Processing My First Month of the Pandemic

As I being writing this blog post, I want to acknowledge at the top here that I'm using this post to process my COVID-19 experience. As I'm begin week 5 of working and living remotely, I'm realizing that I have a lot I want to get down, so this will probably be the longest blog post I've ever written and won't include my usual visuals. Feel free to skip to the section that speaks to you or skip the entire post. 

Mental Habits

A a part of my personal growth journey, my goal is to do my best to live by my values and cultivate healthy mindset. While I am by no means perfect, I have been trying to use this time as an opportunity to deepen my study and show up in ways to show up in alignment with these values. Below are some of the top ways this has showed up.

• Compassion and Grace - As I interact with colleagues, family, and friends online I try to check in with them on how they are doing and acknowledge that we are truly in unprecedented times. We are all struggling in one way or another with the current reality and both patience and understanding are incredibly essential. To prevent empathy burnout (aka compassion fatigue), I have been using the tips from this episode of the Happiness Lab to develop a more healthy compassion practice.  
• Gratitude - I still have my job. I'm still getting paid. My family is currently safe and healthy. My toddler is amazingly cute and sits on my lap during work meetings sometimes. Even when things get tough (and they have), it's hard to feel anything but remarkably grateful every morning that I wake up and this is still the case. That being said, I want to caution against the practice of comparative suffering, as pointed out in the related episode of Brené Brown's podcast, Unlocking Us.
• Future Thinking - Multiple times each day, I think about the stories I'm going to be able to tell about this time and remind myself that I am living through a historical moment. This does two important things. First, it reminds me that this state we are in is impermanent and someday the pandemic will end. Second, it encourages me bring out the best version of myself. I want to be able to look back on this time and feel proud of how I decided to show up.
• ​Adventure - I remind myself that we are in completely unmapped territory. While the unknown can feel scary, it is also and incredible opportunity for learning, growing, thinking outside the box, and discovering amazing things! Absolutely nobody is an expert in emergency remote learning. This means that anyone experiencing this moment gets the chance to become those experts. I am learning from everyone, especially those with fresh eyes technology in education. 

Top Pedagogical Practices

As a part of my work, I created a quick-study course for teachers with top pedagogical practices to keep in mind for remote learning. Knowing how saturated the Internet is with articles about this topic, I focused on these top practices, keeping them tech tool/platform agnostic. 

• Teacher Presence​ - Building relationships plays a key role in an online environment and is the major driver for success. Knowing this, best practices for online teaching encourage the use of video. Students want to feel connected to the teachers they know and trust, especially during challenging times. Seeing their face and hearing their voice goes a long way to help them feel connected their classroom community. While live video sessions are a great support, it is important to note that not all students and families will have the conditions to make this possible. Be mindful of what can work for the school community around the use of videos. ​

• ​​Family Engagement - Getting parents involved is incredibly important to ensure student success with online learning. Families will look to teachers for guidance on how to best support their students at home with online learning. Consider connecting parent accounts to online materials and making schedule recommendations to support families with making the most of online learning. For some teachers, sharing a daily checklist can be a helpful way to provide students and parents with guidance on expectations for each day. Be sure to lean on existing school structures as much as possible instead of reinventing the wheel to lessen the learning curve.

• Clear Expectations - Just like in the physical classroom, clear, explicit instructions are essential to set students up for success. While teaching online, teachers may find themselves needing to spell out directions and expectations in much greater detail. For example, a teacher may post a resource for students to browse in a digital space and verbally direct students on how to interact with this resource. In the online realm, teachers must include written or video instructions to show students what to do with the link. This kind of environment supports the learning conditions needed to set students up for success and help ensure students and parents are clear about what to do with the materials posted. Consider creating a checklist for students each day that outlines the expectations and share it with students and families. ​

• Chunking Content - Chunking learning content is even more crucial in an online environment. While videos and lesson recordings are a good option for instruction, be sure to chunk any videos into short segments with quick checks for understanding in-between. There are many tools you can use to create videos and embed checks for understanding. As a general rule, be sure to keep any videos posted not longer than 5 to 10 minutes - the shorter the better. These videos do NOT have to be perfect. Using the combination of both video and checks for understanding can help you pinpoint where students are getting stuck or lost, which is especially important when teaching online. You don't have the benefit of reading their body language or other visual cues like in the classroom, so creating digital opportunities to check on student progress in crucial.

