Unfortunately, with the times that we are struggling through, our students are faced with learning in the virtual world and navigating through it in a way they’ve never done before. More and more schools are faced with having to deliver their instruction virtually to their students. This greatly impacts several students, including students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Students with ADHD have difficulty paying attention and staying focused on a specific task for an extended period of time. Students may also have difficulties with self-control, which often leads to distractibility within the classroom. Knowing that ADHD is a struggle for some of our students and applying the accommodations that we can easily put into place within our classrooms, such as preferential or flexible seating, extended time for tasks, and verbal and physical cues, may be enough to pull students back on track in the classroom; but all of this changes when students are not physically in the classroom and now learn virtually.

Distractibility is one of the biggest issues that students are facing when asked to learn from home. Students now have a computer in front of them that must be used as their learning tool as opposed to a source of entertainment. Instead, this is where their educational day starts and stops. Sitting at home, trying your very best to learn, listening to conversations happening in the other room, hearing the dog bark outside, or being pulled away by the television that is on are all normal things that happen within a home but can now contribute to distractibility as a child is trying to learn.

Students with ADHD also benefit from more hands-on activities that include moving around the classroom and being truly interactive with what they are learning. As students are now learning in the virtual world, this doesn’t mean that all of the students’ academic success must end. Instead teachers must get creative and think out of the box on ways to engage their students and make them feel as if they are still right there in the classroom.

Strategies for Students with ADHD

Student Expectations

First and foremost, just like any new thing that our students may experience, expectations must be reviewed with the class. As expectations are developed, educators must keep in mind the ages of the students as well as any attention issues they have while learning. Going over the expectations daily as well as using questions and answers to informally assess that the students are grasping the new “virtual rules” is the starting point when strategically planning the day and what the students’ tasks will be.

Schedules and Brain Breaks

When students enter into the virtual world, more and more we are seeing districts that want teachers to follow a structured school schedule throughout the day. The thought process behind this is that by following the school schedule students are still getting the “school” experience as teachers are treating the virtual world similarly to physical classroom.

As teachers closely follow the schedule and utilize all of the curricula programs that they would normally use, they must keep in mind that it is not reasonable to think that students can sit in front of a computer screen for seven hours a day. Allowing time for brain breaks is a strategy that can be used with our students, but knowing them well is the only way to really know what types of brain breaks would be beneficial for them.

Even though it may seem counterproductive, students who struggle with hyperactivity and attention issues may need more energized breaks, while other students in your class may need more relaxing deep breathing breaks to quiet their minds and gear up for what is still to come during their academic school day. It is important to strategically plan the brain breaks so that distraction and fatigue do not set in.

Check-Ins

Just as teachers may do a “check in” and “check out” when students are with them in their classrooms, this is a strategy that can be used during remote learning as well. Touching base and making sure that the students are doing ok academically and emotionally is very important. Having them share what is working for them and what they are struggling with will give teachers a clear idea of what needs must be met for the students. Making a small instructional change based off of the individualized check-ins with students is a strategy that may be beneficial for our students.

Connecting with Classmates

One key component that students do miss out on when they are learning virtually is their peer interactions. Often students struggle at home when they miss out on being with their friends and communicating during unstructured times throughout the school day. To replace times like this, teachers can plan unstructured breaks during their virtual learning. Turning all cameras on as well as giving students the opportunity to tell a joke, share different fun things they may have done, or playing a short game with them will allow time for peer interaction, laughs, and an overall sense of classroom community, as this is something they emotionally may need. For our younger students, teachers could do a “show and tell” type activity as a break, something students look forward to.

Adapting for Different Learning Styles

Throughout all of this, teachers may find what works one day may not work the next as students are remotely learning. Continuously trying new strategies will enhance the learning experience as students are learning from home. Keeping their day structured as well as trying to keep their learning routines as close to possible as what they would be if they were physically with you in the classroom will enhance our students’ virtual learning experience.

