenges created by the pandemic may seem overwhelming. The key is to remember that celebrating Month of the Military Child is about having fun, celebrating students, and offering resources and support that military families may not know are available through the school. Here is a list of ideas that can be a great foundation for planning your school’s Month of the Military Child celebrations—whether they are in-person, virtual, or a combination of both!

All Schools: In Person, Hybrid, or Virtual

With the variety of learning environments employed across the nation, it seems that nearly every school district has a different approach. Luckily, there are some ways to celebrate that are universal.

Purple Up! for Military Kids Be sure that all staff and students have the opportunity to wear purple in April. The official Purple Up! Day established by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is April 15, but individual state calendars may designate a different day. Consider purchasing Purple Up! shirts, and if time allows, add the school’s name or mascot to make the shirts extra special. With students feeling disconnected from one another, a simple gesture like a t-shirt can remind them they are a part of a strong, supportive community.

Announce the Celebration

Update the school’s marquee to announce Month of the Military Child and Purple Up!

Write parent newsletters to highlight Month of the Military Child activities. Include facts about military families or military service. These facts can include insights specific to the school’s local military community.

Use social media platforms to offer daily highlights of the school’s approach to Month of the Military activities. Include pictures of daily fun as well as ways families can participate at home.

Engage the Students

Host an art, essay, or poetry contest focusing on the life of a military-connected child. Ideas can include pride in a parent’s service, military lifestyle, transitions/changes, or cultures experienced. Create a virtual space to display all pieces, and highlight grade level winners. Celebrate the winners by posting on the school website and feature entries on social media sites. Remember to honor school privacy policies for public posting.

Create library reading challenges that focus on themes about military life. Books can include stories about military kid’s experiences, the military lifestyle, and being the new kid.

Recognize, Highlight, and Educate

Highlight books about military life at the school library. Include books in library display cases and add highlighted books to the school’s library webpage. A great starting point for military family books is MilitaryFamilyBooks.com.

Sporting events salute. Ask the announcer to make special announcements before, during, and after an event to recognize all military-connected students. Encourage participation by asking students to raise the flag, sing the National Anthem, or recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Host virtual book clubs for faculty and staff. Consider a month-long Seasons of My Military Student book club to build support strategies all-year long. Invite the authors to join one of the virtual meetings.

Make Resources Available

Add resources to the school website. Resources can include contact numbers for Military Family Life Counselors (MFLC), School Liaison Officers (SLO), and MIC3 state commissioners. Don’t forget to include an on-campus contact point for families.

Hold a virtual parent forum on Zoom or your school’s favorite platform. Invite military-connected parents, teachers, and MFLC to talk about ways the school supports military-connected students.

Host a parent educational session focused on challenges and supports for military-connected students. Be sure to talk about the Interstate Compact and how parents and teachers can unite to support military-connected students on campus.

Offer a faculty professional development day focused on supporting military-connected students in the classroom. Be sure to include time for teachers to work in breakout groups focusing on areas for each Season of Transition.™

Document the Celebration

Take pictures for the yearbook! Fill a page in the yearbook by taking as many pictures as possible of students and staff celebrating. Be sure to include any virtual and hybrid students by encouraging them to send in pictures to the yearbook staff from home. 

Hybrid Celebrations

These celebrations balance the experience of students who are learning both from home and at school. While they are on campus, they hope to find as much normalcy in celebrating as possible. Students learning at home can continue to participate as well.

Engage the Students

Host a spirit week leading up to Purple Up! Check your state’s calendar for the specific day to wear purple, and lets students and educators know in advance so they can prepare for the different days. Ideas for Spirit Week leading up to Purple Up! can include dress-up days like patriotic day, crazy camo day, superhero day, favorite military service day, and more.

Broadcast a daily or weekly announcement with facts about military families or service. Consider having military-connected students on campus read the announcements each day. Be sure teachers are logged in with their at-home students to ensure they can hear the announcements as well.

Create Displays

Create military-themed display cases and bulletin boards.  Ask military-connected students to loan pictures or items that reflect their experiences.

Display world maps. One map can pinpoint where military-connected students have lived, which encourages conversation about military students’ backgrounds and experience. A second map can pinpoint where military family members are currently stationed or deployed, honoring their service within the student’s own school community.

Chalk the school sidewalks with fun messages of encouragement. For added fun use as much purple chalk as possible!

Virtual Celebrations

These celebrations need to ensure that all students at home have the opportunity to participate in online-only activities. Be sure students have a way to upload and send pictures to a contact person on campus. Include as many pictures as possible in the yearbook and on social media. Consider prizes for top participants. These can include digital gift certificate prizes, certificates mailed home from the school, school swag, and more.