• Active Learning Strategies​ - While some people think of online learning as a series of videos, using active learning strategies makes online learning more engaging and relevant for students. This can also help connect learning to the real world and increase the rigor of the tasks students are presented. When I think of tackling this, I look at two opportunities: interaction with the physical world and shifting the role of students from consumers of content to producers. Teachers could have students engage in a scavenger hunt at home, looking for objects that all have a particular shape, have students post a video reflection or create a presentation. If teachers feel their class is ready, the should think about ways to orchestrate a collaborative experience through a common Google Doc or Google Slide presentation. The possibilities are unlimited thanks to teacher creativity and imagination!

Podcasts

​In case you don't already know, I'm a complete podcast junkie. Below are the podcasts I'm listening to that others may also enjoy and are specifically supporting this journey.

• The Happiness Lab - This podcast is the work of Dr. Laurie Santos, a professor at Yale University, made famous for her college course "Psychology and the Good Life". She gives tips on how to take care of your emotional and mental state during this tough time.
• Unlocking Us - This is the new podcast from Brené Brown. I'm still catching up on episodes, but it has been a wild and thoroughly enjoyable ride listening to her launch this podcast at the same time COVID-19 started shaking the world. As always, Brené provides meaningful insights and thinking around what is means to be alive and human.
• Up First - I listen to this <15 min podcast to get the biggest news headlines each morning. This allows me to stay informed on the biggest news stories, but not get overwhelmed with every single things happening. 
• Science Vs - This podcast has been putting together some great information on COVID-19 and work to provide the latest answers to the biggest questions around the virus.
• ​Every Little Thing​ - This podcast dives into random questions and facts from listeners and recently put together a beautiful episode with essential worker interviews. It has a whimsical feel to it and always makes me feel smarter.
• Reply All - This is one of my favorite podcasts in general. Hosts PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman are a breath of fresh air and always make me laugh. They have been taking calls from listeners on their COVID 19 experience and sharing some of those stories, along with other stories from the Internet.

Don't worry! I do listen to non-COVID related things. For fun, I listen to Buffering the Vampire Slayer, Angel on Top, and Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.

Human Connection

While I have made time to connect with family and friends, I have also found it important to find professional means of connection during this time. Below are a few connections that have really stuck out and meant a lot to me.

• ​ID-ER Network - I saw this website in an EdSurge article - Instructional Design Emergency Response Network. While it looked like it was designed to connect folks  higher ed, I decided to submit a form under the 'I Can Help' tab anyway. This week, I received two emails inquiring if I would be willing to support, connecting me to a teacher in another part of the country. I was able to meet virtually with each of these teachers, collaborating over ideas and sharing in our shared experiences. They each serve as a great source of inspiration to me and I feel so honored to have had the chance to meet them and gain insight into their practice. It was incredibly powerful to talk with teachers outside of my own district and provided me with some much needed perspective amidst this chaotic time.
  
• EdPuzzle CEO Conversation - As a part of my role, I am often looped in on troubleshooting meetings that involve Schoology. Last week, I hopped on to a meeting to support a colleague only to find the EdPuzzle CEO and co-founder Quim Sabrià hosting the meeting and supporting troubleshooting. His compassion for educators and his recognition of this as an 'all hands on deck' moment was a true testament to his value for education and his understanding of the needs of teachers. 
  
• InnEdCO Meeting the Moment Webinar - As an ISTE affiliate, it is no surprise that this pandemic has greatly increased the role InnEdCO has to play in shaping the future of education. As a board member, I helped put together a webinar to bring our community together. We had over 70 educators join and share in the kickoff event. Grounded in compassion and grace for one another, we offered perspectives from several folks around the state and how they are meeting the current moment. This community means so much to me and I know it will play a major role in shaping the future of education. We all agreed as a board that these opportunities to connect as a community must continue in order to get through this time together and stay true to our mission and vision. We have planned to continue these meetings every other week and introduce new ways to engage in online collaboration. You can find more information here.

If you've made it down this far on my post, I want to thank you for reading it and hope that you found something that helps you during this challenging time. We are all hurting. We are all grieving the loss of our lives as they were. While the current moment feels incredibly difficult, I am excited to see what happens next in the field of education and how we rise from this moment stronger and more innovative than ever. I hope you are all able to do what you need to take care of yourself and your families. I know I am trying to use this moment to cherish and soak in moment with the loved ones near me and I hope you are able to do the same. Take care and feel free to reach out and connect. We are all in this together!