Maintaining Balance in a COVID-19 World with Guest, Shelly Thome

By Shelly Thome We are living in unsettling and unpredictable times.  COVID-19 has taken a toll on our country’s economy, medical systems, and schools.  It has also rocked the foundation of our feelings of safety, social connection, and hope. During this COVID-19 world, we now find ourselves in, it is of increasing importance to find and then maintain balance in our lives.  This need for balance is critical for educational staff.  In a matter of days- not months or years- schools were asked to turn educational structures upside down and create new distance learning methods while engaging students and assuring access and equity.  Educators (teachers, administrators, counselors, administrative assistants, and more) rose to the challenge and have made remote learning successful while maintaining connections to their students. We need to look at the emotional cost to our educators and to develop strategies of support.  Our educators not only became IT specialists, but they also had to create at home offices with capabilities to support learning.  Those well-developed lesson plans and upcoming critical professional development courses had to be thrown out and immediately converted to a new format.  All of this occurred while educators had worries about their own health and safety and cared for those in their lives that need support as well.  Many now transitioned into not only teaching their students remotely but also becoming a home school teacher to their own children while balancing work duties. To help transition our staff through this challenging time, we need to make sure we put the person before the position.  District leadership, as well as every staff member, needs to continue their connections to one another, encourage office hours that allow individuals to bring their workday to a close, and to have strategies to manage stress.  This can be accomplished through informative and supportive emails, regular check-ins that do not have a printed agenda attached, and through resources of support.  Once our staff is cared for and emotionally healthy, they are then able to model this balance for students and the community. CTE is one big family.  During this time of COVID-19 and social distancing, let’s work together to be certain that social distancing does not equate to social isolation.  Let’s help each other maintain balance and prepare for the time in which we can be together again soon without the need for virtual meetings. Shelly Thome, LPC, CCTP, CCTSI Shelly Thome is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Arizona.  She is not only a private practice therapist but also a school counselor for over 20 years.  In Shelly’s current role as the Exceptional Student Services Manager at West-MEC, she not only provides intervention resources for students and staff but is also a trainer for suicide awareness programs of More Than Sad and Youth Mental Health First Aid.  Shelly also provides professional development classes such as Working with Adolescents with Anxiety, Kick Compassion Fatigue to the Curb, and Serving Exceptional Students in CTE.  Shelly serves on the policy committee for the ACTE Counseling and Career Development Division and is engaged in the development of the ACTE Mentorship Program for Inclusion, Access, Equity, and Diversity. Connect with Shelly via email, [email protected]  or on Twitter, @ThomeShelly.