Hug A Teacher During Covid19 … But Keep Your Social Distance

As I ready myself for work as part of the essential services that maintain the community, I can’t help but think on one hand how meaningful my job is that it’s a critical service for people both immediately and their futures and the future of the country. On the other hand, we get a lot of negative feedback from the community. Thus, it would be fantastic if, after this, you thought before complaining about your child’s teacher. Remember, you relied on us to keep a sense of normalcy. You knew your kids were in safe hands. Remember, teachers could have used their leave at this time; they did not. They kept showing up, alleviating the stress that kids have during this time.

I’m thankful for the teachers of my kids who have sent home calm kids, not filling them with more profound panic already created by the media. I send you a virtual hug, remembering to leave 1.5 meters between us!

I’ve made an effort as an educator to keep my classroom light-hearted and not dismiss the fears of kids. Instead, it’s an excellent opportunity for critical thinking and talking about the reliability of news media. I’ve used humour to ready them for learning because an anxious brain cannot learn at its optimum capacity.

Schools and teachers ARE essential services beyond a place to dump kids for care. The hurried media messages I believe have just been too fast to consider the nuances of language and how teachers may interpret the message. Schools aren’t being used to “dump” children so people can work. They are being entrusted to our care to create routine and continuity. As a structuralist social theory suggests, schools are a vital cog in the social wheel that keeps other structures working.

My students are fearful of the uncertainty – to that, I’ve been telling them to assume school will continue until the end of term, and whether we are onsite or not, I will continue to teach, and they will continue to learn. It is that simple! I will continue to extend my vital role beyond teaching kids content. I will be their soft place to lay out their fears and do my best to remind them they have many tools at their disposal: critical thinking, writing about their emotions, and an endless array of mindfulness activities. I have rushed now to put the Year 11 Life Ready Program onto a Google Class so I can upload mindfulness activities for students. Beyond the mandatory 25 hours, I can provide some real tools to reduce stress at a very uncertain time.

This is what teachers are doing – preparing for the possibility of online learning. Work that may or may not be needed. Extra hours spent upskilling and uploading. New skills that will change the face of education forever. We will be meeting the needs of the 21st Century learner in ways we never interpreted the catchphrase. A pandemic was not predicted as part of the 21st Learner’s context. We are evolving and rolling with the changes while also showing up.

Teachers have their own backstories. They have elderly parents, immunosuppressed children or partners. They’re cancer survivors or immunosuppressed themselves. Yet, we continue to show up and combat Covid19 in our ways.

Please be kind to all essential staff, including teachers. We are working in a complex environment with constant policy updates that we need to interpret quickly and apply. We are trying to maintain student welfare and academic needs. We do this while worrying about where we will get fresh meat for our own families. I was dragging a BBQ chicken around to meetings last Wednesday because when I got a coffee at lunchtime, I took the opportunity to grab a BBQ chicken for my children’s dinner. I had no time to shop and no fresh meat at home. That chicken symbolised so much more than dinner. It represented being creative in my balancing act of work and home. I have since been able to find fresh meat, but somehow, during 8 am – 3:30 pm I wasn’t worried about feeding my kids, I was concerned about helping my students get through one day at a time.

MILAN, LOMBARDY, ITALY – 2020/03/09: A little girl is studying connected in streaming with the teacher and the other classmates to recover the school days lost in this period of schools closed to the bitter end due to the Coronavirus (COVID19) widespread in Italy. (Photo by Alfonso Di Vincenzo/KONTROLAB/LightRocket via Getty Images)

How To Talk To Kids About Covid19

In Uncertain Times, Children Look For Certainty: How To Talk To Kids About Covid19

I caught my mind wandering at work, lamenting how surreal the entire situation we find ourselves in with a pandemic knocking on our door. It feels like a movie plot. I genuinely never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be alive to see something of this magnitude engulf the world. It feels like something from the past or an armageddon of the future. I remember learning about the 1918 Spanish Flu in Year 9 and thinking we were lucky we’d never endure this. Now I find myself looking at a sea of Year 9 faces and wondering how we got here and how will this unfold? 

Kids are talking about Covid19 in classrooms. Sometimes they make jokes to mask their fears and anxieties. Others are more open about their confusion. All are at least a little excited at the prospect of school closing. It’s created some great conversations about being critical thinkers about the media we consume. 

Ultimately we live in incredibly uncertain times. Navigating ourselves as adults through this time is stressful enough. Being a parent or teacher adds layers of complexity to this tough time.

