12-4-09

Certain days in teaching are just golden.  I don’t know if there is any other profession where the ebb and flow of the days is so seasonal and so spectacular.

There are jitters and apprehension in the beginning of the school year: the getting to know you phase. Throughout those days the teacher and her students are in the beginning of an important relationship.  Each hopes that the other is accepting and non-judgmental.

Then in October, a familiarity begins and learning and teaching really begin to jive.  Teachers and students have established a basic trust, and hopefully respect for each other as people. There is a familiarity that allows us to become part our students’ lives for awhile.

In November, we can really hit our stride because we know, accept, trust and can then lead students to new areas of discovery and knowledge.  This is the time of year that is golden. There is an easy familiarity with the routine and the classroom expectations and then something just clicks: students are turned onto an idea, a pathway, or a paradigm.  Teachers can see it in their faces, can read it in their papers and can uncover it in the discussions in class. A golden moment where they GET IT.

In my writing class, this moment came when we were assembling our list of gratitude. I was modeling for them, what I am grateful for. This age old lesson happens just before Thanksgiving.  They groaned when they found out the assignment, apparently they were familiar with it and didn’t like to think about gratitude all that much.

So after each person got finished writing the usual items on the list (family, friends, pets) I added an extension. Now they had to tell why and they had to keep going. Three items were just not enough. More groans. Groaning is a good thing to my teacher ears. It tells me that I am charting new territory and pushing them a little farther each time. I grin at groans.

So my list kept getting longer. I am grateful for waking up each day, for my legs so that I can walk, for the clean water that I drink so that I can stay healthy and for the lady bug that landed on my nose the other day which reminded me of the richness and diversity of nature. I am grateful for music because it sooths my soul and for movies that make me think and for the opera which reminds me that good stories are eternal.

When I got to number 25 on my list they were ignoring me and busy working on their own lists. They were thinking about their own lives in a way that was new and revealing.  They asked me if they could be grateful for God (of course!) and for the little things (of course!).  They admitted reluctantly to being grateful for siblings even if they did fight with them and for parents even if they did disagree.

By writing lists of gratitude and considering exactly what was important in each of their lives, they were able to reveal to themselves the essence of their own character and their own richness and goodness, a lesson that I hope will transcend this season and this year: a golden lesson that will help them establish an attitude of gratitude.  With this kind of self reflection, building self-esteem, creating self-awareness and allowing them to grow, we can rest easy knowing that there is hope in the world. Just look in the faces of our children.

11-27-09

When shopping for children this season it would be wise to gift them with toys that serve a dual purpose: to get them thinking and to expose them to new worlds. Yes, toys can be educational and the best toys really are educational in nature. Remember the Rubik’s cube?  Remember Parcheesi?  My mom’s favorite, Chinese Checkers? Lots of brain power needed to maneuver these toys.

While games, dolls and action figures do allow for some fantasy play, there is always room on the list for good books and music.  If you don’t have The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson or The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg then order these immediately to enjoy before Christmas. Reading to children during a busy season can sooth everyone’s soul so take time and make it a priority.

In the music department, Raffi’s Christmas CD and the Christmas with the Chipmunk’s are classics. Remember Dave trying to get control of Alvin? Even though The Chipmunk’s have several movies to their credit, the songs are really the classic.  Music can be a welcome addition while riding in the car or getting dinner ready and can encourage family sing-alongs.

A classic toy that is simple and fun is the Melissa and Doug Magnetic Wooden Alphabet. No refrigerator is complete without this colorful set of generously sized wooden magnets that include lower and uppercase letters. Creating words and phrases is so simple yet so helpful to emerging readers. This is a great place to start when you don’t know what to get for a toddler.

Toys have gone techie and many actually simulate technology. Short of handing a baby a cell phone, there are amazing toys that light up and ring just like real cell phones. Digital cameras for tikes? Yep! Allowing us to look at the world from a junior perspective, digital cameras are a hot ticket even for young children this holiday season!

VTech offers a phone that babies can dial. This toy can help children learn their numbers, colors, sounds and shapes. The ad reads that “with the press of a button, the light-up screen magically changes images activities. Realistic phone sounds and conversational phrases give baby a fun role-play experience. Automatic shut-off preserves battery life.”

