 So I'm going to very briefly introduce them. The first thing they're going to do is introduce themselves. And again, if you don't have speaker view on right now, you're going to want that on so you can see them among all 80-ish of our faces. So we've got Audrey joining us from Northern Illinois University. We've got Claretta joining us from Sock Valley Community College. Heather from Vienna High School. Isabella, who goes to school in Rockford, and Anne, who is a middle school student in Grayslake in School District 46, not to be confused with Elgin's U46. And so with that said, we're going to bring them up. And I'm going to put Audrey on the spot first and ask her to begin by introducing herself. Hi, everyone. My name is Audrey Liedermann. I am a student at Northern Illinois University. I am a first-generation college student, and I transferred here after two years at McHenry County Community College. And I'm proud to say I'm graduating this spring. My final day of my program is tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you so much. And my degree is a bachelor's of science in human development in family sciences. And I have an emphasis in child development and a specialty in parenting and infancy. And I am in the process of applying for a graduate school. And I am hoping to earn a master of social work. And I aspire to have a career providing family education and facilitating positive parent-child interactions. Yeah, that's me. I'm happy to be here. Thank you, everyone. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Audrey. Claretta, you're up next. If we can have you introduce yourself, tell us about what you're studying, and at the moment where your career interests lie. Hello, I am Claretta Kern Lyons. I am going to Sock Valley Community College. I am getting my associates in liberal studies. Currently, I'm going into the Marines after I get my associates done, mostly just because I want to go in at a higher rank than everyone else. But I also just wanted to get a jumpstart on my college career before I go in. So yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being with us today, Claretta. We'll be very interested to hear more of your thoughts. Heather, can you jump in and introduce yourself? OK. Heather actually couldn't make it today. So my name is Emma. I'm so sorry. That's great, Emma. Thank you. And my name's Emmy, and we're from Vina High School. Our seniors. So we've got two special guests from Viana High School, and I apologize to everybody that I wasn't aware of that. Can you guys go ahead and tell us what your interest in studying after high school and what you think your career interests lie? Me, I'm going to go into physical therapy. I'm not sure where yet, but that's my plan. And I'm going to go into early childhood education, and I'm not sure where yet either. Sounds great. Well, we're really glad to have both of you. Thank you so much. We're going to shift Isabella all the way at the opposite end of the state now in Rackford. Isabella, can you go ahead and introduce yourself? Yeah, I'm Isabella Hernandez. I go to Auburn High School. I'm in the gifted and the creative and performing arts here. And as of college, I don't know where I'd like to go, but I definitely want to major in public health and microbiology. And then I hope to go to medical school. And I would love to either be an epidemiologist or a infectious disease doctor. So yeah. Awesome. Well, I think we've all learned a little bit this year about what you want to learn a lot more about. So that's fantastic. And Ann, our last student on our panel from Graze Lake. Ann, can you go ahead and introduce yourself? And while you haven't even begun high school yet, tell us what you think you might want to do on the other side of high school as well. Hello, everybody. I'm Annie. And I go to Park School in Graze Lake, Illinois. I'm very involved in sports. I play basketball, softball, and I run cross country. As of right now and for a long time, I want to be a doctor, go into medicine. So even though I'm only eighth grade, that's what I want to do. So one of the things that's interesting as I listen to that is that essentially all of these current students have just expressed their interest in being part of what I would call the helping professions, right? And so that's, I think, a really important thing. But before we talk about long term for them, we want to hear about their learning experiences for this year. So what were the aspects of learning that you liked or that you thought actually helped you this year? What were the really positive surprises for you? And for this, I'm going to go in the same order. We'll start with Audrey and then go to Claretta, Vienna High School, up to Auburn High School, and then to Ann in Graze Lake. So Audrey, if you can get us started about what were the things that you liked and were positive surprises about learning this year? Sure. I found virtual synchronous delivery to be very enjoyable. The synchronous part is key because I feel like it was the balance for holding me accountable and keeping me in a consistent schedule and feeling like I was still attending school, while also providing that flexibility. And I found it was helpful to be able to attend school anywhere I was able to sit or stand and fidget around as needed. I was able to eat in class or in class as needed. And it didn't matter what I was wearing or how I showed up. I think that was really important because it allowed me, and I'm sure other students feel similarly, that you were just able to show up as