This year was hard.
We’ve all seen and heard times like these described as difficult and unprecedented too often, and it’s true, teachers, kids, parents, and school staff have experienced so much this year. When it is all over and school feels “normal” (whatever that is) again, what will we take away from this year? What have we learned? What skills have we practiced and adapted? How will these experiences shape how we approach each day going forward? As a community supporting kids, we’ve definitely learned the following four things.
Flexibility and adaptability
We’ve increased the adaptability of lessons so that they can work for any school environment with learners that have different strengths. We’ve practiced incorporating new mediums into activities to make them fun and engaging, utilizing creativity and technical skills to make magic happen for students. We’ve found ways to meet kids where they are emotionally and physically, knowing that their home lives, which in many cases are also serving as their learning environments, vary greatly. By being agile and continuous learners, we’ve each demonstrated that we can meet the needs of all students regardless of circumstances.
Leading with empathy
Working with kids, we’ve always had an understanding that we don’t know everything children are experiencing in their lives outside of school, and often those factors impact their behavior and ability to focus on lessons. This year we actually saw inside of the homes of kids, which helped us understand them even more. While it was obvious to us on the surface that kids were experiencing different and multiple challenges this year, our different interactions (including virtually) enabled us to keep empathy top of mind, always. Carrying this forward, we’ll need to continue prioritizing a trauma-sensitive approach to returning to school and always ground ourselves in empathy so that we can continue building trusting relationships with kids.
Courage
We’ve had many challenging and courageous conversations with kids about various topics and situations this year. To address what has been happening in society, many of us have had conversations about racial equity, healthcare, grief, political divisiveness, and other topics. We’ve made space for kids to share their perspectives, fears, questions, and more. By opening these conversations, we’re enabling kids to use their voices to understand complex issues and contribute to solving problems.
Positivity
Even when things seemed impossibly hard, we’ve strived to keep school feeling safe and engaging for kids to play, grow, learn, develop, and have fun. We could still bring smiles to kids’ faces, experience joy, and laugh together. This positivity is grounded in hope for a better future… and our kids are our future. By continuing to stay positive and be the beacon of hope they need, kids trusted us to lead them through the hardest of times and to enable them to experience the childhood they deserve.
We must bring forward each of these aspects into how we approach what happens next. By learning the lessons from this year and continuing to practice these skills, our kids will have a smoother transition to whatever happens next. Hopefully, they’ll be empowered to develop the solutions we need in the world. Moving forward, the phrases we see and hear won’t be about how hard this has all been, it’ll be about how we practiced “expecting the unexpected” and “enjoying the journey.”