Teaching Post-Covid

I recently received an email from a university student who was asking if I had any additional advice for teachers in 2022, especially with COVID and just the general state of teaching in America.

I think the most important problem that teachers have some control over is burnout.

• Teachers need to eat and exercise regularly. This means not working through your lunch hour. Teachers need the time to re-energize.
• Another thing teachers need is some kind of hobby outside of education whether it is some craft or sport or something that will give them joy outside of the classroom. This will go a long way to helping teachers from getting burned out.
• Staying prepared and organized. Gather necessary materials needed for a lesson a few days in advance and don’t wait until the last minute. This helps you focus on the lesson that day rather than on preparation.
• Last, teachers need to stay away from those who only have negative thoughts to share. Negativity is unhealthy and contagious. This is different from an occasional rant or venting. This person has only negative things to share and finds nothing joyous about being a teacher.

As for teaching post-covid, teachers need to look at students from a different perspective.

• During the pandemic, students picked up many bad learning habits. Teachers need to identify these bad habits and try to teach the students better habits. This can’t be done all at one time and teachers may need to conquer one bad habit at a time. Teachers will need twice as much patience because it is easier to learn a bad habit than to unlearn it.
• Many students may suffer from anxiety. During the pandemic, the student’s world was packed with fear and uncertainty. It may take a long time for them to feel safe and secure again. They need to learn that the world is always changing and that nothing can stay the same forever. Students need to learn a different perspective where they see change as an opportunity and not something to fear. Modeling this behavior and discussing it with students will take time but is very effective to show students how to deal with change.
• Keeping a class routine will give students stability that they haven’t had during the pandemic. By having a routine, they will know what to expect and can focus more on learning new skills.

What other suggestions would you give? Please share.

Anxiety

(During the summer months, I like to take the alphabet and come up with words and see how they apply to education. I think it’s a great exercise for teachers and students to give this a try.)

I notice that a lot of my high school students are very anxious when they first enter my class. They have spent so many years facing failure and the unknown of the future. After all the many setbacks, I don’t blame them for being filled with anxiety.

My main goal is to help students be successful in my class and in the future.

But how do I define success?

I want them to achieve their goals but first I have to help them make realistic goals. I want them to dream big but achieve the little steps towards a bigger goal. Once they start being successful in achieving smaller goals, they will take bigger risks towards achieving bigger goals.

It is okay to change your dream goal. It isn’t set in stone. I like to tell students that their dream is a living thing and might change as they get older. As they gain more skills, they may decide that they want to do something different with their lives. That is okay.

An error is not a terror. It is okay to make mistakes. As long as you are not hurt and you don’t hurt anyone else, a mistake is not a major thing. Everyone learns from their mistakes. A mistake is actually an opportunity to make changes for improvement. The problem happens when we don’t learn from our mistakes and keep making the same mistakes over and over.

My students have a fear of people making fun of them. They fear that others will see them as stupid and dumb. I work hard at making my classroom a safe place where everyone who makes a mistake can feel safe. When someone makes a mistake on a project, sometimes the class will brainstorm and give suggestions on how to make changes. I explain that more heads are better than one. Once they get in the habit of doing this, students learn to help each other instead of ridiculing each other.

Another way I help students is to explain that our class is like a family. We stick up for each other in and out of the classroom. I don’t mean violence but if we see our classmates being bullied, we stand by them and help them not feel alone. This might mean getting a teacher or administrator also but we don’t let them face adversity by themselves. This can mean a lot to my students who have felt very alone over the previous years.

Once I can get students past the anxiety stage, their learning happens in leaps and bounds. They are open to new learning and willing to try harder. Once they have that little taste of success, they want more.