you are and focus more on the learning and less about who am I sitting by, what do I look like, kind of that social aspect of school. I felt like with that removed, I was able to focus more on what we were actually learning. And it was just very accommodating for students like myself. And surprises, I am generally a very active participant in classes, especially when they're in person. And so I noticed that when we transferred to the virtual delivery, some of my peers who are typically more reserved and silent in face-to-face delivery, they were able to be very interactive during our online class. And perhaps they felt more comfortable communicating through the microphone or the chat box. And so I think it's very possible that virtual learning meets the needs of students with varying learning styles. So I felt I didn't feel so pressured to constantly like be kind of on and always raising my hand and participating like I typically do, because I felt like other students felt more comfortable kind of joining in that discussion. So that was really great to see. Wonderful. Claretta, what were your experiences like over the last year? What did you like about learning? What positive surprises did you find there to be? To be honest, I kind of struggled to come up with a ton of positives. I'm a huge fan of structured learning, so in person is very much ideal. So it was a big adjustment to go online, especially with college, where it's a lot more challenging, I suppose. I would agree that I felt a lot more comfortable sharing my opinions and just the raising of hand kind of through online. So I was a little surprised at that, even though I didn't overly struggle with it before, but I was definitely a lot more comfortable with it. Claretta, I have a quick follow-up for you. Even in my own house, we talk about in-person feeling more structured, but as I'm listening to you say this, we haven't really explored why that is. Do you have any idea why the in-person felt more feels more structured to you than the remote virtual learning that did or does? Yeah, yeah, I do, actually. A lot of students are a lot more external with their motivation, and I think college and school is geared towards people who are internally motivated, and it kind of struggles to branch out to those people and meet them where they are when they are externally motivated, and I'm definitely externally motivated. So in-person, it's more real, and you see the effects of your work, and you see yourself moving forward. So it's easier, and yeah. Awesome, thank you so much. Let's pop down to Viana High School and ask the same questions. What were the things that you liked about learning during this past year, and what surprises for you were there as things looked different from time to time? Well, actually, we've been very grateful to be able to be in-person this whole school year. We've had a few moments of COVID cases and quarantines that we've had to adjust to, but the cooperation and dedication from all the students to follow the rules and just do what we're told has been very successful for us. Did that surprise you guys, or did that feel different than maybe school felt prior to the pandemic? It was definitely a lot better. I think all the kids wanted to come back so badly that that's why we're all just listening and following all the rules, because we all want to be here rather than learning from home. That's great. Let's shift up to Isabella and ask you that same question. What were the aspects of learning that you liked or that you thought helped you during the past year, and what surprises were there for you? Yeah, so one, I'll just go ahead and start with the surprise, and not necessarily a bad thing, but just to preface everything, my school district, we changed schedules four times this year. So it was very like back and forth. So there definitely were a lot of negatives as well as positives because we were just adjusting so much to each new schedule. But a positive that came out of that was that everyone was able to adapt. And I think that in a society when we are used to routine and regulation, and that's where we feel comfortable, I think that it was really important that we learned how to adapt and that we did it so well. And then another thing that I just like wanted to bring out there was that even the last year when we had gone, like shut completely down, we were all given Chromebooks. And that was very useful because now since we are a Title I school, we were able to all interact together. And the district did a wonderful job of distributing them, replacing them if any damages, and even helping kids that had internet issues help them set up, which I thought was very useful. And it was a long time coming. So that was really good. And then another thing was that there was a lot of student consideration in this year. I'm part of the superintendent's student advisory council. And they always wanted our input on what we should do next or how we should do it. Even when we had the four separate schedule changes, there were a lot of ideas that were being thrown around and they wanted our input on it. And going off of that is also the fact that we had no HUM finals, which I think was really, really beneficial to all of the students because, I mean, as all of you know, it was a very, very hard year for us. And that kind of just relieved a little bit of the stress being like, okay, I did try my best. And this is a second chance, but if I don't do very well considering the circumstances that it, you know, it is okay. Awesome. That's