when passion meets purpose….our response to covid-19

10 Jun when passion meets purpose….our response to covid-19

Can you believe that we are in the midst of a pandemic? A moment where schools across the world officially shut down with no face-to-face instruction and families were completely consumed by the idea of teaching their own children and what difficulties come with that task. As I reflect on this three month experience, my heart speaks through perseverance, understanding, and support. Everyone in the United States of America. realized the value of an educator. It’s the missing piece that we always know existed….our passion. This can be defined by the ability to teach and inspire every child in our classroom without regard to their circumstances. School is supposed to the level playing field where every child is able to achieve, but the coronavirus exposed how uneven the playing field actually is for all families. You see, I served students in 3 counties in the Upstate: Anderson, Greenville, and Spartanburg. Each location had varying perspectives for e-learning, however, the expectation was that “all kids can.” Without an examination of the conditions and connectivity, people soon realized how demanding it is to truly educate all. The nation was shut down, but families were expected to have materials available for use during lessons that may NOT have truly considered all children. As a teacher, your level of engagement was high during e-learning if you truly connected with your students and their families prior to Covid-19. Certain classes or courses left parents in despair because we lost the art of connecting through relationships. The power in making people feel valued is the most important factor in the learning experience.

Without an examination of the conditions and connectivity, people soon realized how demanding it is to truly educate all.

Our mission at the Soulful Beginnings Academy did NOT change. For the last three months we have found ways to ENGAGE and EMPOWER the families we serve. We assisted 7-8 families with their e-learning experience so that their children could access the content and parents be put at ease. The best solution is that we were able to meet the needs of the family in various ways, since experiences varied so much from school to school. We made phone calls, used text messages, FaceTime, and the biggest pivot of using Zoom to assist children with idea that they can believe in themselves enough to have the confidence to do ANYTHING!! It was an aaaaaaaaamazing to be able to stay connected to my families and help them see what they are capable of doing despite of the crisis of a pandemic. This required a willingness to understand how quickly students were required to adapt to learning methods that they weren’t used to. The idea of goal setting comes to play because the amount of work that needed to be completed each day superseded what a child usually experienced sitting in their classroom face-to-face. But ohhhhh how we learned how to PERSEVERE through the tough spots and believe that we could actually complete the tasks assigned. This idea of “continuing to push through INSPITE OF” resonated in the mind of every SoulBAcademy learner because our motto is that regardless to what happens…#WeFINISHSTRONG!! Overall, our passion to see our students be successful met our purpose head on and we were able to maintain their academic status or push them forward to greater heights.