How do you help students get over anxiety? Please share.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Helping Students with Anxiety

I was recently asked this question:

“I am am currently in a second grade classroom with a student who has anxiety. When anything changes in her normal everyday schedule she is off and extremely worked up. It's to the point that she cannot focus during the day. With COVID, our schedule constantly is changing so this anxiety is there very often. Even when things are different at home,the anxiety carries over into school. She also has expressed that she has had several nightmares and this will carry with her throughout the entire day. She randomly gets anxious over things like change in weather (rain, thunderstorms) , change in schedule, if the school is safe, etc…how can I support this student during the day when she gets anxious over things like this?”

Here is my answer to her question:

I have had many students that dislike changes in their schedules. As I get older, I find myself feeling the same way.

If you know in advance that things will change, you can give her a schedule so she knows what to expect. You can get her to help you plan the schedule for the next day while you are making it. This may give her some control and ease her anxiety.

During transitions, let her know when things are going to change so it doesn't surprise her. You can give a 5-minute and then a 1-minute warning so she can mentally prepare to make the change.

If there are things you cannot control, you might try to distract her from them. What things ease her anxiety? What activity might distract her from feeling anxious? If she likes to draw or read, doing this may help her. If movement helps her, maybe you can do walking or exercise activity.

What advice would you give this teacher? Please share.

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash

Coping with Distress Techniques

During these troubled times, it is easy to feel anxious and overwhelmed. It is the fear of the unknown that is scary. We don’t know what will happen in the future. We are establishing a new norm and every day can be something new and different. We worry about “what if” and we don’t have a lot of control about the future of the world or the economy. Our students are feeling the same way! So, I wanted to give some coping techniques that might help in dealing with these feelings of distress.

Mindful Meditation – Recently a couple of our faculty organized some mindfulness sessions where we learned some deep breathing techniques and calming exercises. I found some websites that you might find helpful.

1-minute mindfulness exercises

Mindfulness exercises

Hand Over Heart – place your hand over your heart and breathe

Hand Over Heart

Exercise – walking, running, aerobics or anything that gets your body moving. There are plenty of exercising videos on YouTube. My favorite video selections are featured in  Walk at Home by Leslie Sansone.

Read – I like to find a fiction book in a genre that I enjoy and just escape from the real world.

What other relaxation/stress relief do you do? Please share.

Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

Busyness

In You Can Never Be Your Best If You're Too Busy from  @DavidGeurin Blog, David Geurin asks,

“Do you wear your busyness as a badge of honor? What are you doing to slow down, refresh, and recharge regularly?”

I tend to overextend myself and then get mad at myself (and probably everyone else at the time) for how crazy my life is.

Sometimes I get so busy that I feel overwhelmed and I shut down. Either my brain just says it’s done or my body gets sick. One way or another,  my body has had enough.

Years ago when I got stressed out (and I didn’t know it), I lost all of my hair.

Now when I get busy and overwhelmed, I make sure I exercise for at least an hour. The exercise helps me burn off frustration and anxiety.

I also knit and spin yarn when I need to relax. The repetitiveness of my actions help to calm me down and relax.

Sometimes reading a fiction novel helps me escape and I get away in my mind.

But I’ve found the best thing I do is I make lists. I start listing all the things that need to be done. By looking at all of the things, it helps me see that it is doable. Then I prioritize the list and reorder them according to what has to be done first. As I finish things, I cross them off the list. This makes me feel like I’ve accomplished things and I can see progress. As long as I’m moving forward, I know I’m not standing still.

I’ve learned that I need to pace myself. I need to take preventative measures and not get so busy that I get overwhelmed.

What do you do about your busyness? Please share.

I Hate Daylight Saving Time

In Daylight Saving Time Redux fri Janet Given's Blog, Janet Givens shares some interesting facts about Daylight Saving Time.  She shared some information that I didn’t know about such as who benefits from this change in time.

Even though this was meant to help save energy costs during WWI but that is not the case now. In fact, with air conditioning available now, it may actually increase energy costs.  I’m sure you can figure out that energy companies, oil companies, and gas companies really like that result.

I do not like this change at all for several reasons. First I’m a morning person and the fact that the time I get up is now completely dark longer irritates me. That is not how I like to begin my day!

