How to Navigate Socially Distanced Instruction
Difficult but doable: here are the strategies, mindsets, and best practices you’ll need to navigate the plans, policies, and protocols that your school puts in place for the fall.
I am a K-5 science educator. My current 5-week placement is with 7–8 year-olds in a camp setting, teaching across all subjects. There are four of us as full-day, 5-week-long camp leaders providing small group, in-person instruction that is being partially used to test-drive safety protocols for the upcoming school year.
Since July 6, 2020, I have been back in person with a small group of students at school. There are eight (7–8 year-old) students, a full day assistant, and myself. We have important and thorough safety protocols in place: maintaining six feet distance, masks or face coverings at all times (except while eating, drinking, or outdoors where physical distancing of six feet is maintained), increased handwashing and room sanitation, no shared materials … to name a few of the most important ones.
When social distance protocols break down
This past Monday (July 20) was rough. This week was the halfway point of our time together, and you would have thought that it was day one, nearly all week. Just when I felt as if we were getting settled, under control, and accustomed to the new protocols with our eight friends, we weren't.
It was as if someone hit a little reset button in a super-secret battery compartment of each of our students — I actually had a teacher when I was in elementary school that would tell us she wished we all had little switches in a battery compartment. For an instant on Monday, I wanted to shout, “Mrs. Stout — I think students DO have these compartments,” as I tried to comprehend what was happening and how to best handle the chaos within the room.
Students were walking around the room with no masks on and when they would make eye contact with myself or my assistant would place a hand over their mouths instead of their masks or proceed to run and hold their breath to hurry through their tasks.
Oh, dear heavens.
Was this the first sign of rebellion?
Was there a mutiny afoot?
Was this the beginning of the end?
When called to line up for outdoor time, sports center, or nature journaling, the entire group of eight created what can only be described as a rugby huddle near the door, some even with their masks off. This happened repeatedly on Monday.
What in the actual world is happening here? I thought to myself as my heart raced, my brain scrambled to find a solution, and I just stared in disbelief at what was happening right in front of me.
Since I am writing about this in the past tense, you can deduce that we made it through the day, but it was even more exhausting than the previous 10 we survived to date.
It took a lot of redirection — more than the first 10 days — a lot of reminders, a lot of town halls within our little group, a lot of time, and a lot of patience. See the pattern?
Every single day, especially on Monday, I think to myself about a few weeks from now when class sizes will double to 16, we will not have assistants with us, and the increased pressure to cover content standards is staring us in the face.
What then?
What happens when I have sixteen students and am alone for the majority of the day?
There is a lot to remember, a lot to look out for, a lot to repeat. It’s exhausting. Camp ends at 4 pm each day and I am in bed by 7:30 pm each night. This is with eight students and a full day assistant.
What happens when I have sixteen students and I’m alone for the majority of the day?
It is not a lost cause.
I do not want that to be what you gain from this post. Rather, I want you to see and feel a little of the reality we are facing as educators going to in-person instruction.
Some schools have more stringent regulations — students must remain seated and masked for the entirety of their time indoors with the exception of eating and drinking. This is not developmentally appropriate for students, especially elementary-aged. I can tell you that as a 36.5 year-old, I cannot stay at a desk for hours on end, and we know this is not appropriate, not engaging, and not a realistic expectation of our students.
You will see an increase in undesired behaviors, you will see academic deficits, you will have disengaged learners. School will not be the exciting, vibrant, healthy place it is supposed to be. Students will not be running to get in the door. They will be running out and unhappy.
Some schools and districts have less stringent protocols: 3 feet spacing rather than the 6 we will maintain at our facility. This is to fit more students in the same classroom space: higher class sizes and being tethered to their workspace for an entire day is no better.
Some schools have taken away special area classes such as art, physical education, music, art, etc which means that general education classroom teachers have less planning time, if any — hardly a moment to use the restroom.
Students miss out on opportunities to learn differently, exercise different parts of their personality and feed other parts of who they are — think about it.
