Here are 4 Tips on how you can teach kids effectively during a crisis. You know I thought that this was probably an important topic to talk about, seeing we’ve got all this talk about coronavirus, social isolation, and lockdowns. 

As teachers, we are still teaching kids and we’re still working through this. It can be challenging because kids feed off the emotions of the adults that they are with. It’s really important that we are handling the situation well not only for ourselves but for the sake of our students as well. 

A lot of behaviour comes out of Anxiety. If children feel anxious or they feel worried about the situation then sometimes they can manifest really negative behaviours as an expression of that. So you’ve got to learn how you can best manage your class during a crisis so that the emotion of it doesn’t overwhelm them. 

I’ve got four points that I want to take you through today and to make it really easy for you to remember I’ve used the acronym lead, L E A D.

How to L E A D during a crisis?

1. L – Lead Yourself

The first key that I think you need to remember when you’re working with kids in these sorts of situations is you’ve got to be able to lead yourself. You know as teachers we’re human beings and we are just as prone to get emotional or get anxious or get worried about the situation that we are experiencing. I get it, I really do but if you’re going to be able to effectively lead your students or lead your classrooms, then you, first of all, have to be able to lead yourself. 

This means you’ve got to manage your emotions. Despite what you might be feeling about the circumstances around you, you have to conduct yourself in such a way that you do not transfer your fear or your emotion on to your students. Kids read your emotion and they will feed off whatever you bring into the classroom. You need to bring buoyancy into the classroom. Bring life into the classroom and bring a smile into the classroom. There’s enough doom and gloom out there on social media. It doesn’t need to be in the class. So you need to lead yourself well.

What is a couple of ways that you can Lead yourself?

I would say this, become a glass-half-full person. Now I’m not saying that you be silly or you ignore good advice. What I’m saying is that there are always two people you find talking about situations. You always find the person that talks about the worst-case scenario and you always find somebody who talks about the best-case scenario. Become the person that talks about the best-case scenario. 

The truth of the matter is that we don’t know how it’s going to turn out. We’re going to make wise decisions, we’re going to do our best and we’re going to trust our government. At the same time, nobody knows, it could actually turn out way better than all the doomsayers are predicting. I would just say to you, that if you want to lead yourself well in the class and learn to be the person that actually is optimistic about the future. Asa consequence your optimism will be contagious for the kids that you’re working with, so be an optimist.

Also, listen to the facts, don’t listen to opinion. The best way to manage your own anxiety and your own concern about the situation is just go to the facts. Go to the people that actually know what they’re talking about, the official sites, the statistics that will give you the true picture, this is the best place to make informed decisions.

If you’re getting all of your information from the media, then you need to know that one, the media is always going for the headline, they’re always going for the clickbait. They are never going to give you an authentically balanced story. Then there is social media… You know that there’s a whole bunch of people on social media that are spreading misinformation and they’re also spreading fear and panic, you don’t need to buy into that.

So I would encourage you, if you’re having trouble managing yourself then turn off the channels and the media outlets that are actually causing you to feel anxious. Turn them off, You don’t need it. Just tune in to the stuff that gives you the facts, gives you the official updates and progress reports. You will feel less anxious about your situation and be able to lead yourself more effectivly. 

2. E – Encourage A View Of Hope

The second tip is to encourage a view of hope. When you’re in the classroom and you have kids that are asking you about the situation or asking you about schools, social distancing, coronavirus and what’s going to happen. If you learn to encourage them with hope and with optimism, then what you will find is they will feel more relaxed because, kids trust adults.

If adults are using that trust wisely, where they’re actually communicating hope not doom and gloom, not panic, not negativity, kids will actually buy into that. If you want calm kids in your class, if you want students that are not acting up because they’re anxious or they’re fearful, then you be the person that encourages hope in your classroom.

Speak optimistically, speak positively. Focus on the things that can be controlled, focus on the things that are good, and try to avoid the negative stuff that gets in the way of encouraging hope. Use your language to encourage hope in all things and shift the mood of the children you teach. 

3. A – Attitude

The third tip is attitude. Manage your attitude and manage the kid’s attitude. Attitude really feeds the way that we act. The way you think causes your emotions to either escalate or deescalate. Manage the way you think and help your children to manage the way they think. The best way to do that is the way in which you engage in topics. So if kids are talking about stuff that maybe is a little bit negative or they’re a little bit scared or a little bit anxious, if you reframe the situation in a way that helps them to think of it positively, it will actually help them.

Let me give an example of that. Let’s say a child comes in and says we’re all going to die. Well, that’s a very easy one. We can say look, I know it’s scary. I know that it feels like there’s a lot going on. A lot of people are getting sick, but the good news is there are actually not many people dying at all. In Australia, we’ve only had ….. deaths out of ….  Now, it’s very sad for those people that have died, but it’s not everybody’s dying. A very very small number of people are dying, and so we don’t actually have to be as fearful as we might think. 

If we talk like that with kids, what will happen is we’ll shift their perspective, it will shift their attitude. When the attitude starts to change their actions start to change. A person who feels backed into a corner, who feels powerless, who feels overwhelmed, who feels scared actually acts out in ways that are really harmful and detrimental to their community environments.

You have got to really be making sure you manage their attitude and manage your own attitude too. If you have trouble with the way that you think about problems and the way you handle your stress in your head, you’ve got to tell yourself a different story. If you want more information on this, look up cognitive behaviour therapy. This is basically a way of managing your mindset. If you have a tendency of going down paths that are negative, you can actually change your thought patterns by saying something as simple as, is that thought true? If it’s not true, what’s a different way of looking at it?

That’s a really basic version of Cognitive behaviour therapy, but basically you’ve got to challenge your thoughts. Challenge the thoughts of your kids if they are tending towards negativity or tending towards panic or hysteria. Challenge the thought, is that true? And then reframe around the facts. 

 4. D – Direction

The last tip is D – To have a clear direction

So L is to lead yourself, E is to encourage hope, A is Attitude, managing your attitude and the last one is D for direction.

Have a clear direction when you are in your class. Don’t come in unprepared when you’re in your class, don’t come in flustered not knowing what you are doing. I know there’s a lot of changes. I know some of it you’re having to fly by the seam of your pants, but you need to look like you know what you’re doing and you know where you’re going. 

Be decisive in the way that you teach. Walk into the classroom and very clearly state today, this is what we are going to do. This is how we’re going to manage our situation. This is what we’re going to achieve. Be very decisive about where you’re going, and you will find that kids actually calm down.

When an adult is clear about where they are going, kids feel safe. Kids feel very unsafe when adults are confused or befuddled or don’t know where they’re going. So it’s really important that you really take charge of this situation in positive ways.

Lead yourself, keep your emotions in check. Encourage hope, turn kids towards the potential of good. Manage attitudes, question the thoughts that tend towards hysteria or negativity and be decisive in your direction so that kids know exactly where they’re going, and they know that you are in control.

That’s my four tips on how to teach kids during a crisis, or maybe it’s how to lead people during a crisis, whatever it might be. You can use this in your family. You can use this in your staff team, but my hope for you is that you will come through this better for it. That you will learn more about yourself and that you will learn more about the kids that you teach. 

My hope is when it’s all said and done and we look back on this experience, we’ll say hey, you know what we got better for it. We were stronger for it, we learned to innovate, we learned to grow in ourselves. The coronavirus has just been an opportunity to actually grow and extend our own capacity. 

I wish you well, stay safe, wash your hands, keep your distance wherever possible and be positive and be hopeful, because I really believe that we’re all going to come through this, just fine, so hang in there.

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