Ever since Advisory was introduced, lessons came along with them. The teaching of these lessons are often inconsistent, as some teachers may require their students to fully pay attention and participate in them, and some may allow students to work while they teach the lesson. However, do students at Robinson find merit in these lessons?
What are these lessons?
Oftentimes, they consist of slideshows with icebreakers, tutorials, ice breakers, or Rams Read. Clubs can also create advisory lessons, like the Black History Month Advisory lessons last year. At the end of these lessons, there are usually google forms for students to fill out to ensure that their teacher has shown these lessons, but sometimes there isn’t. Some lessons include PSAT information, as shown on Sept. 26.
These lessons were implemented as a replacement for Learning Seminar as a county directive. Bryan Hazard, middle school student resource teacher said, “It was a county directive, so the county came and said that elementary schools had to do morning meeting and high schools, middle schools, and secondary schools had to do Advisory, and they added the Social, Emotional Learning (SEL) portion and that is a time where it’s very similar to learning seminar, however, we just added some extra layers to it.” He also commented on why it may have been replaced, “I think a lot of it had to do with, we needed to add that social emotional layer to it that was coming from national organizations, and we’ve always done an advisory per se, but it was just in the longer portion of learning seminar- it’s just really a different name because there’s other schools around the county who still call Learning Seminar.”
SEL, mainly consists of lessons on health, care and relationships. Hazard said, “so social emotional learning, just with some students who really need extra support with mental health and with care and relationships in the classroom, those types of things, studies show that those things under that umbrella make kids better students. They’re building relationships, finding community in a school and so we add that to the advisory lessons.” However, the effects of SEL at Robinson haven’t been measured, as Hazard said, “I think that there’s studies from the nation that show that [SEL helps]. I think we can do a better job of diving into the data here at school and looking at what it does.
Teachers also teach the lessons differently. An anonymous student said, “anyways, [my teacher], she definitely loves showing the lessons, every single lesson she shows it and actively goes through the slides and talks about these individual things.” Another student said, “they sometimes do, it just depends on what we find valuable because I’m an IB student, so it just depends on what the teacher finds valuable or not.” Some teachers also require full engagement in the lessons and Rams Read as well. One student said, “Yeah, she does show the advisory lessons. She really tries to make it engaging, so she makes sure that everybody’s discussing the questions that are being asked.”
Hazard also commented, “We need to also do a better job of just doing the lessons with fidelity and making sure that all of our students are being able to [access the lessons].”
What does Robinson Think?
“I think [the advisory lessons] are important, but it’s the kind of stuff that we always learn and it’s not really something that you can implement into our lives,” said an anonymous student. “It’s just things that we need to learn, but I do think that when it comes time to talk about help, like resources for help, for example, like mental health help, then that’s valuable, but then there’s lessons sometimes that are like ‘be kind to each other!’ I don’t know, I don’t really take it seriously.” A lot of the “be kind to each other!” lessons may be interpreted as surface level, and are lessons that students have always heard in their lives.
Some lessons are also genuinely required, such as forms or tests mandated by the county or school that require teacher instruction. Another anonymous person said, “honestly, I think they’re beneficial to the school. For me, I found value in them for the past two years since junior year.” They continued, “some of them focus on how to better manage time, stress and how to be more organized, and that’s something I’m definitely weak in, so I definitely appreciate they’re presenting us with new resources and ideas on how to be more responsible and I think that’s really important to me.”
Many students find that advisory lessons also cut into their study time, which may impact them academically. An anonymous student said, “yeah, that happens a lot because we don’t know when we have lessons, but then there’s times when I really need to get some work done, but then the lessons are in the way [of getting work done].” Another student also said, “they [the advisory lessons] haven’t impacted me academically, but I feel like if I had more time during advisory to study, it would definitely be more helpful with my schedule in general.”
However, some students can multitask by doing their work and listening to the lesson if their teacher allows them to. One student said, “I don’t really think they prevented me [from doing work] because my teacher doesn’t force us to actively pay attention, it’s more like background noise to me, so it doesn’t really interrupt [my work], but I still can process the information that she’s presenting to the class.”
There are many ways to improve advisory lessons, according to students. An anonymous student said, “for me, I think they should just cut down on the activity stuff in advisory, because I think when it comes to most teachers, they don’t do it and the kids don’t want to do it. So, I think personally they should cut it out, but I do appreciate the information that’s being presented in advisory lessons.” Another student also said, “I don’t know. The lessons are hard because like, personally, I don’t want to do the lessons, but I think they’re important.” They continued, “maybe cut down on the extra lessons and just do things that are really valuable and would actually be helpful to people, but you could still have the resources available.”
Some people do not do the lessons at all, as they may be busy with coursework. An anonymous student said, “for me, I don’t really do it because it just kind of requires a lot it requires some work and I’m usually busy with things a lot of like usually I’m working on my core classes or my other IB classes, so I really don’t have the time to like work on them [the lessons].”
Rams Read falls in the same boat when it comes to students doing it or not, as many choose not to read during Rams Read and instead work on their assignments. Two anonymous students, both IB diploma candidates, choose to work on their assignments instead of reading as their teachers let them.
If students want to help improve Advisory lessons, they can contact Mr. Hazard. He said, “I’m always looking for help. I’m always looking for a student voice. This is just a small piece of what I do and as we go throughout [the school year], I’m always looking for help and always looking for improvement and always know that there’s someone who can add to it and make it better.”
While Advisory lessons may just be a class that students must go through every Gold Day. Sometimes, the merit of these lessons may be questionable at best, but they can be genuinely useful and important to many students across Robinson. With student input, they can be improved, and perhaps work in a way that doesn’t disturb work and still be informative, engaging and useful.