The older I get, the harder it is to adjust to change. This change by one hour really throws my body clock off and I don’t like the way it makes me feel. I feel more tired when I wake up for some reason. I’m ready to go to bed and it isn’t completely dark yet which makes me feel ancient!

Students have a hard time adjusting to this change also. When they arrive in class they seem sluggish. Many are irritable and quick to anger. Teenagers already feel some of this from hormones and do not needed added fuel for this! They seem to have trouble concentrating and focusing on necessary tasks. I bet the amount of referrals increase during this time too.

Usually it takes about 2-3 weeks before they seem to be back to normal so I try to adjust my lessons to accommodate this. If I don’t, it only leads to frustration for all of us.

Arizona doesn’t change the time at all (other than the Indian reservation). European countries change the time also but not at the same time we do. This makes it really challenging when trying to connect with people from other countries!

Apparently according to this article, many people are against it but no one seems able to make the decision to just stay the same time. If the powers that be can’t manage a simple task like this, no wonder the country is in such rough shape!

How do you feel about Daylight Saving Time? Please share.

Image: 'Back from DST' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77476789@N00/1787142391
Found on flickrcc.net

My Heart Hurts

This week I heard about the school in Pakistan that was attacked. I’m not writing this based on my political views but from my view as a mother and a teacher. My heart hurts. It hurts for the students and the families. It makes me wonder if these people will be filled with bitterness and hatred and perpetuate this violence. I know that I would be angry and I don’t blame them for being angry. But monsters know that the way to get to most people is through children. Will our schools now have a kneejerk reaction and start increasing securing at our schools? Will children be afraid to come to school in fear that someday their school may be attacked? Where does it all end? Doing away with guns is not the answer because as long as there are monsters out there, violence will happen. I don’t have any answers. I just know that my heart hurts. Please keep all children and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

“Caption: The uncle and cousin of injured student Mohammad Baqair comfort him as he mourns the death of his mother, a teacher who was killed in the attack.” – photo from CNN site

Summer Anxieties

As our summer season arrives, everyone gets excited as the end of the school year finally comes. But I notice that some of my students are not as excited as the others. Of course, they act like they are and they grumble like the others but I can tell that the light isn’t as bright as the others.

For many of them, they know that the summer brings lots of uncertainties. Suddenly there will be no schedule, no routines, and many times nothing that they can count on. That includes regular meals, adult figures and even friends. During these times of closeness with other family members, emotions seem more magnified with no escape of school in sight.

Sometimes the social interactions with their peers only happen when they are at school. Many have the responsibility in the summer of having to care for their younger brothers and sisters.

Before my students leave, I ask them to call me once a week to let me know that they are okay. I don’t want to read about them in the papers for any reason unless it is something positive. Unless I am on vacation, I will call them if I don’t hear from them some time during the summer. Many look relieved to know that I will care about them even when we aren’t in class.

Some students don’t know when they are supposed to return to school or even if they will return to the same school. I let them know that I will call them the week before school starts so they will know what is happening.

For some of them, I actually sit down with them and help them plan a tentative schedule for them while they are home each day. Just putting some things down on paper seem to help relieve some of the anxiety they are feeling. I also print out a calendar for each month and fill out important things for them to do or remember. During these times, I am able to tell which students need this more than others. I also take the time to touch base with the parents to see if there is anything they would like to add to their child’s daily schedule and share with them their child’s anxiety.

So even though I’m extremely excited about getting time off or going on a vacation, I need to remember that others may not be feeling the same thing. I need to make sure I’m sensitive to those who can’t afford a vacation because their parents might be out of work or money is tight for other reasons. I can help these students look for positives about the summer and maybe even look for something to look forward to.

Do you have students like this? If so, how do you help them? Please share!