Here are my top tips on talking to kids about Covid19

  1. Listen to their fears and avoid telling them any of their concerns are “silly.” Instead, listen to what they have to say. You may not have the answers which given the uncertainty is pretty reasonable. Be honest and research together.
  2. Admit what is scary for you about this time. Kids will feel better knowing that even adults don’t know what is happening and are willing to admit it. BUT do this in an age approporiate manner and don’t put adult concerns on their shoulders. For example, I’ve discussed my fear of bringing the illness home to my husband, who has health issues. This admission has led to us considering how we can be safer with our hygiene. They will check I’ve washed my hands before starting to cook if we’ve just returned from grocery shopping. 
  3. Keep a balance by talking about other things beyond Covid19. The topic will likely come back to Covid19 and that’s ok. Let them direct if it comes back rather than you directing it back. In the classroom, younger students have wanted to discuss this all-consuming topic. When doing using sources with Year 7 History, I used it as a great example of how today’s news is tomorrow’s Primary Source. Highlighting that they can use the same skills assessing the usefulness, reliability, and perspective of Historical sources to make sense of today’s news.
  4. If kids are stressed about what happens if the stores close, have them compile a list of the essential items they need from the shops, use these to make a family list. A great teachable moment about being prepared for unforeseen issues and how to negotiate as a family.
  5. Be cautious about the media you consume as a family to try and keep the information accurate without sensationalism.
  6. If kids are accessing Fake News and express concerns, this is a great teachable moment to think critically about bias, usefulness, reliability, and perspective.
  7. Get kids to write a narrative or discursive piece about their concerns around Covid19.
  8. Help them research the myths versus realities of Covid19.

Are there any tips you have that I’ve missed?

A Case For Experiential Learning

Get ready to experience

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing time and time again and getting the same result. Teaching students creative writing is hard work. It can leave teachers frustrated that they can’t teach someone to be “creative.” Some teachers feel like a fraud teaching creative writing. English teachers are experts at analysing a narrative. We can identify “good writing” versus banal nonsense, but this does not a writer make. If teachers don’t view themselves as a writer, it’s challenging to create writers.

Experiential teaching transforms the role of the teacher to a facilitator, rather than directing the student’s progress. It’s a semi-structured approach, requiring students to cooperate and learn from one another through direct experiences tied to real-world problems. It adopts a holistic philosophy, encouraging students to bring their knowledge of the world, past experiences, and individuality to the learning cycle. 

The proposed “problem” in the classroom full of bored teenagers “learning” or being “taught” to be creative is that often they don’t have the confidence to know they can be a writer. It is challenging to teach creative writing without a blend of Experiential strategies and Positive Psychology Principles underpinning the process and classroom environment.

It is impossible to have creativity without vulnerability – just ask Brene Brown (or do yourself a favour and watch her Ted Talks and then head to a library and borrow some of her amazing books – thank me later). My classroom is highly conceptual, covering the syllabus content creatively, modeling the creative process for students. How can anyone hope to teach creative writing without a bit of creativity and flair? Take a risk.

I begin the lesson with an excerpt from Brene Brown’s vulnerability and shame Ted Talk – the part about the man in the arena. She uses Roosevelt’s famous speech, which advises us not to listen to the critics who aren’t also trying and taking risks. If you ain’t in the arena also getting your ass kicked, Brene and I aren’t interested in your feedback. Nor are my students who know that the motto in our classroom is that we Dare Greatly. Do we take risks? You betcha. Do we sometimes fail? Of course! There is no creativity without failure. I teach in a gifted and talented setting. Many don’t know the bitter taste of failure as they are very bright and stick to the safe options. They hate failure, but this avoidance of failure can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Indeed playing it safe ensures a lack of growth. 

The richness of experiential learning is in the features that make it stand out from other learning approaches. The exciting and unique aspect is that it fosters an authentic need for students to self-evaluate their learning process. This is achieved through constant reflection. Students must critically reflect on their experience, not only in real-time as it is unfolding but subsequently when they consciously create meaning and conceptualisation from the experience. 

The best part about Experiential Teaching is that it is a perfect opportunity to embed Positive Psychology principles into your lesson without making it obvious. It creates a natural flow between Wellbeing and Learning.

A couple of ideas about how to embed Experiential Teaching into the English classroom are below:

  • Create a sensory experience for students – a Mindfulness practice of Mindful Eating can force kids to check in with their bodies, and they can taste foods more richly. This influences their ability to describe the act of eating – the mouth opening, anticipation of the first bite, the way their teeth rip into different textures, how chewing feels before finally working their way onto describing the taste as the food dances on their tongue.

