A bell rings at the end of New Albany High School’s fifth-period class, but the classroom doesn’t empty out. The next 15 minutes are devoted to nest, a new daily program that checks in on students while giving them time to bond with teachers and one another.
A nest period looks different each day, with some days structured by school needs and others left up to teachers. The periods can include a class discussion, video or even a relationship-building game of Uno.
“We have a fifth-period academic time and directly at the end it’s the nest period,” says math teacher Ashley Langenderfer. “It’s school-wide so it really flows pretty seamlessly. During that nest time, everybody’s asked to step aside from the academic piece of the period to focus on what we have to do that day in nest.”
Langenderfer is one of eight teacher leaders for nest, though she often allows students to lead the sessions themselves.
“We have discussions where I let the students drive,” Langenderfer says. “I’m helping facilitate, but I’m also very much listening to what they have to say.”
Listening to the students was a key point for Patrick Gallaway, director of communications for New Albany-Plain Local Schools. He says nests goals came largely from surveying the students.
“We’re asking questions like, ‘How do you feel welcomed at school?’ or, ‘Do you have one trusted adult here?’” Gallaway says. “These are simple questions that are vital to creating a sense of community for our students.”
That sense of community was an important factor for Tim Mathews, a social studies teacher and nest teacher leader.
“It kind of helped highlight one of the gaps I think we’ve had for many years here,” Mathews says. “Students sometimes feel just a little disconnected from the larger school culture. Many of them are very driven, very motivated and so they kind of don’t get a chance to take a step back and look at what all else is happening around them.”
The nest program developed as students returned to the school after a hybrid year of pandemic-impacted learning. The staff noticed students bonding despite being kept apart physically.
“Students who weren’t in the building were assigned a teacher who kind of functioned almost like their case manager,” says Mathews. “They would meet in this structured time and these teachers said this was a great opportunity for them to form connections with their students and how they were able to facilitate connections between the students in that group, which obviously in an online setting that’s very difficult to do.”
Nest is predated by a previous school program called house. In house, groups of students participated against one another in friendly school-wide competitions, like one in which groups competed to collect the most food for a canned food drive. The house program, however, randomly assigned students to their groups, which was challenging for Mathews.
“With nest, it’s tied into a class we already have so there’s an existing connection that helps us build that connection faster,” he says. “If they’re only meeting once a week for, like, 30 minutes, then it’s really hard to get anything going with that on a consistent basis.”
For Assistant Principal Geron Tate, daily interaction was an important factor when developing nest not just for students, but for the staff, too.
“With everyone doing it at the same time, the teachers not doing it are strongly encouraged to push into other classrooms so they can get out of their box to meet new students, meet new teachers as well,” Tate says.
Tate began working at the school this year, meaning he never participated in house, only nest. That puts him in the same boat as high school underclassmen.
Teachers noticed that while the older students like nest, they also miss aspects of house. The school has used that observation as an opportunity to modify the program as the year goes along, merging the strengths of both programs.
Nest remains a work in progress, but time has proven critical to helping students and teachers maintain good mental health – an intentional piece of the program.
“We were very intentional about having a bell ring at the end of fifth period to kind of differentiate when the nest period starts,” Tate says. “Our teachers are rigorous so it’s giving them a break as well. They have to mentally reset.”
Beyond creating a stronger sense of community within the school, the daily interactions allow for teachers to check in and see how students are feeling.
“It’s really about getting students the opportunities during the school day to focus on their health and well-being and not necessarily on the academics,” Langenderfer says. “Nest program is feeling that support all the way. That day to day has been critical.”
Lindsey Capritta is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
