Monthly Archives: May 2020

Trauma informed practices and social/emotional protocols for returning to school

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Photo of pre-school children sitting on the playground in a square designated by chalk lines on the ground. Each child is seated separately.

“The fear of these past few months as Covid-19 has taken over the world will no doubt take some time to get over. Hesitance to return back to normal too quickly is likely a normal reaction, therefore. Aside from the health factors at play, however, we have a real chance now to build back better, rather than to rush back to normal.”

As the school year finishes in many parts of the world, begins in others, and is contemplated and speculated about, my sole concern is about the social and emotional effects of it all. How are we going to cope with the past few months of curfews, stay at home, lockdowns, and an uncertain future? Are we prepared to discuss and deal with it? How are we going to make sure we are all comfortable and feel secure in a totally different school environment than the one we used to know? I’m not so sure. I hardly hear or read of any plans for training educators in trauma informed pedagogy or even focusing on how traumatic this time has been for everyone. I am worried; worried that we will be taking care of the “not getting COVID-19” part of the return to school, but not the social and emotional trauma it has caused. And that means we will try to “do school” with physical distancing and wearing a mask but immediately go back to teaching content that we assume has been lost over the past five months.

We are in an emergency situation that is ongoing and very traumatic. There will be long lasting emotional effects on us all and especially on our children. In fact, just the thought of students going back into a classroom that has them spaced six feet apart, requires them to wear a mask, wash their hands frequently, and eat alone makes me wonder how we can ignore the social and emotional discussions that need to happen before any learning can start. I have failed to read an article about reopening schools anywhere in the world that places emphasis on how they are going to deal with the emotional toll of COVID19 situation on teachers, administrators, parents, and students. Many are concerned about what school will look like, the cost of the “new normal”, and the economic consequences in capitalist societies of not getting back to school so parents can get back to work. I think we need to change our priorities. We should begin looking at trauma informed practices and social/emotional practices for teachers to learn and practice with their students when and as schools reopen.

“MOEs also need to anticipate and prepare for additional challenges resulting from the direct and indirect consequences of COVID-19 and prolonged social isolation, on both the education system and on the school community. These include learning loss, increased risk of dropout, the exacerbation of existing and new inequalities, and the loss of education personnel. UNESCO has been monitoring education responses to COVID-19 globally, collecting and analyzing information and facilitating policy dialogue and experience sharing. Key policy issues include the timing, the conditions and processes for school reopening. The effectiveness of these policy decisions and reopening strategies will depend on the level of preparedness of the education system in terms of infrastructure (health and sanitary measures); teaching staff (ability to provide both psychosocial and academic support); pedagogical preparedness (offering remedial action and alternative modalities to meet learning objectives); learners, families and communities (ability and willingness to return to school and readiness to continue learning.” https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373401

I’d like to provide some resources for administrators and teachers to consider as they plan for return to school or as they review what is already happening as school reopens.

One excellent resource is from the Center for Social Emotional Learning (CASEL). As part of their CASEL Cares initiative during COVID-19, resources have been collated and created specifically to address the current crisis. In its initial guide, Leveraging the Power of Social and Emotional Learning: as You Prepare to Reopen and Renew Your Community, the authors offer a framework with guidelines for the community, with all stakeholders represented, to prepare a comprehensive plan for returning to school.

“While much uncertainty surrounds how and when school will reopen, we know that social and emotional learning (SEL) will be critical to re-engaging students, supporting adults, rebuilding relationships, and creating a foundation for academic learning. This unprecedented shift to a new type of learning experience may have a lasting and profound impact on young people’s academic, social, emotional, and life outcomes. School leaders will need to bring together administrators, teachers, school staff, families, youth, and community partners to co-create supportive learning environments where all students and adults can enhance their social and emotional competencies, feel a sense of belonging, heal, and thrive (p. 3).”

On page 4, they note that “(t)he guidance below is organized around four critical actions, which are adapted from what we have learned about systemic SEL in collaboration with researchers and practitioners:

4 critical actions CASEL.org suggests based on researchers and practitioners for returning to school after COVID-19

Each critical action is then described in detail including how all stakeholders can put it into practice. In addition, links to related resources are provided. Although this framework was created with a focus on the United States, all school systems can benefit from this research and practice based guide.

