But there was one overwhelming feeling that I felt when I re-entered the school community. It was, as my colleague summed up “the explicit humanity” that everyone had for one another. The concern for one another’s welfare was front and centre to all that we did. Colleagues would happily pick up slack for those that couldn’t due to isolation and other personal barriers. When schools closed again we were more physically prepared for the teaching but the guilt of parking your own children in front of Disney + to teach other people’s children is tough. What got me through this was the support of my colleagues, the empathy people had for each other’s personal situations and the agility that we had once the constrictions of the school walls and days had disappeared.

Whether consciously or unconsciously some therapeutic strategies were being used and despite a pandemic taking away all of our normal opportunities to catch up and build rapport. Enabling me to walk away at the end of the year feeling a real closeness to my students and colleagues and a sense of optimism for how we could learn from this.

• Grounded optimism – this is the principle that optimism can be chosen and optimism can be learnt. Much like the kindness I have spoken of, grounded optimism provides people and leaders with the tools to ‘face reality as it is AND move towards a better future’. By simply reframing how we think and address a situation we can see it through fresh eyes, having a more positive outlook.
  
  e.g., I am really worried if students are engaging with online lessons AND I have the support of my team to help contact those that I fear are disengaged.
  
  I am worried that my online lessons are flat and boring AND I can get feedback from my students to find out what they like and what I should ditch.
  
  By changing the rhetoric AND forcing us to look for a solution we are becoming more positive, more agile in our teaching methods and actively seeking solutions.
  
  
• Panning for gold and gratitude journaling – There is a wealth of research to show the positive effects of journaling such as writing down “Three Gifts” at the end of each day helps prime us to see the good and more importantly seek out the good in our day. This technique has been proven to be effective at helping the brain regulate emotions and lessens the effects of physical stressors on health. My school has always been big on recognition, ring fencing meeting time to say thanks. But somehow, during the pandemic it felt more sincere, there was a general feeling of thanks for showing up and doing the best we could. I felt it from the students as well. Something about logging on from home and getting an insight into each other’s wifi issues, reasons for not turning on our cameras and interruptions from my 4 year old made teaching more human and this shared humanity seemed to follow us back into the classroom and I thank them for that.

  

• Reframing and becoming ILOC – At the start of each lesson we were encouraged to check in with our students, asking students to add in the chat how they felt on a scale of 1-10 and often I followed it up by asking them ‘what could you do to make your mood 10% better’ or ‘day 5% better.’ As noted by Maria Sirois in a lecture I attended, just by acknowledging that they/we have the power to lift and change our mood gives us a sense of agency. The pandemic and lock down has a tendency to put us in a state of external locus of control, whereby the government and health ministers are dictating our choices, our activities. Stepping back from this and reminding ourselves that in fact WE are responsible for our mood/ day/ outlook/ achievement is powerful. This sense of agency, also known as internal locus of control puts us in the driving seat, reminding ourselves that we have the tools to improve ourselves, our mood and our day.