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While summer tends to be a time of rest for many in education, at AVLI it is our busiest period. This isn’t a lament. Rather, it’s a simple recognition that our member schools find value in what we do, and, thus, we are busy. One of the June tasks this year was the post-COVID return of our Summer Teaching Institute, a 4-day intensive professional development experience. It is a cherished time not only because of the excellent work and leadership our AVLI team provides, but because of the small cohort of educators that gathers to learn, share, and work. I always marvel at the quality and commitment of those in attendance. By the end of the experience, all involved are equal parts energized and exhausted which, frankly, is quite satisfying. This year’s conference title was Mission True: The Power of Purpose in Negotiating Artificial Intelligence . Here we explored both the potential and pitfalls of the use of artificial intelligence in the fulfillment of our mission and service to our students. More specifically, the shared struggle of participants was discerning when and how to utilize such technologies, and, conversely, when and how to guard against their use. One of the prevailing themes that we unpacked was the idea of non-learning - those times when students are confronted with a valuable learning opportunity and choose to forgo it, instead employing a more expedient option such as plagiarizing or relying on artificial intelligence. I’ll speak more to non-learning momentarily, but allow me a short divergence. The week prior to the conference, I read a New York Times article entitled How to Turn Your Chatbot Into a Life Coach , the first line of which claims that, “a chatbot can be an effective motivator.” Shortly after the conference, I watched an ABC News special on artificial intelligence where Geoffrey Hinton (the Godfather of AI ) stated, “Everybody will have their own digital assistant that is much smarter than them and does what they want.” The first of these statements makes me a bit sad. Can motivation really be inspired by a machine? Regarding the second statement, I will concede the likelihood that everyone will have an uber intelligent digital assistant, however, I am more skeptical that we humans will be in charge of them. The history of the development of modern media technologies does not support such an assertion. Why do I bring up these two examples? As someone who works in the digital learning space, I am an advocate of the distributive nature of technology to democratize, share, and advance knowledge. Artificial intelligence has a meaningful role to play in education and many other important pursuits. Too often, however, we fail to recognize when the admirable goals we are pursuing with a particular course of action are producing unintended side effects. Regarding recent technology advancements in education, most of our collective admirable efforts have focused on making knowledge acquisition easier and, thus, more effective. We’ve digitized texts, reengineered traditional learning aids such as flashcards, created on-demand video tutorials and simulations, produced educational games, and developed AI tracking systems to monitor students’ progress and redirect them to other learning resources when they struggle or get off track. On many levels this has been successful in the democratization of learning content. More people have more access to quality learning resources and this is great news! Why, then, haven’t learning outcomes improved? Even prior to COVID, U.S. test scores in Math, Reading, and Science had largely flatlined , and COVID has made things worse . My fear is that many of the technologies mentioned above have made education more transactional, where the emphasis is on each student following a bouncing ball toward competence. I want to emphasize here that clear objectives and competencies are invaluable to the educational process. It’s important to recognize, however, that many competencies focus on the same types of things computers are already good at. This isn’t to suggest that people still don’t need to master many of them, but it’s reasonable to expect students to question their relevance. This brings me back to the action of non-learning. We humans will consistently choose ease and convenience over challenge and work. Thus, in the absence of a compelling need, rationale, or desire, we will almost always choose expediency over learning. Take for example the skill of map reading. Since the advent of GPS there is little incentive to undertake the task of developing this skill. Whether that is a good thing can be debated, but so long as a person’s smartphone holds a charge and maintains cell service, they are never completely lost. Thus when it comes to map reading, most people actively choose non-learning. This is the AI challenge in education. Twenty-five years ago the non-learning route of cheating often wasn’t too much easier than the real work of learning. Now it is, and the perceived consequences of NOT learning aren’t all that great since the path to “the answer” is often just a few clicks away. This was the backdrop entering our June conference. Understandably, early on there was a degree of wagon-circling, and, had the participants persisted, there is little our facilitators could have done to prevent this from remaining the focus in spite of a fuller agenda. Instead what transpired was a beautiful reframing of the traditional teacher-student narrative, discussions regarding the objectives and competencies of importance, and a recognition of the lifegiving opportunities that lie ahead. Certainly there will be challenges and messiness, and this too was discussed. However, what became clear is that our teachers are up to the task, and by extension, so are our Catholic schools. My biggest takeaway from the conference was a reminder that, even with all of the technological efforts to make knowledge acquisition more accessible, true learning necessarily remains hard. It forces us to confront new realities, to look for complexities in that which seems simple, and to discern simplicity in the complex. Too often we choose a path of non-learning. Modern society makes it easy to numbly acquiesce to the changing tides and prevailing winds. Personally, it’s time I seek some discomfort, and perhaps this AI disruption is just the push I needed. CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Hausman, AVLI President vol 6 issue 1

In many ways my wife, Cathy, completes me. This was evident to me from the earliest days of our marriage when we hiked Angels Landing in Zion National Park on our honeymoon. More security chains have been added since our ascent 30 years ago and parts of the trail have been leveled off a bit to improve safety. Still, even today portions of the hike are unnerving. In her youth and into college, Cathy was a competitive diver so her aversion to heights is not nearly as acute as mine. Thus, about an hour into our early morning hike, I knew that I was the one who was going to need to be brave in order to stay up. While I can still recall in a most visceral way the feelings of terror and triumph associated with this hike, the thing I don’t recall is the walk from the car to the trailhead. Why am I sharing this? Because I think much of the tasks of learning on which we currently focus equates to the walk to the trailhead. By this I mean items considered to fall in the lower categories of “remembering” and “understanding” when recalling Bloom’s Taxonomy . While this level of learning may feel uneventful to students beyond grades six or seven, it is actually quite important work! For the purpose of this article, I am equating the hike up the mountain with higher-orders of learning (apply, analyze, evaluate, create). No successful journey up the mountain can begin without first getting to the foothills fully prepared with the right skills, equipment, and knowledge. In this way, the foundational work that occurs in early education is invaluable as is the scaffolding work good teachers do with students when tackling difficult concepts and topics to ensure understanding. Traditionally, it is during the high school years when students’ cognitive maturity has developed enough to where they desire some level of the risk/challenge of the climb. Unfortunately, the structures inherent in high school education tether them close to the ground, and this all begins with the ordering society places on our schools, teachers, and our young people. Here we could rehash the numerous external pressures facing highschoolers that heap undo stress on high performers while disenfranchising many others. Instead, I want to focus on two byproducts of the pressure