On Wednesday, May 12, Team MAET was represented by Liz Owens Boltz, Candace Robertson, and Brittany Dillman along with fellow MSU educators, Jeremy Van Hof and Scott Schopieray, in facilitating a session for Okemos Public Schools.
In this session, we provided time and space for teachers to reflect on their teaching (and life) experiences over the last 14 months through a series of prompts:
- What has been the most difficult part so far?
- What has been the most satisfying part so far?
- What have your experiences been like since March 2020?
- What have you learned so far?
We wanted to create a space for teachers to reflectâbecause there hasnât been much time to do soâon what has happened this year. We helped teachers leverage these reflections into a time capsule. To build their time capsule, we asked participants what they want to remember in August: what has gone well, what hasnât, and what theyâve learned. Participants used Gmailâs âsend laterâ feature to send that reflection to their âfuture selfâ. We encourage any and all hard working and exhausted educators to do the same. What lessons do you want to remember in the fallâbut not think about this summer?
After that important reflection time, we encouraged participants to give themselves permission to take a break. Our goal was to honor and document the hard work educators have done, so that the experience and learning from the past year is available to them when they need it, but also to give them the opportunity to release it (for now).
Interested in the slides we used? Feel free to visit them on our Outreach and Research page of our website.