great. Thank you for covering so much ground in that. And Anne, what about for you? What were the things that you liked or that helped you this past year? What surprises were there for you? So I'm a very, very social person. So staying home for me, it wasn't fun at all. Even though I am self-motivated, I was able to work independently. So we were able to leave our meets and I thought that I could get a lot more work done even though it wasn't fun at home. So we could, we could work in class, we could work in groups, but then if you wanted to, you could leave the meet and you could get all of your work done by yourself. So that was, there's always a positive. So that was my positive. And then a surprise was, we ended up having to our, my classmates and I, we had to put our cameras on, even though I always had mine on, that was a surprise for me because it made me realize that I wasn't the only one there. My other, my other classmates and my friends, they were all there with us and they all had kind of the same, kind of the same ideas as I had. And since everybody was participating them, it made me feel a lot better. Well, how did students feel about all having to have their cameras on? Was that something that there were side conversations about? Yeah, so a lot of people didn't particularly like that because I noticed some of my friends, they would roll out of bed and they were still in their pajamas or they were in their bed. So the fact that they had to put their cameras on, they didn't particularly like. So I heard a lot of side like, oh man, I have to show my face during PE, I have to show my face in math. Like they just didn't really like that, even though it wasn't an issue for me. That's great, thank you. So one of my questions for all of you, and this could be based on your own experience as well as things you've heard about, maybe from people in other schools, but that as a student you think would be really important and useful for all of us as educators to hear from you, what things that happen this year, what parts of learning in our school from this year do you think should continue in the future? And now I'm gonna kind of open it up to whichever one of you wants to jump in first. Okay, well, I guess I will go ahead and go on first. So per our four schedule changes, one of them was that we would sign in asynchronously. And as of right now, we go full time except for Wednesdays when we were let out at 12.08. I think this is a really, really beneficial thing because I was talking to one of my friends yesterday and he was like, this mental health day or just this pause in the middle of the week was really, really beneficial to help restore our mental health, we start the week off strong, we take a little break and we can still do homework and stuff and then we come back even stronger and I think it was really beneficial. I would love to see something like this be integrated into our school and I have talked to the superintendent of our district about it as well and he thinks that it's also a really good idea. And then just the technology, I know that I had said that I really liked the fact that everyone was getting Chromebooks and just being able to interact online as well as in person. I think that is something that we need to integrate because as we're moving forward, it seems that that's the direction that we're going. So if we can, I think it would be just really amazing to be able to use those things. That's awesome. What other thoughts do other people from the panel have about things that should continue that were tried this year into the future? I was gonna go off of what Isabella said. I'm gonna branch off of that. I agree with that 100%. So even though we don't have a break in the middle of the week, I feel like for some students, it's very important to have a flexible schedule or being able to choose where you learn because everybody learns differently. So whether your family situation, whether just the way that your brain works, it's very important for kids to be able to have an option to work best with their schedule because then they feel better about themselves in school. They feel that they can work harder and they feel that they can go farther if they're going to their full potential in school. Awesome. Other thoughts? So I can share from my perspective our courses. Sometimes we use Zoom and sometimes we use Microsoft Teams. And so those platforms are a little different and it kind of was a learning curve getting used to both of those. But in terms of Zoom, I really appreciated the utilization of breakout rooms. That was a really fun way to kind of change up the delivery of the lecture. And it also was fun when teachers shuffled the groups so that I could work with peers that I typically don't interact with or don't gravitate towards for group projects. And so it was really fun to be able to do that. And I also feel like students felt comfortable in breakout rooms when maybe the pressure of the professor not being present it allowed us to kind of share and just collaborate together. Another cool thing about showing up in this virtual space is the opportunity to input your name in the meeting. And I think this is very inclusive and accommodating when students can put their names which may be different from their assigned name or the name registered with the university. They can also add their pronouns in with their name. And I think this just opened such a great opportunity to be inclusive which may not be as transferable when you're in the classroom setting. And so this is