  • Have students brainstorm the different parts of their body that would be involved in various activities e.g., walking – which foot do you start with? What are your arms doing? What is your breath doing? Can you feel your heart? Have students then go for a walk while taking notice of how walking feels. (Often the issue with student writing is having them extend their ideas with enough description to develop the concepts, this ensures they understand that describing someone as “walking down the sunny road” is not adequate. They can use their own experiences to describe it in more depth and detail).

  • Read a piece of poorly written prose to them (either find one on the Internet or write it yourself). Have them decide on the criteria they would use to assess a good piece of writing. They annotate the sample, deconstructing where it does something well and where it needs a little work. They rewrite one or two sentences, using the weaknesses of the piece to drive the improvement. 

Can you think of more examples of using Experiential Teaching in your classroom? If you’re interested in uncovering more about teaching Creative Writing and embedding Experiential Teaching and Positive Psychology into your classroom craft, send me a message for a mentoring session. 

Teaching is a calling, but it’s also a job

Teaching is a calling, but it’s also a job

The idea of a teacher likely brings up a range of emotional reactions. You may have loved a teacher who brought a subject to life for you. Or, perhaps, there was a tyrant of a teacher who killed your passion for learning. You’ll probably think of words for teachers, however, such as:

  • altruistic
  • caring
  • generous
  • giving

Our profession is viewed as noble, a calling more so than a job.

These assumptions about why teachers teach are, at times, correct, but they also become a noose around our necks. Mainly when we are at the negotiating table for wages and work conditions, there is an assumption that if we are in a noble profession, we will do so for free. Therefore, whatever we receive as payment is enough. We’re lucky we are getting paid at all for something we love to do, to live out our calling. But, we can’t pay our mortgage on goodwill. I’m pretty sure if I said to the bank, “I’ll pay $2000 in cash and the last $1,000 in that gooey feeling I get helping kids” I’d be told to cough up the rest of the fee. My artistic friends who can do fantastic photography and artwork are asked to work for “exposure” at times. Again, exposure and Insta likes don’t translate to a mortgage payment.

The reality is, your Doctor is in a noble profession and living out their passion, yet you expect they’ll be paid a fair, living wage. A wage reflective of their years at university, dedication to continual professional development, and the high-quality service they provide.

There is a lot of pressure being in a profession that has an unwritten job application criteria of “the candidate must believe teaching is a calling and will not lose this altruistic enthusiasm”. Let’s stop putting that pressure on each other in the staffroom and maybe it will trickle through to the community. When someone next suggests your job isn’t about the money, ask how they pay their bills? We need to nip this myth in the bud. It is dangerous to teacher wellbeing and encourages teachers to be taken advantage of by just about every sector of society. When teachers leave just on the bell, they are committing themselves to self-care. My mother is a retired Principal who had a mini-stroke at her desk, thought she had fallen asleep, drove home and went back in the next day. I often tell people I won’t have a mini-stroke at my desk – I’ll have my mini-stroke at home thanks!

This expectation of teachers to give, give, give until their cup runneth dry extends to the world of tutoring. People are prepared to pay $200 for a pair of designer shoes but expect to get tutoring for free or for a nominal cost. Teachers don’t have enough left in the tank to do more teaching after school for free. We’ve been at work all day and are tired. The tutoring services around have highly dedicated teachers who are excellent at their craft and prepared to share it beyond their classroom. The HSC has become so competitive that the tutoring industry is booming. Students couldn’t get the expert assistance if not for teachers working past the school bell.

When you engage a tutor, you’re seeking their expertise for something you can’t navigate alone, much like when you engage a plumber. I could give changing my taps a good go, but it won’t be a professional job. I could probably hack away at my hair as well, but it won’t look as good as my talented hairdresser does with her years of experience and training. You could probably help your child with their school work, but a trained professional can more easily and swiftly navigate the syllabus demands and ensure the criteria of the task are met.

I’ve had a teenager contacting me for a few months, asking for free tutoring. I have been firm about the price, but every few weeks, despite being blocked on social media, he finds a way to contact me. I told him once that with my own Yr 12 child and paying students and teachers, I didn’t have time to do freebies. The little smart ass asked if I make my child pay…equating my son with a random teenager on the Internet. This response though, isn’t unique. Many teenagers think teachers should be doing emotional labor for free, after all, we give it away at school for “free” why do we suddenly want to get paid after 3pm? I wish I had an infinite amount of money and energy reserves so I could help every kid. The reality is their parents wouldn’t provide a service for me for free. Teaching needs to get the respect it deserves. Exposure and goodwill don’t pay our bills.

