Distance Learning: A Teachable Moment

I am a teacher. I've been honing my craft for over 20 years. There isn't much that can shake me up. No matter how disastrous a lesson becomes once delivery begins, I can dig into my tool kit, hammer out something useful, and find a teachable moment. Generally speaking, teachable moments cannot be planned for and can happen at any point in a lesson. When recognized, these small moments of opportunity can be seized upon and used to offer greater insight to our students. They can be shaped to take the worse situations or missteps and craft them into useful knowledge our students can use as they grow into young adults.

Right now, we are living in a teachable moment.

When this school year began one of my goals was to complete the year in my temporary classroom (due to a construction project) and head back to my home school for the following year and beyond. At this point, I have scrapped that plan, hammered out what is useful, and have realigned my goals.

I went back to basics. What are the minimum requirements needed to get through this? How can I scale back all the superfluous nonsense and get to the core of what is important? 

My goals the past two weeks.

1. Deliver Instruction

2. Keep My Family Healthy

You may have to scrap your lesson plan as well. With distance learning and digital platforms being the main modes of communication and instruction, I offer the following pearls of wisdom to help you navigate this new normal and get back to basics.

FOR YOUR STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES

We are teachers. We are wired to help our students through any situation that arises. Our current situation is no different. However, there are small things you can do to keep things focused and streamlined for everyone. 

Connect to Your Students

We have lost the daily greeting at the door. Create a way to connect with your students. For me, I (finally) started my YouTube channel. I used the free one included in my district Google account. Every morning I hold the Morning Announcements at 9:00 am. It gives the students a chance to see and hear me. It is also a nice way to give them a structure for starting their day as well as keeping them updated on changes in Google Classroom.

My class and I will be moving to video conferencing. I look forward to meeting as a whole group and in small groups. There is definitely some comfort in being able to interact in real time with one another. As with YouTube, it will be new for me but I am willing to go through the growing pain because I know the payout will be well worth it.

Make some phone calls. You know who isn't logging in. You know which students are going to need more support than ever before. They need to hear your voice. They need to know you are still there for them. Call them.

Use What They Already Know

Unless it is something vital (such as a video conferencing app), I highly recommend that you do not start a new platform with your students. There is a lot of frustration and confusion for both students and families. Another new "thing" could push people to logoff and stay off. Stick to what your students are most comfortable with right now. If it is a website that requires credentials, have a master list ready. It doesn't matter if your students have been using it all year; someone will ask for their password. Promise.

Once everyone has had some time to adjust, then maybe you can add in something new. Also, if you are confident that you're delivering instruction digitally for only a couple of weeks, consider whether it is worth the effort and frustration of introducing and navigating your class through a new platform. The more familiar you can keep things, the easier it will be for everybody.

Practice the 24 Hour Rule

There may come a time when a student or parent makes a hurtful comment. Let it go. For the vast majority of hurtful comments directed at you, you are experiencing the brunt of people's frustrations over a situation they cannot control. The unknown and the disruption to their family schedules has some people working with a very short fuse. Don't ignite it. 

For some, that means re-focusing the discussion in a helpful, productive way. For others, it means you don't respond to the email or message. The 24 hour rule before pushing "send" needs to be in play more than ever before. 

FOR YOU

We are teachers. But we are parents and spouses and caregivers too. Do not lose sight of the other hats you wear. And, don't lose sight of you.

Stick to Your Official Day and Office Hours

If your district has determined work hours and/or office hours, stick to those times. It is important to set a precedent for the students and families. 

If you are expected to work until 4:00 pm and a student logs in at 4:20 pm, it is not your responsibility to stay online and help. Students and families need to know the times you are available and respect those boundaries.

Of course, there are exceptions. As a professional, you can determine the individual needs of your students.

I know teachers work nights and weekends to complete tasks that cannot be done during contractual hours. This is not the same situation. Your brain will need a break. Your eyes will need a break. 

The past two weeks have been the most exhausting two weeks I have ever taught; and we're just getting started.

Set clear boundaries now and get into a habit of shutting down your day at the designated time.

Clean Something

Spring cleaning has taken on a whole new meaning. I was pleasantly surprised by the feelings of accomplishment and completion as I checked off household chores. Folding laundry, changing sheets, dusting, vacuuming...they all helped me feel some closure at a time when there is no end in sight. 

