That's what I want to say but I'm trying to stay positive.
We're starting week three of remote learning and I'm still cranky about it. I miss school. I miss my students. I miss our classroom. I hate that everything got flipped upside down so fast and I just want it all go back to the way things were.
The best thing I've listened to this week is the first episode from Brené Brown's new podcast Unlocking Us. The episode is titled Brené on FFTs and she talks about her strategy for managing tough first times.
I'm having a lot of first times right now.
First times make me want to go blech.
I mean, I love doing new things. One of my strengths is that I'm up for new adventures, for trying new things, for taking risks. But this is hard on top of hard on top of hard.
I'm still figuring out what works for me, what works for my students, what works for my own kids. There's a lot of figuring out going on. I wish I had some tips to share. I can think of three things that seem to be working for me.
1. Be honest and be open and be truthful. I've been so open with my family and with friends and with colleagues and admin and with students. That's part of who I am. I can't help but be myself. This time is weird but I have been working hard to be honest and be open and be truthful about the feelings I've been feeling. It's good for me to name them but it's also important for others to know so I can better advocate for what I need.
2. Make phone calls. I've been working my way through my list of students little by little. I've almost talked to all of them on the phone at some point. It makes me feel better to talk to them. It reminds me that I am still their teacher despite not being in room 208 together. And I know they appreciate hearing my voice too. (Even the ones whose parents had to wake them up so I could talk to them!)
3. Take it little by little, one step at a time. Sometimes I need to write down one thing to do. It might be as little as "post homeroom activity to Google Classroom" because that's all I can handle in a moment. And sometimes I can write down a few things and work through them. I'm getting better at recognizing when I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. I'm getting better at taking breaks.
That's all I've got. Do you have any advice for me right now? How are you navigating this global pandemic we're all living through?
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