Teaching virtually is something new for most educators, so it is important to remember that this is new for our students as well. Handling each situation, each learning style, each disability, and each student gracefully is what will truly help them navigate through this learning platform.

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The list of teacher job responsibilities was already too long before the pandemic. The time required of teachers to effectively teach students now is more than they have in a day. With the pandemic exacerbating an already high number of nationwide teacher shortages, it is imperative that we all do what we can to prevent further loss of teachers by supporting each other.

What is Peer Support?

Peer support is the way that educators support each other on and off campus. It includes how teachers collaborate, network, socialize, vent to each other, and help each other in times of need. Peer support among teachers can occur within the school building or outside of school during personal time. It can also happen face to face or virtually through social media, videos, or messaging.

Why is Peer Support Important?

We know that when teachers build relationships with students, it drastically improves student learning. Likewise, when teachers build relationships with their peers, it drastically improves teaching. Peer support is also crucial to teacher job satisfaction. In one of the top-ranked most stressful jobs, relationships with peers can make or break an educator’s decision whether or not to stay in their position or even their career of education overall.

Educators fight an uphill battle against the systemic issues of public education together and it can help create unity, but it is important to be even more purposeful this year in creating and maintaining peer support systems that provide help in times of struggle.

Michelle Kinder, author of WHOLE: What Teachers Need to Help Students Thrive, cites “A shocking statistic in education reveals that 70% of K-12 teachers work under chronic stress.” This statistic was published before COVID-19 changed everything. Educators are now faced with the additional stress and anxiety of being concerned for their family’s safety and their own. Balancing between being a teacher in the best way they know how while maintaining safety protocols and little or no time face to face with their students puts everyone in need of higher levels of support than before. Teachers supporting each other is one of the best ways to start refiling some very dry buckets of support.

Ways to Provide Peer Support

As previously stated, peer support can be provided through many means and can look very different depending on current circumstances. Here are some ways to provide peer support.

Collaboration

Teacher planning and preparation typically takes much longer than the time allotted for teachers during their school day. Most teachers spend hours at home on nights and weekends preparing lessons and resources to meet the needs of their students. Teacher collaboration can help reduce this time greatly when the work is split up among the group.

As a seventh-grade math teacher, I collaborated with my peers who also taught seventh-grade math, and together we planned and then split up who would prepare the materials and assignments for each lesson. This helped up develop a support system within ourselves and reduced our personal stress of feeling overwhelmed. It also created an accountability for each of us to create the best learning experiences we could possibly think of for our students because we never wanted to let each other down by sharing a product that was less than the best for each other and our students. We focused our time on creating impactful and effective learning opportunities, possible only because we shared the work.

Social Support

There is a special bond that is formed through the camaraderie that is shared from teaching. It is a unique profession where no two days are the same. Spending time with others who understand your successes and struggles is comforting and uplifting. Sharing a story from lunch duty with someone who is not a teacher is not as fulfilling as sharing it with someone who completely understands the environment and experience.

Teachers can relate to each other and they have more in common than not. Spending time supporting each other off campus is a very effective way to provide each other support. Teacher social support has traditionally happened at happy hours after work, holiday parties, or exercise clubs. Now, those groups are meeting virtually over Zoom for happy hour or game nights. They can also happen through social media and group messaging.

Professional Learning Communities

These groups are typically abbreviated and called PLCs. They encompass a process through which educators work together collaboratively on various topics and subjects, conduct collective inquiry and action research, and share and learn from one another. Through PLCs, teachers can find and share great resources, lesson plans, and conferences, find inspiration, learn the latest trends in education, make international connections, find emotional support, and get connected to the work of other great educators. PLCs provide an opportunity for teachers to network virtually and get connected with teachers that they don’t see every day.

Teaching is a humanistic profession. Evidence shows that the greatest impact on student success is the teacher in the classroom. With that knowledge, it is important that we recognize that teacher peer support is the humanistic way of coping with the stress that comes from this incredibly rewarding profession.

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