cooker environment, misaligned expectations regarding student engagement and grades. Fact: in our current system, grades matter more than outcomes and learning. So long as this remains the case, most students (and parents) will possess a transactional view of education where grades are a commodity. This is not new. What is new (in relative terms) is the ease with which students can apply effective hacks which enable them to forgo some degree of learning while achieving the desired outcome - a high grade. Information in many forms is easy to come by, making shortcuts appealing for busy youngsters. In this way, students view learning as a series of boxes to check, and the question that matters is, “What do I have to do to earn an A?” rather than, “How is this helping me grow?” The problem is that the teacher is designing curriculum and assignments with the latter question in mind. Thus, the expectations and motivations attached to an assignment’s completion are markedly different. In many ways, this has come to define the teacher-student relationship. To use a sports metaphor, it’s the difference between the teacher being viewed as a coach versus a referee. While a coach (teacher) attempts to establish a same-team relationship, the players (students) and fans (parents) simply want teacher-as-referee to “make the right call” on their behalf and they feel a sense of injustice when things don’t go their way. Thus, when it comes to assessing student progress, the preferred path to avoid conflict is to test for “remembering” and “understanding” as these can be more objectively quantified. Generally, the further up the learning mountain you ascend, the more subjective the assessments, and the greater the likelihood that students and parents are going to disagree with a teacher’s call. This often leads the teacher to assign some form of alternative assessment which may or may not test for the same level of learning challenge. Alternative assessments are important, but what a teacher sees as an opportunity for improved learning, many students simply treat as a means of recouping lost points. COVID made this dynamic much worse as most teachers found themselves in the unenviable position of begging students to “just turn in something… anything .” Unfortunately, we’ve not made our way completely out of this imbalance. We have created an environment where showing up to jump through hoops is enough. It’s not and we are doing a disservice to our young people by acting like it is. It could be argued that the relationship a teacher has with a struggling or non-compliant student might be more authentic than that of a high performer. Many struggling students haven’t bought into either narrative - that grades are the endgame or that learning matters. So when a teacher breaks through and a student shows movement, it could be a slight win on the side of learning. The danger here comes if, in an effort to reward the student, the teacher provides a grade that misrepresents what is warranted by the work product. In both cases, what you end up with are inflated grades. How do we help students build/recapture and sustain learning momentum? This is one of the major challenges facing education today, AVLI included. In our collective efforts to support students and meet them where they are, we have inadvertently allowed ourselves to adopt inconsistent expectations. The key word here is inconsistent . When this happens, our objective of student learning becomes usurped by the alternative goal of grade attainment. To be sure, the care of our students is our driving concern. But as educational enterprises, our first order of care needs to be our students’ intellectual growth. And this will only be realized by challenging our students to climb the mountain. Though it may seem counterintuitive, edtech and the looming changes AI will usher in have an important role in reordering learning objectives. As I referenced in my last post , much of the edtech industry’s focus is on making knowledge acquisition (remembering and understanding) easier. This is important because it can hasten the time it takes to get students to the trailhead where the climb can commence. This is the critical but often forgettable work students currently lament. By positioning this work as necessary within the context of the loftier course objectives, purpose is affixed to the tasks. This also signals to students that more is expected of them. However, the influence of AI can do more if we allow it. My last post also suggests that a growth mindset requires us to continually entertain some degree of intellectual discomfort. While artificial intelligence makes the lower levels of learning more accessible, I believe it will also serve as a CONSTANT point of discomfort, pushing us to consider what is possible, what is ethical, and what is the uniquely human contribution to which each of us is being called in order to make a difference in the world. These, then, become some of the concerns good teachers call upon for the ascent - building the skills of critical thinking, transference, argumentation/dialogue, and, perhaps most importantly, discernment. For some, getting to the top of the learning mountain will prove to be too difficult. In spite of their most arduous efforts, they simply can’t continue. While this may look like failure, our role as educators is to invite these students to look out from their current vantage point to recognize just how far they have come. At the same time, this shouldn’t stop us from expecting others to press on. After all, the view from the summit is often inspiring and we’d hate for those who can make the ascent to miss out simply because we allowed the journey to end early. CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Hausman, AVLI President vol 6 issue 2

In this era of isolation and loneliness, I count myself among the fortunate who have a number of friend groups. One of these groups consists of about a dozen guys I have known for more than forty years - some of them longer than 50. A casual observer might question whether we are actually doing “friendship” right. We pile on, make light of each other's misfortunes, retell every embarrassing story, and more. Even when we are talking about something of substance, the conversation often devolves into something you would expect out of high school sophomores. Still, the time we spend is cherished. When we are together, we are the funniest people on the planet, we relive the most colorful adventures (over and over), and we sing way too loudly way too often. Fortunately, our spouses humor us, and the reason I think that they do is that they can see the deep affection we have for each other - that and the fact that they know we are better, more complete people through our association. I belong to this tribe. I also belong to the tribe of my family with all of its ancestral roots. Most of us belong to at least one tribe, and constant across all of them are their predictability and idiosyncrasies. We meet at certain places. We celebrate certain ways. We expect certain responses in certain situations. And even when we complain about the crazy, irrational sides of our tribes, we recognize that these represent OUR brand of crazy. In short, each tribe has a set of norms and values that play a role in constructing the customized lenses through which we see and interact with the world around us. Tribes produce algorithms. Algorithms have purpose. We do certain things in certain ways in order to attain certain, relatively consistent outcomes. In healthy relationships, this enables us to establish trust and manage expectations. This, in turn, creates a degree of psychological safety which provides fertile ground for learning. Whatever wisdom we come to acquire over our lifetimes is colored by our most influential relationships and, by extension, the algorithms employed. Similarly, algorithms are the underpinning of technologies. The one big difference is that tech does algorithms much better than we humans. Take, for instance, generative AI such as ChatGPT. Where in tribal settings trust can be tested when someone goes off script, generative AI is programmed to return the most predictable response to any question in any situation. While there may be flaws and biases in the algorithms, the AI itself acts exactly as it was designed every time. In this way, technology is cleaner, simpler, and less likely to produce disagreeable results (assuming the right inputs). Just as the algorithms of our tribes create the conditions for learning, so too do the algorithms of educational technologies and generative AI. (See these previous posts on ed tech and AI here and here .) Your preference may be for tribal algorithms over technology algorithms or vise-versa, but at their core they are very similar: both sources act like funnels, channeling life’s complexities and uncertainties into nuggets of insight and action. This is invaluable to the learning process…until it isn’t. So much depends on the algorithms themselves and, even more importantly, the inputs we provide. Looking at the algorithms of my above-mentioned friend group, they are influenced by the fact that we are a bunch of middle-aged, midwestern, white males from middle-class Catholic families. