When a student continues to struggle with things like day-to-day readiness in the form of understanding their assignment notebook or assignments and homework within google classroom, have we assessed or reviewed why this keeps occurring?

Are you concerned about the progress of your child but do not know where to begin? The day to day grind of life presents us with different scenarios. For example, some parents get to the point of acceptance, becoming desensitized to the struggles and writing it off as part of life and learning. In other cases, every struggle is personalized, to the point of dreading their child’s homework because it has become such a battle. There is no right or wrong here, it’s understanding your reality in order to find a path forward.

It’s okay to acknowledge that life is hard and different right now and we are all trying to find our way through daily. Perhaps we could focus on grace and understanding instead of judgement. Maybe, instead of rushing to push our students back to what used to be, we embrace the different, focusing less on what we are missing out on and more on being change-makers.

All this talk across the country about “reopening schools” has me wondering, what does “reopen” really mean? Depending on where you live it means different things. Maybe it’s reopening schools to pre-pandemic standards or having students back full time but with the current safeguards in place?

Parenting our children is one of the hardest “roles” I have ever had the honor to encounter. Having worked most of my career within schools, my experience had always been from the educator’s perspective. However, once we had children, I would join the other side of the table as a parent.

We also need to recognize that some of our most vulnerable students have been “lost” during the pandemic. The United States has approximately 50 million students who attend public schools and of those, around 3 million continue to be unaccounted for since the pandemic began.

Let me be clear, our children do not need to fail to have a disability! What happens to students who always struggle with school and continue to “almost” fail?

Recently, I listened to a podcast by Rachel Hollis, where part of the episode discussed why the fear of failing is so triggering for many of us. Rachel spoke about how we do ourselves a disservice when we do not allow for failure or refrain from experiences because we don’t want to chance failure. I have always been one to dream but it was these fears of failure that were holding me back. Fear of failure holds us back from continuing to set goals or pursue dreams. The brutal result of this cycle is stagnation.

As much as we all want to forget 2020, please take time to reflect on this past year. How will you choose to view 2020? We want to be more purposeful in helping our children focus on what is important to them and how to spend their energy as they take their cues from us. How do you want your children to respond? We can spend hours on all the things we have lost or appreciate everything we still have or may have gained.

Reflecting on the relationships I’ve built over time, I got to thinking about students in the inner city of Chicago. Many of these students hated every bit of school, but once I worked on building their trust, I saw increases in attendance, time on task, assignment completion, and passing classes. One specific way I was able to make inroads was through a daily decision many students made: choosing each morning to either play basketball or eat breakfast. It was evident on the days that basketball was chosen, that my first-period class was more difficult as they were hungry and most times angry. What I understood about this choice, was that many had not eaten since being at school the day before. I saw a tremendous opportunity here...

Why again is December so difficult? Because children crave consistency and routine and December is one of the most inconsistent months of the year. We have a winter break, days off for parent-teacher conferences, assemblies, etc. The “normal” schedule is altered including whatever changes are happening at home. You also need to consider the pressure of being able to afford gifts or the increase in the use of alcohol for celebrations. These factors affect us as adults, can you only imagine how they impact our children?

As a teacher and school administrator, I would dread the month of December as many of my students would begin to struggle. There would be expectations and hopes of what the holidays could bring, but ultimately it created more stress and anxiety, leading students to act out even more. Don’t get me wrong, most students look forward to this time, but consider the students that rely on two of their daily meals coming from school and who will have to find another means to eat. It was sad and exhausting to observe.

I find it unacceptable when I hear stories of families being told their child is “not failing” so there is no need for Special Education services. Why should failure dictate need? Another scenario that pains me, is when parents have been requesting an evaluation for years and get the runaround from the school.

“Do I even have a choice?” This is the question I’m being asked most often now when it comes to what our children are being offered in school. The perception is that things are being done to parents, not with us or for us. What adds to the stress and anxiety is not being able to see around the corner at what’s next.

The “one-size-fits-all” idea has truly been exposed as we’ve moved to remote and hybrid learning models due to COVID-19. Think about it for a minute, regardless of whether your child is full remote or hybrid, are the assignments being differentiated to meet their needs or is every child getting the same lesson?