How many of us have sought the arts as a way to cope in this COVID-19 era? Netlfix, Disney+, social media … those are the arts at play in our lives.
Some schools and districts have eliminated subjects outside of reading, writing, and mathematics. Think about the budding visual artists, musicians, thespians … or a student that just enjoys those subjects.
We have to think about the implications on students and educators alike, especially mental and physical health in these conditions. It seems we hear a whole lot more about the needs of students and families to have schools back with in-person instruction, but I contend that the health, safety, and mental wellness of the educators who are entrusted with these students is equally as important. Sadly, we aren’t hearing much about what will be done to support educators.
No matter where on the spectrum your school fits when it comes to in-person protocols, it is every bit as exhausting as regular teaching and live synchronous video time with students combined, in addition to running a morning and evening 5K, and then doing HIIT.
Have I said already that it’s exhausting? I’m not kidding.
Again, it’s not all doom and gloom. Let’s take a look at ways you can prepare, things to think about, and ways to navigate whatever your school’s decision is this year in terms of in-person instructional time.
Have a list of ways to say “put your mask on” and “maintain your spacing.” You will say it a lot. You might as well have a collection of ways to say it.
Social distancing practices and phrases I recommend:
- Mask Up, Avengers!
- When I step up in this classroom, everybody masks on, and they stay there! (like the song — when I step up in this building, everybody hands up, and they stay there)
- Let’s put our masks upon our face, doo dah, doo dah, let’s put our masks upon our face oh doo dah day
- Put… your mask on, put put …..your mask oooon, put… your mask on, put put ….your mask on — I like to add a little clapping here too for good measure.
- Mask up, mask up on your face, mask up on your face (like the trolls song, Hair up!)
- Show me your armplanes (yes, arm….planes). Students then extend their arms to make sure they are all spaced well. I was afraid they might hit one another and (knock on wood) we have not had that. I even led them in a crazy arm plane line through the hallway which was kind of awesome, swerving side to side with our wings out. When we are all in session, I doubt we could do it unless we were outside, but it is awesome if you can get away with it!
- Welcome to the Space Jam (you have to dramatically sing it for full effect, like the movie soundtrack). Students spread out and can ‘wildly’ dance in their space.
- OH NO, we have a space jam! (similar to the above — they recognize they need some more space)
- Now space it out, now space it out (like the song, now walk it out, walk it out)
- Now space it out, space it out, come on baby now, space it on out (like twist and shout!)
Lunch in the classroom routine
Prekindergarten and Kindergarten teachers have this on lockdown. Ask them how they handle lunches when delivered to their room.
Our routine is to have all students wash their hands with soap and water, prepare their space with a few napkins, and wait patiently.
We double team the plating of food for students and everyone sits and eats. No one is offered or allowed seconds until I and my assistant have finished eating. We practice holding appropriate conversations while we eat and all is well.
I was just in a meeting this week though, where we were told during the school year, lunches all boxed up and labeled will be delivered to our rooms. We will be ordering ahead of time and we will all receive individual boxes. This is a relief, other than the amount of waste that will happen as a result.
This is something you want to ask about and have a plan ready to go if your school does not already have one.
Mask storage routine
When masks and face coverings are not necessary … you will want to have a way to store them and keep them from spills and rubbing against undesired contaminants.
I have seen the lanyard idea where students have clips attached to their shirts for mask storage while they eat or play and wearing masks is not necessary. I have not used this and actually, cringe a bit thinking about what the mask will rub up against while it hangs.
What we are using currently is a baggie system. Students all have a bag with their name. While exiting the building they place their mask in their bag and place in a crate we bring with us.
To line up to go inside, either I or my assistant call them to retrieve their bag one by one. We hand the baggies out to minimize contact with the bags. The system is not perfect of course, but the masks are at least stored away from food and dirt although this is a little tedious, it does the trick right now.
