Is 2020 the year we've been waiting for?

Back in June, I sent a Vox to my friend Debbie who also works at a large, public high school, and asked, "Have you listened to the recent Ali Brown podcast with Dafina Smith? We both listen to the weekly podcast and learn from the incredible women that Ali interviews each week. I shared in my Vox to Debbie, "They talk at the end of the podcast about 2020 and ask, "What if 2020 was just the year that we needed?"

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By framing the question as a 'What if' question, it caught my attention, because I believe that 'What If' questions turn problems into possiblities. 

It was the first time I had heard someone talk about 2020 in a way that made me think differently about what was happening in the world, our country, our state, and our community. Believe me, there have been some scary and tragic events around COVID-19 and the pandemic. I definitely don't want to minimize the tragedies. I do want to be hopeful and also mindful that our purpose is bigger than the pandemic. 

Did you see the hopeful poem that went viral on Instagram? The writer, Leslie Dwight, begins like this: “A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw — that it finally forces us to grow.”

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“What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?⁣ What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?⁣ A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw — that it finally forces us to grow.⁣ A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber.⁣ A year we finally accept the need for change.⁣ Declare change. Work for change. Become the change. A year we finally band together, instead of⁣ pushing each other further apart.⁣ ⁣ 2020 isn’t cancelled, but rather⁣ the most important year of them all.”⁣ ⁣ 🖤

A post shared by LESLIE DWIGHT (@lesliedwight) on Jun 3, 2020 at 12:38pm PDT

I've been thinking about the things that we've done differently this year, the lessons we're learning, and the realizations that are coming to us. I want us to come out on the other side with possibilities and not just problems. I want us to keep pursuing excellence as we face these hurdles along the way. By asking 'What If' questions, it keeps my thinking forward and not dwelling on losses, status quo, and despair.

Here's my 2020 edition of 'What If' questions. What would you add?

What if I stand up and speak for those who are weak or can't defend themselves?

What if I speak up about my faith and stand for it?

What if I pursue a career that brings me daily happiness, even if it means changing careers?

What if we celebrate the things that we do have and stop wanting for the things that we don't?

What if I connect daily with someone online who does what I do professionally for moral support, encouragement, ideas, and affirmation?

What if we finally give up doing the things that we know are not healthy for us?

What if I seek to own and enjoy my journey instead of seeking "balance"?

What if we stopped doing half of the things that we've "always done"?

What if we come out of this year better than before?

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How to Support Students' and Teachers' Mental Well-Being

This post is sponsored by WE Teachers, made possible by Walgreens. All opinions are my own.

One of the key reasons I started The Compelled Educator long ago was to create a space where I could share lessons learned, ideas, practices, and resources with others. My goal has always been to empower others in their journey to becoming the best version of themselves, which is why I'm so excited to share an incredible resource from WE Teachers and Walgreens with all of you!

Walgreens has partnered with WE Teachers to provide FREE resources to teachers all over the country. Times are changing, classroom needs are changing, and the free resources come at a perfect time as we are working through the chaos of a pandemic and trying to continue to meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of students. It is a crucial time to help students, ourselves, and our colleagues to feel safe.

There are seven modules from WE Teachers that serve as professional resources for trauma-informed classrooms (The modules are also available in Spanish): 

• Introduction Module

• Mental Well Being

• Bullying

• A Pandemic-Informed Community

• Poverty

• Diversity & Inclusion

• Youth Violence

All of the free resources can be found at https://teachershub.we.org/, where educators will find curriculum resources, online courses, online community forums, and other virtual learning opportunities. It's basically a one-stop shop to educate, support, and equip teachers!

My interest lies with ALL of the modules, but I want to share about one in particular, the Mental Well-being Module. I fully believe that we can't help others until we help ourselves. 

Remember what the flight attendant tells you: Put on your own oxygen mask before you help others put their oxygen masks on.

