I have very high expectations for both myself and my students. I’m sure you do as well. So suddenly being told that I can’t expect my students to even work on (much less complete) the assignments that I am expected to create really bothers me.
But then I stop and take a deep breath (always good advice).
Yes, I will still work hard to create engaging assignments and resources for students. Yes, I will still send my Google form check-ins and schedule Google Meets with my students. But even if only a few students do the work or fill out the forms or join the meetings, I’ll accept that and call it a win.
I have to continually remind myself of these five things:
1 – Understand that every student is in a different space in terms of what they can actually do.
Some students will have more support than others. Some students will be doing more work (childcare, other chores) at home than what they usually have to do.
Some students will find it difficult to focus on distance learning. (This last one will come as no surprise in terms of students having difficulty with focus. But this type of learning might be more difficult even for the students that ordinarily stay focused and engaged.)
2 – Be flexible and offer as many choices as possible. This will help me to best meet different student learning needs and differentiate as best I can, under the circumstances.
3 – If students are not completing any tasks, I have found it helpful to reach out to them by phone. This is not to berate them for not completing tasks, but just to find out what is going on with them and find out what they might need from me. They were so excited to hear from me. And when I reminded them that I was also reaching out to them through email and Google classroom, they actually worked on several tasks.
4 – When you start to get overwhelmed with all you have to do, remember: You only need to stay one or two steps ahead of your students. You don’t need to overhaul everything in one day or one week. While you may have made plans for a longer range period of time, you only need to provide a few things for your students at one time. In fact, I’m finding that all of this works better when I only send ONE assignment per subject at a time. (I do think it helps to have a weekly learning calendar, like THIS ONE, but a daily reminder or a daily assignment posting is sufficient.
5 – Give yourself grace, give your students grace, give your families grace. Understand that you are on a huge learning curve right now and nothing will be as perfect as it would be if you had had months to prepare for this change. Your students may be doing more “work” at home in terms of helping with younger siblings or doing extra chores. And your parents/caregivers are either continuing to work outside the home or they may be working at home and juggling multiple responsibilities. There will be varying levels of commitment to academics right now.
Here’s a good reminder:
In the next post, I’ll share tips for setting up a productive working space.
This is part one of an eight-part series of tips on distance teaching and learning while saving your own sanity. Today we’ll talk about your own mindset. Here are 17 tips.
1 – Take a deep breath. You can do this. You have done hard things before and learned how to do things you didn’t think you could learn. You can learn to do this — to make videos, to interact with your students over Zoom or Google Meet, to sort through resources and to choose what best fits your students and your own situation. You can do this.
*Do your best but do not try to be superhuman.
2 – Accept the uncertainty of this entire situation. Do what you can do and try to let go of what is outside of your control. (Easier said than done, I realize.)
3 – Don’t try to be perfect. Give yourself some grace. All of us have been thrown into this situation with zero preparation or training and we are doing our absolute best. Do what you can do.
4 – Take care of yourself first. Make sure that you are eating healthy-ish, drinking water, getting enough sleep, and moving your body in some way every day.
5 – In addition to your physical health, it’s important to prioritize your own mental health right now. Do what makes you feel the calmest and relaxed right now. For me, it’s going outside daily, even for just a brief walk. I am also trying to work out daily, in some form, and to get enough sleep. See my post HERE about self-care during this stressful time.
6 – Set up a daily routine for yourself. You might not have to stick to as rigid of a schedule as you do when you have to leave the house for work every day, but try to still have an approximate time when you will take a shower, get dressed, etc. Make sure you take breaks to eat meals. Take breaks to do any necessary home tasks. Do what you need to do for your own family.
Identify set times when you will work on specific school tasks and, even more importantly, when you will NOT work. One “trap” I am falling into is to not leave school at school, as I would during regular classroom teaching. It’s easy to sit down with my laptop to do “one more thing.” Try to set regular hours for yourself and stick to those.
7 – Set up a weekly routine for yourself as well. You might have specific weekly tasks that your district or principal are giving you, but also try to have specific self-care tasks you do for yourself throughout the week. Schedule time to do your regular chores around the house. Try to set up some sort of predictability to your week. Doing so will help you to feel more in control of something during this time when it feels like we have so little control over anything.
8 – Work out at home every day. This might mean taking a walk, a run, or a bike ride outside. If you join the FASTer Way to Fat Loss plan, you will be given daily workouts to do at home (even workouts you can do with your kids!). Beachbody On Demand is another great option. Use any other streaming workouts or YouTube videos or apps. Just do something active every single day.
9 – Take care of your family. Many of us are home with our own children. While we may also be required to work from home on school tasks, we also have our own children to reassure. Keeping to a routine will help.