You might want to consider a bag just large enough to hold the mask itself. We are using gallon bags … meaning students then slide their water bottles, journals, toys, pencils, etc. inside as well or even their hand, wearing the bag as a glove-like accessory. All of this kind of defeats the purpose and is a work in progress.
Another thing you want to think about and have a plan ready or ask around about what others are doing.
Bathroom protocols and best practices
Each class currently has an assigned restroom that is different from all other groups. We only have four small groups of different ages in session right now.
We only send two students at a time and only one if we can help it to minimize possible contact. When school begins, we will maintain assigned restrooms, but it will be more like a few grade levels assigned to each.
We are still working on ways to make this work best with larger numbers in the building, but we have been notified that there will be dots on the floor to help students maintain distance and an appropriate number of humans inside.
There will be approximately three dots out in the hall outside of the restroom for waiting which should make it easy for teachers to pop their heads into the hallway and see if there is a wait at the restroom. We are also evaluating scheduled bathroom breaks to help minimize the need to send students throughout the day.
This will take your whole floor or building to really have a plan if there is not one already from your administration.
Morning, arrival, dismissal, or free time activities
During arrival and dismissal times, we have some free time for our students to gather and build as we wait to begin/end our day together.
Students each have their own set of supplies in their desk area with a variety of coloring materials, their own small bag of legos, playdoh, popsicle sticks, and a book. They can choose any of the activities — have conversations with other students (masks on and spaced out) or collaborate on something as long as they are not touching shared materials, have masks on, and are not touching one another.
This is a great place to be creative and think of what you can do with students or small groups and keep some fun in the mix of the day. I bet students are up for this challenge: how can they do something really cool within the safety protocols?
Put them to task and I bet they will have some creative solutions for you.
The importance of patience
Everything takes more time. Passing out materials, lining up, bathroom breaks, water bottle refill breaks … everything takes more time.
While students cannot touch shared materials, everything we take for granted in having student helpers is limited and takes more time. Another opportunity to embrace the slower pace.
You still can …
Build relationships, play games, socialize, collaborate, work with small groups … and have fun.
It takes a little creativity to make it work, but you CAN do a lot of what you used to. Things you cannot do often take little tweaks to change.
I still maintain circle time to read books and have town hall meetings with my group. We wear our masks and sit in closer proximity than our desks, together on the floor. We do not touch, we do not handle the same materials, but we do still enjoy this time together, closer than 6 feet, safely.
Students still collaborate on projects and are in closer proximity than 6 feet. We take great care to ensure they are not handling shared materials in order to make this a possibility.
For example, my students are currently working on stop motion video storytelling. They have asked to work in pairs or groups of three. This requires them to be closer than 6 feet and to “shoot” video in close proximity.
All students wear their masks, every student uses their own assigned iPad, they only touch materials that belong to them within the scene and they do not touch one another. This requires a lot of close monitoring since it is very tempting for students to just move one little lego piece for their partner so to save time while they are already reaching to move something else.
Any time this happens, we (I or my assistant) take the shared touch items, sanitize them and the pair has to wait for the solution applied to dry to regain possession. Believe me, once this happens once or twice to a team … and it slows them down and they have to wait … they begin to be more mindful.
Kids want to collaborate — they just have to work within new parameters, and so do we. We owe it to them to make adjustments and keep the fun in school even with stringent and necessary safety protocols in place.
We can still provide dynamite education, experiences, and collaboration, it just looks and feels different. It takes thinking differently and thinking a little longer, and it is exhausting both mentally and physically, but you can do it.
I find this is often the case when we feel “stuck” in education or otherwise …rethink, retool, recharge, and try something new. Begin with thinking differently.
I’m here to help. We are all in this together — I am here to learn as well. Please share if you have ideas; I am no expert.
Are you heading back to in-person instruction?
What are your questions?
What are your ideas?
Do you need help thinking through and planning different ideas?
Do you have ideas?
Do you have some experience to share?
Let’s collaborate!