The Mental Well-being Module is chock-full of good and actionable information. The first section helps to create a common understanding by sharing facts and statistics, definitions, and protective and risk factors. I love how WE Teachers has created a section that is devoted to creating a comprehensive foundation for all of us as we learn to support another person's well-being.

The next two sections are about mental health challenges and how to respond to students and nurture their well-being. A neat feature that is included is a Classroom Check-Up Tool. It's a chart that shares signs of normal development in children ages 5 to 18 and provides suggestions on how to support students at the different age levels. I also appreciated the section about social media and well-being. While there are many positive things that can come out of social media, it can also be a place that can cause problems for our youth and even be dangerous for them and their well-being.

The last section (before Resources) is titled, The Importance of Teacher Mental Well-Being. This is a section that I was greatly interested in, and it provided a ton of self-care tips and resources to help us help ourselves during trying times. 

This year is going to be like no other year in my 25+ years in education. I want to be ready and equipped for ALL of the curve balls, and I know how important it will be for me to be extra prepared to support our students and staff and their well-being during the pandemic. WE Teachers, in partnership with Walgreens, has created some phenomenal resources for us as educators. I will be using and sharing the modules at my school this year, and I encourage all educators to get all 7 modules at the WE Teachers Hub. 

In addition to providing a learning hub, WE Teachers also recognizes teachers that go above and beyond! The WE Teachers Award is a $500 Walgreens gift card. (How could you use $500 for your class needs??) You can nominate yourself or someone else who deserves it. 

Learn more and start the application or nomination process for teachers who go above and beyond

Direct application link

Direct nomination link

Note: The 2020-2021 application process is opening as of July 1st and awards are granted on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Use the links above to nominate yourself or someone else!

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How twitter can serve as a COVID-19 school resource

How can twitter serve as a COVID-19 school resource?

With the "new normal" that we are all facing and trying to navigate during the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantines, this post has a sense of urgency about it unlike anything we've ever faced. 

We're all looking for ways to connect with our school communities and decide which method is most effective. When I'm asked, "Should we use twitter, email, Instagram, or Facebook?"  I just say, "Yes." 

If you've got people who can assist with the different methods of outreach, it's time to deputize folks to assist in staying virtually connected when we can't physically connect. Use as many modes of communication that you can effectively manage. 

This post focuses on connecting via twitter. One of the reasons I love twitter and am a huge fan is because of the number of educators on the platform. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been so many educators who have shared resources, ideas, support, and even funny memes to lighten the load. We are truly better together!

READ:  The COVID-19 Self-Care Challenge

This blog post is about a game-changer that every school leader who uses social media should know about. If you are a school leader, keep reading, and use the ideas in this post. If you're not a school leader, keep reading and share this post with your school leader. AND, offer to help. 

In my digital workbook, Telling your School's Story on Twitter, I go into detail about creating a school hashtag along with other ideas for how and when to tweet, ideas for creating graphics, along with connecting the school with the community. 

Not having and using a school hashtag is a missed opportunity.

It's something I notice when I'm connecting on twitter... I see a tweet about an event in a school somewhere, a celebration of students or staff... and there's no hashtag. Not using a school hashtag is a missed opportunity for connection.

Twitter as a search engine

School hashtags allow stakeholders to “find” tweets about your school by doing a search for your hashtag. They can click on the hashtag in the tweet and see all of the tweets containing that specific hashtag. Imagine what it would be like if parents, teachers, students, alumni, and other stakeholders all used the same hashtag when tweeting about the awesome things happening in a school's community. It's a powerful way to get a "big picture" about a school as well as keep parents informed about successes that may not make it to the newspaper... things like a friendly librarian who makes kids want to request a book and drive through the check-out line, a lunchroom worker who serves meals and knows everyone by name, a lesson online that results in excellent problem-solving practice.... I'm sure you can think of many more examples!