Another important source of guidance for coping with the COVID-19 effects on the social and emotional wellbeing of parents, teachers, and students is the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE.org). The work of the INEE spans over many years and supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal-SDG #4 promoting the fundamental right to education for all. While its work is primarily focused on marginalized populations including refugees, there is a wealth of ideas and research based on practice in the field that can be applied to the current situation related to COVID-19 since it is “emergency education” we are dealing with and not “business as usual”.

The advocacy brief recently released by the INEE, “highlights some of the potential impacts of school closures on children, with a focus on the most marginalised, including those already living in crisis and conflict contexts. It provides recommendations for governments and donors, together with partners, to ensure that safe, quality and inclusive learning reaches all children and that education systems are strengthened ready for the return to school.” (https://inee.org/system/files/resources/Learning%20must%20go%20on%2C%20COVID-19%20advocacy%20brief_v20200409.pdf)

The INEE also has a specific set of resources including webinars that focus on education during COVID-19. “Schooling may stop, but learning must not.” https://inee.org/covid-19

Modeling empathy and creating a sense of belonging

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Empathy has no script
poster courtesy of Veronika Tait

This week I will be doing a live IG with my very good friend and former work colleague, Eva Al Qallaf. Eva is the founder and CEO of Parentool, a consultancy for supporting parents with courses and good advice. She and I have previously chatted about the importance of play for young children and received many terrific responses. This week’s topic is empathy and how we can ensure our children learn about their own feelings and understand others’ feelings. At a time in history when empathy is needed more than ever, I decided to write about how we can model empathy for our children, students, and colleagues thereby increasing our feelings of belonging.

Rarely does an empathic response begin with “at least”. -Brene Brown

Brene Brown describes four qualities of empathy: perspective taking, staying out of judgement, recognizing emotion in other people and then communicating that we have recognized it. She tells us that, “being empathic makes us vulnerable because we have to connect to our own emotions. What makes something better is connection.” And when we have those connections, we feel a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging is necessary for our survival and our sense of well-being. We cannot help others and ourselves if we don’t feel a connection with them. So how can we model empathy? Let’s look at each quality Brown mentions separately.

Perspective taking:
In order to see someone else’s perspective, we first need to be open to seeing and hearing different points of view. According to the socially skilled kids website (https://sociallyskilledkids.com/perspective-taking), “you must have some understanding of others’ thoughts, feelings, motivations, and intentions. You must also have some background information about the other person or be able to make some smart guesses about their background and or how they experience the world.” Their suggestions for four parts of successful perspective taking are-
Set aside your thoughts, feelings, motivations & intentions, momentarily
Consider others’ thoughts, feelings, motivations & intentions
Determine whether or not your behavior should change based on that information
Make any necessary changes

So how do we model that for others? First, we can use opportunities to show others how we think about another person’s perspective. For example, I prefer listening to music from the 1970s but my friend likes classical music. Instead of arguing that my music choices are better than hers, I can ask her why she listens to classical music; how it makes her feel, what is her knowledge of this music, and listen as she tells me her point of view. As I find out more about her perspective, I have a greater appreciation of her preference. So I have (1) stopped thinking that 70s music is the only music we should listen to by setting aside my feelings as I listen to her. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with her. (2) I am showing her that I am considerate of her feelings and ideas. (3) I can try to listen to classical music and decide whether I like it also, and I can add it to my playlist if I want to.

Staying out of judgement
This is a tough one for many of us, especially parents. If a child comes to us with a problem or is feeling upset about something and we ask them to share it with us, we must be ready to react calmly and not show our own judgement of their situation. For example, if a child shares that a classmate was mean to him/her, we must hold our reaction until we fully listen to our child retell what happened. We must validate their feelings and guide them towards a solution. We must also realize that the child may have left some parts of the story out, so questioning for more detail is helpful and also models for them. Listening when your child is upset or crying is not easy. We immediately want to “fix” the problem by telling the child what to do or deciding what we are going to do. However, this isn’t helpful because he/she isn’t able to overcome a similar situation in the future. They will be forever dependent on our solutions.

Recognizing emotion in other people AND Communicating that we have recognized it
The last two characteristics are connected to each other. As I mentioned above, we must listen closely when others are explaining their feelings to us. This validates how they are feeling which encourages them to share and ensures continued dialogue. Once we have listened to them, we need to give them feedback that they’ve been heard and that we understand how they feel even if we don’t agree or wouldn’t react in the same way.