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It’s reality. While the group’s algorithms are certainly influential in my life, they are not well suited to produce value in many situations. The temptation, however, is to ask for advice on such matters simply because they are trusted friends. In such cases, you are placing your inputs/questions in the wrong funnel. You likely will get a tidy, predictable response that resonates, but it will do little to deepen your level of understanding of the original issue. Similarly, regarding artificial intelligence, we all remember the 2016 presidential election when every major media outlet thought they had cracked the algorithmic code on voter predictive modeling. They hadn’t. In that instance, the algorithms and inputs failed to account for one immutable principle, the capriciousness of life. It was like playing poker with a joker card included in the deck. With every new round of exit poll reporting, more data was poured into the funnel slowly revealing the winning hand - that is until someone else played the joker. The humble lesson learned by media outlets is that the “exit poll” funnel is not a direct proxy for the “votes cast” funnel. This isn’t meant to suggest that the exit poll funnel doesn’t provide value. One just needs to be cognizant of what’s really being measured. We’ve reached an inflection point in the information age where networks, data, and algorithms combine to provide more access to more information more rapidly than ever before. The pace of change from here forward is likely to be exponential. Does this mean that humanity is getting smarter? No. When speaking on this subject recently, Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J. rightly pointed out that, “Data is not information. Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not understanding. Understanding is not wisdom.” In spite of our technological advances, learning remains a highly personal, highly imperfect human pursuit based on experiences, tribes, tendencies, motivations, and more. A person’s access to quality learning resources is also an important factor. Where in the past the access barriers were physical in nature, today they are primarily digital. Because of the ubiquity of data and information, many view the need for traditional knowledge to be less critical. In some ways, that might be true, but what seems to have emerged as a result is a heightened need to understand because much of the world’s information conflicts. This shift from a knowledge age to an understanding age seems to have caught us off guard. What I sense is that there is a spark of a metacognitive desire to understand within most people. The struggle is that many of the algorithms of our go-to funnels either haven’t been updated, or they are programmed to confirm, affirm, and validate. Thus, our attempts at understanding are incomplete though we don’t recognize them as such. Predictably, we are left wondering why someone else’s understanding could be so different from our own. In order to better prepare young people for this new reality, many are calling for a revolution within our formal education system. I would suggest a more measured approach. At its core, learning has always been about questions and sources of information, and I believe that remains the case today. The shift comes in the types of questions being asked, the persons posing them, and the exploration of sources that not only yield knowledge and understanding but unearth more questions. This constructivist approach is not new. Its roots include the socratic method of ancient Greece as well as 450 years of Ignatian pedagogy. The change comes in the ownership of the process. In many ways our current classrooms are about orchestration and navigation. Teachers expertly map out a plan for reaching a defined destination, then students are loaded on the bus, the GPS is set to “fastest route”, and they’re off! Occasionally, the teacher pulls the bus over at predefined stops to allow students to explore, then students are herded back on the bus to proceed. This worked well when the students placed greater value on information and knowledge. Now, armed with their cellphones, Google, and AI, it seems that students are less willing to board or re-board the bus. Why? Because this model is more akin to something that happens to our students rather than through our students. In this model, the classroom is owned by the teacher with relevance and student agency being defined and prescribed through the lens of the teacher. What might a classroom look like under new management where ownership resembled a 60-40 partnership between teacher and students? The teacher would largely retain control of overarching objectives/destinations and pacing, and then accompany students, collectively and individually, in defining questions and exploring sources of information. In this new model, the keys are turned over to the students who make their way to the predefined stops along routes they find most suitable. Through their accompaniment, teachers continue to point the way through expert demonstration, prompting, and course correction when necessary. They also call attention to the processes of discovery and skill activation in which the students are engaged so students can recognize the origins of their efforts and build upon them. Tribes. AI. Algorithms. The age of understanding. Questions and sources. Relevance, agency, and accompaniment. There is still so much more here to unpack and I’ve yet to touch on the thread that ties it all together - a process of discernment that connects body, mind, and spirit. I will humbly attempt to address all in the weeks and months ahead. Know that as I do this, I am going through my own process of discovery and would value greatly any guidance you have to provide. Blessings this Advent Season. CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Hausman, AVLI President vol 6 issue 4

Could I have done more? This is the regrettable question many teachers struggle with at the mid-term break and at the end of the school year. In spite of a teacher’s best efforts throughout the previous months, inevitably, there are a few students who struggle, and with grades occupying an outsized degree of importance, this can create substantial strife and stress for students and parents. And so a teacher’s thoughts and actions return once more to reviewing all possible angles of the student’s circumstances, confirming what is evident, providing grace where possible, and finally coming to terms with a thoroughly measured mark of accountability. Still, the question persists…Could I have done more? Could I have done more? It’s also a question that afflicts parents for a lifetime. We want so much for our children and we hate seeing them struggle. Sometimes the “doing more” question comes from a place of shame, guilt, or even bitterness as we confront the realities of material limitations and our capacity to support our children’s dreams. Other times, it’s regret. We look back and wish we had been more present, more patient, more something-else-that-would-make-me-feel-better-about-my-child’s-current-struggles. It’s the natural response; we want to do more when those we care about seem stuck or in distress. But what if doing more wasn’t our response? A few weeks back I went down a really big rabbit hole with my last CrossCurrents post . Now it’s time to start making my way back out by shining a flashlight down the numerous veins that the previous post introduced. Today’s topics - accompaniment, agency, and relevance. Accompaniment is a big topic in education right now as we attempt to address the mental fragility, lethargy, and/or skill deficiency many students are manifesting. How can we help our students better manage periods of struggle, build resilience and confidence, and engage more fully in their learning? In principle, the idea behind accompaniment is fairly straightforward. Teachers should strive to connect at the points along a learning continuum at which the individual students are in order to help guide them to and through their learning. Rather than a forced march, students enter into their own journeys of discovery aided by the capable