Want your baby to be connected? You may consider Vtech’s Baby’s Learning Laptop!  The description reads, “Your little one will be wired for learning with Baby’s Learning Laptop! The colorful keyboard interacts with the bright light-up screen to teach shapes, common objects and feelings. Entertaining sound effects, melodies and a moveable mouse round out the fun. Three modes of play teach shapes, common objects, feelings and music. The light-up screen interacts with a colorful keyboard and a moveable mouse sized for little hands.” Clever toy designers included a volume control switch for quieter play, just what mom and dad need at times.

There are many game systems that claim to be educational and probably do offer some degree of worthiness. Leap Frog has a system that is portable with interchangeable games suitable for ages 4-8. With a touch screen and a volume control, the Leap Frog offers the option of pre-loaded games or on-line play.  They have certificates for completing different levels of play and printed pictures to color, an old-fashioned form of play!

Speaking of crayons, toys that allow for creativity are high on my list. Markers, paint, pictures and clay can round out a great gift list. These are toys that can lead to life-long learning and inspire children to reach out in new directions.

Children across our state will be dressing up this week in strings of noodle beads, paper bag vests and construction paper pilgrim hats to celebrate a time of peace and thanksgiving. When we give thanks and show our children how grateful we are for the bounty that we share, we model for them the very core of the American values of honesty, integrity and gratitude.

This is a time to create your own rituals as families gather around the table to share food, stories and laughter. Here is an Indian Prayer that may fit into your day.

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, with sustains us.

We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water.

We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.

We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters, the beans and squash, which give us life.

We return thanks to the bushes and trees, which provide us with fruit.

We return thanks to the wind, which, moving the air, has banished diseases.

We return thanks to the moon and the stars, which have given us their light when the sun was gone.

We return thanks to our grandfather He-no, that he has protected his grandchildren from witches and reptiles, and has given to us his rain.

We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.

Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children.

Another Thanksgiving Prayer that is said to be of Indian origin from 1stHolistic.com. This one has a line in it that is particularly striking. Look for the line that tells children that there is perfection in each one of us.

Thanksgiving Prayer

Great and Eternal Mystery of Life, Creator of All Things, I give thanks for the beauty You put in every single one of Your creations.

I am grateful that You did not fail in making every stone, plant, creature, and human being a perfect and whole part of the Sacred Hoop.

I am grateful that You have allowed me to see the strength and beauty of All My Relations.

My humble request is that all of the Children of Earth will learn to see the same perfection in themselves.

May none of Your human children doubt or question Your wisdom, grace, and sense of wholeness in giving all of Creation a right to be living extensions of Your perfect love.

Children need to take part in the Thanksgiving celebration. Aside from assigning jobs in the kitchen, it may be fun to try to make turkey crafts using paper plates, crayons and glue. Go to http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/thanksgiving.html to check out the many turkey projects.

Just a simple paper chain can be a significant project that can last throughout the holidays.  Take strips of construction paper and have each family member write on it what he/she is thankful for then link them together. This gesture and others during the holidays are full of meaning and delight for children.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my readers, the Cape Gazette staff and Dennis and Trish for your support and inspiration. Not a week goes by that I am not in awe of the generous and consistent support that is shown to me. I am grateful for your attention and I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Date of Publication: Nov 13, 2009

A Vet’s Poem and Education Week

Recently a friend’s father passed away, his name was William J. Didycz and he was a   Korean War Veteran.  He was a complex man who loved his country and his family. In honor of him and all the Veterans here is a beautiful poem that he wrote.

I Pray by William J. Didycz

I pray for the day when there is not a need for a Department of War or Defense, only a Department of Peace.

I pray for the day when war is recognized as the most horrible, wasteful, inhuman act of mankind.

I pray for the day when war is not armed conflict, but a competition of good deeds.

I pray for the day when all countries have a bill of rights guaranteeing freedom of thought, speech, and actions that do not violate the rights of others.

I pray for the day when soldiers are armed only with tools of construction.

I pray for the day when conflicts are solved by people who recognize that punitive force is never the correct way.

I pray for the day when people understand that they can solve mankind’s problems and have the courage to pursue those goals.

