The Educators Going Global Learning Hub & Podcast continues to grow in followers as we post new resources to our library and interviews to our podcast feed. Audrey and I recently discussed resources non-international and international educators will find interesting. Two themes of the resources were teacher burnout and transitions.
Here is the episode link.
As noted in my previous post our students are returning on a rolling reentry over the next two weeks. The following is an activity that I shared out with teachers to assist in the reentry and reflection process.
Three R’s
With the hopeful reentry of our students to school, we have an opportunity to reconnect to help students reflect on their experiences and lessons learned during Virtual School. Here are a few possible discussion starter questions framed around the character strengths of emotional intelligence, self-control, and grit as well as growth mindset and accomplishment.
Please adapt to the developmental level of your students.
“How are you feeling about being back in regular school?”
“What were some feelings as in ups and downs that you experienced during Virtual School?”
“What did you miss most about regular school?”
“What were some ways that you grew as a learner during VS? How are you different now as a learner compared to when we started VS?”
“How can you apply some of the ways you grew as a learner to regular school? What will you do differently as a learner for the rest of the school year?”
“What are you thinking about now that we are back in school? What are some positives, some possible concerns, and some questions that you have?”
For our younger learners you might talk a bit more about what they did like about virtual school and whether there was a part of VS that they would like to continue (i.e. making videos of their learning, video read-alouds, sending messages to the teacher or class, etc.)
Did you know that there are no new cases of COVID-19 in Vietnam over the past few weeks? The western press is finally catching on to how well the Vietnamese government is managing this crisis. My hometown Washington Post had an article just yesterday highlighting the efforts of the populace and government.
Why do I bring this topic up? Our students will begin the process of returning to school this Monday. We are overjoyed and ready to welcome our elementary students back in a rolling return. In preparation for their return, our elementary psychologist put the following write-up together for our staff as we work to support the transition of our students back into our classrooms.
Helping Students Deal with Negative Emotions in the Classroom
As with any new or difficult situation, children may need support and guidance to work through negative emotions. Following are some brief actions teachers can take, that make big differences to students’ well-being. More detailed guidelines for the following actions can be found here.
Talk about emotions
When you notice the emotion, acknowledge and empathize before doing anything else
Have a plan for “When I’m not feeling good” – discussed and visually presented in the classroom
Help children identify their support people and encourage children to communicate with them
Praise, acknowledge, and reward brave and calm behavior
For further tips on reducing negative emotions, refer to the Emotion Coaching handouts for teachers and parents:
Emotion Coaching steps – Chinese (coming soon)
Talking with Students about COVID-19
The following guidelines are intended to support teachers with their initial class/advisory lesson with students when they return to campus. Sections are divided into grade ranges (EC-KG, G1-5, G6-8, G9-12).
Please note that some strategies for older children may still be applicable to younger grades (and vice versa). Use your professional judgment and knowledge of your student’s level of understanding and maturity to select the most appropriate strategies.
Early Childhood and Kindergarten
Focus on communicating good health behaviors, such as covering coughs and sneezes with the elbow and washing hands. See more on how to avoid the risk of infection here.
One of the best ways to keep children safe from coronavirus and other diseases is to simply encourage regular handwashing, for at least 20 seconds. It doesn’t need to be a scary conversation. Sing along with The Wiggles or follow this dance to make learning fun. See more on handwashing here.
Develop a way to track how children are washing their hands and find ways to reward them for frequent/timely hand washing.
Use puppets or dolls to demonstrate symptoms (sneezing, coughing, fever), what to do if children feel sick (like if their head hurts, their stomach hurts, or if they feel hot or extra tired), and how to comfort someone who is sick (cultivating empathy and safe caring behaviors).
When it’s circle time, have children sit farther apart from one another by practicing stretching their arms out or ‘flapping their wings’ – they should keep enough space between each other so that they are not touching their friends.
Grades 1-5
Make sure to listen to children’s concerns and answer their questions in an age-appropriate manner; don’t overwhelm them with too much information. Encourage them to express and communicate their feelings. Discuss the different feelings they may be experiencing and explain that these are normal reactions to an abnormal situation.
Emphasize that children can do a lot to keep themselves and others safe. For example, introduce the concept of social distancing (standing further away from friends, avoiding large crowds, not touching people if they don’t need to, etc.). Also, focus on good health behaviors, such as covering coughs and sneezes with the elbow and washing hands. See more on how to avoid the risk of infection here.