presence and support of their teacher, thus heightening students’ agency and sense of relevance/connectedness to course resources. This sounds attractive. In practice, however, accompaniment is much more nuanced and difficult mostly because we fail to fully account for the complexities of accompaniment and the forces acting against it. Five commonly recognized characteristics of accompaniment are Presence, Understanding, Supportive Action, Collaboration, and Adaptability. In some fashion, I will touch on all of these but the focus will be on the first two primarily because Presence and Understanding need to be in place for the other three to matter. Before diving in, I want to share a line from Elizabeth Oldfield’s beautiful article An Accumulation of Meaning , “Technology can liberate, but it also shapes us around its needs to form us toward efficiency.” More than ever before, we have the freedom to choose with whom, where, when, and how we transact and consume - all because our society has largely been conformed to our technologies. Why does this matter? Because while our society prioritizes convenience, speed, and choice, accompaniment prioritizes constraint and commitment. Though not antithetical, oftentimes the pursuit of these sets of priorities take us down separate paths. Most new learning models - particularly those involving educational technologies - place a premium on student choice and individual pacing (i.e. convenience and speed). They lead students down a variety of predefined pathways based on a student’s preferences, all designed to increase the rates of engagement and knowledge acquisition by making learning more relevant. Formative assessment components are sprinkled throughout for students and teachers to gauge progress toward desired outcomes, providing opportunities for teachers to fill in learning gaps along the way. While this seems appealing and right-minded as a way of connecting learning to “the real world”, it is incomplete as these models generally don’t foster the kind of discovery that hones the skills of critical thinking and self-transcendence. By employing the strategy of student choice, students pursue subject-matter mastery through a specific, familiar, and (most often) comfortable context. They are looking outward, but only through a window they’ve looked through before. In this way, the pursuit of “relevance” has opened students up to deeper levels of understanding while simultaneously closing them off from a broadening perspective. Occasionally at the end of such scenarios, a student may be encouraged to look through another window, but having already met the objective of the required learning task, many students forgo this heavier lift (or do the minimum required) in order to move on to the next item on the learning agenda. This isn’t just true of students. How often have I personally - having met the learning objective I set out for - forgone further learning (mostly because that’s where things remain unreconciled)? Sadly, too often to count. A few posts back I referenced the idea of seeking discomfort . This is the key to building the skills of critical thinking and self-transcendence. It’s also where accompaniment can and should play a role. Earlier I introduced the characteristics of Presence and Understanding as foundational to accompaniment. What strikes me about Presence is that it is location based and relational. It’s about the teacher-accompanist and the student-accompanee agreeing to meet regularly at the specific place the student is at at a singular point in time in order to construct a shared and updated Understanding of a) how the student has come to arrive at that location, b) where that location is in relation to the destiny/objective, and c) how the student might proceed. The word might is of critical importance here as it defines the tension of mutuality that exists within the student/teacher relationship where each person possesses power. The student recognizes the expertise and authority of the teacher while the teacher recognizes the student’s power over their own actions and learning. Notre Dame’s Steve Reifenberg compares good accompaniment to the work of a physical therapist, noting that, “There needs to be listening as well as advice, addressing and strategizing how to overcome obstacles, confronting setbacks, and at times even prodding and cajoling, with the expectation that the relationship will not be static .” This last part is the hardest for a teacher to acknowledge and accept. At the end of the day, it’s up to the student. Mutuality isn’t easy, but it can also be powerful for adolescent learners. It’s where the teacher says to the student, “You’re too big to carry,” and the student says to the teacher, “That’s good because I am ready to start trying it on my own.” If together, while acting within the accompaniment framework, the student and teacher determine that the student is significantly off track, an appropriate Supportive Action the teacher might employ would be to instruct the student to perform certain corrective actions. Often, however, the most suitable Supportive Action is to simply ask the next best question that allows the student to proceed further and go deeper. And, just like a physical therapist who isn’t seeing progress, sometimes the teacher’s next best question is simply, “What’s preventing you from moving?” Young people want to find relevance in their learning, but having little practice in its pursuit, many have not yet figured out that the only way that will occur is through the hard work of their own introspection. This is necessarily slow and messy while technology is pressing them to consider how to speed things up. In the end, this is why accompaniment is so important and why teaching is so difficult. Ultimately, when conducting the final analysis of a student’s learning at the end of the term, perhaps a teacher’s greatest consolation could be when their students are the ones not only asking, “Could I have done more?” but also, “What’s next?” Thank you for allowing me the space to unpack this. Next up I will further explore the slow and messy practice of introspection. CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Hausman, AVLI President vol 6 issue 5

If you have been following my last few posts ( here and here ), you know that I have been venturing into some pretty deep waters regarding accompaniment, algorithms, knowledge vs. understanding, student agency, technology’s capacities and limitations, and more. Today I want to address a loose end from these earlier posts, the practice of introspection and its place in the learning lexicon. In order to do this, I will be returning closer to shore and making some personal observations that cannot be proven or disproven. Much of what I share will be familiar, perhaps even simplistic. Still I hope that by the end there is an insight or two that is helpful to you. Thank you in advance for providing me with a charitable leash. Two posts ago, I made the argument that, with the ubiquity of information available at the click of a few buttons, we are leaving the age of knowledge and moving toward an age of understanding. Take photosynthesis for example. With the number of online tutorials and videos available explaining how photosynthesis works, more people are asking the next question which is, “ Why does this matter?” At the end of my last post, I suggest that the struggle for understanding naturally activates the deeper learning skills of critical thinking and self-transcendence. These are complex skills that everyone above the age of fifteen struggles to assimilate to address the demands of daily life. Many people (especially adolescents whose experiences are limited) can find the activation of these skills unsettling. Other times, critical thinking can be empowering. For most of us, it depends on the situation. This leads me to the core of what I want to discuss - developing a tested personal framework for understanding from which to operate when circumstances require a deeper consideration of the proper path. There’s been plenty written about various critical thinking tools and models involving algorithms, visualization and more, all of which can serve as valuable decision-making aids. This is where technology can be a big help and I suggest you master the use of at least one or two of these as they sharpen thinking and clarify options. Doing so will get you pretty far in life. For me, however, the race to the understanding age requires more and to explain why, I want to go back in time to the reign of King Solomon. You may recall from Old Testament scripture that Solomon ascended to the throne at a very young age following the successful reign of his father, David. Noting his vast kingdom