Addressing the Needs of Students in Rural Communities

Many students in rural areas face transportation challenges and struggle to remain focused throughout the day. Transportation issues and malnutrition are frequently present, making it difficult for students to succeed in the classroom. Students’ basic needs must be met before they can participate productively in class.

As a teacher in rural Appalachia—and as someone who grew up there—I recognized the importance of prioritizing my students’ needs in alignment with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I developed several strategies that other rural educators can use to support their own students. These strategies encompass methods to meet students’ physical and safety needs, as well as approaches to address their social and emotional needs while fostering academic achievement.

Meet Students’ Basic Needs with Resource Stations

Resource stations are a simple way to help students meet their basic needs. I set up one resource station with food and another with clothing to help students who may be hungry or cold in my classroom. For food, I used a simple cardboard box and filled it with nonperishable items that students could easily access when needed. For clothing, I used an empty locker and stocked sweatshirts and jackets. I purchased these items on clearance at local stores after the winter season, received donations from community members, or used jackets that were never claimed from the school’s lost and found.

While resource stations themselves are a simple concept, the challenging part can often be getting students to utilize them. By creating stations that are unembellished, such as a cardboard box, teachers can help draw less attention to these stations.

To further reduce stigma, I showed students that I could use these stations too: I would grab a snack from the food box and say that I hadn’t had breakfast that day, or I would grab a jacket from the locker and let students know that I had forgotten mine at home. When the use of these stations is modeled, students feel empowered to use them as well, which creates an environment where meeting one’s basic needs is a standard practice.

Maximize Students’ Learning Time with Busy Bins

Students in rural communities often face long commutes, followed by lengthy waiting times upon arrival at school, due to the use of shared buses. At my school, some students would sit in the gym for 40 minutes until the school day began, which led many of them to feel frustrated and bored before they even reached their first class. To make this wait time both more effective and engaging for students, I developed a system that enables them to practice academic skills.

I designed “busy bins,” which are bins filled with a variety of materials that students can use to spend their wait time more productively, including letter cards, number recognition materials, math operation cards, books, and resources for completing homework assignments.

To implement a system like this, teachers should begin by setting up and labeling bins. It can be helpful to label all items within a bin, primarily if they are organized by activity type, to ensure that materials remain in the correct place. Then, it is essential for teachers to explicitly instruct their students on how to use these bins.

I suggest dedicating a lesson in the classroom to teaching students how to effectively use these bins, ensuring that they can spend their time efficiently. These lessons include instructing them on how to utilize each material in each bin, where to locate the bins, and how to store the materials when time is up.

Providing a productive activity for students to engage with reduces student frustration and boredom, enabling them to be better prepared for their school day.

Support Students’ Emotional Needs Through Mentorship and Community Partnerships

To make the busy bins even more effective, I suggest combining them with a mentorship program between younger and older students. While students wait for the school day to begin, they can engage in a busy bin activity in partnership with another student.

Teachers can create a formal mentorship process in which each younger student is assigned an older mentor so that every student knows who to work with. Not only does this help students practice academic skills, but also it builds essential social connections that support students’ emotional needs.

Outside of student mentorship, teachers can further support their students’ emotional needs through community partnerships that put students’ academic work in context and help them feel connected to those around them. In my classroom, I invited community members to share their work, including farmers, business managers, and cosmetologists. These people were able to share how they contribute to the community and help put students’ classroom work into the specific context of their unique community.

This kind of community engagement is crucial in rural communities where students may not have access to diverse job opportunities and where families may be focused on other aspects outside of helping their children learn about these kinds of jobs.

Teachers can begin to address educational challenges in rural schools by developing responsive instructional methods that meet students’ physical and emotional needs, allowing them to focus on learning.