Using Technology to Build Connections

As a Physical Education Teacher, Mike Hufstader knows that long distance learning in his classes during a pandemic was going to be a challenge. No longer was giving a high five or a comment like "great shot" possible.

He understands that the importance of teamwork, camaraderie, and pushing one's self is an experience even more important than learning how to serve a badminton shuttlecock.

That's why at the beginning of the school year, he encouraged his Middle School PE students to submit videos of themselves sharing their experiences or concerns during the time in which students were not allowed on campus. "On an online platform, I really missed those face-to-face connections that you make in the gym. I'm used to asking kids as they enter the gym, 'Hey, how are you doing, and how can I help you?' It wasn't as much about content or skills but mainly just a social/emotional check-in," says Hufstader whose 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students took part. 

As an exercise that he started at the beginning of the school year, he knew the connection of responding to students had an immense value to our desire to build our community. Hufstader is also the 7th Grade Advisory Team Leader and built on the idea of student interaction to create virtual hangout rooms that meet on Tuesdays during homeroom period. 

The goal is to continue building community while maintaining connections with their 7th grade classmates. The room topics change each week, and students can choose what interests them during that time. Hangout room topics include discussions on the Seattle Seahawks, charades, show us your pet, dungeons and dragons, and recipe sharing. Students have also brought timely ideas such as discussions on race, elections, and social justice.

While he sees more students on campus, Hufstader says he expects the weekly virtual chats to continue for the foreseeable future. "Even as we're returning to campus, we'll have many students who will choose to stay at home," explains Hufstader. "We want to make sure that those students are still connecting with classmates who are at Overlake. We wanted to recreate that lunchroom type conversation, and although there's an adult in each room, we let students run the talks."

With Hufstader's interest in athletics, it's not surprising to learn that he enjoys the rooms on sports news. "As a teacher, it was so great to see how active and vocal the kids are in that dialogue, and we just let kids have at it. Their thoughtfulness is so cool to see in a space that's structured but unstructured enough where it replicates social conversations they would have on campus outside of classrooms."