and riches, and what in all likelihood was a relatively sheltered upbringing, one could easily imagine Solomon choosing to live an unexamined life. Instead, he humbles himself. More interesting still is when God suggests that He will grant Solomon one wish, Solomon doesn’t ask for an understanding mind , but an understanding heart . I just finished a really compelling book by Justin Reich, Failure to Disrupt which does a masterful job of exploring 3 frameworks for “learning at scale.” At one point, almost as an aside, he briefly shares his unease regarding the ways in which learning at scale frameworks can be radicalized by bad actors. He raises the issue but doesn’t offer compelling solutions. To my mind this type of unresolved issue underpins the perils of technology-driven learning at scale models. Even if an elegant model could be developed that rigorously challenges the mind to the point of mastery, matters related to the heart would remain largely unexamined or worse exploited. Fortunately, just as there are numerous decision-making tools to bring understanding to the mind, so too are there tools for introspection/personal reflection/discernment (insert your preferred term) to bring understanding to the heart. I’ve referenced St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and Examen many times in the past though there are other models. Most all of these tools include unpacking our emotions which tends to be quite difficult. What follows are musings about one specific aspect of my personal journey. When I experience a noteworthy emotion in my daily life, almost always that emotion is preceded by an ache. It’s a real, physical, capricious, unvarnished ache that can’t be dissected, removed, or adjusted. These normally brief aches emanate from the chest area, and it seems as though their only purpose is to serve as a signal that I should pay attention to what’s coming next (joy, resentment, compassion…). I can try to dismiss it, but at the end of the day, to quote fellow Nebraskan J.E. Lawrence, “It is what it is” whether I choose to acknowledge it or not. For me, the goal of introspective practice, then, is to embrace the aches - to come closer to figuring out what the “it” associated with these particular events is. The Examen routinizes this as a daily practice, though even if employed on an as needed basis there are benefits. The key is listening to your inner workings and responding with the greatest degree of generosity possible - toward oneself and others - at that moment. The fact that these aches live near the heart and not in the mind speaks to me. I imagine this space being where the Holy Spirit resides and from which the magis flows. The clinical nature of reason is VERY important, but a compelling argument toward any position must also be exposed to the light of the human condition. That’s a responsibility we all bear, particularly the privileged. We’re all victims of our go-with-the-flow society to some degree. Introspection creates a slightly askew equilibrium between contentment and restlessness where restlessness holds a tiny bit more weight. (Again, see magis .) In a world of bootstrapping and quick-fix self helps, introspection is hard. There’s no way to “tech” your way to self-transcendence. That’s why I love working in Catholic secondary education. Minimally, the ethos and orientation of Catholic schools requires young people to consider their place in the world as precious, unrepeatable, talent-endowed persons. That’s a good start. When everything is clicking, however, kids receive so much more. My last post attempted to unpack the systemic struggles of attempting to increase teacher-student accompaniment practices in the classroom. It also highlighted the perils of NOT making this a priority in spite of its difficulty. Thanks to committed teachers, administrators and staff, the vast majority of students in Catholic schools feel safe and cared for, creating the conditions for students to more deeply explore issues of the heart rather than putting on additional coats of armor. Many mainstream practices of introspection are quite secularized. This post might come across as a bit religious, and I’m glad about that. We all experience the supernatural and the only way for me to reconcile that is through my belief in a higher power. Plus, when I experience and pursue my aches, it’s nice to know that the Holy Spirit is along for the ride. CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Hausman, AVLI President vol 6 issue 6

I want to spend some time talking about the nature of hypocrisy. It seems as though a byproduct of our social media use is that we’ve gotten really good at pointing out hypocrisy, and for some reason our tolerance for it seems lower than that of most any other character flaw. We demonize hypocrisy rather than seeking to better understand the root cause and correlations of the inconsistencies.   For the past few months, I’ve been writing about society’s   shift from a knowledge age to an understanding age , and the challenges and opportunities that poses for learning, teaching, and simply being human. In my last   post , I make the argument that human thriving involves vigorously pursuing a learning agenda that includes matters of both the mind and heart. However, the duality of this approach can lead to trouble when the inclinations of the heart don’t marry up with the rationalities of the mind. Societal sensibilities also change, and the longer we’re around, the greater the chance that the choices we are making today appear at odds with our actions of the past - even if our values have remained generally consistent. Thus, hypocrisy (or the perception of hypocrisy)  grows with time.   While exploring these thoughts the past few months, I have also been thinking about the Church and what compels me to remain Catholic. We all know that organized religion has taken a pretty big hit, particularly the past 10 years and particularly among young people. However, what is more noteworthy to me are the number of my middle-aged friends and family who have drifted away from their faith tradition, mostly because they find it to be out of touch or lacking relevance in their daily lives. Why, then, do I  stay? Is it simply out of habit?    Through it all, my reflections kept calling me back to a single clarifying realization - I love the beautiful, richly significant gift of   Catholic Social Teaching  which articulates in a most aspirational way what it means to be in right relationship with a broken world. Here is a brief description of the major tenets.  Life and Dignity of the Human Person:  “We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.” Call to Family, Community, and Participation: “The person is not only sacred but also social…We believe people have a right and a duty to participate in society, seeking together the common good and well-being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable.” Rights and Responsibilities:  “The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency.” Option for the Poor and Vulnerable: “A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring.” The Dignity of Work:   “The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God's creation.” Solidarity:  “We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences…At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace.” Care for God's Creation:  "We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation…We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God's creation.”   Wow. It’s hard not to find inspiration in these guideposts. However, that’s also why so many find fault with the Church. Whether through the hurtful acts of individuals, or the seeming rigidity of Church doctrine and practice, hypocrisy abounds. This is where it’s helpful to recognize the immensity of the Church, its 2,000 year history, and that it exists within the imperfect realities and sometimes pure evil of our modern world. In the end, I like to believe that we are a Church that tries…and fails…and then tries again.   This isn’t meant to give the Church a pass on its failings, nor am I suggesting that the Church not be challenged. Some people have good reasons to struggle with forgiveness or with a particular position. The role of women in the Church is one such example where a person might feel disenfranchised. I simply believe that a world with  the Church is far better than a world without it. In the spiritual sense, redemption matters.   Much of my last post dealt with the importance of developing a regular practice of introspection to form a clearer sense of understanding. This internalization is important, but in order to activate our true humanness, at some point, our introspection needs to become extrospection. We need to focus our attention outward and act with purpose. This is the important turn where our practice of critical thinking becomes an enactment of self-transcendence.   