Engage the Students

Have students decorate their learning space. Ask them to turn their cameras on for a class screenshot. Students can have fun with this by exercising their creativity and personalizing their space. And they can choose to either be in or out of the photo.

Host a virtual game night for students and their families. Consider trivia or bingo with military-themed questions and prizes.

Create Community Connections

Collect audio or video messages from students and staff giving shout-outs of gratitude. Create a school video to share to the campus. This is a great opportunity to invite clubs to dedicate a club day to participate in building messages.

Mail home cards of gratitude. Sometimes the best encouragement is to send and receive actual mail. Spend time as a school writing quick postcards of gratitude and encouragement to students.

#MilKidTHX Have parents and teachers write thank you letters or messages on social media thanking their military-connected students for their commitment to their family and enduring the challenges of military life. Don’t forget to include #MilKidTHX

For more Month of the Military Child ideas for all school environments this year, join Seasons of My Military Student authors Dr. Amanda Trimillos and Stacy Huisman in the Seasons private Facebook group.

Amanda Trimillos, EdD, is a military spouse, mother, and National Board-Certified Teacher with extensive experience teaching military students in the United States and overseas. This year Amanda is building local partnerships to ensure Month of the Military Child celebrations occur even in a virtual and hybrid learning environment.  She is coauthor of Seasons of My Military Student: Practical Ideas for Parents and Teachers and wrote the essay “School Choices and Changes” in  Stories Around the Table: Laugher, Wisdom, and Strength in Military Life.

More about supporting students during Month of the Military Child:

• Purple Up to Step Up in the Season of Thriving
• How to join the Seasons of My Military Student Cultivation Team

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As vaccinations roll out, health experts still urge families to stay the course and remain vigilant about COVID safety measures. After nearly a year of disrupted learning, research shows students are affected socially and emotionally as well as academically. For some military-connected students, all this upheaval comes on top of a move or deployment. Not much about this year has been easy. Connections—to friends, family, and feelings—can make the difference for students in the home stretch of the pandemic. The good news is that keeping kids connected doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as going back to basics.

Go Outside and Play

With so much of life happening via computer screen, it’s easy to get stuck inside all day. For healthy breaks, encourage kids to spend a few minutes outdoors each day—with a friend or a sibling, if possible. The combination of fresh air, a change of scenery, a little exercise and companionship—as simple as that sounds—can lift low spirits and break through boredom.

Pull out the warm coats and mittens if necessary. Amy Bushatz, army spouse and coauthor of Stories Around the Table: Laughter, Wisdom, and Strength in Military Life, made a commitment in 2017 to spend at least twenty minutes outside every day, no matter what—and she lives in Alaska.

“It’s never been more important to spend time outside,” says Amy who blogs and podcasts at Humans Outside. “It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to happen.”

When possible, take indoor activities outdoors. To help her daughter make friends after a pandemic-season move, Air Force spouse Stacy Allsbrook-Huisman, coauthor of  Seasons of My Military Student: Practical Ideas for Parents and Teachers, created a backyard book club. Stacy wrote discussion questions to help break the ice. The girls read and discussed a book while socially distancing on the back patio.

Turn off the TV

The pandemic has offered families more time together, but it’s easy to slip into too much screen time. With everyone doing work and school from home, evenings might turn into extended work time, further isolating family members in the same house. Make a commitment to turn off screens, even the television, before dinner a few nights a week to talk or play a game together.

Corie Weathers, army spouse and author of Sacred Spaces: My Journey to the Heart of Military Marriage, experienced deployment in the midst of the pandemic. To connect with her two growing sons, Corie renewed her commitment to spend unplugged time with them. One night, for example, they gathered around the backyard fire pit to roast hotdogs for dinner.

Have a Cookie

Even simple activities have power to connect: baking cookies, sharing a pot of tea, playing cards. It’s not about the game or the cookies but the conversations that happen in those moments. Kids miss being with their friends, but time spent with parents and siblings is better than a substitute. It’s a healthy necessity that strengthens family bonds.

Create connections the old-fashioned way, by writing letters. Students can correspond with grandparents, cousins, or friends from other assignments. Social worker and professor Dr. Carolyn Curtis, writing for Edutopia, suggests connecting students from other states or other schools via epals.com.

Don’t give up on virtual connections either, even if the novelty of playing virtual games has worn thin. Seeing the faces of friends and family still makes a difference, so change it up a little. Dial back the technology and try a real activity together. Share a simple recipe with a friend or a group of friends and make plans to cook together by video. Set up a screen at the kitchen table and have dinner with grandparents or good friends.

Talk About It

When it comes to getting back to basics, connecting with friends and family is key. It’s also important for students to connect with their feelings about the experiences of the past few months, both good and bad. Discussing their feelings will also help them realize how they’ve grown and what they’ve learned. Here are some questions to consider when talking to kids about their experiences:

• What are you most looking forward to that you have missed for the past few months?
• Was there anything you give up during the pandemic that you didn’t miss that much?
• Has this experience changed the way you think or feel about going to school?
• What did you miss about going to school that you didn’t think you would miss?
• What did you learn or discover during the pandemic that you want to remember?

