Teaching High School During A Pandemic

How to maintain efficacy and assuage anxiety amidst growing uncertainty

The classroom has always been a safe place to raise questions, voice concerns, challenge the status quo and strengthen the voices of our students. This past week, however, it’s been a hub of anxious activity and conversations all revolving around the same topic: COVID-19. The concept that kids are sponges for both information and emotion doesn’t stop when they reach adolescence. In high schools across the country, secondary education teachers were already combatting the rising levels of anxiety and depression within their classroom walls before there was a pandemic on the 5 o’clock news.

While there is no surefire strategy or method that will simultaneously perpetuate higher thinking while enforcing good hygiene and lessening anxious thoughts, there are a few tactics that can be used to maintain the classroom community we’ve worked so hard to build.

1. Reassurance: In a situation such as this, there are few things worse than acting out of a place of widespread fear. It is our job as education professionals to validate their feelings AND remind them of the facts and health practices that are lifesaving whether or not we are facing a pandemic. We are doing everything within our power to protect their safety and promote their education. No matter what, we will show up to teach and to learn, whether in our classroom desks or at our kitchen tables. Reassure kids of our commitment to them as students and as people; as teenagers, they may not express how much they need to hear it. They do.
2. Redirection: It would be negligent not to acknowledge the current crisis we are all facing and the uncertainty that comes with it; but we must not allow our classrooms to become the breeding ground for panic. This is the time to become hyper-vigilant about limiting cellphone usage and stepping up our role as facilitators of the conversation. Allow space to acknowledge the concerns and address the details with the facts, then move on. When you notice the conversation drifting back to the latest updates, redirect the dialogue by posing new questions relating to your content, assigning creative projects that require higher-level thinking and kinesthetic learning (move your body, change your mind after all), introducing paired texts/media to elevate the material in a way that requires a mindset shift for all. You can even think about taking your class outside, to the library or to another classroom if you’re able to: a change in scenery is an incredibly effective redirection strategy. Again, we are not to ignore what is happening, but we are not to plant ourselves there, either.
3. Re-evaluation: Best practices should always be re-evaluated to ensure all standards are being reached, particularly in these circumstances. Now is the best time to test out that Zoom conferencing you’ve been putting off. Revisit a few tech applications that you’ve used to enhance your class like Padlet, Edpuzzle, Quizlet and Flipgrid to see how they can play a larger part in online learning. Spend some time on CommonLit.org and NoRedInk.com to research paired texts that can double as assessments. While not the best of circumstances, this could be an incredible opportunity to reach your students in a way that is new to both you AND them. We’ve spent the majority of our careers instilling in them the belief that the world is their classroom- now, it really can be! Use it to your advantage.

The current climate is fraught with tension, and rightfully so. It calls for vigilance, organization and a clear head. It just so happens those are all qualities indicative of a good teacher.