I pray for the day when the greatest blasphemy is to hate and rail against others for their appearance, or their thoughts of their God and an afterworld.

I pray for the day when people, in invoking their God, realize that they are all addressing the same entity, only by a different name.  For how can there be more than one such all powerful, all knowing, entity?

Amen

On another note, it’s time to celebrate schools!  Next week is the 88th annual American Education Week, November 15-21. This is an opportunity for parents to visit schools and celebrate public education, remembering that there are still difficult issues to be worked out, but choosing to honor the people who are making a difference every day in the lives of children.

As a nation, we can celebrate great public schools and education for all students. Recently my class did a project where they had to research the literacy rates in other countries. The results were astonishing!  Many countries have less than half of their population not able to read and they have no continuous form of education for all students. My students could not believe that education is not a basic right for others in our world and how much the society suffers from it.

American Education week was designed to honor the work and craft of teachers and support staff.

Parents are really the first teachers and are encouraged to be partners in education. The home is a classroom from birth to age five. Many important messages about learning and schools are sent from parent to child.  Parents who work with teachers and students are critical partners in helping their child achieve success. When parents are interested in education, engaged and supportive then the child is more likely to succeed.

National Education Association offers this advice: parents can make learning real and ensure that students understand the importance of achieving.

Here are a few ways to help your kids:

* Read with your children regularly. Encourage them to read.

* Let your children know that homework is their job. Make sure they do it.

* Volunteer at your child’s school.

* Get to know your child’s teacher. Attend parent-teacher conferences.

* Discuss safety issues openly. Help make sure there aren’t barriers to learning.

Checklist:

* Do you read with your child regularly?

* Do you talk with your child about homework assignments?

* Have you volunteered at your child’s school?

* Do you know your child’s teacher and have you been to the parent-teacher conference?

* Do you know what your child thinks about the school environment?

Teachers and parents can work together to do an outstanding job in bringing education to all children in our nation.

For too long teachers have stood on the sidelines listening to the debate that is being waged between politicians and the business community in this state and across the nation.  Every week the headlines scream at us with negative, critical commentary about what is going wrong in public education. They blame teachers for everything: low test scores, poor graduation rate, lack of progress, and every other manner of malady that they can conjure up.

They want to fix us!  Imagine that!  Big business and government want to come into our schools and tell us how to make education better.  When was the last time you walked into a corporate office and demanded to review the books and revise the plan?  Too presumptuous? Or are you just too busy teaching children every day?

“Ah, excuse me Mr. Banker – we don’t like the way that you are running this bank and the profits are dreadfully low, so move over and we will take command.”

Wait a minute – government and our bailout money just did that out of necessity when the banks failed!  Let’s see, why did the banks and lending institutions fail? Market conditions? The weak economic environment? Come, on, are these really conditions that we can believe or are they just making excuses?

Let’s fix the banks! Let’s fix businesses! Teachers and educators could put together an organization that becomes a watchdog, creating buzz and rethinking the very core of their organizations! Then we can throw a tiny bit of money at a few of them and demand that they conform to strict standards while cutting their pay and reducing their benefits.

Yet here we are with the federal government coming up with another program, Race to the Top, which will dump huge sums of money for a limited amount of time on a few states that jump through a series of tiny hoops.  The Delaware Department of Education is in hot pursuit of this grant money with the business community, the governor, and the conservative media pushing hard and campaigning wildly. Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, just appeared at a Vision 2015 conference in Newark, Delaware last week to pump up the volume on this debate.

The problem is that the money is not being directed into areas that will have a lasting impact on schools and children. The money is being directed at more, testing, reliance on testing data, and ever restrictive models for curriculum delivery and testing strategies.

Teachers know what we need for children to succeed and we know that all of the issues that surround the schools do not have to do strictly with educators and test scores.  Let’s look at pre-school preparedness, literacy in the homes, creating manageable class sizes with big blocks of time to get the job done.

Schools are a microcosm of our society. Students and their families are suffering from chronic unemployment or underemployment, unsustainable living wages, lack of affordable health care, lack of focus on basic reading and writing in the home, and parents who are distracted with the everyday chore of just surviving.

