So, raise your hand if you are doing great, during the weirdest Teacher Appreciation Week ever.
Raise your hand if your house is clean, your heart is joyful, your belly is full of healthy foods, you are showered and dressed today, your brain is anxiety-free, you have exercised several days in a row, you are not angry at any politicians, neighbors, or family members, your students are ALL learning what they need to, and you aren’t worried about any of them.
Yeah me neither.
These times are hard. We keep saying unprecedented because there is literally. No. Precedent. Sure, there was the huge Influenza outbreak in 1917-1918, but they didn’t have Zoom back then. Or 24 hour new cycles. Or social media. Or toilet paper (I guess we don’t have as much of that these days either)
This is different. And it’s ok to recognize that life is different. It’s not just “Regular Life: At Home Edition”.
I don’t know about you, but I am struggling with this new life. I have been sick (not COVID, just normal sick). I usually run a busy, active life and I find being at home all the time depressing. My house is a disaster. My kids are so socially isolated from friends, they’re depressed and acting out. Because I am a teacher, I can mitigate the effect that has on their grades and schoolwork, but I can’t imagine not having a Teacher Brain for this. If I had a Retail Brain. Or an Accountant Brain or Some Other Brain.
Let’s use my children (because they’re the ones in front of me) to look at kids as a whole.
I have a kindergartner and a 4th grader, but feel free to extrapolate this to middle and high school students who also have MUCH higher stakes (hormones, depression, graduation, etc.).
My kids can’t see their friends. They are supremely isolated, despite the fact that their entire lives are normally lived communally -- at school, at before-care, at church, at scouts, at sports, at other activities. Kids spend most of their lives in “piles” and “packs” of other kids.
So they’re withdrawing. My 4th grader is spending more time on the computer than necessary. And my kindergartner is spending more time playing by himself. I have to drag them to talk and play and do things.
Getting them to do or finish schoolwork is like pulling teeth despite the fact that there are TWO educated adults in this house working from home -- and ONE OF US IS A TEACHER!!!
They have lost their caring about schoolwork. Why?
Because as we all know, kids don’t work just because it’s “good for them”. They work because of relationships.
And right now those relationships are a lot harder to see.
In the regular world, we pull every trick in the book face to face to get kids to learn because learning doesn’t look very high up on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to a kid struggling with food insecurity or safety needs who’s going to get beat up today.
Guess what?
Learning looks a whole lot less important when there isn’t even a teacher’s face to cajole them into it.
When there’s a pandemic going on. When there’s less food in the house than usual. When there’s no contact with other kids. When there’s no adults at school to notice that there’s a problem. When domestic violence is up. When neglect is rising. When depression is increasing exponentially. When kids are lonely and sad
Somehow, that assigned reading with the questions at the end doesn't seem that important to a kid with everything else going on. Especially if there’s no “you” (the teacher) in front of them to use the power of relationship to persuade them to do it.
Heck, if that were me, I might not not even login. Depression and isolation are powerful forces.
It is HARD to get motivated in the face of a pandemic. So says the disaster in my family room. So says my kindergartener who cries every time he has to do an assignment that he doesn't like (that doesn’t come with a video of his teacher to help him feel connected). So says my 4th grader who has no idea how to do time management (and neither do most of our middle and high schoolers). So says me, who is used to seeing the faces of my friends and colleagues.
So says our students who are lonely and isolated.
As you work through student grades, please be kind. Assume goodwill. Assume hardships that you don’t know about yet, not just in “those” households, but in any household. Please keep this unprecedented event in mind. Please keep the fact that you have no idea what’s happening behind closed doors and unlogged-in accounts. Please keep in mind that there are bigger events happening than a couple of assignments.
This is not “Tracy-from-the-district” giving you a policy. I don’t make policy. This is Tracy the mom. Tracy the teacher. Tracy who loves kids. Tracy who knows kids who can’t handle all this. Who knows parents who are struggling. Who knows teachers who are struggling.
And if you’re struggling, (as we ALL are) I hope you can get a chance to listen to the webinar that the amazing Ms. Darlene Rivers from Employee Wellness provided yesterday on Teams. She is so wise and helpful. Some of her advice for us was...
Keeping perspective
Finding good in any bad situation
Noticing when you are feeling stressed
Breathing
Focusing on things within your control
Asking for help
Following a schedule
Making your bed daily
Showering and putting on different clothes daily
Sticking to a meal schedule
Disconnecting from electronics and spend time with family
Planning your time
Staying CALM
C- Coping skills (give yourself positive messages, engage in enjoyable activities, relaxation techniques)
A- Be aware but not opposed (stay informed but limit the amount of news)
L -- Listen to reliable sources of information (CDC, WHO)
M - Monitor yourself -- eat well, exercise, get enough sleep.
This is still hard, even if we’ve (mostly) figured out Teams. It’s still hard, maybe getting harder despite some stores and beaches opening. It’s still hard for kids, most of whom are still isolated and scared and lonely
Don’t forget to keep that in mind as you continue to keep up your relationships with them (when they log in) and as you work through grades.
And PLEASE take care of yourself. You are essential workers with the craziest, fastest changes and moving targets. Your job is hard. I know. I see you working crazy hours.
I appreciate you so, so much. Please appreciate yourself this week by taking care of yourself. Happy (weirdest) Teacher appreciation week!! Please practice self-care, now, more than ever!!!
-Tracy
Every summer, I end the school year with a final Wednesday Summer Reading List for teachers. You know, a way to kick back and spend time getting around to that stuff you don’t have time or brain power for during the school year.
You have gone from the Before Times where we hugged kids and taught in classrooms and had extracurriculars and put on regular clothes and drove our vehicles from our homes to our schools and heard bells ring to tell us when class was over. 
You have done a GIANT shift in your teaching and you are amazing. I know you have to bob and weave all the time. It’s what teachers do.
And now, on with the booklist. Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond. This book brings together CRT and neuroscience to bring a “hard science” angle to what equity champions and CRT practitioners already know: that CRT can change everything, literally including the brain of you and your students.*Look for the Equity Department's book study on this in the fall!
Hitting a Straight Lick with A Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston. Nothing like a “new” book by one of your favorite (long deceased) authors to get you (um, me) all ready to sit in the hammock and read! Ms. Hurston was a master storyteller and an anthropologist, so these long forgotten stories are bound to be great. I already bought it but haven’t gotten to it yet!
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore. This book about the “girls” and young women who worked in factories making radium dials and (spoiler alert) got sick in the early 20th century looks fascinating. And looks like something I don’t know much about. And that’s always my kind of history!
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein. I have seen these maps but I have never read the actual book. Supposed to be amazing. As someone who lives in Pinellas County, where we could probably draw these maps ourselves based on who lives where. These are things we sort of know “a little something about”, but not exactly everything this book will teach. I can’t wait to learn.
Balance with Blended Learning by Caitlin R. Tucker. I think we have all learned this quarter what DOES work about digital learning, what the benefits ARE. Well, how can we keep those with us when (IhopeIhopeIhope) we are in the brick and mortar classroom in the fall? Maybe this book has some ideas that we can use to blend the good parts of the digital with the good parts of the traditional classroom. I’m intrigued.
What are you reading this summer? Anything other than the news? I can’t wait to hear all about it! Please share with me! I will be around and I will check my email. I’d love to chat about one of these books (or another one)! 