It might also help kids to make a list, write in a journal, or create a vision board for their hopes for the coming year. These questions and activities could provide openings to talk about how they feel, how they’ve changed or grown in this experience.

Playing outside, eating together, talking to each other. It’s pretty back-to-basics stuff, but for a complex problem like getting through a pandemic, the simple things might be the best. Right up there with cookies.

Terri Barnes is a veteran military spouse, journalist, and author of Spouse Calls: Messages From a Military Life. As senior editor for Elva Resa Publishing, Terri was the lead editor of  Seasons of My Military Student: Practical Ideas for Parents and Teachers.

More about supporting students in pandemic circumstances:

• Stormy Season of Leaving: PCSing During the Pandemic
• Online Resources for Learning at Home
• Bringing School Home: Focus on the Possibilities

The post Keep Kids Connected by Going Back to Basics appeared first on Seasons of My Military Student.

According to the summary report, the Military Kids Now survey, conducted over several months in the spring of 2020, polled more than five thousand respondents—including military-connected students, parents from all branches of service, and an array of education professionals. Questions covered the academic, social, and emotional experiences of military-connected students.

Amanda and Stacy expressed the hope that the data in the survey, by validating and quantifying issues and challenges, will inspire and inform policymakers and organizations who have the power to make a difference. The authors talked about the survey results and answered questions about the needs and experiences of military-connected students.

Tools and Knowledge

Amanda: My hope is that support organizations and schools will look at these types of surveys and use them to train their faculty and their parents. It still surprises me when I speak to school districts and to parents who haven’t heard of the Interstate Compact. They know of the challenges and feel them on a personal level but don’t know their resources to ease the burden. I hope this survey will help the Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission, MCEC, Educate the Educator (and other support organizations) create a new platform to build awareness on every level.  These reports and policies should be discussed at every newcomer meeting for a base, at every out-processing before a PCS, and at every TAPs training before leaving the military. They should also be discussed in teacher preparation classes, professional development, and team meetings.

Stacy: Surveys like this one are like buoys, keeping these important issues visible and on the surface, continuing the conversation between parents and schools. With every piece of data curated by survey can bring us closer to real policy changes in the schools. I think the burden has been placed on military parents over the years, because it was our responsibility to take on schools every time we moved. Parents had to be the ones to keep a check on the process, to teach schools how to deal with our children’s transition needs, to plead our kids’ cases. I feel a shift, a change in the winds. I feel schools, once we get past the challenges of the pandemic, will see the value in being proactive versus reactive to the unique challenges of military-connected students.

Differing Perspectives

Amanda: The discrepancies between parents and educators responses about the top needs of students was very significant. For example, students, parents, and teachers differ in what they see as the top social and emotional concerns. Students and parents focused on the need for support and making friends, respectively, as their top two needs. Teachers placed these needs at three and four and listed dealing with parent deployment/reunion as the number one concern. I find this difference important because … a student should be met at their point of need, not what the teacher perceives as their top need. In Seasons of My Military Student, in both Season of Arriving and Season of Growing chapters, we focus on the student’s need to be accepted, the need to fit in, and the need to make friends. When these needs are met, then many of the other needs are also met as secondary benefits. A feeling of belonging meets the social/emotional needs as well as building a platform to help meet academic needs.

I was pleased to see agreement across the board on the top ten academic concerns. Each of the participant groups placed learning gaps as either the number one or two categories of concern. In Seasons of My Military Student, we include gaps in learning alongside the parallel frustration of overlaps in learning. These gaps and overlaps make it difficult for both students and educators, no matter when a student moves to a new school.  Over the years MIC3, MCEC, Educate the Educator, Common Core and various other programs have attempted to minimize the gap/overlap experience, but students and teachers still encounter the challenge on a regular basis.

“Surveys like this one are like buoys, keeping these important issues visible and on the surface, continuing the conversation between parents and schools.”

— Stacy Allsbrook-Huisman

Stacy: What stood out to me in this survey was how confident education professionals were in their own understanding, but how little parents felt they (educators and schools) actually understood the academic, social and emotional challenges related to their military-connected students. Obviously, there is a disconnect there for the parent-teacher team. I hope our book can serve as the missing piece, because we address the points of view of students, parents, and educators.

Also, there is a lack of understanding, implementing, and enforcing the Interstate Compact from both parent and professionals. The Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission may need to step up to help schools understand the spirit of the compact if enforcement is not added. I think this survey can be helpful to all fifty commissioners.

