VIDBE-Q Volume 66 Issue 3
Through the computer screens we as teachers gained a front row seat to
kitchen tables and living rooms as students and families faced these struggles. With
lockdowns and closed physical school buildings, students no longer left their
families to come to school, we came to the family. Beyond the medium changing
for service delivery, from reliable building to semi-reliable digital classroom, what
we as teachers delivered would have to change. We could not just continue
working through lines of Mangold, irreverent to the world on the other side of the
student's kitchen table. Our students were facing too much that could not be
ignored.
In my own practice, I experienced a curtain lifting on family struggles that
affected my students consciously and subconsciously, and a need to support
students more than ever. Further, I gained a better understanding of how students
are situated within a family unit, and there is success when bringing in the whole
family unit. What I detail below are three concrete things I learned during the
pandemic and how I intend to integrate them into my practice as a teacher going
forward.
I have a confession: I have always asked students how they are at the
beginning of a lesson, but not in a way that invited deep, honest answers. I just did
not fight for multi-word answers, most of my brain already oriented to the content
of the lesson. Now I ask students what last made them smile, or their favorite part