In my last post, I referenced magis , a Jesuit term that orients our actions toward “the more universal good”. Fidelity to the magis  requires us to constantly seek a more complete understanding of our world, to acknowledge with gratitude our giftedness, and to respond with generosity and courage. Magis , then, is self-transcendence in action.   This likely sounds quite daunting, however, self-transcendence isn’t attained when a person crosses some magical threshold that provides instant wisdom and makes the person immune to societal influence and the desire for peer approval. Rather, it’s when a person (or institution) recognizes their hypocrisy in negotiating life’s numerous complexities, and attempts to reconcile inconsistencies bit by bit as circumstances evolve. In other words, it’s living in  the mess not above it. I like to think, then, of magis  as a series of “one-percenters” - small little course corrections that might seem insignificant, but when viewed over a long enough horizon, lead to greater goodness. By focusing on little wins - often within the context of larger goals and concerns - it is possible to live our daily lives without feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of all that is acting on us and around us.   At this point, I’d like to bring in one last theme from previous posts from this series, accompaniment. I spent the past week with teachers and administrators from Catholic, Jesuit schools discussing the integration of global perspectives into our shared daily work. Through presentations and conversations about programs, structures, possibilities, and barriers, what became most apparent to me was the deep desire of those present to find ways of accompanying youth toward a hope-filled future where global understanding informs personal action. This is the path of self-transcendence. This is the magis . Boarding the plane home I was filled with gratitude for witnessing that Catholic Social Teaching is not just alive in our schools, it is ablaze. Catholic education matters.   All of this talk about magis  reminded me of a quote Yulia Navalnaya attributed to her late husband Alexei Navalny during a powerful press statement she gave after his death, “It is not shameful to do a little. It is shameful to do nothing.” Unfortunately, the complexities of our broken world make it easier to do nothing. Our daily challenge, then, should simply be to muster something - to move the ball forward even when progress feels frustratingly slow or difficult. By doing so, we become co-authors of humanity’s future, a story in search of a happy ending.  CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Hausman, AVLI President vol 6 issue 7

This year has marked significant growth for our organization, with an increase in member schools and student enrollment across various programs. As we navigate the evolving landscape of education, particularly with the rapid advancements in AI, we remain committed to fostering meaningful connections between teachers and students. Join us as we reflect on our achievements and outline our vision for leveraging technology to enhance learning while maintaining our focus on human-centered education in the 2024 annual stakeholder's report.

This past May, we had a couple of kids obtain college degrees. Our two other kids came into town to help celebrate so Cathy and I decided to host an open house for family, friends, and neighbors. It was delightful to see so many of our children’s friends, now young adults making their way. A particularly enjoyable surprise was when Josh and Ryan - former neighbor kids who had moved away when they were still quite young - showed up at the door. Their mother came as well (separately), and we had a wonderful time laughing about old times and catching up on the many happenings in the years since. Later in the afternoon as the party was beginning to wind down, these two young men as well as our four kids disappeared for more than an hour. They had ventured out as they had so many times before to visit the Zucchini Club. The Zucchini Club was a small, shaded enclave located underneath some bushes in the backyard of our neighbors, Leslee and Mike. I’m not exactly sure of its origins, but I believe the club was formed by Leslee and Mike’s two children along with a few other neighbor kids. Leslee served as the informal den mother, and as her kids began aging out, she welcomed other younger kids from the neighborhood in. This second cohort included my kids. However, once Josh, Ryan, and their sister Allie moved away and the neighborhood kids continued to age, the club slowly dissolved. At the time of its demise, my oldest was probably 8 and my youngest 3. Twenty years have passed, yet my kids felt drawn to the site and to a long visit with Leslee and Mike. What made the Zucchini Club so special? Leslee had created a welcoming space that still felt like an adventure. When they were there, our kids were transported from our neighborhood on 59th Street in Omaha Nebraska to a place with vastly different possibilities. We should all be so lucky to have such a place. Mine growing up was beside a tiny bridge halfway up the gravel lane that connected my grandparent’s farmhouse to the county road in Hartington Nebraska. I visited the farmstead as an adult and found the bridge to be much, much closer to the house than my six-year-old self remembers it, and my parents could easily see us kids from the window and tend to rising needs at a moment’s notice. Still, it felt just beyond the boundary of safety though I also recognized safety to be just a step or two away. It feels to me that we have slowly been losing such places of blissful wonderment - in life and in our educational system. In previous times, we placed a premium on the pursuit of knowing. Embedded within the basics of English, Math, and History, were curiosities waiting to pique the varying interests of individuals. Wonderment was inherent in the system as recently acquired knowledge produced new questions for the learner to pursue. No matter how far you ventured, there was always something left beyond the horizon. It was this thirst for knowledge that eventually spawned the data models and algorithms that produced search engines like Google and, more recently, the large language models used in artificial intelligence. This places our traditional models of knowledge immediately at our fingertips, just a few clicks or a voice command away. Thus, gathering information is now so simple and convenient that “knowing” has far less utility. While our educational systems have been struggling to discern what exactly this means for teaching and learning, students have been perfecting transactional efficiencies that enable them to numbingly sleepwalk through aspects of their education. Good bye wonderment. This isn’t meant to suggest that schools are doing a poor job or that today’s kids are lazier than those of previous generations. This is more a byproduct of circumstances and timing. As I’ve written previously , I believe we have moved out of a “knowledge age” and are now in the nascent years of an “understanding age" and it’s simply going to take some time to sort out the norms and values associated with this shift. One thing, however, seems clear (at least to me) - people are far less certain of things than they used to be, and this makes them really uncomfortable. In previous times, a person could feel relatively confident in what they learned from parents, teachers, mentors, therapists, and trusted peers, and they would conduct their lives accordingly. Occasionally, they would butt up against something in life that would challenge their system of thinking, and most of the time people would assimilate this new found knowledge into their mental models, feeling a sense of growth. Today, data, “facts”, propaganda, news, and opinion, are one big jumbled mess. Even when facts are generally agreed upon, vastly divergent narratives are spun to meet varying agendas. The result? Doubt creeps in. We know more information but we understand things less. We feel more vulnerable. Things feel more dangerous. We take fewer risks. We’re less open. We seek validation of “our way” of thinking. In this way, confirmation bias isn’t something that is acting upon us, but rather something we actively pursue. This isn’t healthy, but it’s the only way that people can feel as though they are in control. Simply put, we’re in a bad place. I’m a glass half-full kind of guy, so I believe we will reach a point where we collectively realize that this way of