When parents offer their children empathy…
Courtesy of Veronika Kait

As a parent, this is the ultimate test of our ability to model problem-solving and empathy. I have many examples from a lifetime of helping my children while they were growing up and still at home. One example that stands out is when my younger son was left off the soccer roster at school. He came home that day and I remember clearly how sad he looked. I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he had gone to the JV soccer tryouts and had done quite well (he was a very good soccer player). Since he had been on the team in elementary school, he thought that would also help his chances to be on the team even though he was younger than some of the other boys trying out. But he had looked at the list after school and his name wasn’t on it. I could already feel myself jumping to conclusions, making judgements, and figuring out how to solve this problem, but I told myself that this wouldn’t be helpful.

I asked him how he was feeling and he told me he was very upset because one of his classmates, who happened to be the son of the school activities director (and the soccer coach) did make it on the team. Again, I had to stop myself from offering up what I would do and listened as he continued to tell me that he would stop playing soccer as a school activity and would play on the weekends with his friends. I was so tempted to tell him I was prepared to go in and speak to the coach, but instead asked him if he wanted his father or me to meet with the coach and that I respected his decision. He said that he didn’t want to be on the team if this is the way the coach handled things, and I repeated that I understood how he felt and respected his decision.

Many years later, my son and I had an opportunity to chat about this experience. I shared that I believed it stopped him from playing a sport he truly loved, but he repeated that he didn’t want to play if there was a lack of fairness in how decisions were made. I told him how much I admired his courage to choose what’s right over what he really wanted.

My examples of modeling the four characteristics of empathy show that it cannot be taught. It isn’t a course in a classroom, but a lifetime of watching how others behave in ways that value others’ feelings, show our understanding of those feelings, even when we might not agree, and then telling others that we understand how they are feeling. Modeling empathy is a daily and constant practice: we must walk the walk as we talk the talk and if we make a mistake, we must own it and move on. Our children are watching us; our students are watching us. Let’s be an example for them to emulate.

Why wearing a mask doesn’t take away your freedom

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The state of Georgia allows businesses to reopen
Photo courtesy of NBC News

On May 9th, the Kuwaiti government announced a total lockdown from May 11 at 4:00 p.m. (AST) until May 30, 2020. We are only allowed to leave our homes to go for a walk from 4:30-6:30 p.m. daily but must wear a mask, observe physical distance protocols, and stay within our residential area. One person per family will be allowed to shop for groceries every six days and must make an appointment to do so.

Some readers may be thinking, “Wow! That sounds very restrictive!” The truth is, these rules are very restrictive. At least with a curfew (which we had until Sunday at 4:00 p.m.), there were eight hours of freedom to move outside your residence (for those who weren’t in home quarantine, like me). So this may sound pretty scary for some. However, let’s look at the bigger picture. Let’s think about the “Common Good”, the community, and others. COVID 19 cases have increased dramatically in the past week in Kuwait. Some violations of the curfew were observed and people arrested. People who gathered, in spite of the recommendations of authorities and experts, infected others. At some point, someone has to say “PAUSE”! In a country of less than five million people, 400-600 new COVID19 cases in a day are way too many.

Medical staff leaving after their shift at the Mishref Fairgrounds testing center
Photo courtesy of Al Arabiya news


I am not saying I am excited about the decision. I don’t think anyone is happy to have their freedom of movement taken away or to be restricted from seeing others outside of their homes. But these are unusual and difficult times. Sacrifices must be made by ALL; not just the essential workers and frontline workers. We need to begin thinking as a community. We need to think of each other. We should be doing this all of the time, but unfortunately, many people haven’t thought of others in a long time. This is apparent from those who refuse to wear a mask even after evidence has clearly shown that it will reduce the transmission of the virus. It’s apparent from the protests about the restrictions imposed on them due to the virus. As I stated above, it’s not something I would choose either, but at times of crisis, we all must make sacrifices if it is for the common good.

Traveling back to Kuwait. Mask on. and ready.

