It was very stressful! It was stressful on the teacher end, and stressful on the parent side, and stressful on the community member side. I was a resource teacher for 4th-11th graders and had to come up with full lessons for weeks at a time. I also had to hold weekly hour-long appointments with my more than a dozen students. It was stressful because none of my students had devices or internet; so I had to give everything over the phone. My students (most) did not have the ability to be most successful that way. We just did our best each time. As a parent, I had six school-age children (one graduated last week from high school!) from kindergarten to a senior in high school. I have children that are not most successful doing all of their work via technology. My kinder and 1st grader, I had to sit with for every assignment, video conference, and telephone call. It was very overwhelming to do all their work with them as well as teach my students. I am also very active in the education of my community, so that was also stressful to see how the school staff and other parents were managing things as well. It was very difficult that not all families had access to internet and devices. At the end of the day, my family, my students, and my community have survived! I believe we all did the best that we could.
Hi Jessica,
After reading your post, it does sound like you had a very busy stressful time! Survival mode is what we can describe it as, when dealing with education online. At the end of the day, your best is really all we can do. This pandemic hit us all really unexpected, and we were forced to make major changes. I hope it gets easier if you are put into this situation again. I understand your concern also when it comes to possibly keeping your children home. It's a scary feeling most definitely. I wish you the best, and hope you all stay safe!
Wow Jessica, I applaud you!! I can only imagine how stressed out you were. I had a similar experience with my student. I know my student would have done better if we were face-to-face but unfortunately due to the circumstances we had to work with what we had. I also have children of my own and had a hard time getting my 3rd grader to stay on task. My youngest is a year and half and he also had zoom meets once a week for an hour and it was very interesting because he did not care for the computer.
Wow Jessica you are a SuperWoman!
You seem like you hold it together very well. If you had a chance to look through it, I hope the self-care and wellness material from Physiology of Learning was beneficial to you, or that you already have your ways to relax and recharge.
I'm working on R & R and I don't even have kids lol. I guess its a way of life you just get used to!
-Heather