10 tips on how to kick-start the new COVID school year

Wow. This year is going to be different. Lucky for you all, I teach at a year-round school. I went face to face on July 13. Our attendance was lower than normal, yes. I was extremely nervous to start; so fearful that people would even come check on me. But having seen it in person and seeing what kids can still do, musically, and with masks, has made me have some opinions about it all. For starters, I'm looking at this as entirely possible, but it is a culture-changing event. I don't think we'll quickly go "back to the way it was."

Were there teachers who I could tell had different political views? Yes. Were there teachers who were super scared? Yes. Every time the subject came up, which was every day, it was usually met with strong opinions.

Tip #10: Get organized. This one is easy, normally. But right now, we need to organize our thoughts. We need to force ourselves to think through the What If's of Anxiety and plan out our actions for EVERY scenario.

Tip #9: Start Writing Down all those anxiety-ridden questions. This always helps me visualize what I'm in control of and what I'm not. Many of the classroom based questions can be answered with what we know from the CDC. For example, I had a lot of curiosity about social distancing in the classroom and hallway. I went to my room and measured out boxes and learned I can fit 24 kids with no chairs or risers or stools. and my room is SO SMALL! My next question was how are we going to line up? Won't the line be extremely long? Well...yes. It will. But part of the distance will actually help with management, they'll be too far away from the person in front/behind them to be touching them! I decided to set the kids up in a large, measured dot-to-dot circle that they would enter and exit from, so that we were already in a line formation when it was time to go! It is seamless and logical. I think I will keep doing it! As for the line? As the weeks went on, we found that "Zombie Arms" helped the kids keep space. They struggle to count 2 tiles while also walking down the hallway. They got pretty good at visualizing that space.

Tip #8: Keep trying to enjoy your last break. Many of our upcoming breaks have already been squashed because we start 2 weeks later than planned. I for one REFUSE to let COVID ruin the only break I'll have for a while. Make plans to leave the device off and get out in nature. Or even better, turn off mail and Facebook notifications for a day!

Tip #7: Teacher Masks: Buy yourself masks that fit correctly, in which you feel comfortable. I love bright/cheerful and friends of mine have made me some that I love! Students realized quickly I'd have a different one and always wanted to know which one it was that day! Why not make it fun for ourselves??

Spend time at home wearing it and getting used to having it on for long periods of time. The first couple days of school I got very annoyed by lunch. By the end, it was no big deal.

Talking in some masks is complicated--if they are too tight, they get all up on your mouth and that is an awful feeling.

I have found the most comfortable ones to be with soft ear pieces or that tie all the way around the back of your head/neck.

If you have glasses, you absolutely need the ones with nose pieces. You should put your mask on first, then your glasses. There's some great DIY nose pieces out there--trash bag ties for one!

Do you have deaf/hard of hearing students? Get masks with clear windows! Face shields are to be worn with masks, not alone.

Tip #6: Kids and Masks: Yes. THEY CAN DO IT. More on that in a sec. Consider if you have a friend who can donate breakaway lanyards--the lanyard is hung around the neck and attached to the bottom of the ear piece. You can see I also do this in the photo above. It allows kids to let it hang down and not drop to the ground and become contaminated. Many kids masks do not fit them correctly--get creative with tying the ear in a knot to make it smaller, or just flipping the ear piece over once to make it tighter.

Tip #5: Check on your friends: Many other people are also struggling, or maybe they have family with really serious health conditions. The only way we're going to get through this is by leaning on each other and just being there to listen. None of us have the answers, but we can still show we care. Sometimes I did this by just grabbing someone else a cup of coffee; and others did the same for me.

Tip #4: Be consistent - AGAIN. IT IS DO-ABLE. TOTALLY. Set the expectation for masks and physical distancing and be consistent in it. These new expectations are no different than the expectation to line up quietly or listen when I'm giving instructions. Do not falter even from day 1. It's for everyone's safety. They understand this, and if they don't, then tell them again. At first my older students were a bit grumbly, and I'll admit that frustrated me. We came together to discuss it and I said this is not something we can argue about. After that, they did as I asked, and didn't grumble if I reminded them of an expectation.

Tip #3: Prepare your Lessons as you Normally Would - Just because they're wearing masks, doesn't mean you can't teach what you would. I wrote a parody about masks over our last break. It was off of Ariana Grande's 7 Rings, and I called it "7 Masks" For our July session most of my school practiced the rapping inside, the singing outside, and ended with making videos for me to compile into one big music video! We had so much fun! More importantly, we used music to channel our negative feelings about the whole situation. I had other really smart friends who planned virtual lessons to do in person. One of the major issues with virtual learning was being about to troubleshoot problems. What better opportunity to help them learn it in case the worst-case or even the blended-learning options take place!

Tip #2: Movement. Due to the COVID guidelines, kids are not getting enough movement. Plan about 5-6 minutes of movement every day, every class. Just put on a go noodle or a pop song. Furthermore, I would start with this, not end. You could even buy the "Color Game" from my friend Deborah Bryson. My younger kids love this game. Basically you ring a bell and say or point to one of the colors. Green is go, red is stop, each color has a defined type of movement. They are to explore the beat within that time frame. For the older kids, just hearing pop music and getting the chance to socialize <6 feet was a welcome relief. Also, go outside if you can. They are having indoor recess a lot to minimize class cross-contamination at recess; only two classes are allowed outside at once. They have to stay in their areas in their rooms all day, lest it need to be cleaned. The ability for me to go outside with kids for music was at first, annoying. The wasps, they suck. The screaming classes at recess right next to my learnscape, not ideal. But we still got our stuff done, and they love going outside. No cleaning, and it's safer.

Tip #1: YOUR BEST IS ENOUGH! I was out running, listening to a Peloton coach tell me to go my speed, instead of go as fast as you can, and she said this. It left me in tears, feeling like my Bitmoji classroom wasn't cute enough, my lessons weren't engaging enough, I wasn't working out hard enough. I went home and made this image. Being back at school, the first time I heard kids sing all together again after four months, I was reminded why we do this. The kids are scared, but they still need structure and routine and relationships. I choose to focus on that.

I hope this helped you. Feel free to reach out if you need some help processing specific pieces of your classroom routines!

Ashley

#schoolyear #backtoschool #covEd