something, some of my professors just kind of established this as a part of how we show up in this online space by adding their pronouns or introducing themselves that way. And so I just felt like that was so inclusive and really meaningful to students especially when the virtual space can seem so disconnected to kind of have that personable aspect of it that we can show up here as we are. And so that was really great to see and I think that can be continued in some aspect within an in-person delivery as well as the incorporation of videos and podcasts and online kind of simulation type learning. That was very fun and I know teachers were very creative and how they were reaching their students given that we were all using some sort of technology and so it was really great to be able to, for a homework assignment, listen to a podcast or listen to watch videos. And that really added some variation to learning which I think was really cool. The other component, which is kind of what Isabella mentioned was the mental health and social emotional support. We are all collectively going through this pandemic and we have some sort of shared, lived experience through this. And I feel like there has been an extension of kindness and patience and understanding kind of collectively from everyone experiencing this in the world. And I felt very validated by my professors this year. And sometimes it just came down to like comments of like, oh, this is really hard. Like this is hard and you are really resilient for showing up today. And so that was just very encouraging to hear and also I feel like it kind of connected the experience from us students to professors and kind of feeling like, oh, we're all in this together. We're all learning through this. And so I really felt connected to my professors in that way. And I believe that that should continue past the pandemic and you never know what students are going through. It's hard to be a student. And I think we could all use a little grace every once in a while and that mental support that Isabella mentioned as well. Another thing I wanted to mention is that I am so thankful that the president of NIU, Lisa C. Freeman, really took a public stance on human rights this past year, especially this past semester. We received emails, it seemed like every week about her stance and supporting students and demonstrating that at NIU, it aims to be an inclusive environment standing up for student rights. And specifically Black Lives Matter was mentioned, LGBTQA plus rights were mentioned and anti-Asian violence. And within those messages, connections to counseling services on campus and meetings for community support were arranged via Zoom and Teams and free resources such as presentation for additional purposes were also provided. And so I just felt so proud to attend a university knowing that they were supporting and advocating for all of their students. And that was just so meaningful for me because not only has this year in 2020 brought on the pandemic but many other things kind of just adding stress and hardships on experience in our community. So that was really meaningful for me. Awesome, thank you for sharing all that. We've covered such a wide range of things we want to continue from this year to our other panelists have additional things you guys would like to add that you would like to see continuing learning or in schools in the future that may have been tried in places this year. I wouldn't have anything super specific more so that there's just been a lot of student participation that's been added to the experience. It feels more like education has been a joint effort between educators and students and like we're all going through this together obviously but it really feels like they're just working with us and we're working with them and I definitely would like that to continue in the future. That's awesome. I mean, that's so critical to learning and in Vienna, do you guys have anything to add? Well, while you've been in school it certainly has not in every way totally normal. And so were there things that you guys have either experienced or heard about that you think we ought to continue in schools and in learning environments moving forward? Well, the main difference obviously we had to wear masks all the time and we don't really want that to continue if we can get rid of that. But every student was issued a Chromebook and that was definitely like a positive for everyone to have access to that. And we did have different areas that don't have good wifi and stuff. So we sent out buses and had different ways to provide wifi for the students that needed it. The shortened schedule was definitely I think it was actually very good for us. We get out only an hour earlier but it definitely gives more free time like after school for extracurricular activities and also just homework and jobs if students work. Yep, those are all really important points and certainly the connectivity issue is something that in my previous jobs I've spent a lot of time talking about but it now is part of regular people even not students and not educators understanding how critical that is. Well, this was just fantastic. Obviously our students kind of as expected covered ground that I didn't anticipate we would cover when we sent out these questions and this is why we ask students. So a virtual round of applause for our students. Thank you guys all so much for joining us today. You were incredible. With that, oh yeah, go ahead. You could say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.