Teacher friends- lets extend grace to our students right now. Even if you believe due dates are set in stone normally, this is not the time to “teach kids a lesson” about the importance of being punctual. This is not the time cram in all your curriculum. We are trauma schooling.

Push back, please, if your district is requiring you to cover everything you would as if we were still in school. Don’t assign all the work you would have done in school plus all the homework. That’s nonsense right now. Don’t be this teacher. https://vm.tiktok.com/tSQUvw/ 

If we are lucky our students are handing things in late or skipping assignments simply because they are teenagers. Teenagers have crazy sleep patterns (it’s biology!) and underdeveloped brains. They need our help and guidance when we see them daily.

We are now asking Ss to schedule school independently. To sit at a desk/table, alone, for hours. To read directions and/or listen to them independently. How many times do you repeat yourself in class? How many more times would you need to repeat with a million new distractions?

Students are trying to focus with a million distractions. I live in a ranch with my husband and two dogs- there’s no quiet place in my house. How can I expect kids to create a quiet space?

But it’s not just kids being kids. We just ended week 3 of remote learning in NJ. Social isolation takes a toll on everyone. Teenagers can’t survive on social media alone. They miss their friends and their routines.

They are stressed. They are scared. They are anxious. They have new responsibilities at home like helping siblings with school and cleaning up while parents/guardians work. Some of our students are essential workers and they are stocking grocery shelves or delivering food.

Some are sewing masks because their parents need them for work. Some are shutting out everything by burying themselves in video games or books. School isn’t their focus right now.

If they live in the NYC tristate area they probably know someone who has/had Covid-19. 4 members of one family died in my town; they lived 9 houses down from me. I’m stressed and I’m an adult. If they live somewhere else they will watch as the virus spreads to their town.

We are asking kids to learn while they are living through a traumatic experience. Think about your own life right now. Can you focus? Concentrate? Are you scared? Anxious? Ok, now imagine being 12, 14, 17 and feeling that way.

So let’s cool it on assigning tests and other summative assessments right now. Whether you teach elementary school or high school it’s just too much right now. None of us- students, parents, or teachers- signed up for online school.

A friend told me that today his 1st grader had a math test and a 45-minute writing assessment. A 1st grader can’t proctor their own tests. They can’t sit for 60+ minutes straight. Families can’t oversee this stuff- they are working, too! I’m sure it’s the district requiring this.

But teachers need to push back. This is not normal school. We can’t treat it like normal school. Throw out what you planned to do because the odds are it won’t translate to virtual school during a crisis.

The world has changed. We’ve all had the rug pulled out from under us. Most of the students across the world are no longer being taught in classrooms. We need to pivot. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/02/824964864/nine-out-of-10-of-the-world-s-children-are-out-of-school-what-now

Take a deep breath. Check in with your students and then move forward slowly. Let go of most of the norms you cling to in the classroom and embrace what we have now. Relationships, mental health, and social-emotional health matter.

If they don’t learn how to write the perfect essay or they skip the last chapter in the math book they will be ok. Give them grace and give yourself grace, too. We are all doing the best we can in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.