Monday Musings from The Kravis Center Monday Musings November 2, 2020 Focus: Intentional Emotional Engagement
Dear Colleagues,
I think we should be more open with our students.
I don't know if this advice falls under best practices, but I do know that a lot of us are hurting. We're exhausted and scared by voter suppression in the election, by the possible change in the academic calendar, by the pervasiveness of COVID, and by the overall uncertainty of the world we face. So this week, especially, I would highly recommend talking to your students, human to human, in an appropriate and professional register about where your head is at. As an exercise in empathy, sharing heartspace with your students invites them to remember your humanity and to see you as a person not only with responsibilities, but with a full range of human emotions. In my experience, teaching benefits from embracing and honoring your emotional state with intentionality and letting your students in, just a little bit, instead of fighting yourself to perform excellence. The classroom is not an escape; utilized well, the classroom is a space to come together as people and interrogate the world around us.
The Kravis Center recognizes the need faculty of color may have to congregate and process the election in their own space. Therefore, I will be hosting a post-Election Day cocktail hour in the Kravis Center Zoom room on Wednesday evening, November 4 from 6:45 to 8:15. Feel free to drop in anytime.
Godspeed,
Miles, on behalf of the Kravis Center ________________________________________________________________ On a related note, the article, "... half as much". by Varghese Alexander of Asheville School, co-Director of the Klingenstein Summer Institute was published in Medium on October 31, 2020.
Articles on teaching during an election cycle
Teaching Resources for the 2020 Election, Facing History
Voting and Elections, Teaching Tolerance
We Need to Start Talking about the Emotional Impact of the Election by Ricshawn Adkins Roane
Difficult Dialogues comes from the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching website - very helpful, especially for navigating our TAG discussions.
Articles on student well-being
With Stress in Schools Increasing, Simple Strategies to Stay Calm, Laura Lee, Edutopia
Isolated Students May Struggle to Stay Mentally Healthy, Carolyn Curtis, Edutopia
Hackers Smell Blood as Schools Grapple With Virtual Instruction, David Uberti, Wall Street Journal
Virtual Signs of Mental Health Problems, Isaiah Pickens, EdSurge _______________________________________________________________ In the spirit of collaboration, the Kravis Center is putting out a call for examples of well-designed, creative, and effective asynchronous lesson plans & authentic assessments. You may share your own material, that of a colleague, or the result of collaboration on teaching teams. Click here if you would like to submit a description of what you, your team, or a colleague has done OR if you want to simply include your name and someone from the Kravis Center will contact you. You all have done outstanding work. We would appreciate any and all opportunities to learn from your efforts. ___________________________________________________________ Professional Development Opportunities
Learning and the Brain is offering numerous PD options for teaching during COVID. Click here to learn more.
SEL in the classroom: Here is the link to the numerous PD opportunities through One Schoolhouse, one of which is Protecting Student Mental Health in Hybrid Learning Environments with Lisa Damour
Harvard GSE programs for educators - so any worthwhile workshops for teachers. Hybrid Teaching and Learning: Resources and articles
As our ratio of online to in-person learners has changed, we've had a big increase in the number of teachers teaching hybrid classes this term. Hybrid, at Loomis, simply means having an online learner in an in-person class section. There are two guides (which are updating and changing frequently) about how this might function for those classrooms. The first outlines the technological options we have (the "hardware"), the second contains more best practices and FAQs.
Here is a Padlet for those who are teaching hybrid to post thoughts, ideas, etc and for those who are not, to see what it's all about! ________________________________________________________________ Follow us on Twitter! |