proceeding is neither desirable nor sustainable, and that the best way forward is to live in a state of tension between disciplined resolve and ambiguity. This won’t happen overnight nor will it happen without a collective effort to seek a better way forward. It will also require purposeful attention to our youth, incorporating new ways of teaching and learning alongside traditional methodologies that emphasize the building of skills that foster meaning-making out of ambiguity. The skills themselves are not new. Things like curiosity, analysis, dialogue, objectivity, and discernment have long been a part of the learning lexicon. What’s needed is a new way of speaking about them, recognizing where, how, and why they are valuable in our modern world, lesson planning around them, and providing intentional practice - all in a manner that is life-giving and hope-filled. Our Catholic schools provide fertile ground for such efforts. For our part, Arrupe Virtual is on a journey to develop new delivery models that will challenge and transform, and I look forward to sharing more about this in the months and years ahead. Accepting a level of ambiguity isn’t a surrender to relativism, but rather a recognition that objective truth follows a straight path while we walk a winding road. In this way, each of us does NOT possess our own personal truth, but rather our own personal journey toward the truth - a truth which will never be fully understood. And when we recognize and accept this, we will be providing wonderment a small entry point back into our lives and perhaps, occasionally, some of our childhood sensibilities as well. Long live the memory of the Zucchini Club. CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Hausman, AVLI President vol 7 issue 1

We believe in the transformative power of education, particularly within a Catholic framework. As we navigate the age of online learning, creating an effective study space at home is crucial for students' success. Whether you're a student looking to boost your productivity or a parent aiming to support your teen's academic journey, this guide will help you create an effective learning environment that will set you up for success! Choosing the Right Location The foundation of a productive study space is its location. Find a quiet area away from high-traffic zones in your home. This could be a corner of the living room,  a dedicated space in your bedroom, or even a repurposed dining room nook. The key is to separate the study area from relaxation spaces to maintain a clear boundary between work and rest and to reduce the number of distractions. Essential Elements of a Productive Study Space Proper Desk and Chair Setup: Do your best to find a comfortable, ergonomic chair and a desk at the right height. This setup promotes good posture and reduces physical strain during long study sessions. Lighting Considerations: Make sure your space has adequate lighting. Natural light is ideal, but if the room tends to be a little darker,  using a combination of overhead lights and a lamp can go a long way to reducing eye strain and helping you stay focused. Organization Tools: Keep the area tidy with storage solutions like shelves, drawers, or organizers. A clutter-free space helps maintain focus and reduces stress. Resist the temptation to let things pile up. A functional and tidy space helps facilitate a functional and tidy mind. Minimizing Distractions In our connected world, distractions are just a click away. Here's how to manage them: Turn off phone notifications or use productivity apps that block distracting websites and apps during study hours. Set timers to keep you focused. Often it’s easier to focus for periods of time if you’re intentionally working in short breaks to keep you fresh. Work with your family to establish a "do not disturb" system during study times. Parents can help by respecting these boundaries and encouraging siblings to do the same. If outside or background noise is an issue, consider using noise-canceling headphones or listening to classical or instrumental music. Research suggests that soothing or melodic music can improve focus and retention of new information.  Personalizing Your Space Make the study area inviting by adding personal touches. Hang motivational quotes or artwork that inspires you, display academic achievements to boost confidence or add plants or other elements that create a positive atmosphere. However, remember that while personalization is important, avoid cluttering the space with too many items that could become distractions. Technology Setup for Online Learning For online learning, a reliable technology setup is crucial: Ensure a stable internet connection Organize digital tools and resources for easy access Creating a Supportive Learning Environment - Suggestions for Parents At AVLI, we understand that education extends beyond academics; it encompasses emotional and social support as well: Regular Check-ins: It’s helpful when parents show interest in their child's studies without being intrusive. Ask about their progress and offer help when needed. Healthy Snacks: Keep nutritious snacks available to maintain energy levels during study sessions. Positive Atmosphere: Foster an encouraging environment free from unnecessary stress. Celebrate small victories and offer support during challenges. Encourage Breaks: Remind your child to take regular breaks to recharge and avoid burnout. While there's no one-size-fits-all approach, many experts recommend a 5-15 minute break for every 45-60 minutes of studying. Creating a productive environment for online learning involves more than just setting up a desk and chair. By implementing these strategies, our students can thrive in their online learning journey and develop healthy and balanced habits that will serve them throughout their lives.

Every parent has at least one mantra they’ve repeated so often to their children that it produces eyerolls and sighs of resignation - not because the meaning behind the mantra isn’t accurate, but because it’s so simplistic it is not the least bit insightful. One of my go-tos is that when it comes to the world of work, “If you show up on-time every day, avoid gossip, and do the things you are asked to do, you’ll have a job forever.” It’s a pitifully low bar I know, but for at least the last generation, showing up has generally been enough to get by. You may be absolutely miserable, but you’ll be assured of having food on your table and a roof over your head. While my mantra speaks for itself, I’m a believer in the “showing up” philosophy for a different reason. Tom Peters once pointed out that showing up means starting , and that is often the most difficult thing. Whether it’s the biggest of dreams or the smallest of menial tasks, neither will be accomplished without beginning. Thus the famous quote that “80% of success is showing up.” Assuming that that anecdotal percentage is accurate, the logical next question is to consider what makes up the other twenty percent of success? I’m sure there are others out there who’ve put pen to paper on this to develop an overarching formula, but my thinking is that it’s not only that you show up but how you show up that matters most. I’ve been thinking about that a great deal this semester as my colleague David Martino and I are teaching an introductory course on Business and Entrepreneurship in a somewhat non-traditional manner, focusing heavily and transparently on building certain soft skills, utilizing project-based approaches to support content mastery, and employing a healthy dose of reflective practice to connect students to deeper levels of meaning-making - all in an effort to more effectively accompany students along their learning journeys. We have a relatively large number of students and by the traditional engagement levels I am accustomed to monitoring - dutifully turning in assignments, logging in with regularity, attending regularly scheduled online meetings, etc. - the class is generally progressing quite smoothly. Recently, however, we have transitioned into a period of extensive project-based group work, and even with our careful planning, scaffolding of skills, and our reassuring messaging, students are demonstrating elevated levels of angst. In discussing this with David, he provided an insight into engagement which I had never before considered - effective engagement is situational and contextual. In other words, my traditional measures of engagement were demonstrating that students were showing up, but now that we are asking for something different, it is how students are showing up that matters, and that has some of them feeling uncomfortable. Though the design of the course is considerably different than many, up to this