How I went from overwhelmed to liberated while teaching in the pandemic.
Just like you this pandemic took me by surprise. One day I was teaching 30+ in-person, the next I was at home speaking to kids through my computer.
I think it’s important to realize that teachers are HUMAN. I’m sure you’ve seen the, “Teaching is my superpower!” shirts advertised across Etsy. But in reality for some of us teaching is a job, a very hard job at that.
The rhetoric around teachers being saviors/martyrs for society is flattering, but highly detrimental to educators. What ends up happening is educators (teachers) begin to hold themselves to unrealistic standards and/or feel terrible if they don’t receive the outside validation of “Teacher of the Year.” etc.
So here are a few things I did in the midst of the pandemic to curve unrealistic expectations and give myself grace so I could show up authentically for my students:
I admitted when things got hard. Admitting that something is wrong is the first way to make it right. If you have too much work, if you’re feeling stressed, and if you don’t feel effective at your job, say it. You have to be honest about your current situation to change it.
I adjusted my expectations to my REALITY. When I was a in-person teacher it wasn’t difficult for me to monitor and engage students. Being an online and hybrid teacher proved to be much more challenging in terms of engagement. Instead of holding myself to the same teacher metrics before I adjusted them to the current time. In some instances that looked like accepting a message in the chat box instead of calling on a student to verbally share an answer. Either way, I was getting the job done to the best of my ability.
I focused on what I could control. I control how prepared I am for lessons, if I come to work with a great attitude and if I’m responsive to students. By focusing on those things and doing my best to motivate, encourage and support students I soon realized that everything wasn’t as bad as it seemed. When I was stressing about which kids didn’t turn on their camera and why their parents weren’t answering the phone when I called to tell them, I was much more stressed. Now I put my best foot forward and move on.
I realized that I was too in the midst of a pandemic. We all experienced some sort of life-altering change at the on sought of COVID-19. Realizing that I wasn’t exempt from feeling this pandemic and EMBRACING my humanity helped me get through these tough times. It also gave me a lot to talk about with my students and co-workers.
How did you manage teaching during the pandemic?
