By Orfelina Cisneros

Earlier this week I shared how you can use affirmations and practicing gratitude as part of your self-care routine . There is no doubt that the past year has been challenging to handle for many of us educators; we feel isolated and lonely and limited on the things we can do. Despite that, it is a new season for a fresh start and new opportunities to move forward and make the best choices we can at this time. Self-care supports all dimensions of wellness, and if we add daily rituals to our daily self-care practices, we will be happier, positive, and purposeful with our lives. Today, I bring you two additional strategies I’ve used to support staff and students during the pandemic:

Journaling
Journaling has the benefit of collecting our thoughts, and it is an easy way to let go of things you can’t change. There is not any specific way for journaling besides allowing your mind to unpack by writing down your thoughts. This practice is not limited to any particular topic, and you don’t need an agenda besides a few minutes at any time that works for you. One simple way is to start with the questions: What do I want? What do I need? The rest will be up to how much time you can invest in allowing your thoughts to dissolve while writing. Just getting started on journaling? Here’s a great website to help you as you begin: https://www.developgoodhabits.com/what-write-journal/

Kind Notes
Sending a written note is one of the most significant ways to connect with others. Sending others words of encouragement and support is something that no one can have enough of. Sometimes sharing how we feel and caring about others is the best kind thing we can do for ourselves. Many of us have felt isolated during quarantine, and writing kind notes is a simple way to connect and engage with others, as well as build our sense of belonging. A message to appreciate others can be someone you know or a stranger you wish to send loving-kindness. You can find out more about kind notes here: https://jenniferbelthoff.com/love-notes

Have you used journaling or kind notes as self-care within your school community? As you celebrate Educator Appreciation Week, how have you been encouraging self-care? We’d love to learn from your experiences! Leave a note in the comments or find us on Twitter @InclusiveEdNY

About Orfelina
Orfelina Cisneros is a professional school counselor working at the Academy of the City Charter Middle School. She is passionate about helping children and adults use social-emotional tools and strategies to become aware of managing emotions and feelings to support their daily self-care practices. Feel free to reach out at ocisneros@academyofthecity.org

By Anna Reeve

It’s Educator Appreciation Week and educators truly deserve appreciation right now. The 2020-2021 school year has turned out to be a school year unlike any other for students across the country. In New York City, we’ve seen schools open, close, open again, not open and stay remote – our school communities are being called to display more flexibility and adaptivity than ever before.

With so much constant change, it’s important that students feel some sense of routine and stability. Conducting a morning meeting – even virtually – every single morning helps to support students emotionally as they start the day. In a virtual context, morning meeting becomes even more important to support students in feeling a sense of significance and belonging and creating a safe space where every student feels included. When done best, morning meeting also sets a fun and positive tone for the day and motivates reluctant students to logon to online learning on time.

Here are a few quick tips to creating a strong virtual morning meeting:

• Start your morning meeting by playing music – you can survey your students to find out their favorite songs and as they log on and hear a song playing, they have to guess whose favorite song is playing.
• Have a riddle on the screen when students log on so that they have something fun to think about as they wait for classmates to log on.
• Create a “virtual carpet” with student photos to simulate the order of a greeting.
• Use breakout rooms for share questions to simulate turn and talks.
• Include movement and whole class participation for group activities as they are adapted to a virtual context.
• Choose an SEL competency to focus on each month and create share questions, group activities, and morning messages around this theme.

Check out this montage of morning meeting clips from Brooklyn Prospect Downtown Elementary School and for ideas of even more virtual group activities, click here.

Remember, the same way our adult morning routines help prepare us physically, socially, emotionally, and mentally prepare for the day, in remote learning, we can support students similarly through strong morning meetings!

Which idea(s) would you like to “steal” for your own practice? How have you been creating community in your classrooms? Let us know in the comments or on our Twitter!

Anna has worked as a special education teacher, coordinator, and dean for over a decade. She provides resources and professional development to schools with a focus on literacy instruction and culturally responsive practices. She is also currently a literacy specialist and coach with Brooklyn Prospect Charter School.