point, there has been very little ambiguity regarding what to do. And though a number of the content areas are not well defined due to the nature of the subject, students have been asked to “give them a go” knowing that they will receive high marks simply for making an earnest effort that allows us as teachers to provide feedback. This has allowed students to effectively negotiate the experience by pursuing the familiar role of grade-focused students and, hopefully at least occasionally, interested learners. Based on the traditional performance measurements of time-on-task and grades, this has worked for the vast majority of kids. Now, however, through our group projects, we have introduced Pandora’s box. Ambiguity exists in both process and product, and the comfortable roles of learner and student aren’t adequate to fully tackle the collaborative nature of the experience. This, of course, is by design and the reason we have invested so much time into teaching, modeling, and practicing various collaborative skills. At first, I was a bit disappointed that students hadn’t risen to the heights I was hoping for. But upon further reflection of David’s revelation regarding situation and context, I realize that what we are proposing is a pretty big lift. While these projects open the door to new possibilities, the risks can feel overwhelming, so their heightened manifestation of the familiar role of grade-focused students makes absolute sense. For us to properly accompany our students, we need to recognize the years of practice students have invested in the role of grade-focused student. Additionally, in spite of all of the aspirational talk from parents, schools, and universities about the virtues of failure, when push comes to shove, grades remain the highest priority. Thus, when, for the sake of a deeper, more complete learning encounter, we ask students to try on a different role such as group collaborator, we should expect a degree of reluctance, and we shouldn’t be discouraged by student attempts to backslide into the familiar. Still, recognizing the desire to backslide is different than allowing it to occur. As I mentioned earlier, David and I are in uncharted territory with regard to this course design. It would be easy for us to retreat to safer waters, but this is the moment we must acknowledge that we too need to be pushed beyond the traditional role of teacher. Are we ready? This brings me full-circle to the mantra of showing up. It seems so simple, but what gets overlooked is that showing up involves more than simple physical presence but mental and emotional as well. Additionally, for most things, showing up once doesn’t cut it; it’s a series of beginnings that matter. So when we are looking to support others as teachers, parents, family members, or friends, we need to do so from the other’s numerous starting points, not from the places we’d like them to be. In a previous post , I wrote about Presence and Understanding as being foundational to accompaniment. This requires a VERY healthy measure of patience along with consistent messaging that the only way to be of further service is when meeting those we are accompanying at a different beginning. Showing up ready to engage physically, mentally and emotionally is what we are asking of our kids in our Business & Entrepreneurship class. The course’s content is generally easy, but what we are asking of them is often hard. This needs to be my daily reminder. CONTRIBUTOR: Jeff Hausman, AVLI President vol 7 issue 1

While the flexibility of digital classrooms offers many advantages, it also requires students to adapt to new ways of learning. Here, we’ll explore some of the top challenges high school students encounter in online learning environments and provide practical solutions to help overcome these hurdles. Challenge 1: Creating Connections in a Virtual Environment One of the most significant challenges of online learning is the feeling of isolation. Without face-to-face interactions, students may struggle to form meaningful connections with their peers and teachers, which are vital for engagement and support. Here’s are some ways students can build connections online: Engage in Weekly Synchronous Sessions or Discussion Forums: For courses that include live class meetings, participate actively to ask questions and connect with classmates. In asynchronous aspects of the course, make use of discussion forums to share insights, ask questions, and interact with peers, fostering a sense of community even without real-time interaction. Connect with Classmates: Reach out to classmates through direct messages or group chats to discuss assignments, share study tips, and build relationships outside of formal class settings. This can help create a supportive network and enhance the overall learning experience. Reach out to your teacher: Teachers are all available throughout the week via email and at their designated zoom meeting time for class meetings or office hours. Contact them anytime with questions, concerns, or to get some feedback or advice on how you can succeed in your class. Challenge 2: Minimizing Distractions at Home Home environments can be filled with distractions, from family members to social media notifications to the simple temptation to do other things. This can make it difficult for students to focus on their studies. To create a focused learning environment, students should: Designate a Study Space: Set up a specific area at home dedicated solely to studying, free from distractions. Read this recent blog  for how to set up a productive at home study space. Limit Social Media Use: Use apps that block social media during study sessions to maintain focus. Or silence notifications on your phone and set it in another room. Communicate with Family: Inform family members about study schedules to minimize interruptions. Challenge 3: Maintaining Motivation and Self-Discipline The flexibility of online courses can sometimes lead to procrastination, making it challenging for students to maintain motivation. Here are some ways students can stay on track: Create a Daily Routine: Establishing a consistent daily schedule helps build discipline and keeps students accountable.  Set Achievable Goals: Break down larger tasks into smaller, manageable goals. Celebrate Small Wins: Acknowledge achievements, no matter how small, to boost motivation. Challenge 4: Managing Time Effectively High school students often juggle multiple responsibilities, like extracurricular activities or part-time jobs, which can complicate time management in an online setting. To manage their time effectively, students should: Use a Planner: Keep a planner or digital calendar to track assignments, deadlines, and personal commitments. This is a great way to combine your in-person school tasks and your online tasks in one place to make sure nothing gets missed. Remember that your AVLI teacher will post work at the beginning of each week so be sure to regularly update and check your planner to ensure you are staying on track.  Prioritize Tasks: Focus on tasks based on urgency and importance. Tackle the tasks with quickly approaching deadlines while also chipping away at larger, long-term projects such as final papers or presentations. Incorporate Breaks into Study Sessions: Schedule regular breaks to refresh your mind and prevent burnout. While individual needs may vary, many experts suggest taking a 5-15 minute break after every 45-60 minutes of focused study. Challenge 5: Adapting to New Technology and Learning Platforms Many students may feel overwhelmed by the technology required for online learning, making familiarity with various platforms essential for success. To overcome tech-related obstacles, students should: Utilize Course Resources and Guides: Explore your course materials, resources or guides provided by your teacher. These materials can help you become more comfortable with the required technologies and navigate the online learning platform effectively. Practice Using Tools: Familiarize yourself with tools like video conferencing software or learning management systems ahead of the course starting. Seek Help When Needed: Remember that it’s okay to ask for help from peers or teachers when encountering technical difficulties. Navigating the challenges of online learning may seem daunting at first, but with the right strategies in place, you can thrive in this environment. As you embark on this path, remember that your teachers are there to support you—don’t hesitate to reach out for guidance. By focusing on building connections, minimizing distractions, maintaining motivation, managing time effectively, and adapting to technology, students will be better equipped to succeed in their online education journey.