The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Focusing on Health & Safety During a Pandemic
Schools are back in session and many are starting off the year virtually as health officials continue to warn about the risk of group gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with science and English classes, school wellness lessons will be conducted through videos and altered programs to allow for social distancing.
Teachers and youth community organizations are using platforms like Google Classroom and Zoom video conferencing to interact with students through screens this school year. Schools faced the unexpected challenge of having to go completely virtual this past spring without much preparation but have used the summer to plan virtual education components.
“We’re completely transforming how we’re teaching and learning,” said Jo-an Rechtin, Owen J. Roberts School District communications consultant and wellness coordinator.
Rechtin said the focus of the district has changed due to current conditions happening around the nation.
“We’re trying to be more collaborative and strategic with our wellness programming this year,” she said.
Rechtin said the Owen J. Roberts School District is focusing on health and safety this year. School nurses are using posters, videos and other resources to help educate families about how to protect themselves from the coronavirus. The posters and videos include tips about social distancing, washing your hands, and wearing a face mask.
“I learned things from those videos,” Rechtin said. “There’s a practice to only touching the ear loops (of a face mask), and never touching the front of the mask.”
Rechtin said this information is being dispersed to families now so that students will be well educated when they return to in-person learning.
Using Social Emotional Learning to Promote Wellness and Diversity
Rechtin said anxiety is a common feeling many people are experiencing during this time so the school district is put a particular focus on mental health and wellness. She said thanks to the support of the Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation, their schools are able to engage in social emotional learning.
“I’m just so thankful that they have allowed us to do that work because it’s very different from the original goals of just keeping fit with nutrition and physical activity,” she said.
Social and emotional learning helps students to identify and manage their feelings, so they can make better decisions and build relationships with others. Rechtin said teachers are using social emotional learning to talk with their students about diversity, inclusion and equity.
“We’re really looking at everything that’s going on nationally. We’re really looking at how our social emotional skills … that we’re doing with kids can help promote diversity and equity,” she said.
Throughout the summer, the school district used summer reading programs to share books with students that focused on social emotional learning as well as diversity.
“We’re looking at building our libraries so that every student, no matter how they’re identifying, can see themselves in literature,” Rechtin said.
Virtual & Socially Distant After School Wellness Programs
The Pottstown School District is collaborating with several community organizations to provide a virtual afterschool program for elementary students this year. Shelby Iezzi, the district’s wellness coordinator, said the youth collaborative program involves working with Greater Pottstown Tennis & Learning, TriCounty Community
Network, the Schuylkill River Greenways National Heritage Area and more.
Iezzi said the virtual program is an extension of the pilot program that took place at Franklin Elementary School last year. During the pilot program, elementary students would walk to the Pottstown Integrated Wellness Complex. The complex houses several local organizations such as the Pottstown YMCA and H.E.A.T, Henley Elite Athlete Training.
“We’re able to do a lot more for the afterschool program in the virtual setting,” Iezzi said.
The Samana Holistic Center will be doing yoga, Greater Pottstown Tennis & Learning will give tennis lessons, H.E.A.T. will engage students with fitness activities, the Pottstown YWCA will conduct both education and nutrition lessons, and Schuylkill River Greenways will encourage exploration in nature. Bause Catering will have a healthy snack program and students will have food pickups at the elementary schools.
Iezzi said each organization involved in the afterschool program will provide a set of materials to give students that they will be able to use remotely throughout the year. She said material items include tennis rackets, expandable yoga balls, binoculars, and jump ropes.
Pottstown Middle and High School students have the opportunity to participate in an afterschool program as well. A workout program is open to all students in grades 7 through 12. Students will meet in person as groups of up to 10 people. The students will remain socially distant while in the workout groups.
The Owen J. Roberts School District will use virtual 5Ks and running programs to help keep students be physically active. Every year, the district does a 5K program called Run 101. Teachers and staff will use Google Classroom and Google Sheets to create virtual teams to train for the event.
“It’s kind of a couch to 5K format where you start out and just build your endurance so you can
Using Social Media and Online Sites to Promote Wellness
Pottstown School District has very active social media pages which will be used to promote wellness virtually while students learn from home. Iezzi said resources about nutrition, exercise and general wellness will be shared through their social media pages. September is National Yoga Month so Iezzi will be providing teachers with resources on how students can do free online yoga programs.
The Pottstown School District is also partnering with the Montgomery County Department of Health & Human Services to engage with families online. Iezzi said the schools are working with community health educators to teach families about reducing food waste through social media, online newsletters, and physical handouts to include during food distribution days.
Virtual Wellness Activities Embedded into the Classrooms
School districts will be embedding wellness learning and activities directly into the virtual classroom. Rechtin said Owen J. Roberts School District teachers will use short videos during the remote class period to teach students about nutrition, physical activity and brain breaks.
Iezzi said Pottstown High School students will have regular online physical education classes. The other schools will incorporate brain breaks into the virtual school day and possibly organize virtual running activities.