Another concern I have is that COVID has brought on new challenges not covered in this survey. Gaps in learning that will be exaggerated by transition next year will be something to track, as well as military kids who are not adjusting after moving during the pandemic. For those who have no outreach from schools during the pandemic closures, social and emotional issues will be much more profound by the end of the school year. I hope there will be an effort to capture that data now so we know how much work needs to be done to “find” these kids that may get lost in the aftermath of the pandemic.

First-Hand View

Amanda: As an educator, I think seeing students’ needs described in their own words will help teachers be more aware of academic and social/emotional learning.

 “As an educator, I think seeing students’ needs described in their own words will help teachers be more aware of academic and social/emotional learning.”

— Amanda Trimillos

The survey reiterates that military-connected students are not looking for an advantage. They are looking for a level opportunity to succeed both academically and in extra-curricular activities. Often it feels that policy prevents advocates and decision makers from erring on the side of the child. When the policy dictates come first, the one who then suffers is the student. Rather than err on the side of policy, we should put more weight on the needs of the student.

The goal is to help families and educators and policy makers see that these experiences are not single-lived events. These challenges both academic and social/emotional are on-going. They are occurring in every military-connected student generation. They are impacting both new and veteran educators.

Stacy: This survey brings to light the ongoing challenges of supporting military-connected kids in school, not just the academics, but socially and emotionally. The remedy is to have simple, easy-to-understand professional development to help schools reach out. They can keep military families from falling between the cracks or constantly struggling through transition or deployments.

Read more:

• Jill Biden Joins MCEC for Military Student Survey Release
• Military Kids Now 2020 Survey Summary Report from MCEC
• Military Kids Seek Understanding, Level Playing Field, from Stars and Stripes

The post Survey Brings Attention to Experiences of Military Students appeared first on Seasons of My Military Student.

Amanda, Stacy, and their military families are in the thick of this pandemic-year experience. Both their families PCSed this summer to new communities and new schools. Amanda, a middle school teacher, is leading a combination classroom, with some students attending in person and others participating by video. Her own four children are also learning in various hybrid situations in their new schools. Stacy’s children are attending schools that offer only virtual classes for now.

Along with the challenges of adjusting to new classrooms, making friends can be difficult, sometimes leaving students feeling isolated. Supportive and involved parenting is more important than ever, Amanda and Stacy agree. They offer these encouraging ideas for families to improve their student’s social, emotional, and academic outcomes:

Find the positive. Don’t lock in on the hardship of the situation. Acknowledge that hardship and frustration exist, but also encourage students to find something positive to hold on to. Look for new positives each day, as well as positives that could come from the whole experience. Encourage students to write down what they discover.

Keep a journal. This is a historic time, so encourage students to write about it, to create their own historic record. Journaling can supplement learning, give students a way to practice writing, explore current events, and process their own experiences and emotions.

Create a routine and a schedule, even if kids are taking virtual classes at home. A schedule gives structure and creates normalcy, just as it does after any move. Making a schedule and keeping track of assignments will keep students on track and provide reminders for what is due and when.

Take regular breaks from screen time as part of the schedule. Get students outside for exercise and fresh air whenever possible. Take advantage of the mental health benefits of the family pet. If pets are too distracting to remain in the room during class time, let kids play with them and pet them during breaks.

Plan computer time as a family. If the whole family is working from home at different times, internet bandwidth and available screens may be at a premium. Regular family meetings help when planning who needs to be online and when. Determine who has priority, and let teachers know about any conflicts that might keep students from attending online class.

Keep teachers informed. Start a phone or email conversation, especially when in-person meetings aren’t possible. For new students, give teachers some background so they will know how to connect with students. Teachers may also be able to help connect new students with others who have similar interests or suggest ways to connect. A teacher will also know about other new students who are looking for friends.

Monitor homework. For some students, their ability and personality may not translate well in online homework or virtual class participation. If parents realize their student’s work or grades are not reflective of his or her understanding of a particular subject, they should let teachers know and discuss solutions.

Know the Interstate Compact. The provisions of the compact are still applicable and may be helpful in some situations. Read the compact and be familiar with what it covers and what it doesn’t.

Make friends. Creating opportunities for students to make friends is part of a positive school experience, and it’s hard right now, Amanda and Stacy agree. Parents may have to be more proactive than usual to help their students find ways to connect in a new place. They suggest plugging into sports and outdoor activities whenever possible and making a point to meet neighbors.

Many other families are also looking for connections, and it’s worthwhile to take the initiative to break through the walls to new friendships—now more than ever.

On Milspouse Matters podcast, Amanda and Stacy talk about their latest moves and experiences with remote learning. Listen to Milspouse Matters Episode 47 with host Jen McDonald for more ideas and encouragement for remote learning.

Latest COVID Information and Guidance from Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission.

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