Every once in a while, I wake up and realize that I’m currently living in the middle of history in the making. We can embrace this reality and be part of it or we can complain and ignore it. Even though we are a few months out from the initial shut down, I still feel the fear, anxiety and uncertainty I did in March.
I turned 50 on March 14th and it seems as though the ‘world stopped turning’ the next day. The term unprecedented became the newest buzz word as schools across the country were canceled for the first time for an anticipated length of time not due to a weather related event or natural disaster.
What feelings did you experience when you heard schools were closed for the rest of the school year?
I could never have imagined school being closed from March 16th to June 19th. THREE months of distance learning, crisis remote teaching and remote learning for students. I had a difficult time recognizing and labeling my feelings during this time. I had so many feelings, it was difficult to isolate just one. I had to give myself permission to just feel ALL the feelings.
How did you cope with the range of feelings you must have been feeling?
Educators across the Commonwealth and country dove in head first to do whatever they needed to continue connecting and supporting their students and then transitioned to try and TEACH in this new virtual school. I was proud of my staff who took on ‘crisis teaching’ and came up with innovative ways to connect with their students. They put their anxious feelings aside to do what was best for their kids!
What did you do to keep connecting with your students and help them through their feelings?
I’ve heard more new phrases including, “ambiguous loss”, and “collective trauma” as we navigate how the changes we’re experiencing due to the Coronavirus will impact all of us.
Feelings are something we are all experiencing and can’t avoid. There’s no on/off switch that we can flip when we don’t want to have feelings.
I think about what my staff and students are feeling and how I am going to be able to support them when we return to school. There’s still a lot of fear and anxiety as school re-opening plans are shared.
There’s no perfect answer and we want to protect the health and safety of everyone. We need to honor how everyone is feeling around this.
Many schools are trying to focus on the Social-Emotional health of students as a priority this fall.
What strategies will you use to support your students while building relationships?
Will you do a daily check in? Ask students how they are feeling using emojis?
Use journal writing to allow students to express themselves?
Offer small group times just to chat about feelings?
I use the Mood Meter app on my phone to check my feelings during the day. I give myself permission to feel and then reflect on whether or not I need to change my mood.
I will be focusing on supporting staff and students this fall as they go through a range of feelings. I want them to know that it’s ok to have whatever feelings they are having.