READ: 10 ways to go from "lurker" to "connected" on twitter

How to create your school's hashtag

There's no "rule" about what you can use or not use for a school hashtag. Keep it pretty short in length, because the characters in the hashtag take up some of the characters you can put in your tweet. Examples include #(schoolname)pride, #go(mascot), or #(schoolinitials)(mascot). This would look like #hixsonpride, #gospartans, #LHSCowboys. For other ideas, check out different school leaders to see what kind of hashtag they use to promote their schools. 

Before deciding on what you will claim as your school hashtag, check to make sure it's not already being used. You can do a search on twitter with the potential hashtag, and if it's not being used or was used only a few times a few years ago, GO FOR IT! 

Here are 4 places to share your school hashtag:

• School marquee
• In your email signature
• In your twitter profile
• In your school's digital newsletter

Do you use this simple, yet effective, method of telling your school's story on twitter? I would love for you to share this post and tag it with YOUR school's hashtag! 

The COVID-19 Self-Care Challenge

Allyson Apsey and I have a goal to come out of this unexpected break better than when we entered it, and we have challenged each other to come up with a list of things we will do every day to take care of ourselves and others. We know that many other educators have the very same goal and that we are better together, so we're sharing our ideas with you.

As educators, we love the flexibility in our typically tightly-structured schedule that comes along with school holidays. But, if we were really being honest with ourselves, we usually function best with a schedule and a mountain of things on our to-do list. It will be tempting to binge-watch television series during our COVID-19 break, and there is no shame in doing that, but we will feel much better if we also feel accomplished. 

We’ve each created our own self-care challenges, personalized to our needs and goals. To help us keep some normalcy and know that we’ve accomplished some valuable things while on the break, we’ll also check in with each other on our progress. 

Here’s a list of self-care challenge ideas we generated:

1. Go for a daily walk
2. Drink a gallon of water daily
3. Learn something or create something
4. Check in on someone new
5. Exercise first thing when you get up
6. Read 30 minutes each day
7. Spend 1 hour learning - podcasts, webinars, books, online courses
8. Post a thought online - a blog post, image, quote, or new idea
9. Write a thank you note
10. Give a social shout-out to someone who has inspired you
11. Clean out & declutter a cabinet, drawer, or shelf in your home
12. Meditate
13. Keep a gratitude list
14. Make your bed every morning
15. Do something you’ve been putting off
16. Spend time with at least one family member
17. Organize something
18. Walk or run at least a mile every day
19. Unplug from the TV
20. Watch a sunset or sunrise

Right now it feels like we have this wide expanse of time ahead of us. But, increased family responsibilities, illness, rescheduling things, and so much more will eat up lots of our time. 

We decided that 20 items on a list was WAY too many, so we challenged ourselves to pick 5-10 things to add to our self-care challenge. 

What did I pick?

Jennifer's list:

• Work out each day (My post-surgery wait time is over & I’m feeling better & ready to return to working out)
• Drink a gallon of water each day
• Choose a drawer or closet to organize and/or de-clutter each day
• Walk each day
• Keep a gratitude list
• Connect with someone each day - phone, Voxer, twitter, email, etc.

Here's what made the cut on Allyson’s list:

• Workout right when I wake up
• Learn something or create something
• Check-in with someone new
• Drink a gallon of water
• Stay within my calorie goal
• Organize something
• Check 2 things off my to-do list
• Run or walk at least one mile

Allyson is going to hold herself accountable by using the DONE app.

thedoneapp.com

(She signed up for the paid version when she started the #75Hardchallenge.) The free version only allows a list of 3 things. Since I've got more than 3 things and the paid version doesn't fit in my budget, I'll be using a paper journal to keep track of how I do on the challenge. 


Allyson and I both know that taking care of ourselves helps us be our best in order to take care of others and that self-care is not selfish. 

We both included connecting with someone each day as part of our routine. Our goal in creating a self-care challenge is to inspire others to be their best as we collectively and individually try to turn a tough situation into one that is productive, supportive, and energizing. 

Please share your self-care list using the hashtag #COVID19selfcare.

Want to hear more about the challenge? Listen to our latest podcast episode!