10 – Check on the other people you love. Even when you can’t physically check on them, a quick phone call, FaceTime, email, sending funny memes, mailing a handwritten note, or texting reminds them that you’re there and that you love them.
11 – Understand that it is next to impossible to transfer all of your content to an online course in a day or a week. You can’t be expected to do that. Provide review and enrichment, but don’t worry about teaching new content as effectively as you would be able to do in your own classroom.
12 – Remember that your students and their families are stressed. Recognize that you (and your students and families) need rest right now. Rest is critical to staying healthy. Expecting yourself to maintain your typical productivity level is not a realistic expectation right now, nor is expecting your students to complete assignments in a “normal” time frame. Nothing is normal right now! Accept that and allow yourself time to rest.
13 – Watch out for social media. While it is more important than ever in some ways (opportunities to connect when we are all social distancing, getting ideas and support from others), it can also trigger guilt and anxiety. Understand that we are all in different places and have different expectations. Do not be intimidated by people who are posting amazing assignments AND cooking gourmet dinners AND re-organizing their entire house AND happily and successfully home-schooling their four children. Delete or unfollow if you must, but remember that YOU need to do YOU.
14 – And by the way: feel free to disregard any tip or suggestion that I, or anyone else, offer. I hereby give you permission!
15 – If there is some project or goal that you have been wanting to tackle at home and it gives you energy to think about it, make plans to work on that during this time! This should not be something you feel like you should do. This should be something you absolutely want to do.
16 – Use this time to learn something new. You can learn how to do most anything online, especially if you start with YouTube. I am working on my Spanish skills using Duolingo. I’m also buying an air fryer and learning how to use that. (Send me all your best tips and recipes if you have an air fryer!)
Other suggestions:
~learn to do something with your hands. Crochet, knitting, sewing. A friend of mine spent a recent afternoon sewing face masks for our local hospital with her daughters.
~learn to cook something new. Another friend of mine is posting a daily recipe trial on Facebook, complete with photos along the way. It’s keeping her mind occupied and helping the rest of us too!
~learn to bake something new. I am still working on mastering the perfect cinnamon roll. (Send me any of your best tips or recipes for that as well!)
~work in your yard or garden or plant flowers in pots
~learn to do something artistic. Paint or draw or use watercolors.
~learn a new craft. Calligraphy is on my list.
~declutter or organize something. This, too, makes you feel a bit more in control. It doesn’t have to be a huge area. Even decluttering a drawer or a shelf will help you feel productive.
17 – If you are a person of faith, spend some time reading devotional books or websites daily. Spend some time doing some Bible study. Pray. Meditate, which is a way you can listen for God’s leading. Even if you are not a person of faith, spend some time in silence and solitude daily. If your kids are home with you, do this together. (Or escape to the bathroom for a few minutes!)
This is a difficult and stressful time. Nothing is normal about this. Remember that, slow down, and take care of yourself. You’ll be a better teacher, mom, partner, and friend if you take care of yourself first.
I hope that you are sheltering in place and maintaining social distancing and doing all the things that are being asked of us right now during this unprecedented pandemic.
And speaking of doing all the things — you’re probably also planning and implementing distance learning on top of everything else going on in our world and in our own families.
I am working on a post about maintaining your balance and sanity while doing all the distance learning work, but I have some new resources to share. So I decided that this post needs to be shared first!
Here we go with part 4. If you missed my earlier posts about free resources, see part 1 HERE, part 2 HERE, and part 3 HERE.
Maintaining contact with students and families
*Use Google Voice to make phone calls if you prefer to not share your phone number.
*Use Padlet for all kinds of interactions with your students. This is an example Padlet that I will be sharing with my class next week, as a “status of the class” for what they are reading independently. (Let me know if you want more directions for how to set up a Padlet wall.)
*Use Google forms to check in with your students. I am sending a different form, complete with bitmojis, every couple of days. I do change the questions but I try to keep it informal. Here’s a copy of one of my latest check-ins.
*Use Google Meet to set “appointment times” with individual students or with small groups. You could also use it for your whole class. I know that a lot of people are using Zoom for this, but I’m a little wary of using Zoom with students. (Although I love it for adult meetings.) Zoom is not “approved” by my school district because the free version is not FERPA/COPPA compliant. I don’t mean to deter you from using it if you love it. Use whatever works best for you!
*Time for Kids‘ digital library is now free for the remainder of the school year!
Writing resources
*I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this before, but encourage your students to write good, old-fashioned letters or notes to people. Elderly family members or friends would especially appreciate hearing from them while we are all isolated from each other right now. Of course, writing letters to anyone would be a great use of writing skills. Of course, Face Timing with grandparents or other elderly relatives would also be especially appreciated right now.
