This is no Spring Break. You am cleaning, finding virtual field trips, learning about remote learning, finding on line books for your students to read, thinking about how you are going to Montessori this online learning, thinking about lesson plans and weekly themes, what supplies you will need from school, thinking about and planning a schedule for your students, thinking about your expectations for your students learning and how they are going to get work turned in, thinking about how to contact them and let them know you love them and miss them and hope they and their families are safe, while also trying to reassure them this is all going to be okay when you do not really know if it is going to be okay. This is the worst spring break ever.
You do not feel like you are addressing the stress families are under and how remote learning will only work if parents are able to help. If you really think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is providing educational material really what is needed right now? Again, everyone needs to take a minute and think about the social emotional state of the students and their families. There, you said it. You love the fact that you can provide remote learning but you also feel like you should be making every effort to help families in need.
Your administrators assure you that you are a great teacher and it is heartwarming that you care so much about your kids, their families, and their feelings. They try to remind you that no one is expecting perfection. You are to ask for help if something flops, and assure you that they will help you try something else. Maybe some of the books to read, for example, should be about overcoming struggles, hanging in there, and granting each other some grace. The principals are certain that it will all work out, but you have your doubts.
Preschool Teachers Reach Out to the Youngest Learners
As an early childhood teacher the schedule suggestions that you have seen online are great as they eliminate, or at least seek to limit, the television and computer time for young children. These additional ideas will stimulate the creativity, problem solving, trial and error learning, and boost the self esteem of the youngest of learners.
And while these are certainly challenging times, parents from across the country comment about the impact a video interaction with teachers can have. Children relax, children smile, and children treasure the opportunities to talk with their teachers and classmates, even when it is through the screen of a computer.
At a time in the school year when librarians are often using spine tape to help repair some of the best loved books in school, all those titles are sitting on shelves. And at a time when other kinds of classroom and library supply labels are running low, this is a year when many schools will likely end the semester with supplies left over. As the nation tries to adjust to a new kind of normal and online learning, there are many teachers and media specialists who would give anything for the frustration of yet another primary classroom favorite in need of spine tape.
Custom colored tape, custom dry erase labels, and spine tape marked books are now the tasks of parents and older siblings across the country as home schooling becomes the only real option. And while there is so much focus these days being put on digital learning and classroom environments as schools close, the great truth is that many of us have just what are children need on the shelves in our own homes. Did you know, for instance, that print books remain the most popular format for reading? With 67% of Americans having read a print book in the past year, ti should come as no surprise that many families will find themselves returning to these age old favorites now that classes are cancelled. In fact, you may actually only have to look as far as the most worn spine tape on some books on your own home shelves to find a great way to start your morning home school schedule.
Americans read an average of 12 books per year, but the year 2020 may show a spike.