I’m not here to criticize people who are not following the guidelines. I’m not here to call out people who are frustrated and just want to be “done” with this crisis. I am hoping to highlight those who are doing what they are being asked to do. We don’t hear that enough. I’ve been in home isolation for two months; six weeks with my 95 year old mother in Buffalo, NY and 16 days of 28 total days in Kuwait. I’d love to be able to go outside, but I listen to the evidence and the data which clearly shows how contagious COVID19 is. So I continue to stay inside to make sure my mother is safe and my husband is safe. It’s the least I can do. I also want to make sure my friends and other family members stay healthy. I traveled 11 hours on a plane and wore a mask for all 11 hours. The staff wore full body hazmat suits for the entire time. I just wore a mask. Were we comfortable? Absolutely not! Were we keeping ourselves safe and others around us safe also, absolutely, Yes!

We won’t be able to go back to the way we were before the pandemic, and those who think we can do so right now, are seriously mistaken and misinformed. Just because I want my freedom to go out without a mask, walk into a nail or hair salon, gym, supermarket, restaurant, or anywhere doesn’t mean this is what I SHOULD do. If I was in the middle of a war or natural disaster, I’d have to assess the situation and decide what to do to remain safe and how to keep my family, friends, neighbors, and community safe. This crisis is not different from another type of emergency.

https://rifnote.com/2020/04/24/meet-the-icu-nurse-who-silently-stood-in-protest-at-rally-to-reopen-arizona/


The Oxford dictionary defines “empathy” as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. I’d like to add that empathy is the ability to understand the situation of another. Perhaps it’s not enough for us to put ourselves in another’s shoes. Perhaps we need to live that life of another before we can understand what they are going through. Doctors and nurses all over the world are telling us we need to wear a mask and practice physical distance based on what they are seeing daily in their work with COVID19 patients. When we hear about reopening businesses without being able to require such measures, we should all be worried. We all want our freedom to choose, but sometimes we must choose what is right for our community (the Common Good) and not what we as individuals want. If we have any hope of stopping this pandemic, we must work together. We must all be on the same page. We must all view the Common Good as something that is good for us all.

Thank you to all who are working, volunteering, and sacrificing for the rest of us. Let’s make sure their efforts are not in vain.

What are we learning about education during COVID19?

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What students can do offline to continue learning
Sketchnote by @Claribel716

I’ve written about my two previous experiences with schools being closed and have mentioned that it’s ok if there is no content reviewed or introduced as long as children are “learning” from their life experiences. Two weeks ago I was on a call with some of my PLN ‘besties’. The Our Global Classroom, affectionately known as the #OGC fam are real outside the box educators. Although we work within the system, we tend to push the edges a bit to be sure our students’ needs are met. Everyone on the call was from a different state or country and we all are experiencing different messages from schools and school district administrators. And the conclusion we all reached was children, parents, and teachers are stressed and feeling overwhelmed. This is definitely not an ideal way to learn.

In a recent article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper. Stephanie Jones and Hilary Hughes both University of Georgia professors in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice and co-directors of the Red Clay Writing Project note, “What we’re doing today is teaching and learning to be in Covid-19” and not distance learning or remote learning. The emphasis, they say, is learning to be. Since we are not under normal circumstances, learning at home during this pandemic is not the same as learning at school.
The full article can be found here: https://www.ajc.com/blog/get-schooled/opinion-this-not-home-schooling-distance-learning-online-schooling/b9rNnK77eyVLhsRMhaqZwL

For my part, I will “put my money where my mouth is” and outline some areas that all stakeholders in the education of our youth should consider as we move forward into a different world then we had before COVID19. This is a huge topic but I will do my best to keep it simple.

1. Focus on student outcomes and not content
We have talked around this topic for a long time and some of the solutions included teachers being able to plan units and lessons starting with the standards and outcomes (ie. Undestanding by Design/backward design). However, many teachers have never been trained in how to plan with the end goals in mind. Many teachers plan activities based on following a textbook because that is their guide or they believe the activity is interesting and will keep students “engaged” in the learning.
Resources for planning with the standards and outcomes in mind are available at:
ASCD has a page of resources based on Jay McTighe’s and Grant Wiggin’s work with UbD http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/understanding-by-design-resources.aspx
There are also resources here:
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/understanding-by-design
I highly recommend this series of guides from Learning Sciences International (LSI)
https://www.learningsciences.com/study-guides-and-reproducibles/essentials-series

2. What can they learn while at home in their contexts?
Author, John Spencer (@spencerideas on Twitter) recently published a book about vintage innovation. “Vintage innovation happens when we use old ideas and tools to transform the present. Think of it as a mash-up. It’s not a rejection of new tools or new ideas. Instead, it’s a reminder that sometimes the best way to move forward is to look backward. Like all innovation, vintage innovation is disruptive. But it’s disruptive by pulling us out of present tense and into something more timeless.” His recent post, Taking Distance Learning Away from the Screen http://www.spencerauthor.com/distance-screentime outlines what he is experiencing at home with his teenage children during COVID19 and he offers some ‘mash-up’ suggestions.

