The homeroom activity for today seemed so promising.
The counseling staff had recruited volunteers from interesting professions to do half-hour virtual info sessions for all the students. Kids were allowed to read about their options, make a choice, and join the call.
A particularly appealing aspect to doing career exploration this way was that it was more inclusive; in the past we had one in-person career day for 8th graders only, and seats were limited so kids didn't always get to attend the session they chose. This model opened up the experience to 6th and 7th graders, too, and spread the meetings over three different Mondays to provide more flexibility for students and presenters alike.
Unfortunately, lessons learned the hard way in the early days of virtual learning are already fading away, and the calls were set up so that students had more permissions than they needed. It is still middle school around here, so as soon as certain people realized what they could do, presenters and participants alike were muted, interrupted, and removed from the meetings, and the chats were spammed with irrelevant and inappropriate comments and images.
Scrambling to recover, the organizers changed the settings and shut down the chat, but it was a little late for that.
Life Lesson: Secure the lobby and only allow selected presenters.
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