Help children understand the basic concepts of disease prevention and control. Use exercises that demonstrate how germs can spread. For example, you can put colored water in a spray bottle and spray it on a piece of white paper, then observe how far the droplets travel.
Demonstrate why it’s so important to wash hands for 20 seconds with soap. For example, put a small amount of glitter in a student’s hands and have them wash them with just water and notice how much glitter remains. Then have them wash for 20 seconds with soap and water and see how the glitter is gone.
Have students analyze texts to identify high-risk behaviors and suggest ways to change them. For example, a teacher comes to school with a cold. He sneezes and covers it with his hand. He shakes hands with a colleague. He wipes his hands afterward with a handkerchief, then goes to class to teach. What did the teacher do that was risky? What should he have done instead?
Sources:
https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/how-teachers-can-talk-children-about-coronavirus-disease-covid-19
I continue to work with one of our Grade 5 teachers to design and teach lessons to assist our fifth graders in their transition to Middle School. Our first lessons were on identifying the stages of change and transition that the students are experiencing now regarding virtual school. Today’s lesson had them sharing what they know and don’t know (questions) for Middle School. Their learning opportunity for next week is to write up the stages of change and transition that they think they will go through while listing the emotions they might experience. One of the learning outcomes is to assist students in gathering information about Middle School while applying their newly gained self-understanding about how they experience change and transition. Here is a screen capture of the Padlet we used in the virtual lesson.
I am recording videos for each of the lessons which are embedded in the Google Doc lesson write-ups. Once we pilot each lesson, the teacher and I make changes and then send the doc to the other teachers for them to teach.
I am working with one of our Grade 5 teachers to deliver lessons to assist his students in the processing of their feelings as they are experiencing virtual school. We introduced the stages of change and transition and then had the students spend time recording their thinking and connected feelings as they went through each stage. As we are in our third month of virtual school, the students report that they are now in the final acceptance stage of virtual school.
We know that virtual school really benefits some students who would not normally speak up in class. Having control over time and being able to carefully craft their thoughts to be shared through tools like Padlet can be beneficial for many. We finished our lesson today with a whole class anonymously share out of their thoughts and feelings experienced during VS. We completed the lesson with students using the chat feature in Google Meets to point out patterns in responses and other lessons learned.
Here is a partial screenshot of the Padlet board. I think it is pretty clear that the students put in some time to reflect and acknowledge their individual experiences going through virtual school.
Rick Pierce supports Hsinchu International School in multiple ways as we grow and develop as a learning community. He recently started blogging, as I needed help finding many blogs to read on educational leadership. You must love it when someone sees a need and jumps in to try something new.
I responded to one of Rick’s posts as it applied to leadership in international schools. Here is a direct link to Rick’s excellent post, followed by my comment.
As Jeff and I continue our discussion on the SOS podcast about how to help schools make the shift, Rick hits the mark on what I think is the number one factor needed for shifting our schools- leadership with knowledge, skills, and vision to help us work together to become the schools we want to be.
My Comments:
Your points hit home, especially when institutional change does, at times, seem to devalue staff members and their feelings. Many international educators living away from home countries connect to the school community as part of their emotional support network. When the school leaders make decisions or act without the participation and consideration of these very connected community members, a wide array of emotions involving anger, loss, fear, etc., come into play.
As you point out so clearly, there are models and books to help our school leaders focus on the individuals in the community to involve them in the discussion, decision-making, and eventual transition period when changes do occur. This begs the question of what is happening internationally to support the professional development of our school leaders. All of our schools have PD programs for teachers. What is happening to the administrators?
Many school leaders will say one of the most significant barriers to this community-building and group decision-making process is the lack of time. I would counter that, especially in large, fast-paced international schools, the lack of time for thoughtful reflection and processing is due to poor leadership as schools try to do everything under the sun for their clients (i.e., students and parents) and barrel forward out of control without focus and direction.
Well-thought-out strategic plans, structured communication systems, and guiding mission statements, as well as learning outcomes that are genuinely supported, can alleviate many of the problems that come with the “lack of time” argument that is so often put forth to explain why problems occur in our schools. School leaders must have the courage and compassion to say “no” to us educators as we bring forth new ideas and proposals that do not fit into the structure of our school missions. We do need to be lean, loving (not mean) learning communities in our schools, using our time thoughtfully and carefully.
By knowing who we are and what we can and cannot do, international schools can improve how we use our time, especially when it comes to preparing for change and the needed thoughtful transition process that you so correctly point out in this post.
Thanks, Rick, for starting this discussion that will hopefully continue to a broader audience.
© 2026 Lessons Learned
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