*If you want a great resource for vocabulary or spelling study, Vocabulary Spelling City is free for the rest of the year with the code VSCFree90.
Math resources
*Here is a great resource for teachers and families that is FREE until March 31! Download this ebook of math games that uses only a deck of cards from Math Geek Mama.
*Art at Home – Google slides with suggested art activities to do at home.
*Tell your students to wash their hands while reciting the Preamble to the U. S. Constitution! They can learn it HERE with Schoolhouse Rock on YouTube.
*They can also learn to wash their hands with Jimmy Fallon’s song for his two adorable daughters.
*It might be a great time for students to learn to play chess! This site will show them how.
That’s it for now! Take care of yourself, wash your hands, get plenty of rest, and go easy on yourself. These are difficult days and you are doing a great job.
I hope you are doing okay and taking care of yourself during this difficult and stressful time. I just learned that North Carolina schools will be closed through May 15 (possibly longer). I am so sad about the sudden end to this school year, before my students and I were ready for it.
I saw this post on Facebook and it encouraged me. I hope it will do the same for you. It was posted HERE by Ken Buck.
As a board member and veteran English teacher, I have felt the urge to write down my thoughts and how incredibly proud I am of educators. Here are my thoughts over coffee this morning:
We gave educators almost no notice. We asked them to completely redesign what school looks like and in about 24 hours local administrators and teachers “Apollo 13’ed” the problem and fixed it. Kids learning, children being fed, needs being met in the midst of a global crisis.
No state agency did this, no so-called national experts on curriculum. The local educators fixed it in hours. HOURS.
In fact, existing state and federal policies actually created multiple roadblocks. Local schools figured out how to do it around those too. No complaining and no handwringing – just solutions and amazingly clever plans.
Remember that the next time someone tries to convince you that schools are better run by mandates from non-educators. Remember that the next time someone tells you that teachers have it easy or try to persuade you that educators are not among the smartest, most ingenious people in society. And please never say to me again, “Those who can’t do anything else just go into teaching.”
Get out of the way of a teacher and watch with amazement of what really happens.
And now — here we go with round three of resources for distance learning during our school closures. I hope you find some good resources to use for your own students OR for your own children!
I’ve also updated the PDF list of resources from all three posts if you want to download it.
Resources for all subjects Distance learning lessons from North Carolina Teachers of the Year – there are some great lessons here for all subjects and all grades! They are adding a new elementary lesson (grades K-5) every day at 9 a.m. and a secondary lesson (grades 6-12) every day at 9:30 a.m.
Knowledge on the Go – knowledge-building content for grades K-12! This is updated daily.
Writing resources
I’ve seen lots of suggestions about having kids document this pandemic and create their own primary source. If you’re interested in doing that, here are some great resources for it.
This looks fun. Save Our Habitat gives students a different picture and prompts to write about each day.
Math resources Rio School District K-8 math resources, organized by grade. Also take a look at the second page where they post some other great resources.
That’s it for now! I’ll keep up the hunt for great free resources to share. My next posts will be tips for teachers doing distance learning for the first time (like I’m doing) and tips for parents. I’m also working on a post about building community when you can only connect with students online. Subscribe so you never miss a post!
None of us would ever have expected our work life to be what it is turning out to be. None of us knows what is going to happen — will we go back to school this year? Will we see this year’s students again? How long is this social distancing/staying home thing going to last?
With all of the changes, it’s more important now than ever to look out for your own self-care and mental health.
“Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.”
-Parker Palmer
Here are 14 suggestions. Use what works for you. Please share any of your own tips!
1 – Stay hydrated. Drink half your bodyweight in ounces of water every day.
2 – Eat nutritious food. I don’t know about you, but I can often be found “stress eating” because of all the uncertainty. To counteract it, I’m trying to eat 8-10 servings of fruit and vegetables every day and trying to avoid any junk food until I’ve gotten the healthy stuff in me first! (It’s not always working, but I’m trying.)
3 – Get enough sleep, whatever that means for you. For me, it means six to seven hours of sleep at night and maybe a brief nap in the afternoon. Get the rest you need.
4 – Get some form of exercise every day. With gyms being closed and with family being home, you might have to get creative. Even getting outside for a 30-minute walk might be your best option. If you’ve never tried the 7-Minute Workout, now might be a good time!
“Love yourself first, and everything else falls in line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”
~Lucille Ball
5 – Speaking of getting outside, that is one blessing of this whole disaster. At least it’s spring and the weather is good for getting outside. So get some sunshine and fresh air every day, maybe several times during the day. I find that it clears my head and helps keep me from feeling down or discouraged.
6 – Watch the news but in small doses.
“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.”
