Story Telling

This crazy school year is finally over. It’s time to do some

processing.

As this very wise article suggests, skipping the processing is probably not a good idea. Why? Because allowing the experience of COVID and remote learning and hybrid teaching and uncertainty and stress and loss to just float around in your body, or pushing these experiences and feelings down into hard sedimentary subconscious, means you won’t get rid of any toxins. Which you have to poop out, as I’ve recommended elsewhere.

Processing allows you to organize the data. Which, as I’ve also said elsewhere, is relieving. And healthy. Processing, organizing the data, is another definition for learning and, therefore, growth.

A great way to process COVID is to tell your story. (Again, check out the article.) To gather your memories together into a narrative that helps you make sense of the experience.

But

pay attention:

Is your story “redemptive”? That is, positive? Looking for the lessons learned? For the strengths developed? Or is it “contaminated”? Negative? Blaming? Hopeless?

No surprise that the nature of your story will reflect the nature of your outlook. Your expectations of the world. Because we humans reach for the data that confirms our beliefs about ourselves and others. Thereby reinforcing those beliefs. And, as the article states, those beliefs — positive? negative? — directly influence our mental health.

So here’s an idea: Have a processing party!

A poop-it-all-out party!

But also make time for the sacred process of grieving.

The impacts of COVID are multitudinous. It’s going to take some time to sort them all out. Teachers, you deserve to clear your bodies of toxins by making sense of what happened this year. If you’re not inclined to do this processing for your own sake, please do it for your students’ sake.

Mantra: Be well.