I spent my first weekend getting my house in order. I couldn't control what was going on in the world of education but I could make sure my house was organized and refreshed for the long haul that we face with social distancing and self-quarantine.

We don't know when this will be over. But, I do know my laundry is caught up and the bathrooms are clean. The small chores I finish help me to get up and put on my Teacher Hat each morning. It clears my head to stay focused on school responsibilities. 

Get Moving

Fresh air does wonders. After a day of sitting and working on a computer screen, your body needs a change. The movement, the air, (hopefully the sun) will give you a break from the monotony of being seated and typing all day. 

Elementary teachers are built to move around during the day. We are up and down, we are up front and in the back, we rarely sit. Make sure you remind your body that although we may need to be seated for longer stretches of time than it's used to, we will get it moving again. Plus, it helps get that step count up!

If you don't head outside, find other ways to move. Create an avenue to get your blood moving and keep your muscles and joints from getting stiff. 

It's OK to Cry

I was pedal to the medal the first week. I had described to a colleague that I felt and looked like I had been on a 3-day bender. I was working from before the sun rose into the darkest hours of the night. By Friday, I had an emotional breakdown. I sat in my kitchen sobbing by myself trying to grapple the emotional and physical turmoil I was going through. I have had emotional moments in education. This was no comparison. I had been holding my emotions in all week and the reality came crashing down in a deluge of frustration, sadness, anger, uncertainty, worry...all of it.

After a few minutes of ugly crying and sobbing, as well as some comfort from my pup, I felt better. It felt cathartic to cry. I didn't realize how much I had been holding in. Your emotions will find their way out. Don't hold them in. Let them out. Own it for a few minutes. Then, wipe your face and get back to the task at hand.

Find Emotional Balance

So, how to I keep emotions in check? I find my funny to balance out the sadness. I had been wanting to binge The Office for a couple of years. I admit that I had not seen a single episode although I knew a lot of the jokes and memes associated with the show. I decided now was the time to connect all the dots. Once my day is over, I watch a few episodes and laugh. The relief has been good for me. 

Find the things that bring you balance. Engage in the activities that give you peace and center your soul. That could mean reading, crafting, video chatting with people, bathtub soaks, exercise, puzzles. Whatever you need to stay in a positive mindset, do it. Make it a priority. It will help balance out the negative.

Our Teachable Moment

We are teachers. We are built for adapting to the unknown. We are the masters of flying by the seats of our pants. We can take a disaster of a lesson plan that looked good on paper and use our tools to turn it into the most memorable teachable moment for our students. In fact, that's a bit of what we're doing right now. 

Education has never looked like this. This isn't something that we planned for or could predict; but we are doing it. So grab your tool kit and get your hammers ready.

We are teachers. And this is our teachable moment. 

Lice at School and Home

Lice

There is no other word that can strike fear in the heart of a teacher. Sure, we worry about catching the flu, the stomach bug, and any other illness that can be passed. We wash our hands, use our smelly hand sanitizers, and remind students not to cough or sneeze directly in our face. After 20 years I’ve built up quite an immune system, so I shrug off the panic when the latest virus makes its way around the building or community. Plus, I wash my hands constantly. I’ve got a solid M.O. for keeping the germs out of my system.

But despite all the precautions we make as educators, nothing prepares us for the day we start to scratch our heads and it occurs to us it’s more than just a little dry scalp…

The Following Is What My Teammate Experienced With Head Lice...

Last June, I attended an end of the year event where many of our students participated. It was so great to see them perform. At the end I felt like the Belle of the Ball, all the girls wanted to take pictures with me and hug me. I was warmed by all the love I was getting. Little did I know they were sharing more than just love.

A few days later, I was grocery shopping and my head started itching in a way that I had never felt - like in all 43 years of my life! I kept it under my hat - a literal hat - all day long. Monday morning I rushed into school and told my teammate what I was feeling.

She told me that she would take a look. Having lived through this nightmare the summer before with her daughter, she was a certified lice whisperer! Sure enough she found a few nits. I was totally devastated. How could I have let myself be so vulnerable and allow myself to catch this?