It’s almost taboo for teachers to discuss money. To admit they teach and tutor to pay bills. Yet, other industries talk money a lot, wheeling and dealing at the negotiation table. I wonder if the female domination of the sector also propels this reluctance to discuss financial reparations for our time, energy, and talents? As more men enter teaching, there are forecasts that the income will increase as men won’t settle for the lesser income AND men arriving in female-dominated industries legitimises them as professions that need to be compensated accordingly.

The saddest thing is we feel guilty for wanting to be acknowledged through payment.

Auschwitz 75th Anniversary of Liberation – Holocaust Education

Auschwitz 75th Anniversary of Liberation – Holocaust Education

Auschwitz was liberated 75 years ago on 27th January 1945. The scenes awaiting the Russian liberating red army forces disgusted them horrendously. These were forces who had battled on the fiercest battlefields. And even for them, the scenes beyond the gate horrified. Some of the liberators were Russian Jews, making their role as liberators even more poignant.

Holocaust Education is imperative to ensure these scenes aren’t repeated. In 1915 the Turks murdered Assyrians and Armenians. Hitler used the indifference of the world to these atrocities to justify that the world would not worry when he enacted The Final Solution. With the rise in antisemitism occurring globally, it is essential to educate people about the Holocaust to ensure never again is not just a slogan. With the assistance of social media, the most repugnant left and right-wing antisemites are provided a platform to disseminate hate. Hitler’s propaganda films and posters are replaced by blogs, Facebook groups, and fake news. 

I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship from Gandel Philanthropy to travel to Yad Vashem in Israel to undertake an intensive 17 day Holocaust Education program. It has made me much more confident in presenting the Holocaust effectively to students.  

As a tribute to the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, I want to share just a few of the critical pieces of information that might help you start to better program for the Holocaust. Or, assist you in introducing the Holocaust to your own children. 

  • Safely in and safely out

This idea is a significant part of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Education Philosophy. I have since also adopted this beyond Holocaust education – any time I am dealing with traumatic events, I now follow this ethos. It moves students into the space of traumatic events such as the Holocaust in a sensitive manner and brings them back out of the bleak moments of history. It entails bringing the story of the Holocaust to life through survivor testimony and ensuring you expose students to stories of liberation and a return to life. 

  • Humanising Jews

The Nazis went to a lot of effort to dehumanise Jews. You must present pre-war Jewish life to students. It’s funny when I teach about indigenous cultures, I always explore pre-colonisation, but when I used to teach the Holocaust, I didn’t look at their religious and secular lives. I used to start from the position of victims. This might be starting with the Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht, or Ghettos and concentration camps. When the Yad Vashem staff showed us that we should begin with the vibrant and diverse lives of Jews pre World War 2, my mind was blown. Yet, it seemed so obvious. If you haven’t been teaching it this way, don’t worry! Try and add a little bit in next time you teach the Holocaust.

  • Don’t use graphic photos

It feels natural to show all the horrors to students – after all, won’t it shock them and make them realise how horrendous these events were? It goes back to the ethos of safely in and safely out. It is also far more effective to let the stories of victims speak about their experiences.

  • Visit your local Holocaust or Jewish Museum

Take your students (or children) to your local Holocaust or Jewish Museum. There are often guides there that are Holocaust survivors. As the survivor’s age and are lost, many museums now have the next generation volunteering and sharing the story of their parents. Courage to Care can also organise for survivors to come out to many schools in Australia. There is nothing more powerful than meeting a survivor and hearing them share their story.

My mother took me to the Sydney Jewish Museum when I was about 12. We would return many times and speak with a different volunteer Holocaust survivor each time. I enjoyed listening to their stories, and even at that age knew this was important. I must remember as much of their stories as possible. Little did I realise I’d be drawing on these stories for my teaching later. My parents had lived in an apartment block in Paddington, where Holocaust survivors also lived. My mother would share the Tenenbaum’s story often at the dinner table. The Tenenbaum’s had given my parents some fancy dishes for their wedding; whenever we got these out, we were extra careful as they were “the Tenenbaum’s dishes.” Even now, my sisters and I eye these dishes off as part of our future inheritance. They are, after all, the Tenenbaum’s. Mr. Tenenbaum has survived the war eating grass and had terrible digestive issues after the war as a result. His survival had also created a health issue. The lesson was that surviving was worth it!

