Humanity First: Teaching in times of COVID-19
Today, I had a PD session for teachers in my school district and I want to make sure I share the THREE key points I shared today in as many platforms as I can. I’m NOT going to talk about technology, Zoom, or Google Meet. I’m NOT going to focus on the digital skills we teachers need to learn or are learning as we embrace online learning. I want to focus on what matters the most: our children in a time of crisis.
#1. Everyone of our students is navigating COVID-19 in different ways. It is affecting them differently as well. In some families, both parents are working from home and are dividing their times between being a parent and a teacher. In other families, one income has been lost and the other partner is still able to work because he/she is considered an essential worker. The stress of being out in the real world during a pandemic is palpable. In other families, both parents lost their jobs and among their stress of figuring out how to pay bills, filing for unemployment and looking for community resources, they are also trying to be a teacher at home by helping kids with their overwhelming amount of work. In other families, both parents lost their jobs, they speak different language than English, they can’t file for unemployment because of immigration status and all they are trying to figure out is where the next meal will be coming from. On top of that, they are expected to support their children at home with their “English” work but they are trying to play catch up because they just received a tech device. There’s a 10 day learning gap between these children and the rest of the classroom. Some families have lost all sense of sleeping routines because they are waiting till late hours of the night to connect with families across the globe. The children’s sleeping routines are all off. And on top of all the changes and grieving of not being able to be with friends during this pandemic, they are also grieving the loss of comfort food because families are not able to find the ingredients that were key to the everyday meals.
THIS. IS. A. LOT.
#2. We may not know of every situation that our students are currently facing. It’s not for them to share with us either. However, the work begins within us by breaking our own assumptions that our families are safe, or that they have their basic needs met. Or that because they are turning in their work, this might mean they are doing ok. The definition is what it means to be safe varies from human being to human being. It means different things for everyone. Our most important work right now consists of reaching out to families and asking them a simple question, “How are you?” followed by “Is there anything I can do for you and your child right now?” We may not have the power to do but we depend on each other more than ever! Reach out to your administrators and brainstorm together possible solutions. Families may never shared with us their every day struggles but right now, more than ever, they need to hear your voice ( you can set up a “number” with google voice so that your phone number remains private).
#3. Hopefully this was a practice that was already happening prior to COVID-19 but now it’s the time to be intentional about our words, our language and our directions to students by validating their linguistic repertories and giving it the space it deserves in your classroom. If your multilingual students are literate in their first language, nudge them to respond to assignments in their first language. If your students want to show learning and understanding in different modalities, make it a point to mention this in your weekly assignments. This is an on-going conversation. Our students need to know that we embrace all their humanities and this does not mean English is more valuable than their first language. This does not mean that writing a song is less of an assignment than writing that essay. Many of our students’ brain is right now in Flight/Fight mode. Many of them are in survival mode even if they have all their physical needs met. It’s hard for learning to take place when we are in that state of mind. Giving students choices, asking them for their feedback and co-creating this online learning experience with them are some of the best ways we can support them during this global pandemic.
What’s next? I’m not sure. I’m just going to keep asking our students…
“How are you?” “How are you doing?” “is there anything I can do to help right now?”
“How is this learning working for you right now?”
“What would you like me to do less of?” “What do we need more of?”
And I’ll adjust as we go.
Photo by Ranggi Manggala via Unsplash