So for the next week she picked out my hair before and after school and even on our lunch breaks. Your real friends hang around when you get lice and your even better ones help you get rid of them!

The shampoos that are available are not 100% effective and the chemicals that are in them aren’t good for your body. Against my teammate’s advice, I did try the shampoo but it didn’t do anything but get my hopes up. To combat the critters I even tried an old wives tale involving olive oil and a shower cap. That didn’t work either.

Following an Old Wives Tale in hopes that it would kill the lice.
It didn't.

Despite my best efforts with daily picking and home remedies, after 10 days I was ready for the big guns! I went to a local lice “doctor” to see if they could give me the remedy I needed.

After a screening that cost my $25 I gave my consent for the treatment. They used a machine that looked like a vacuum but instead of sucking out the lice, they heated them up to death. This process lasted for about 45 minutes as they heated different sections of my hair. They claimed that the heat kills the live bugs and all 3 stages of eggs. They were very knowledgeable on the process but costly. I didn’t have the patience to wait out the life cycle of the lice and it was starting to drive me crazy! So I paid an additional $179 for them to do the treatment on me.

There was an amazing 30 day guarantee that I would get as long as everyone in my household would also get screened and treated. Can you hear the dollar signs? So now I added $50 more to my bill for their screenings just to hear they were clear. Now that my heat treatment was over, it was time to sit through them combing through each section of my hair with a special comb. They ended up finding nits and one live bug. I was so excited to be done with this nightmare. I also bought $100 in hair products. They told me that after having lice the male lice leave a pheromone on your hair up to 6 months that makes you susceptible to catching bugs again! So I got the Fairytale shampoo, conditioner, and spray. I had to keep my hair guarded. I had 2 weeks of school left!

A day went by and I thought I felt my head getting itchy again. Sure enough there were nits and I was devastated. While my teammate was picking through she thought she saw something live move. She went to grab it and it fell… we just weren’t sure where it fell. I called for my follow-up appointment that was part of the guarantee. They said, “Our heat system is only about 96% proof and when we comb you out that brings your chances up to 99%.” To my horror she then said, “You might have had some hatch but we will get them at your follow up appointment.” It seemed like I was the only one that was worried about the chance that I could still have lice after spending over $300!

So my check up appointment came and it was another $44. They said they found nothing and I have now been clean for 2 weeks. I am still staring into the mirror thinking any dash and dot  could be something. I guess I will get over it just like I did with the stomach bug. But this definitely left a mark on me! I might always have PLSD: Post Lice Stress Disorder.

Advice for Lice

Like my teammate mentioned, I lived through the lice experience with my daughter. I learned quite a few things during that summer and I will now share it with you.

When I discovered my daughter had lice, I immediately resigned myself to having them too. Afterall, we had shared combs, brushes, and pillows (!). We had snuggled and slept with our heads right next to one another. There was no way I didn’t have them. By some miracle, I didn’t get lice. It was a relief that I just had to focus on getting her head clear.

I will admit that I thought I would wash my daughter’s hair with the special shampoo, comb her out, and that would be the end. Boy, was I wrong. I have a much deeper understanding of why some of our students never get rid of these pesky bugs. My two big takeaways on lice: they are harder to get than you might think and nearly impossible to get rid of.

Lice Shampoos Help

But, if you have Super Bugs, like my daughter did, it’s a waste of time and money. Even after two thorough shampoos (a few days apart), she continued to have knits. To elaborate, it was summer and I had a lot more time. I was combing her hair out at least 2 times a day; very slowly and very carefully sectioning her hair, wetting it down, and combing through each section while hand-picking out the nits. Each combing took approximately 45-60 minutes. At the time, my daughter's hair was past her rear end.

This was the one that started it all! (Her coloring is a cue that she's older and at the end of her life cycle.)
I found her after shampooing and during a second combing out. I had combed out once but wanted to be thorough. I couldn't believe I had missed her the first time.

I believed that if I could get to the end of the approximate 30 day cycle, I would have outsmarted the lice. It was an exhausting summer. On any given day I would find between 6-30 new eggs. I could not find the female (only found 2 live bugs the whole summer) and it was frustrating. As the summer wore on I knew that a new cycle was going to start and if I continued to miss the female laying the eggs, we would never get this nightmare over with. In the end, the definitive factor that got rid of the lice was heat (see tips below).

