Not Facilitating Chaos Very Well

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So...I haven’t blogged in a while because well because Covid. If that word doesn’t cause you to instantly shutter, just know that I, along with almost every other human in the world have been struggling to exist. I mean right now it is taking everything in everyone to cope with this pandemic, this election, and live. So that is why I haven’t written a post, because I’m struggling. 


And because of that, this is not going to be my usual post. This is just going to be a word of encouragement to you to just keep going. If you are teaching right now, whether it is in person or virtual, whether it is tiny humans, middle-sized humans, or regular-sized humans, just Keep going. This is an unprecedented year and it calls for less than extraordinary measures it requires us to do the best that we can for ourselves our families and our students.


So this is just a small message to you to let you know that if you’re feeling that you are not doing a good job facilitating the chaos right now it’s ok. It’s ok that you didn’t take attendance or that your students aren’t logging into your live sessions. It’s ok that you didn’t give the students feedback on an assignment within your normal window of time. It’s ok that you forgot to post an assignment or that an assignment didn’t work. The thing that matters is that you are doing these things almost daily. 


One or two misses, in the long run, won’t make a big difference. If you forget something or forget to do something it’s ok. Give yourself (and your students) grace. Come up with a system to help you not forget (or forget less) and move on with the year. For example, if you find yourself forgetting to take roll more often than you would like ask a helpful student to remind you, write yourself a note, set a reminder in your phone, or do it at the same time each day. If you find yourself forgetting to post assignments each day, pre-schedule them well in advance. If students aren’t logging into live sessions do an interactive activity such as Kahoot that will encourage students to log in or give away a “secret” tip during v a live session that will help students on a test or project. 


So, I hope that this post is reassurance to you that we are all in the same boat (whole?). We are all working to do what is best for our students while still maintaining our sanity. What are some other tips and systems that you have found are helping you through these unprecedented times?? 

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