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'Day 223 / 365 - Dread'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17642817@N00/1749448975 by: Jason Rogers

Recovering from the Holidays

In Is Your Heart Bigger Than Your Hammer? from Tips For New Teachers and Student Teachers, Sam tells us,

“… I would rather be known for the size of my heart, than for the size of my hammer.

If there is any lesson that I could take from this to offer to new teachers, it would be to be easy with the hammer. There will be times when you’ll have to make your point, and follow through with your threats of consequences for poor behavior, but try and take some time to see if there are any underlying reasons why the student is not paying the attention that you require. Could there be something else on the student’s mind, like parents who are in the middle of a divorce, or a recent death in the family, or a mother who is not there?

Be known as the teacher with the big heart, instead of the teacher with the big hammer.”

This reminded me that during the holiday season, my students may be going through things that I could never imagine. I need to be sensitive to a wide range of emotions when they return to the classroom.

Many of my students worry about keeping their electric or water on or getting something to eat.

It is cold where I live and many of them do not even have warm coats.

Others may have family members or even themselves dealing with mental illness.

Some may have parents who lost their jobs and getting Christmas presents is a real strain on their budgets.

Some may even be worried about losing their homes.

Some of my students may be dealing with alcohol/drug abuse or other abuses unimaginable.

Even though this was a joyous holiday season for me, not all of my students are feeling the joy. This may come out as acting out behavior or withdrawn behavior.

I know that I sometimes want to make an impression and come down hard on my students during this chaotic time of being back in school. I want to reel them in before they get too over stimulated but I need to do this with a loving hand rather than with a hammer.

I need to make time to spend some personal time with each student so I can get an idea of what they are feeling and how they are dealing with these feelings.

I think it is important to give students the opportunity to talk about their holiday vacation if they need/want to do so. But I would give them different options in order to do this. Some may want to verbally report about their adventures and others may want to write it privately. Either way will be accepted. I see it as a “debriefing” or “venting” so the students don’t keep these feelings bottled up inside of them so they explode. Sometimes this can make a big difference in a student’s behavior.

Do you notice this in your classroom? If so, how do you handle this?

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'Extreme fatigue'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46425925@N00/114137112 by: Polo

Office Politics

In Ellen: Overwhelmed from CEC Blog, the author states,

“I’m drained by the politics. Not petty lunchroom stuff, but top-down stuff. I’m frustrated by what I perceive to be a lack of accountability for teachers who aren’t making things work and a lack of support for teachers who are. It’s difficult for me to be an advocate for my students when I feel that my school’s practices are sometimes not in their best interests.”

I hear this so often from many young teachers and it makes me sad. I think this feeling of helplessness causes many new teachers to pack it in too early. This feeling of office politics can be overwhelming and cause new teachers to feel powerless.

I know this is no excuse but over the past thirty years, I have had many different jobs and you will face these office politics, no matter what job you have. It doesn’t matter if you are a salesclerk, or an entertainer, or a construction worker. If you thought teaching was any different, you were wrong. Maybe Surviving Office Politics is a course that we need to teach in Teacher Prep courses because it would be of practical use.

I had one new teacher ask me about how I survived office politics and it made me think of the things I did. Maybe if I share it with you, you will find something you need in order to cope with what is going on around you.

1. Remember not to take the politics personally. I have felt that I was moved to different schools unfairly for different reasons and felt a lot of bitterness and resentment. I had to learn that these changes were not usually against me personally. Later, I learned that the change actually turned out to benefit me and without the change, my growth as a teacher would not have happened.

2. Be willing to stand up for what is right. I needed to think about how my actions would affect me in the long run; the big picture. Was I willing to sacrifice what I’ve accomplished to stand up for my beliefs?

3. Remember that I do not have the big picture. Many times the administration has to make decisions that benefit the school as a whole even though it might not be to my advantage. Sometimes decisions have to be made that affect the most people and not just the ones that I teach.

4. Open the lines of communication with my administration. If I feel that the school practices are not in the best interest of my students, I need to let my administration know how negatively this can affect the school in the future. I need to be loyal to my employer and I can do this by showing how acting in the best interest of my students is in fact what is in the best interest of the school.