Teachers need to take back the microphone, take back the newspaper editorials, and make our voices heard above the scuffle.  We have valuable knowledge that can lead to authentic solutions for our children, our schools and our communities even in tough economic times. In this national and state arena, teachers should summon the will and resolve to push back, reframe the dialogue, and chart a new direction.

Jazz Festival Music

Want to impress students and keep it real? Bring on the music!

Music is a language that we can all speak and a voice that is both historic and timeless. Students in my class absolutely love to listen to music while they are writing and working.  Everyone has a favorite genre and style, but students need and rightly deserve to listen to music and to learn about the musical roots of rock, funk, jazz and swing. The history of music is intertwined with the history of our country and it tells a tale of deep sorrow, ecstatic joy and uncompromising hope.

Mainly though, our lives are richer because of music.

The Rehoboth Beach Autumn Jazz Festival brings great musicians to our area and allows our spirits to soar. This was the 20^th anniversary of the Jazz festival and the bands and performers did not disappoint the crowds of music lovers who showed up to hear them play.  Even though the days were soggy, inside the convention center the jazz was smokin’.

My two favorites were Dave Koz and Brian Culbertson.

It’s no surprise that research revealed that the backgrounds of these two musicians were deeply involved in music from an early age and that music education played a significant part in developing their gifts.

David Koz’s Wikipedia biography states, “From early age, he and his sister took piano lessons.”My mom basically forced my sister and me to play piano from when we were toddlers. I hated piano; I was never any good at it. But I have to thank her now for making me do it, because I write most of my songs on the piano.” Around age nine, he began taking drum lessons, but notes that he was not very good at drums, “I am the world’s worst drummer. I could not keep time to save my life.” At age 13, his brother, Jeff, had a band that Dave wanted to be in, but his brother told him over and over that there was no way he could be in it. Dave eventually wore him down, and his brother told him that the only way he could be in the band was if he could play the saxophone, because their band did not have a saxophonist. That was all he needed to hear. Two years later, he was in the band and working gigs with the band and by himself.”

“Dave attended William Taft High School in Woodland Hills California, performing on saxophone as a member of the school jazz band. He later graduated from UCLA with a degree in mass communication in 1986, and only weeks after his graduation, decided to make a go of becoming a professional musician. Within weeks of that decision, he was recruited as a member of Bobby Caldwell’s tour.” (taken from Wikipedia)

Brian Culbertson grew up with a dad who was a music educator. Brian’s website reveals that he was “inspired by his father, music educator Jim Culbertson. Brian Culbertson was a fast and fierce study of music, gravitating to all styles of dynamic music as long as it was expertly played by artists ranging from Chicago, David Sanborn and Sting to The Brecker Brothers and Maynard Ferguson. Since his 1994 debut Long Night Out, Brian has been credited with bringing a youthful yet no less masterful energy to popular instrumental music with hit albums and singles.”

Both musicians were passionate, skilled and truly masterful. No doubt that learning music from an early age can be the seeds that grow into something spectacular.

“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.”  ~Thomas Huxley

With lofty goals in mind, the state of Delaware’s superintendents launched an initiative: to change the nature of public education.  That was this year. Never mind that there seems to be a cycle of reform that rears its hopeful head every ten years or so: the same ideas in a shiny new package. This year the supers were going after those illusive high test scores. Their goal was to increase the scores and therefore they decided to adopt a program that helped reached students by changing the way teachers teach: Learning Focused Strategies.

The people who make decisions on how to spend money in Delaware on education are looking at a single test given in March as the end result of full years worth of instruction. The DOE website explains that as a result of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, “all states are required to conduct a federally approved annual assessment of all students in grades 3-8 and one high school grade.”

In Delaware, the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) is used to assess student knowledge in reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies if the state can come up with enough money to run the program.  Student results of each year’s DSTP assessment is then used as the primary means to determine school accountability ratings.

Other student learning indicators fall a short second to the DSTP results and are never really considered when looking at student achievement. The ratings given to schools chill the superintendent/administrators to the bone.  Not feeling as if there is a moment to waste in the quest for the esteemed rating of Superior (superior to whom?), the superintendents found a program that would work for them: Learning Focused Strategies and began to implement it this year. Apparently, Indian River School District has been working with this for many years and has seen some positive results.

