Plenty of Advice Out There

Something I am finding to be a challenge these days is sifting through the sheer tonnage of advice that is floating around the Internet about how to best make it through this time of uncertainty and upheaval in our lives. I'm not talking about medical advice (please, stay home if you can!). I'm referring to the mass of articles about teaching and learning, caring for our mental health, and generally "making it". 

I've decided to create a bit of a depository for myself of the articles and information I am finding the most helpful right now. While these are not all of a "peer-reviewed" nature, I have found them to resonate with me personally. If you have something else that you think I should add to my list, I am happy to receive suggestions.

You don't have to "make the most" of a global pandemic is an Instagram post I came across, which contains some very excellent information about how we are all going to deal with this situation differently.

Along those same lines, I read an article called "These are not conditions in which to thrive" which really resonated for me:

 "I understand the impulse to reframe this moment as an inspiring opportunity. Wouldn’t it be nice if this pandemic — this period of social distancing and shelter-in-place orders — was a no-strings-attached gift of free time and focus? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could take all that time we spent commuting and attending obligatory social events and instead use it for ourselves? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could prioritize our true purpose: our creative ventures, our unlaunched hustles, writing our King Lear? That would be nice. But that’s not where we are. [...] Just get through the day."
- Ella Dawson

20 Questions to Help with Covid-19 Anxiety

25 Mental Health Wellness Tips for Quarantine. This post was published on Facebook by psychologist Wayne McGill, and is attributed to Dr. Eileen Feliciano, clinical psychologist in New York.

A therapist’s advice for helping pre-teens in a coronavirus lockdown This article is based on an interview with therapist and school counsellor Phyllis Fagell  "As a developmental period, early adolescence is marked by a deep need to connect, belong, and fit in, as well as a need to solidify values, assert autonomy, find purpose, and have fun. To be a pre-teen in the time of coronavirus will require creativity and boundaries."


As a teacher, I am striving to help my students navigate these uncertain times as well. I came across these questions to discuss with students, before trying to focus on academics (in whatever form they are going to take for the next little while) :

I know there are many more articles, images, bits of advice, and inspirational messages out there. These are the few that I have been returning to over the past while, and that have had an impact on how I am choosing to approach teaching and relating to others.