I’m not sure any of us saw this coming. We were trucking a long, focused on STAAR or state assessments, and then BAM! Random virus pandemic and every thing changes. Everything.
So if you were anything like me, you froze for minute, gave yourself a little time to process, and then pivoted.
We need to first and foremost focus on the health (and sanity) of ourselves and our family. But I’m sure many of you can’t help but think about your students. We know that some of them, like my kid, while fighting a little boredom and wishing for a little more social interaction, is really living in the lap of luxury right now. But we know other students are not. We know that there are students living in fear, anxiety, spending a lot of time by themselves, taking care of younger siblings, and having their basic needs suffer with the shifting economy. While we wish we could reach out and hug every last one of them, we can’t.
But it doesn’t mean we can’t connect at all…
We were thinking about the message that our students need to hear right now.
- You are missed!
- You are safe.
- I’m thinking about you.
- We are all in this together.
- I can’t wait to see you again!
- I wish we were having class!
We wanted to take a minute to throw out a few ideas on how you can keep the connection with your students, even from a distance.
- Use an app like remind or class dojo to send personal messages to your students (through their parents if they are little)
- Create a google phone number to actually make calls without using your cell phone (we know they won’t answer, but you can at least leave a message)
- Send individual messages through Google classroom
- Last – you ready for this? – especially if you are an elementary school teacher – MAIL your students a LETTER! Oh what a thrill for them to receive a sweet letter from you!
Oh, I hate to think what some of our babies are going through right now. If, God willing, you get to see your students again, they will walk into your classroom knowing that they were loved, even when they were out of sight, and ready learn. If you don’t get to see your students again, let’s make sure we are still impacting them in every way that they possibly can! And if you do send them work, they will be that much more ready to work, even from home!
One day at a time! #Bettertogether! We got this!
And if you are looking for FREE activities to send to your students or do with your own kids, check out our newest course, Daily Activities for Thinking and Learning at Home!
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