As you have opportunity to interface with your students via a video conferencing platform or even e-mail, text, or phone call, be sure to ask each one personally how they are doing and ask if you can pray with them. There will be a variety of responses. Some will just be bored, others scared. Some may have been directly affected by COVID-19 through illness or job losses in their family. Be sensitive to what you might find. Remember, it’s possible some of them may display an “it’s no big deal” attitude as a coping mechanism to hide other emotions.
Schools in our country have been closed for a while due to the COVID-19. Some teachers are teaching classes online, but other students are being homeschooled by parents, grandparents, or even siblings.
- If this has been your experience, what’s been the biggest difference between home school and regular school? (Answers might include: It’s weird not having my regular teacher to explain everything to me; not having my friends around every day; doing all of my schoolwork on the computer at home is kind of boring; school was more fun, etc.)
- How is your homeschool teacher different than your school teacher? How are they the same? (Answers will vary: My grandma doesn’t like math like my schoolteacher does; my dad and my school teacher joke around a lot while we work, etc.)
What a change! Moms and dads who haven’t done math in years are now math teachers! Is this situation making you laugh or cry? Let’s watch a silly clip of what homes across America might look like right now.
Kid Snippets: “Math Class” (Imagined by Kids) [2:10]:
- Is this how you’re learning math from your parents right now? Total confusion?!? (Allow students to share their most frustrating experience in this “new normal” of school at home.)
- Can you still learn even if it’s different than what you’re used to? (Possible answers might include: Sure, it just might take more time to get used to a new way of learning; yes, but you have to be more flexible and not expect things to be exactly the same as school, etc.)
- Are there other things you’ve learned during this time at home, that had you been at school you might have missed out on? (Allow students to share their most positive learning experiences in this “new normal” such as learning to cook, how thoughtful and caring others are when something bad is happening, or that they like traditional school even though they didn’t think they did.)
We don’t know how long this new normal will last. Confusion and frustration are expected, but so are new, unexpected, positive things—be on the lookout for those! Take this time to enjoy nature, make fun crafts or spend extra time with your family. We can always learn and grow, no matter how different it looks.
In today’s lesson, the apostle Paul was adamant that Christians continue to learn and grow, too. Why was it so important for them to grow? Wasn’t believing in Jesus enough? Let’s check it out.