Eklund consultant, Todd Battaglia, finally is able to put his thoughts down about distance learning, the stages of loss educators are experiencing, and some suggestions from the field to help navigate this time in education.
To be honest, I am not even sure how to start this blog. I think about writing blogs often. Topics come and go from my mind. Oftentimes, I see a similar thought process or idea on a Twitter feed from an “educelebrity” or an educational colleague and decide not to throw my voice into the void.
This feeling of not having the confidence to do something that I have done before has me thinking about our current educational situation for many that I work with and for. What have I done successfully before that just needs to be adapted to this situation? Although I currently feel as though I may have lost some of my “educational mojo” by being out of actual schools. I want to do what I do best. (I will know if this has caught on by the number of sessions at the next educational workshop are called “Educational Mojo: How to Nourish Yours.”)
Teachers, administrators, and district leaders that I am hearing from are in a similar place - second guessing themselves as they navigate new parameters. My advice to them would be to trust their well-formed instincts and do what they do so well. Therefore, I am going to take this advice to heart and write my hopefully coherent thoughts. Let’s see how it goes.
After school was closed for the year, I read about Illinois teachers and their feelings of grief. I remembered the stages of grief and how my acceptance of grief about my father’s death followed those stages. While I acknowledge that there are many appropriate and inappropriate comparisons between grief of a parent dying and the loss of a school year, the defining characteristics of the stages are similar, yet incomplete. Where stages of grief include: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing (not standardized), and acceptance, we should add the stages of reflection and improvement to the loss of a school year.
Was there reflection during the stages of grief of death? Whoa, man, so much! Every dog walk, many interactions with a student or my own children brought on moments of reflection. Was there improvement? I can only hope there was for me.
Reflection and improvement HAVE to be part of the stages of grief of the lost school year. Otherwise, we are simply not modeling what we tell kids to do in every setback or disappointment they encounter. We have, as we always have as educators, a chance to model for our students.
After going through the shock of the initial closings, there was likely some denial that schools would be closed long enough to have any more than just some time off. There was probably some anger that comes along with change and the unknown as the educational community was hit with the day-to-day process of recreating the “how” of their jobs in a limited amount of time. Some were better prepared than others. Some have situations away from teaching that have allowed more time to adjust, while others had different parameters put on them from within their districts and schools, but in the end, you are all educators.
With that name, educator, comes the traits you have built and used in your careers. The passion for the profession, the passion for the subjects, and the passion for the kids will always be there as will the other lessons learned. Simon Simek has been all over the internet talking about the “Why” of leadership. Educators’ “Why” has not changed. The “how” has, and no one is more prepared for that than teachers.
Educators are adaptive and flexible – states, districts, administration change mandates, policies, and procedures (as well as curriculums in some places) year by year. We are improvisors in every lesson we teach; every day we walk into school has hundreds of moments of improvisation. Every year brings a new set of kids and parents different from the year before. You’ve already done this; it’s just a different set of particulars this time.
Here are some suggestions I’ve picked up from listening to educators over the past month:
- Lean into reflection to de-stress your worries about your educational ability and performance. Reflect on what works for you in the classroom. Is it possible to recreate these strong experiences, in some fashion, in the current situation? Focus on this – this is your wheelhouse! This is what will maintain your best self and put you in place to be your best self for others. That is all that should be asked of you at this time. It will seem like more is constantly being asked of you, but this is what you have. You have always given your best. Just keep doing that. Let other people know that is all they should be doing as well.
- Know and accept the limitations of the current situation. Be creative in the recreating of what works, research and learn about the new parameters, and ask for help! At times, we have to be our best within the limitations given to us and that has to be okay. (It’s more than okay when we are giving our best!) Again, ask for help!!!
- Take care of yourself. I just read an edweek.org article about the amount of time some teachers are spending working right now. Educators feeling they have to be there for every student and parent 24 hours a day. Stop that. Before distance learning, you should have been comfortable giving yourself some space for work/life balance. Continue that practice. Carve out a space for you and your family and friends, let your parents and students know, and expect others to be doing the same.
- Be ready to acknowledge all the stages. It’s ok to be angry, to make bargains with ourselves, to be depressed about the loss of the end of the school year (the rituals, the celebrations, the little moments that seem to come only at the end of year). However, the acceptance of the end of the year does not have to be the acceptance that these moments have to go away. Be creative, acknowledge your limitations, lean into what you do best to close a school year, and figure out how to do it. You create meaningful experiences for students and staff every year, do it again.
- Be there for others. There is a question on our survey that asks if there is someone who checks in on you when you are having a bad day. Be that person for your colleagues. Zoom meetings don’t count. Check in individually, take an audible walk with someone, give a colleague an excuse to be in a different room of their home with the door closed, send a written note. We are missing those connections – build them if they were not there or continue to nurture them. If you are crushing it on something new or different (all right, even Zoom), ask around for those who are not.
Does this seem like more work? I hope not. Writing this was more work than not writing this, but writing this helped me. I hope it has helped you to read it. I know you have this because you’ve done it before.
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Be well. Do good.