Time to Reset
by Lisa Summers, ESD 113 Regional Teacher of the Year
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of articles written by 2020 Washington Regional Teachers of the Year about their strategies and reflections on teaching during COVID-19 school facility closures. See the rest of the series.
Am I being an effective teacher during this pandemic? Am I meeting the needs of my students and families? Am I adjusting as our needs continue to change and evolve? Am I adequately teaching my own child? What’s for dinner? Do we have enough toilet paper? On and on and on. As if this pandemic was not enough for every single person in this world, and here I am inundated with these racing thoughts. Maybe you are too.
I have been sharing with the world how we can rethink what is possible during this pandemic as teachers, parents, and communities, but I am not following my own advice. And quite frankly, I am struggling. I am tired. And I can’t maintain this exhausting pace. It’s like I am caged inside one of those rodent exercise balls. I was not trained or prepared for the pace or course ahead. Teaching, learning, connecting, and living are different now. For me to slow down, I needed to get out of that exercise ball and get my feet back on the ground. I cannot control what has happened in the world, but I can control how I am responding to it. I am going to start taking my own advice and be the best example of it.
Move, stretch, breathe and repeat
Do this every single day. Preferably outside if it’s safe. Prioritizing your wellness and the wellness of the people you live with, teach to, and care about is essential. Once we get in motion it helps to change our emotion. My daily goal is to be out of the house by 8am. I will keep moving forward.
Be flexible
Establish a schedule but make it very fluid in order to keep it balanced. Write down Monday through Sunday priorities: exercise, mandatory meetings (include all those meeting identifiers and passwords), and fill in the rest with time for planning, connecting, parenting, and personal time. This will help to make sure you do not overbook yourself and will help balance all the roles you are fulfilling. Our schedules have changed and will continue to change. A weekly schedule is a powerful mind tool to help maximize effectiveness and reduce stress. My weekly goal is to create and post a schedule to make time for the work that really matters, while still leaving time for personal development and family.
Listen to your intuition
My gut is telling me that the work I assign should help students find a new normal, and the pace of the work needs to be slow and steady. I will not ignore that their lives and the world have changed and that their families are rebuilding new routines. We will all get better and more comfortable with distance learning. My teaching goal is to be sensitive and accommodating. I will focus on inspiring meaningful experiences for my students and their families.
Connect
Be interactive and available to your students and families. I have chosen to send weekly emails that include video footage of me chatting it up, daily social media feeds, and virtual hang out options. It allows for different communication needs to be met and respected. Keep in mind your students and families have a schedule too. I stagger the times of those virtual hangouts. Just because I am out of the house by 8am does not mean they are. My relationships goal is to adjust as needed. I will let my check ins with students drive my planning.
My racing thoughts, your racing thoughts are perfectly understandable. I just needed to hit the reset button. You may need to hit that same button. I needed to give myself a PEP talk, like the ones I had been giving to others. The bottom line is I needed to stop, reset, and establish new priorities. We all do.