  • Age Appropriate Information

Yad Vashem has a minimum age for children to go through the museum as it is part of their safely in and safely out ethos. Children under a certain age, should not be exposed to the full extent of the Holocaust. The picture book “Tommy” by Bedrich Fritta is a good introduction for young children. The story was created while Fritta was in the Terezin ghetto in Czechoslovakia for his toddler son, Tommy. The book is a useful tool because it concentrates on life rather than death, without ignoring the actual circumstances. It will educate but not traumatise younger children. It can also be used for older students to orientate them to pre-War Jewish life as the book narrates the various things Tommy does and might do in the future. Tommy from the book survived the war with adoptive Christian parents. His parents, however, died during the Holocaust. The book can be purchased from Yad Vashem with suggested lesson ideas for a variety of ages to introduce children to the Holocaust. High schoolers also find the story engaging and emotional when they read the forward written by Tommy.

I remember finding Holocaust stories at a very young age. As my reading age exceeded my actual age and maturity, I was reading sophisticated texts early. In hindsight, I probably found these books when I was too young to digest them fully. I remember also working out the Nuremberg laws of who would be sent away and realised although raised Christian (Mormon or LDS) I had enough Jewish heritage to end up on a transport. This was a little more than I could digest and led to some anxiety about what happened if this ever happened again. 

  • Don’t use The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

This is a controversial book for many Holocaust survivors. One school of thought is anything that gets people reading about the Holocaust is good. The other school of thought is that if the survivors don’t want us using it, then don’t use the book. Their argument centers on the fact there are so many good true stories to use that there is no need to use this fictional piece. The story’s too centered on the feelings of the German boy. Nor would this situation have occurred. The image of the pajamas also suggests comfort and homeliness, and these are far from accurate. Try to use stories contributed to or written by survivors wherever possible. 

Daring Greatly With Feedback

Study Hack: Daring Greatly With Feedback

You hand in an essay and eagerly await the mark…and you might cast a passing eye over the written comments. But you can’t wait to see that mark. It was your best work, so you are expecting an A Range mark but closer to full marks. When the essay comes back, you are disappointed with a high B. And realistically, you know it’s a little bratty to be disappointed.

Much like a pick a path book, you have different paths you could traverse at this point. One is to complain to your teacher, demanding more feedback. During this process, you are ready to rebut every aspect they discuss. If this is your usual route, you would be a real fan of phrases such as, “I did that,” “I also did that,” and my personal favourite “You missed that!!!” You possibly even go through your response with a highlighter to show just how many times you used a quote, example or attempted to analyse or evaluate. You will go back for round two of the Battle With The Marker.

The simple fact is unless a page of writing was missed or a multiple-choice question was incorrectly marked, you won’t be getting more marks. It would entail the entire cohort having their papers marked again. And, more importantly, the consistency of the marking will mean the ranks are the same. Whether people are moved up or down a mark as a group will have no bearing on the positions remaining the same.

Path One creates a fixed mindset, and you won’t progress and develop in your writing. You have admitted defeat. Path One is the much-traveled path by students and leads to limiting their ability to improve.

Another better path that is less traveled is a path of vulnerability. This is the path of a Growth Mindset. Digest the comments and annotations. Take them on board and improve. The feedback is provided so you can do better next time. Ask for clarification about what the feedback means. You might approach the teacher and say, “I thought I was analysing there, could you please show me how I could take this to a deep analysis.” You will find teachers are more than happy to give you time and provide some tips on fixing your writing. Good feedback should also show you HOW to do the next step or give you ideas on where to take your writing. After taking the feedback on board, rewrite part of your essay. Take it back to the marker or your teacher. You will see the improvement and have a tangible example of your learning in your hot little hand. 

If you find after approaching the marker and your teacher that you aren’t able to put the feedback into practice, then you may need to consult an experienced tutor to show you in a one on one situation at a more convenient time. 

Check out Brene Brown’s work about vulnerability and using feedback. She has some excellent Ted Talks about how to take feedback on effectively. One thing she highlights is that you need to be brave to receive feedback. Taking feedback and rewriting your work is an act of vulnerability and bravery. Brene Brown uses a great quote about the Man in the Arena, a Teddy Roosevelt quote. 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

The cheap seats are occupied here by the students running back to argue with the marker. They are not in the arena trying to improve and take risks. They are looking to blame someone, anyone except themselves. Take the risk to be brave with feedback. Don’t get caught in their trap of shame and blame, embrace the feedback and learn. Even if, after doing all of this, the outcome isn’t what you wanted, at least you have dared greatly.