By Karen Egolf

District 214 kicks off every school year with Freshman Orientation and Engagement activities to welcome its incoming freshman and transfer students. With the decision to start the year with remote classes, the District’s six high schools scrambled to take their Orientation programs virtual.

The schools met the challenge, working hard to create a variety of virtual activities and connections to make its freshmen feel welcome and involved.

The process started before the actual Orientation Day, August 14, with students picking up iPads and informational packets at their schools in the days leading up to the remote event [leading] up to orientation,” said Valerie Norris, assistant principal of student services for Elk Grove High School. “Our attendance interventionist, Chuck Moore, dropped off iPads to those students who did not pick them up to ensure that they participated in Orientation.”

Prospect High School took its own approach to helping prepare students for Orientation Day. “We had about 55 staff members do a home visit with every family,” Principal Greg Minter said. “The staff members brought the students a Prospect T-shirt and sat with the families outside. The focus was on welcoming the kids to school, encouraging them to get involved in whatever ways they can and to answer any questions the students or parents had.”

By Orientation Day, schools were ready. “Our primary goal was to help students feel connected to the school community and to set them up to feel confident on their first day of school,” said Sarah Struebing, music teacher at Wheeling High School.

To do this, the school created a two-hour Zoom orientation that included four key elements. First, she said, students met in a large group and were welcomed by WHS CatPack student leaders and their sponsors as well as Principal Jerry Cook. Then the incoming freshmen were divided into groups of two and three to meet with WHS staff to help them make personal connections while giving them key information and answering their questions. Next, students practiced visiting their first class on opening day before returning to a motivating send-off session. 

“The remote setting of the orientation made it necessary to make some large changes to the format of open house, but we were able to adapt in a way that made for a positive experience for our incoming freshman,” Struebing said.

Buffalo Grove High School used orientation day – called Freshman Engagement Day – to launch a mentorship program to make new students feel welcome. “Due to the circumstances of being remote we really wanted to connect with freshmen and make them feel a part of BGHS,” School Counselor and Freshman Engagement Day Coordinator Gia Georgiades said of the mentorship program. “Each freshman was paired with a staff mentor, who will support and connect them with resources throughout their first year.”

Each mentor met with their mentees to introduce themselves and answer questions before joining the Class of 2024 Zoom link. “Staff and students enjoyed this part of the day because it was a small setting where they got to connect and meet the staff who will be with them for the next four years,” Georgiades added.

Other schools used similar online formats and included themes, games and scavenger hunts. At Rolling Meadows High School, students engaged in activities such as an interactive Quizzizz quiz to promote school pride, spirit and knowledge, and created a virtual background through PicCollage, which allowed them to share information about themselves and get to know each other. They also talked with their counselors in separate sessions and met a minimum of four staff members, as well as juniors and seniors who acted as Mighty Mustang Mentors.

“Our key goal was to have students feel welcomed,” said Izabella Wnek, English and college speech teacher and the Mustang WOW! Freshman Committee Lead. “Essentially, it took some creative thinking from various people and an all-in attitude from the entire staff to ensure this year’s freshman orientation was just as good as in-person orientations in the past.”

The school also adapted its Mustang WOW! program, which it launched in August 2019 to help integrate freshmen into the school community, into a four-hour virtual format with  seven separate sessions and every staff member taking part, for orientation. “Because every single teacher participated in WOW this year, and because the entire orientation was so well planned, I believe that it went extremely smoothly,” Wnek said. “Students had a mixture of fun and informative sessions, they got to see friendly faces via Zoom, and they even had the opportunity to win prizes.”

Prospect played on the in-person family visits its staff had conducted to make its freshmen and transfer students feel even more at home. “We filmed a very cool welcome back to school video that included a welcome from all of the principals, a fun tour of the school, some tech tips, etc.,” Minter said. “The students then Zoomed with their counselor and the staff member who visited them during the summer.”

At John Hersey High School, students were invited to join in a video scavenger hunt. They also had Zoom opportunities to meet with counselors. “I created videos to represent every department of the school with visual/audio introducing freshman teachers, support staff, specialists, counselors and administrators,” said Patty Grow, English/EL division head for Hersey. “We used VideoScribe and made the video more engaging and interesting for students to watch. We also incorporated skills that the students will have to utilize in written and oral communication.”

Elk Grove High School ran its orientation with a space theme, “GrenX: Launching Students Into the Elk Grove Community.” While in-person orientations traditionally grouped 70 to 80 students with one counselor, the school decided to personalize the virtual experience. “This year, we had all staff involved and were able to place students in small groups of 10 with two to three staff members,” Norris said. “We placed a high emphasis on social-emotional team building but also emphasized technology so students felt prepared for Academic Day 1.”

In addition, Counselor Deb Ohler trained more than 50 seniors as Student Ambassadors and placed them in the small groups to help answer general and technology questions.

Behind the scenes, school faculty throughout the District worked to ensure everything ran smoothly. RMHS staff each made five to eight phone calls to students between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Orientation Day to see if students had picked up their iPads and received a Zoom link, as well as to answer questions and troubleshoot problems. It paid off: About 400 of its 500 incoming freshmen participated in orientation.

BGHS, meanwhile, focused on making sure the technical aspect of Orientation worked. “It took a lot of planning to make sure technology was on our side, but this was their first impression of BG and we wanted to make sure they felt welcomed and special no matter in-person or remote,” Georgiades said. “Seeing over 400 freshmen stay on Zoom for the entire presentation was truly incredible.”

Overall, the move to a virtual Orientation Day taught the educators a lot while bringing freshmen and staff closer together.

“I learned through the strength, industriousness and passion of educators, anything is possible,” EGHS’ Norris said. “I really needed to lean on multiple people this year to make it happen, and our staff was amazing!”

Said WHS School Counselor Arturo Fuentes, “This experience has reminded me of the power that a collective group has in impacting the lives of our students. …Things may not be perfect, but I know one thing is for sure, and that is that I’m surrounded by committed individuals who have unconditional love for what we do, and together we are an unstoppable force [so] that even a pandemic won’t [prevent] us from changing the trajectory of our students and communities.”

Welcoming freshmen in-person

While other schools were handling orientation remotely, District 214’s Specialized Schools were able to do Freshman Orientation Day in person. The six programs each welcomed eight to 10 freshmen while socially distancing and following all other health and safety protocols.

The Specialized Schools had one advantage: Because students need to meet certain requirements to attend the programs, staff had already connected with students via Zoom for IEP meetings at the end of their eighth grade year.

Otherwise, Orientation Day was handled as it has been in the past, with presentations, a building tour and lunch, among other activities. A highlight was the introduction of the new principal of Specialized Schools. “In the lunch line we had our favorite cafeteria lady working, and right next to her was our principal, Keir Rogers, helping pass out the food, getting to know our freshman on an informal level,” said Megan Vicino, a special education math teacher at the Academy at Forest View. “This is just what our students needed.”  

Overall, the in-person format worked well for the Specialized Schools. “This was very well received by both parents and students,” Vicino said. “This helped parents feel more comfortable sending students back to school when the time is right, as well as get any of their own questions answered. Students felt comfortable asking questions about each program and opportunities in our District.

“I think they felt comfort knowing there were other students in the same positions they were, starting off in a new school while navigating remote learning,” she added. “Also, most of the students were able to meet some staff who would be working with them during the school year. We [focused] on what we already knew was important – the social-emotional well-being of our students as well as making sure they got what they needed out of remote learning.”