Katy’s Corner: TNP’s Response to Covid 19
Making the Shift
The Nora Project and Covid 19
What a six weeks it’s been.
So much has already been said about the Covid 19 crisis. The tragedy, the hidden blessings, the frustration, the creativity, the ups and downs. This unprecedented crisis has been at the forefront of all of our minds, and that extends to the team behind The Nora Project. As we experience this crisis as parents of children with and without disabilities, as former teachers, and as human beings with complex emotions, we have been tapping into our empathy skills more than ever. This has made it possible for us to be kind to ourselves, to give grace to others, and to keep moving forward in uncertain times.
The Program Team at TNP has been working extremely hard and very rapidly to reimagine our programs and develop modified materials and new content for our school participants as well as parents and families who find themselves in a new remote learning reality. We continue to work on this daily, providing resources such as:
Daily social media posts designed to offer simple activities that students can complete at home with their families. These focus on a range of social/emotional learning topics, including empathy, mindfulness, friendship, emotional regulation, and how to maintain and enrich connections with loved ones.
General guidance for teachers as they convert their social/emotional learning to a remote format. We’ve made suggestions about tech tools and how to use them, along with a variety of activities and resources that teachers can use to supplement their social/emotional remote learning instruction.
Specific guidance for how to continue and wrap up the learning for each of our classroom programs. We’ve reimagined each of our programs - the Primer Pack, Storyteller Project, and STEMpathy Club - so that teachers can continue providing students with instruction around empathy, inclusion, and disability awareness.
Most of all, we’re continuing to connect with our teachers and our new homeschool teachers - parents - and provide them with suggestions about how to help their students remain connected to one another. When we do, we hear amazing stories about what people are doing to keep kids engaged in social/emotional learning. One week we heard from a teacher who assembled and hand-delivered activity bags with items to help her students reflect on their Nora Project experience this year. At another school, teachers organized a letter-writing campaign so that every Nora Friend would receive a letter every single day. Overall, we’re receiving excellent feedback from our teachers about the speed of our response and the quality of activities and resources we provide. We’re thrilled to be able to support teachers and students during this unprecedented time by creating and providing resources, but also by being on call for our participants to assist with lesson creation, problem solving, and brainstorming.
We hope that you and yours are staying safe, healthy, and positive during this challenging time. Don’t forget to follow us on social media for daily updates, and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog!