- There is a wooden train set that runs under my work chair. If I move my work chair, I derail the really important train to Train City. (yes that pic is from today, from my living room)
- Four of us cannot work at the kitchen table without unpleasant consequences. Thank goodness for IKEA “click and collect” where they put your new, cheap IKEA table in your trunk for you.
- You don’t need hand sanitizer much if you don’t leave the house!
- My kids are lonely. They don’t have social media to interact with people and so all their interacting is within our house. So they are all over me!!!
- Ordering takeout is an act of helping others? Sweet! Tacos as a service project!!!
- My house feels smaller than it ever did before.
But honestly, if you don’t leave your house much (and where are you going to go?), you really don’t know what it’s like in someone else’s house.
Maybe you live alone and you’re super zen about all this. Maybe you live alone and you’re lonely as all get-out. Maybe you’re going nuts, cooped up with your family or roommates. Maybe you’re cozy with your family. Maybe you’re going to strangle the person or people you love with. Maybe you’re anxious and worried beyond the norm. Maybe you cannot figure out what to do with digital learning.
Your kids are in one of those situations, only with a lot less control over their lives.
- Some of them have parents working from home who have set an annoyingly structured schedule.
- Some of them have parents working from home and have no schedule. At all. Do whatever, whenever.
Some of them have parents at home but who are not currently working because their restaraunt/nail salon/art gallery/airline/hotel/gym/retail store is closed. There may or may not be schedules. Parents are freaking out about jobs and money.
- Some of them are home alone (or at grandparents/neighbors’/aunties’ houses) while parents go to work in healthcare/first responders/sanitation/utilities/groceries /delivery/construction jobs.
- Some of them have been on their phones since we left school (ok, all year) and have a great support system of friends to keep them connected.
- Some of them have been on their phones, connected to online harassment and bullying with no schoolwork or counselors to distract them and are at their wits’ end.
- Some of them don’t have phones (or not anymore now that a parent has lost his or her job) and are now disconnected from their whole social support system while social distancing.
- Some of them are still out roaming the neighborhood with their friends anyway because parents are at work or are too panicked about their lack of income to keep it together.
- Some of them are freaking out about a sick member of their family who may or may not have COVID-19, but they’re assuming it is anyway.
- Any of those scenarios above, it may be getting tense. Unhealthy family relationships are getting really unhealthy. Bad habits are getting worse. Kids are scared and alone a lot. Or NEVER alone. Or lost and adrift
So before you dive into Sources of Law or Ionic Columns or Dred Scott...
Dive into how the kids are. Where the kids are.
Are they ok? Do they need an ear? Social interaction? Empathy? A break from parents breathing down their necks or do they need a grown-up to be in charge of something?
I know you’re not the counselor (although I am sure that the counselors are working their magic in crazy new ways, too) but you-the-teacher have always been the first line of checking in with students.
Remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
You start from the bottom. You have to handle your physical needs first. If you don’t have food, shelter, and so on, you can’t really worry about safety. If you don’t have that taken care of, you can’t really worry about relationships (which is why so many parents, spouses, siblings, and other relationships get rocky during times of crisis).
Once you have enough food, water, safety, security (is this where the TP comes in?), and relationships, only THEN can humans really work on accomplishing goals and achieving their potential.
So, if they’re worrying about what they’re going to eat or if they’re going to be evicted or about that loved one with a high fever and a cough ... a kid isn’t going to care about the difference between Doric columns and Ionic columns quite yet.
*If I can mention that this is ALWAYS the case, COVID-19 or not. Often what we call “not caring about education” is a case of a kid or family not being able to focus on that part of Maslow’s hierarchy YET because they are too focused on a lower level with having to worry about safety needs or physical needs. Just a friendly reminder from your college psychology class!
So how can I help? I’m not the counselor! I don’t know what I'm doing digital teaching and I’m living in one of those crazy uncertain scenarios above!
- I say this as a mom a lot, but I’m going to say this as a teacher, too. Airlines say it all the time (ok, less this week, but still). Put. On. Your. Own Oxygen. Mask. First.
You can’t help anyone else if you are losing your stuff. Take care of yourself. Do all the stuff they tell you to do to make this time easier. Go take a walk. Get exercise. Facetime with your people. Eat healthy. Smile (physically smile!). Watch kittens and puppies on the internet. Play with your kids and pets. Get sunshine every day. Don’t overdo the news and social media. Don’t expect to be a digital teaching superstar. (None of us are quite yet). Unplug when you can.
Ask your kids how they are -- and listen. And answer them, individually. They miss you. They miss real life. They’re human beings and they need you. And if they have problems bigger than you can handle, email the counselors and the same team you usually go to. They’re still there (well, at home).
- If kids have COVID-19 questions (especially with all the social media craziness), check out The News Literacy Project
- If Social Emotional Learning has never been your forte (or if it is) now is the time to embrace it. Check out CASEL and their resources to support educators.
- Whatever you do, PLEASE DO acknowledge it! Don’t pretend like everything is business as usual. It’s not. It’s a crazy, different, scary new world. Coronavirus is in 196 countries. Currently, 1/2 million people worldwide have it (although with struggles to get enough tests that is generally agreed to be a low number) and 20,000+ have died. Roughly half of our country is under some sort of limited mobility orders, including our own county. The economy is in unbelievable shape. Please don’t pretend like everything is normal. Kids aren’t stupid but if you pretend everything is fine, it will insinuate that you think they are.
Try saying
something like “I bet this time has been weird or scary. It’s definitely made
me anxious. But I am so glad to have you guys back! I have missed you!”
This is hard for all of us for so many reasons, from our personal health fears to our disconnectedness to our stepping out of our comfort zones digital teaching. Plus, the toilet paper is still hard to find.
Put your oxygen mask on and take care of your students’ social and
emotional needs. And if this isn’t your strength, ask for help. We’re all
figuring this out together. None of us are experts in this situation.
This
is waaay more important than any content you could teach this year.
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