So even though this is a very lean year for education in the state of Delaware and the teachers’ have been cut by five days of in-service time, some districts are implementing Max Thompson’s Learning Focused Strategies this year.  Never mind the fact that this program has so many similarities to other programs that have already been presented to teachers (and apparently abandoned) and are a part of good pedagogy.

Remember Madeline Hunter, CRISS, outcome based education? Reminisce with me. These programs had some good ideas!   Guided practice, anticipatory set, scaffolding!   Most teachers have a veritable file full of graphic organizers ready to be rushed into service at a moment’s notice!

The fact remains that most often these state mandated, top down, mandatory programs appear to change the culture initially but in the end they do little to make learning more effective on a sustained and profound basis for children. The programs are a stopgap solution to a serious question that seems to elude us – how can we increase authentic learning in our children as measured by a variety of instruments over a long period of time?

Parents across the region are taking to the fields to coach and watch as their children play favorite fall sports. When the weather is golden as it has been in the past few weeks, the local fields are full of soccer, baseball, hockey, lacrosse and football. Whether highly organized into leagues or just randomly thrown together, children and adults like to play. Recreation is one of the basics to living a healthy life so when parents encourage and support their children; they increase their chances to develop lifelong fitness skills.

It’s really quite simple. To be a better reader, one must read. To be a better runner, one must run.  To do something better, you must spend time and effort in that arena.

Last Sunday I watched my son play soccer at a field near Baltimore. This was a loosely organized game of adults, mostly graduate students who played because they loved the game and it made them feel great to get out and kick the ball.  That is the essence of keeping fit: to do something you love that involves using energy, burning calories and having fun. The part that keeps them coming back is the fun.

All week they are involved in work and going to classes so they must be able to spend long hours sitting and studying but on Sundays they stretch, they run, they work on foot skills and they play as a team, cooperating to get that goal.  As adults, the play is sometimes rough, and they tease each other for missing a shot or whiffing a kick, but for the most part, they are united against the opposition team and create a bond, a camaraderie that has infinite benefits beyond the field.

This game had an international flair. The graduate students from the University of Maryland hailed from all over the planet and included men and women. They were playing a team of Russian graduate students from a neighboring school. Comments were flying in all languages, perhaps a mix of encouragement, sarcasm and teasing. Who knows what was said, the important part is that they were all on a soccer field being part of the game.

When children learn skills in physical education classes, the hope is that they will carry them for life and that the skills will pay off in terms of health benefits. Not everyone will embrace competitive volleyball, but they may enjoy playing in the sand on the beach for fun. Children may not like doing exercises, but they may like splashing around in a swimming pool, or swimming in the bay. It’s just so much fun!

Recreation for life is the goal that is motivated by enjoyment. PE teachers and coaches alike, start something small that grows into a lifelong skill.  Students are motivated to get out and get going no matter what the event.  So when my son was four, he kicked his first soccer ball and now twenty one years later, he still enjoys the game.

Staying active, staying vital helps to enhance all of life. Parents who support their children at a young age need to feel good about starting something that is wonderfully fundamental.

When given a choice, teachers usually do what is best for children. If we see value in a program or new initiative, we agree to sign on and learn new methods that may be more effective for our children. There is no issue at all. We are all about improving our practice to reach children.

This year things are a bit different. Our in-service days have been cut out of the calendar due to the state’s financial crisis. Our pay has been cut and the time that we have at school to attend staff development has been severely compromised.  The day to day pressures of lesson plans, classroom management, grades and communication are still with us. Some of us teacher types (my high school colleagues) even face the added challenge of moving into a new building, getting acclimated, and dealing with lack of resources. (What – students don’t have chairs to sit in? No lockers assigned and it’s the second week of school?) The day to day pressures can be daunting!

We are keenly aware and committed to doing a good job day in and day out. At this point, the best we can do is to keep working hard to keep up with the multitude of programs that have already been established.  In education, it seems that each time there is an issue or a problem, someone throws a program at it (and probably makes a nice chunk of change doing it).