~Oprah Winfrey
7 -Write down three things for which you are grateful every day. Right now I am grateful for the beautiful signs of spring, warmer temperatures so that I can walk outside and be comfortable, and more time with my family.
8 – Look for humor everywhere. I am loving and appreciating all the tweets and Instagram posts from parents and celebrities, proclaiming their respect and admiration for what teachers do every single day! If you need a quick pick-me-up, check out some of these funny posts from Bored Teachers.
9 – Stop and breathe. Whenever you feel anxious or stressed or discouraged, just stop. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for one minute, or longer if you have the time.
10 – Read whatever makes you feel better. While you might want to use this time to catch up on reading education books or more “serious” books, there is also nothing wrong with reading lighter, more “beach read” types of books.
11 – Watch whatever makes you feel better. Right now, I am watching anything that has a more upbeat message or a happy ending — nothing dark or disturbing. Great news for all of us Hallmark Movie Channel fans — Hallmark is bringing back its marathon of Hallmark Christmas movies! Read more HERE.
12 – Try to develop some sort of schedule or routine that works for you. That gives you some feeling of control, which is important when all of us are feeling like there is no control over this situation. Even if you don’t follow it to the letter, just having a plan will make you feel better.
13 – Spend a few minutes alone every day. That sounds funny since we’re all about “social distancing” right now, but spending a lot of time in relatively close quarters with your family can be stressful. When/if you find yourself “on edge”, make an excuse to go lie down, go take a bath, go for a walk, whatever you need that will help you to reset and get yourself back under control.
“… If you feel “burnout” setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself.”
~Dalai Lama
14 – If your own kids are at home with you, build your routine around a routine that will work for them. When you get downtime, they get downtime (even if it involves more screen time than you usually allow). When you are working, they should be “working” on something (school assignments, puzzles, reading, drawing, etc.).
I hope these tips will be helpful to you. I would love to hear your ideas! Stay strong and take care of yourself during this stressful time.
I am a planner. I like to know what is happening next or what is happening on what date. And this entire situation is so unsettling and difficult for planners like me.
Do you feel the same?
Since we are all unsettled and looking for good resources for our students and their families, the best thing I can do right now is share everything I find that looks promising.
But first, a pep talk. These are the same things I keep telling myself every day.
*Accept the uncertainty. Do what you can do and try to let go of what is outside of your control. (Easier said than done. Maybe singing or just saying “Let it Go” will help!)
*Don’t try to be perfect. Give yourself some grace. All of us have been thrown into this situation with zero preparation and we are doing our absolute best. Do what you can do.
*Take care of yourself first. Make sure you are eating healthy-ish, drinking water, getting enough sleep, and moving your body in some way every day.
*Take care of your family. Many of us are home with our own children. While we may also be required to work from home on school tasks, we also have our own children to reassure. Keeping to a routine will help.
*Check on the people you love. Even when you can’t physically check on them, a quick phone call, email, or text reminds them that you’re there and you love them.
*Understand that it is next to impossible to transfer all your content to an online course in a day or a week. You can’t be expected to do that. So focus on review and providing some extension work, but don’t worry about teaching new content as effectively as you would be able to do in your own classroom.
*Remember that your students and their families are stressed. So don’t knock yourself out to create a bunch of stuff that they may or may not be able to pay attention to or even access. It’s better to do a little bit, even if it’s imperfect.
*Encourage your students to use this time for actually reading. Not doing activities about reading or answering questions about reading. Just reading. Provide some interesting articles or stories to read and chances to talk about reading if you want to do that, but don’t try to go too far beyond that.
*Don’t worry about grades or due dates. Allow everything to be open book or open note. Encourage your students to communicate and collaborate with you and with other students. Show compassion for yourself AND for your students.
*Set up a schedule for yourself, but don’t be too rigid. I am trying to follow a 90 minutes of work/30 minutes of a break schedule. I’ll let you know how it goes!
*Within your schedule, consider setting up “office hours” for when you will respond to students’ or parents’ emails or when you will be available online to answer questions. You may not need this, depending on your own teaching situation.
Now, for more free resources! These resources are for teachers planning for distance learning or resources to be shared with parents.
If you prefer a downloadable PDF of these resources, here ya go!
*Ask your students to write a daily journal & document what is going on right now. Depending on students’ ages, they could do some research on COVID-19 and include that in their own account of what is happening, how we are responding, and how our worlds have changed.
That’s all for now. As I keep researching resources for my own students, I’ll keep a list and write another post. Subscribe to be sure you see the next round of resources!
If you think it’s helpful, please share this post!
Last thing — here is the updated PDF of resources from both of my blog posts, in case you want to download!
Take care of yourself. This is a very stressful time and you are doing such important work. Be well and be safe.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
