Now that we all have interacted with the students in our respective classes, in one way or another, how do you evaluate their mental health? In addition, how has your cooperating teacher’s mental health been? Do you feel that this virtual and/or hybrid teaching structure has affected the mental health of both students and teachers? What makes you say that? Are you looking forward to teaching these students next semester? Are you preparing for a virtual teaching delivery? How are you doing that and how are you doing mentally?
I feel like it's hard for me to gauge how well the students are reacting emotionally. I only see 3-4 every week and they're happy to be in school, but the ones online are harder. They're only online for about 30 minutes for 3-4 different periods so that is 2 hours total I see them. Majority of them aren't on camera and that affects how I see they're doing emotionally. My teacher has been through a lot in the past year in her personal life so this just adds on top of it. I feel bad for her, and I support her and try to take the burden off her as much as I can. Her own kids are suffering academically from being online so she worries about their education a lot as well as her own students. I personally don't look forward to teaching next semester because this is not the ideal situation to be teaching in. My cooperating teacher feels bad for incoming teachers because this is not what we would be doing on a normal day. It's hard to listen to all these kids coming from one speaker and so I have to force mute some kids which in turn could affect their confidence in the class. I would hate for that to happen just because I was trying to hear one student over another. I don't believe virtual is a hard delivery by any means though and I believe my age/generation works in my favor. I don't get frustrated with technology compared to my teacher because I understand it. I've created back up sites in case one fails because I know tech can be glitchy. I'm mentally exhausted from the demands coming from school, work, my physical health, and my social life. It's harder to manage all of these and now that we're down to the wire, I feel like there's a ginormous weight on my shoulders to do well and to get work in on time. Even though we're in a pandemic, I still have to go out and work and sometimes it's hard when people assume you're on the computer all day to get work done when it's not the case at all.
ReplyDeletethis is Kathryn's post. I don't know why it didn't show my name.
DeleteHonestly, the students that come into school seem okay. They are in the class and want to be there. It is harder to know about the remote students because we are not interacting with them as much. We can see when they get frustrated at times but overall, it is hard to know how they are doing with their mental health. I think we can assume most if not all teachers are struggling a bit. This is a lot more work for them and I know my cooperating teacher talks about how she has to prepare a lot more than usual since she has students remote and in person. I can say I am struggling when it comes to mental health. I just feel completely drained from this semester trying to keep up with school work, observations, and work. I think this is the hardest semester yet and I feel like I never have one day to relax. I can confidently say we are all struggling in any aspect of education at least a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI have said this before, but it is beyond words how much my cooperating teacher and I thank the lord for the students we have this year. We talk constantly about how much fun this year would have been if the students were able to be in the classroom. Many students are very engaged even in the virtual learning and find ways to communicate with each other in the break times they have between class blocks. There are some students that we think are just not benefiting from the virtual learning academically, but most of these students have stability and still manage to show interest in school and learning though they are not getting the best quality instruction with technology being the contingency. My cooperating teacher in the school is known as "Queen of Kindergarten," and for very good reasons. Not only is her plethora of experience valuable to the school, but her calm, cool and collected personality shows strength and resilience. She never has given me a reason to feel anxious because as long as she is not, that is a sign that everything is fine. Apparently after January 25th, the district of Newark is planning for Hybrid as of now. We are really hoping we can get in the classroom as long as it is safe for both teachers and students. Regardless of however instruction carries on next semester, I love my group of students and I can not wait to teach them. I am doing good mentally. Other than the amount of times I have talked to myself out loud about the work I need to do and the induced anxiety I had three weeks ago, I am fairly good mentally. How I maintain a good mental health involves practices of self-reflection, brewing herbal teas, aromatherapy, skincare routines, and talking with friends more so that they can sometimes help me notice if I have not been myself recently because I trust them to point it out to me.
ReplyDeleteThis is Dennis by the way... again.
