Skip to main content

Quarantine with my Quaran-teen


Good afternoon! 

I hope all is well for my readers at this time. Ever since The World Health Organization's declaration of a pandemic, it seems as though the normal world has come to an abrupt halt. Everyone has been affected some way or another, whether that is through a lack of work, no longer seeing friends/family,  or even physically being affected by the virus. To put it simply, this sucks. 

For the past two weeks I have confined myself to my house with limited contact with the outdoors through walking/running on a trail near my house. Classes are converted to the internet. I am no longer volunteering with Changeist (it's postponed until late May) and observing a middle school classroom. I am, however, working with my two siblings at home to help keep their minds' fresh and occupied. I have my brother (8) and sister (15) who I am assigning lesson plans to each day. 

For my brother, I give him reading and math exercises. Sometimes we'll do science experiments. He's allowed to read whatever he wants for at least twenty minutes. We go on walks together. He asks a lot of questions about the pandemic, and I try to answer the best I can without trying to stress him out. He worries a lot about homeless people and people in prisons. 

As for my sister, I'm using this as an opportunity to help her explore and develop her skills and interests. She loves creative writing, reading, and painting. I'm encouraging her to still do math every day. I'm also incorporating some of my college texts to help challenge her, which she is actually enjoying and not rolling her eyes to. 

I think the best thing that people at home with students can do is use this as an opportunity to embrace and enhance kids' creativity. A lot of public schools barely have any funding for the arts, and teachers can be overwhelmed with Common Core State Standards leaving them without a lot of creative room to teach their students. Let's teach our kids about nature, poetry, kindness, and whatever constitutes becoming a decent human being. After the virus is over, people and their communities will need to do a lot of healing- let's encourage our kids to be ready for that and to help. We should all be working together to improve our society. Until then, please stay inside if you can, and stay safe. I will be posting about Stockton resources and where to volunteer if you are able-bodied!

All my best, 
Liz

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A colleague once shared on Facebook a graphic that said, "Students have to Maslow before the can Bloom." This is in reference to the Bloom's Taxonomy of Verbs learning model and the theory of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. If you are unfamiliar with these two terms, Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchal model used to create learning objectives for students. Maslow's Hierarchy is also a hierarchal model, but is used to build up a child's worth and confidence within the classroom. This graphic resonated with me strongly because it is something that I believed in before I had the vocabulary to describe my approach to educating youth. From my experience with children, and even with people in a work setting, people need to feel secure and supported before they can be properly challenged. If a student is having struggles at home, they are more likely to be less in tune with the lesson, as well as act out. It is our goal as educators, and leaders of youth, tha
Post a Comment
Read more

Social and Emotional Learning

Today we are going to talk about social and emotional learning. This type of learning applies to any educator, parent, children, and everyone in between. Social and emotional learning is when people are taught how to manage themselves socially and their emotions. Normally in children's lives, adults teach children how to act, that is why it is important that we as adults are good role models and show students how to control themselves emotionally- even when a situation gets difficult.  As people in students' lives, it is necessary to be a resource for students and to listen to them- to create a safe space for them. When we do this, students will feel more comfortable sharing their own experiences, which will then in turn allow us to aid the students in their learning. This also relates to one of my blog posts I've done before, where I talk about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and why they are necessary in a classroom .  I think it is highly important to know your ow
Post a Comment
Read more