5. I need to stop dwelling on the negative politics and letting it become the central focus of my thoughts. As long as I am doing this, there will not be any room for positive thinking which will enable me to cope with the way things are.

6. I need to be able to accept that what I believe in may not be the only way to solve a problem. I need to be open to other suggestions and show a willingness to try other options.

7. If I’m not happy with the way things are, I need to think about ways to change it. Then I need to be willing to approach those in power with my suggestions. If I’m not willing to be part of the solution, I need to stop whining about the way things are.

8. I cannot expect the school to develop a support system for me. I need to do it on my own. I need to make time to do this. I can find colleagues who I work with, either in my own school, or my own district. Or I can find people online for support. I need to actively do this for myself.

9. Remember the ultimate reason I became a teacher – to make a difference in a child’s life. When all else fails, I need to ask myself if I am achieving my goal. If I am, then I know that I’m doing the best I can and that I shouldn’t beat myself over the way things are.

How do you deal with the politics where you are? Do you have any other suggestions with coping with these? Do you disagree with any that I have given? If so, please explain why.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'That went down well......'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15868489@N00/828559971 by: Karen Brazier

Easing Teachers' Anxieties

Let’s face it. When school starts, we all face anxiety – the student, the parents, and the teacher. It is a stressful time because we are facing the unknown. The student usually doesn’t know the teacher or the new rules and may even be facing a new school. The parents don’t know what their child will be facing or if their child will be able to succeed. The teacher doesn’t really know the student or what motivates this child. Everyone wants to do their best and be successful so it is always good to start off on the right track.

In 5 Ideas to Ease "Back to School Anxiety" from School Psychologist Blog Files by Erin N. King, there are some great suggestions for easing a child’s anxiety.

“1. Keep your own anxiety in check.

2. Get Familiar.

3. Have a trial run.

4. Talk.

5. Get help if needed.”

These are great suggestions. But what can teachers do to ease their own anxiety in order to help their students? Here are my suggestions:

1. Call parents before school starts. Introduce yourself and give a little background. This will help you know the parent and the parent will have a great impression of you from the start.

2. Get organized. Plan your first week ahead of time. You may not know the kids yet but have a tentative plan of activities. Nothing is worse for you and the students if they get bored. You may have to adjust and modify but at least you won’t be starting from scratch.

3. Make a list and prioritize it. Sometimes I would be so overwhelmed by the beginning of school that I would have tons of things I needed and wanted to do. It helped me focus if I made a list and started doing the things that had to be done immediately. When I was able to cross them off the list when completed, it helped me feel like I accomplished something and kept me from feeling defeated.

4. Determine your rules and consequences before school starts. Find a way to post these in your classroom before the students show up.

5. If possible, set up your classroom before your first day of work. (My husband would kill me for saying this because he hates the thought of me working and not getting paid. I always felt like this extra effort helped me from going crazy so it was worth it!) The first week of work usually involved lots of meetings and paperwork. When I didn’t have to worry about setting up my classroom, it helped me focus on other things I needed to do.

6. Stop for lunch! This is a biggie in my book. I have seen too many teachers prepare for students and not stop for lunch. You need this down time in order to reenergize your body. This is a great time to network and bond with your coworkers. These are the people who will be in your support group when you need it. Don’t take it for granted that they will always be there for you just because you work together. You need to nurture this relationship. You also need to nurture your body. The first few weeks are exhausting and you do not need to get sick during this time. In fact, eating right will help you face these stressful times because stress wears down the immune system.

If you have any other suggestions to add, please let me know in the comments. I hope some of these will help teachers start off their year successfully. It really does help if you feel on top of the world rather than bulldozed by it.

Original image: 'happy birthday, baby mantis (hello, cruel world)' http://www.flickr.com/photos/73645804@N00/2313927146 by: woodley wonderworks