These improvement programs are aimed at changing teacher behavior. The programs rarely begin with teacher input and teacher concern: we live in a top down bureaucracy where the people who are closest to the problem are the last ones consulted on what to do.  Teachers’ voices are not heard in the planning stages of staff development. Teachers are simply given orders to learn the new THING and then we are held accountable. So we are commanded: teach this way and we will be in to watch and see that you do it!

What programs you ask? We have incentive programs for positive behavior and student career programs for helping them choose a career. We have fundraisers and assemblies to honor students who show improvement and achievement. We have fire drills, team meetings, staff meetings, new technology initiatives and after school tutoring to help raise our students’ DSTP scores. We have a new teacher evaluation system in which we are asked to set up individual goals for our school year. What will we do to improve our teaching and our test scores?

We set up parent conferences and special action plans for needy students. The array of initiatives that we sustain in one week is just staggering and as if that is not enough in this age of do more, with less time, less efficiently, and for less pay, the Cape District had added one more program to our list. This year we are to be instructed on and implement the Learning Focus program.

Hold the bus! One minute please! Didn’t we just implement the Understanding by Design program – I was just getting the hang of that – Big Questions and Enduring Understandings? What about the CRISS program – great graphic organizers and power notes?   I know we did because I have those manuals on my shelf. Some of the those strategies seemed good and I am just getting the hang of it, but now I have to rewrite my lesson plans in yet another format, reconfigure my teaching units and rethink my practice again? Please stop!

Change is good: too much change too quickly actually impedes progress. This year should be used to refine what we have and revisit what teachers believe we really need to move forward. 

Parents in Prison

Waiting for a pumpkin latte at my favorite coffee shop I overheard a group of teenage girls talking. Truly I do not purposefully eavesdrop on these conversations, but my teacher/journalistic radar was tweaked especially since this gave me insight into my students’ lives.

Three girls were talking.

“My father’s in prison but he’s supposed to get out soon. He was out on parole but got caught with a DUI and now he’s back in.  He’s really cool though.  He told me there is nothing that I could do that is worse than what he has done so he lets me do anything I want.  He’s really cool though.”

Wondering how many of my students face the same issue. How many children live with a single parent or no parent because of incarceration?  How does this affect their lives and their self esteem?  I cannot imagine coming to school every day and worrying about my mom or dad while trying to study and get good grades.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs updated a report written by Lauren E. Glaze and Laura M. Maruschak, in January of 2009 about parents in prison and their minor children. The statistics are staggering.

• Parents of minor children held in the nation’s prisons increased by 79% between 1991 and midyear 2007.

• The number of children under age 18 with a mother in prison more than doubled since 1991

In all likelihood, teachers see the children of incarcerated parents every day yet they often times are unaware and limited in knowhow. What can be done to help a child who is experiencing this loss?

• The majority of prisoners reported having a minor child, a quarter of which were age 4 or younger.

• More than a third of minor children will reach age 18 while their parent is incarcerated.

Very young children are growing up in single parent homes, sometimes with relatives and grandparents who already have limited financial resources.

• Drug and public-order offenders in state and federal prisons were more likely than violent offenders to have children.
• More than 4 in 10 mothers in state prison who had minor children were living in single-parent households in the month before arrest.
• About half of parents in state prison provided the primary financial support for their minor children.

Students experience trauma when sending a father or mother to prison and the uncertainty of not knowing when they will return.  Add to this the fact that the parent was most likely the breadwinner in the family and that drugs and addiction may likely be involved: children carry an unbearable burden.

• Fathers most commonly reported the child’s mother as current caregiver of their children, while mothers most commonly reported the child’s grandparents.

• More than three-quarters of state prison inmates who were parents of minor children reported that they had some contact with their children since admission.

• Mothers in state prison more likely than fathers to report homelessness, past physical or sexual abuse, and medical and mental health problems.

Children with parents in prison are likely to visit or write. There is a good chance that the parent/family has been homeless, or suffering from trauma.  It’s not difficult to imagine that these children come to school every day with a huge issue that no one ever talks about.  They may share bits and pieces with friends, but their emotional and psychological health is constantly challenged. Awareness and compassion will help teachers work with their students and get through these difficult times.