By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
On April 7, the Brandon Groveland Youth Assistance hosted their annual sponsor breakfast, an event to thank the community members who have supported BGYA in the past year.
The speaker at the breakfast this year was Brandon High School Principal Dan Stevens, who spoke about the positive things to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic for the district.
“This is the hardest job in the world, being an educator,” said Stevens. “It’s been a whirlwind for all of us, but we’re coming out of it okay.”
The pandemic changed education for the district and other districts in the state, but some of those changes were positives for the district.
Brandon schools were closed from March 13, 2020 to Sept. 8, 2020, and continued to be both in-person and online. Brandon was one of two districts in Oakland County that, at the time, offered in-person education.
“We listened to our community,” he said. “We were very unorthodox when compared to the rest of the state.”
Some of the changes that the district made that have been positive have been the use of new technology for both students and teachers, having multiple methods of teaching and assessment to help students learn how they best learn, and more family involvement in student education.
“We can take some of those things, integrate them moving forward with face to face, and be very successful,” he said. “I always talk about that triangle of education. The student is here at the top of the triangle, over here, this side is the school, and on this side is the parent, and if those three aren’t working together, your kid isn’t going to be successful.”
One of the other changes that Stevens talked about was socialization among students after having online learning for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year, and the positive change among students.

“Most kids that are coming to school every day, that are quiet in the corner and don’t want to speak because they’re afraid or embarrassed,” he said. “Online opportunities gave them an opportunity to speak, and I saw it happen. They didn’t necessarily show their face, they didn’t feel like everyone was watching them, they could type in the chat. And then, not only that, but once these kids started to come back to school, we see those kids being more social with their peers. I see those kids talking, raising their hand in class. They have more confidence.”