Dr. John Spencer ideas for home learning

We can think of activities such as cooking (math, science, language), helping with household chores, assisting with scheduling, taking part in decision-making, joining a family meeting to look for solutions to every day problems, learning how to keep themselves busy while their parents are working, making music/playing music, learning how to strategize by playing board games, make their own games with rules and directions then test them out are some of the ideas I used with my own children while they were growing up. Now that they are on their own, they manage their finances, arrange their own schedules, are creative thinkers, and caring adults.
Resources for learning at home include:
https://www.smore.com/71uxq-the-kids-are-home-now-what a blog post by Andrea Segraves that has multiple resources listed.
From the parents’ point of view: https://newschannel20.com/amp/news/local/what-parents-think-about-e-learning-while-schools-are-closed

3. How can educators support parents and students who lack English language proficiency to help their children?
It’s always important to stay in regular communication with all parents to support them with their child’s learning. It is particularly important during this time to keep the communication going to de-stress parents who are probably balancing work and home responsibilities on their own. Strategies for helping them and their children cope include encouragement, suggestions about scheduling, and showing empathy towards their situation. A recent report by Hechinger, a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on education, noted that “(a)mong the more than 55 million students forced to stay home because of coronavirus-related school closures are at least 4.9 million English-language learners (ELLs)”. Teachers are using snail mail to remain in contact with families that don’t have access to the internet. A school district in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania partnered with a local television station to produce educational programming. But first and foremost schools and teachers are checking on students to ensure their social and emotional needs are being met. https://hechingerreport.org/teachers-use-high-and-low-tech-means-to-reach-english-language-learners-during-coronavirus-crisis

For parents who lack facility in English language, this can become a barrier to their child learning at home. A few resources are:
The Talking Points app which translates messages to a variety of languages.
The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) has a vast number of resources, PD, guidelines and webinars that are applicable for everyone right now. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rv6fikncVfkOagbdSUvp13Lx0ExJhh1MS6d7qcQM5iM/edit
From the NY Times: Imagine Online School in a Language You Don’t Understand
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/coronavirus-immigrants-school.html?smid=em-share

4. What messages should schools/administrators/leaders/teachers be sending home?
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is most important right now. If there is someone sick at home, or a caregiver is working in essential services, then cut them some slack. Ask them what they think they can do within their home situation and digital access. Use apps that support immersive reader (Microsoft) such as Wakelet, Buncee, and Flipgrid to translate and read aloud the written communication. Show empathy. Unless required by your school or district, don’t discuss grades and assessments. Students can be assessed later. Post-COVID19, we should be looking at mastery of skills and knowledge and not what content children “learned”.
Some of the resources for SEL are available at CASEL: https://casel.org/covid-resources and also www.inee.org

5. Assess whether the school population has access to technology.
If not, either skip it or find ways to offer access (devices and/or internet). Don’t hand out copies of worksheets for those without access; be inclusive.
Some suggestions for ensuring equity and inclusion during learning at home are:
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55608/14-tips-for-helping-students-with-limited-internet-have-distance-learning

It’s a lot to digest while we are in the thick of it, but it’s also important to take time for ourselves. Teacher self-care is always important but often forgotten; however, right now it’s even more important. The suggestions I listed and points I outlined are for reflection and further study. There really is a lot that can be learned at home without textbooks, online materials, or Google docs.

Perhaps we can all take a deep breath and meditate on that for a moment. It’s important to reflect while it is fresh on our minds. Let’s not forget all the lessons WE are learning during COVID19. Your feedback and comments are always welcomed and I look forward to hearing more suggestions from my #PLN!

Empowering Students to Design the Change They Want to See in the World by Dr. Lindsay Portnoy