ReplyDeleteIn general I worry a lot about the mental health of the students I am observing. In terms of the students who come to the school I feel like sometimes they don't seem happy or like they are "all there" because I think they are struggling with being on Chromebooks all day in school and when they get home in order to complete homework. It is a lot of screen time. In general I feel like the students who come to class are a lot less stressed and are more happy than those who are fully remote. From what I can tell the fully remote students seem to worry a lot more about completing assignments because they aren't in class to ask questions and get direct help from the teacher. While she does have office hours, getting help over the computer is way different than getting it in person. In terms of the mental health of my teacher I think she is frustrated with how many students aren't completing all of their work because they are fully remote or don't feel like going on their computers again after the school day is over. Although I will say that throughout this whole thing she has handled teaching the students using the hybrid form of scheduling very effectively and is great at using technology. I am looking forward to teaching these students next semester, however I am very worried about what will happen if instruction is completely remote. While I am able to effectively teach them during hybrid instruction I worry that I won't be as effective if we go completely remote. Hopefully working together with my cooperative teacher will prepare me more for that possibility. It is going to take a lot of working together and her giving me guidance on how she was able to do it the last half of last school year. Personally I am very mentally drained and just so tired. I constantly just sit on the computer and it seems as though work is never ending. Just when I think I am done with work I realize I have so much more to do. It is so hard to stay motivated.
ReplyDeleteSince, the district I am in is doing a hybrid model every week we have a group of students in person and we have a group of students who are remote. With that being said it is very easy to compare the student’s attitudes and personalities at home vs in person. When the students are remote I am really worried about their mental health because you can tell the students are more distracted, stressed, and confused. When the students are online you can see they do not want to be sitting in front of a screen all day, they really want to physically interacting with children their own age. Also, since the class I am in is a kindergarten the students really do not know how to use their tablets, so they get really frustrated when they cannot do something like complete an assignment. Their personalities are so different though when they come into school. When the student are in person they are happier and they say multiple times a day how happy they are just to be there. I think this is because young children really just need to interact with others. In terms of the mental health of my cooperating teacher I think she is frustrated and overwhelmed because she tells me that she has so much more to do now because half the students are in school and half are at home. My cooperating teacher says she works nonstop and doesn’t have any time for herself at the moment. Even though, all this is going on I am looking forward to teaching these students next semester. However, I am very worried if instruction will go completely remote because I think it is a lot harder to teach when every student is at home. Also, personally I am having a hard time right now in terms of mental health because of everything that needs to get done this semester. It is really hard to keep up with school work and observations and I feel mentally and physically drained.
ReplyDeleteSince this school year has been completely remote in my district, I find that it has been very hard on both the students and the teacher. The students don't get to interact with the teacher or even their peers and academically are struggling. I feel that the students don't have the support they need and it is hard to tell how they are feeling when it comes to school in general. Most of the day we are trying to get as much material covered as possible but it is also hard since a lot of them get distracted from what is going around them at home. Both me and my cooperating teacher have said that we would love to get to see them in person so we can be able to help them even more one on one and making sure they are not getting too overwhelmed. My cooperating teacher has definitely seemed frustrated at times and I have experienced it as well since it is not typical to learn in a remote environment. She has a good way of making sure her students don't see that she is frustrated and stressed because they will just make the students even more unmotivated. I can say that even though we have been virtual my cooperating teacher has involved me in their daily schedule and lessons that the students are comfortable with having me around as I am their second teacher. I am looking forward to being with them next semester since I have created a unique bond with these students. All of my observations have been virtual and any lesson I have taught so far so I feel that I will be prepared if it comes that we are still remote next semester.
ReplyDeleteMentally the situation we are in right now is a lot for anyone. For the my Kindergarten students they do have instances where you can see their anxiety. The other day is observations, my ELL student broke down and cried because she was not exactly getting the material. This little girl is working so hard in school, I wish she had more of an opportunity to be more immersed in the language. I am shocked at how well she is doing, nevertheless it is so hard on her mentally. Right now, I feel that there is no actual solution to this issue and again we have to adapt to the students needs. My cooperating teacher never shows the students how stressed she is throughout the day. But I know that the hybrid model is overwhelming her and she wishes she could do more. Overall, it is a difficult situation, but I feel like showing kindness and understanding will ease this stress in general!
ReplyDeleteJessica Kellenbach: I think that everyone is going through a lot during these times. In my classroom setting we go over everyones feelings everyday which I think is a great way to make sure. that spirits are high in the classroom. Personally, I think that my mental health and my cooperating teachers mental health is definitely something that we have to work on a bit harder this semester. We take a lot of brain breaks and designate some time throughout the week for the children to do something that makes them happy. I think that these are some things that can contribute to having good head space.
ReplyDeleteJessica Kellenbach
DeleteKayla Sanderson : I think mentally, this semester was a huge struggle for me. It was very hard to balance school life online while having to figure out how to student teach online. I think being able to stay on top of assignments was very difficult and really understanding the lectures was also difficulty. From this, I could not imagine how students in elementary school are feeling. I think they are probably feeling very isolated and confused. Socialization is very important in elementary school and these children are not getting that at all.
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