Education
Missing Your Students? Read Them Bedtime Stories Just Like These Teachers!
What a beautiful way to bond with your students!
Every day, educators around the world are finding new ways to make pandemic life easier for their students. Recently, a few elementary school teachers came up with a thoughtful way to connect with the kids. They decided to live stream bedtime stories and also upload them on social media pages for their little students.
Voncile Campbell, an elementary school teacher, from Detroit Public Schools Community District, Michigan, USA, has been posting videos of herself reading bedtime stories on her school’s Facebook page. “I was missing the kids, and I wanted to do something that the kids could really relate to and connect to, so I decided I would read a bedtime story and post it on Facebook. And I had no idea that it would just blow up that way,” she said.
Campbell also addressed that these videos are surely helping families with access to stable internet service and the bedtime stories also come as a stress-relief for kids, who are grappling with the inconvenience of online classes. “I’ve seen a little bit of what the struggle is going to be like already with the Zoom meetings that we’ve been holding with, three or four students at a time. You have a lot of background noise, you have siblings in the background. I mean, there’s just so much stuff going on,” she said.
On her conversation with students, she found out that the little ones are finding it difficult to adjust to the new learning ways. This had also led them dealing with difficult emotions. And, so, reading bedtime stories is her way of calming them down. She explained, “All I can do is do my best to reach as many students I can, and support them the best way I can. And just try to stay in touch with parents, and make sure they understand what the teacher’s goal is, and that we need their support because it takes a team. The parents and teachers have to work together because we are all a part of the village, and it takes a village to raise and educate a child.”
Similarly, another elementary school teacher from Mosborough Primary School, Sheffield, UK, started connecting with her students through stories, whom she misses seeing every day. The 29-year-old teacher, Jessica Galvani, goes live on Facebook at 6:30 pm every night and reads two stories. Her two little children join her along with a thousand others. “For those children that perhaps don’t have that opportunity to have a story every night, it is just a nice way for them to relax a little bit before bedtime," she shared.
Galvani loves reading and recommends every child to do it as it increases vocabulary. “Reading has always been one of my passions and, for small children, reading a bedtime story every night increases their vocabulary, it increases their concentration. If they’re reading with a parent it’s a form of bonding and it’s a really nice way to wind down each evening.”
She also added that the Coronavirus pandemic has made her realise how much she loves connecting with children. “Teaching is a stressful job but Coronavirus has made me realise how much I value that connection with those children because I really miss it. I’d go back tomorrow if we were allowed just to connect with them all again, I miss them ever so much," she expressed.
From educating to entertaining students, teachers like these are doing it all while the schools are closed. Do you know such teachers? Tell us about them!