Nits. I would find 6-30 at a time.
Some days I would find just 2-3 and think I was at the end of the nightmare.
But I was wrong.

The TWO live bugs I found. The mini-hair clip gives you an idea of how small they truly are.

Lice Factoids

The lice cycle is approximately 30 days. One week from egg to nymph. One week from nymph to adult. 30 days as an adult. Adult lice need human blood several times a day (from a head) and will die within 48 hours if they are not on a human head.

Lice love dark and warm. The majority of the time they hang out at the base of the neck and behind the ears.

Best Tips for Preventing Lice

• Keep hair up. Ponytails are good. Braids and buns are best.
• Don’t hug head-to-head.
• Do not use props in a photo booth that involve putting something on your head.
• Do not put hats, helmets, costume masks (on display in a store) on your head. Even if you're in the Happiest Place on Earth. Just don't do it.
• Keep your jacket away from others’. Don’t hang them next to one another or throw them in a pile. If your jacket has been in a pile next to another, do a quick check along the collar to make certain there aren’t any bugs on it before you put it on.
• Dry hair with HIGH HEAT. In the event a bug does get on you and lays eggs, the heat will kill both.
• Additionally, high heat works as a preventative measure as well. I’ll gamble on high heat over tea tree oil any day.

Best Tips for Getting Rid of Lice on Heads

Caveat: if you are working with an infested head, do the shampoo and use the lice comb. It’s a good start to getting things under control. Follow the directions on the container. After the initial shampoo and combing, the real work will begin.

After the initial cleaning you should check the head twice a day. I did it in the morning and in the early evening. Get your kit ready before you start combing.

My LICE KIT includes the following:

• Rattail Comb
• Lice Comb (occasional use)
• Hair Clips
• Water Bottle
• Paper Towels
• Blow Dryer for HIGH HEAT. Even though I was picking out my daughter's hair, I didn’t dry it afterwards. That is the key to killing the eggs and bugs. Once I started to dry her hair - and I would dry it so hot that I couldn’t touch it - the nightmare came to an end.

Also keep in mind:

• If you can “flick” it off, it’s not an egg/nit.
• Eggs/nits are easier to see if the hair is damp.
• Eggs/nits are easier to see on blond/light hair. If you are working with dark hair, I highly recommend spraying the hair down. It helps with seeing the nits as well as controlling the different sections of hair.
• Eggs/nits are sticky. You will find them near the scalp. The easiest way to get them off is to pinch the egg between two fingers and drag it down the hair. It will stay stuck on the hair unless you make certain to pull it completely off.
• Have a paper towel ready to transfer the nits from your fingers to the towel.
• Don’t mix the hair you’ve just combed through with hair that hasn’t been combed through. I know that sounds basic, but long hair can be a challenge; avoid mixing. Use clips to keep the hair separate and make sure lice do not have an opportunity to scurry to a darker/shaded section of hair while you’re working in another part. It happened to me. I flipped a section and once the louse was exposed to the light it scurried to a dark part. I lost the bug and was unable to find it; even though I saw exactly where it went.

Best Tips for Getting Rid of Lice in Your House (you probably don't have any but just in case)

Don’t panic on this one. I didn’t freak out and wash everything in sight. But I would recommend the following:

• Wash all bedding.
• Wash jackets.
• Wash all combs, brushes, etc. and keep them separate from others’.
• Change the infested person’s pillowcase every two days.
• Place infected towels and clothes in a separate pile and wash separately.

Your couches and chairs are fine. Your pets are fine, too. You don’t need to do anything special for these. Yes, they sell lice spray. No, it doesn’t really do anything except give you the illusion you are “doing something”. Save your time and money.

Final Thoughts

If I had to go through this experience again, I am confident that I would be much quicker with removal and prevention. If I had the time, I would do the same routine but add the heat in after every comb out (at least twice a day). If it happened when I didn't have time, I would pay the money to get the head professionally cleaned. In either scenario, I would use the high heat every day.

If you are one of the unfortunate souls who has to personally endure a lice infestation, you have my sympathy. I've been there, done that, and I'd rather I didn't have the t-shirt.