COVID-19 has forced most of us to come up with alternate ways to do our jobs, and that’s especially true when it comes to those in education. For Joey Marshall, better known as “Mr. Marshall” at Pittsfield High School, that has meant reaching back to his own high school days when he studied video production. Administrators at the school knew that he had built relationships with many of the students and asked if he would reach out to them with some videos. Marshall has now produced four Facebook videos on topics ranging from email etiquette to motivation and support, and how to be the best version of yourself. Although he’s not a school counselor, that is his ultimate goal, and these videos allow him to incorporate school guidance aspects into his job.

I’m from Dayton, Ohio and got my degrees there, but spent three summers working at the Country Club of Pittsfield during college, where I met my wife, who’s from Pittsfield. She and our two kids moved here a few years ago from Ohio and I joined them last May after I finished my masters in school counseling.

I’m the in-school suspension specialist (ISS) at Pittsfield High School. The traditional way to give students suspension is to suspend them outside of school, but that’s almost like a reward. With ISS, the suspended students spend time in Mr. Marshall’s classroom for a certain amount of time, maybe certain class periods or days of the week. I help them complete their classwork, but I also try to work on the restorative piece and help them reflect on their emotions. What is the reason behind them skipping class? There are a lot of personal struggles. When you build trust with students, they finally open up with you. They may be skipping class because they’re taking care of sibling if their parents aren’t around. I work with them to try to overcome those obstacles.

We also use the initials ISS to mean intervention support center. It’s not just for kids in trouble. If a kid is upset or stressed out about something, we try to intervene to help the student reset. I have a group of students that are frequent visitors coming to see me. It’s given me the chance to meet quite a few kids.

I want to build relationships with these students. I always preach respect and experience. I tell them, I respect you no matter what you did to come in in this door, but I want you to be able to give me that respect. We’re all equal in respect, but we’re not equal in experience. When you share your experience with me, you’re the expert on that experience. Then I can share my own, and give you tips and tools that might help you. Working with these students has taught me to be extremely patient and never judge a book by its cover.

I’ve completed and posted four videos, and I’m working on two more. The videos take a lot of planning — I write a script, then shoot it and edit, adding music and sound effects. I try to get some humor in there. One of the teachers has asked me to do a video on resume writing tips, and I recently helped the ESL teacher launch a podcast.

Remote distance learning is where we’re at right now. I have about 3 or 4 kids I talk to every week, and about 15 of those “frequent flyers” that I have calls with every couple of weeks. The teachers have just started having virtual office hours so the kids can reach out to us if they need to. We just have to get through this together.

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The Rural We