Coping with Cabin Fever in Pandemic Classrooms

 

"The closure of schools is, of course, damaging to children's education. But schools are not just a place for learning. They are places where kids socialize, develop emotionally and, for some, a refuge from troubled family life..."When we close schools we close their lives." 

"...the pandemic has caused a range of harms to children across the board from being isolated and lonely to suffering from sleep problems and reduced physical activity..."- Prof. Russell Viner, Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health, reported by Nick Triggle, BBC News, o1/28/21

The idea of 'cabin fever' is a familiar one to Canadians who are sometimes confined to home temporarily through periods of extreme winter weather, resulting in occasional restlessness and boredom.  Typically, these confinements are short term, ending when warmer weather returns.  We don't necessarily enjoy them but we've learned from experience to wait them out with relative patience!

These days, our restrictions are of a much longer nature, not dependent on anything as 'reliable' as the weather might be. 'Cabin fever' has taken on a whole new nuance of meaning, accompanied by additional words we have added to our everyday lexicon - like 'quarantine', 'isolation' and 'physical distancing'. And we are all living through the realities of confinement, coming to terms with the fact that these restrictions -  essential to keep as many of us safe from COVID-19 infections as possible - are going to continue considerably longer into the future than we had all hoped. 

I have been reflecting on the cracks in resiliency that are beginning to surface for many students who are finding the incessant, almost year-long restrictions we have all been learning to live with just a bit much to endure every day. Through the past couple of blog entries, I've been exploring what may lie behind some of the visible demonstrations of 'things are not quite right for me' we have been noticing with some of our children - specifically, students who are resistant or reluctant to participate in learning activities, as well as children who are identifying themselves as 'bored' in school or are displaying disinterest in learning new knowledge, skills or understandings. Identifying strategies for supporting these learners and encouraging them to continue to engage in learning were explored as well, with full acknowledgement and appreciation that every child responds differently to a stressful situation and there are no easy solutions waiting to be implemented in all schools.

For this blog entry, I am going to explore what might be going on with students who are struggling with social interactions, or who are anxious about all the changes that have resulted in reduced contact with others both in and out of school, as well as children who are becoming more visible or vocal with feelings of loss and abandonment as a result of the pandemic shutdown virtually world wide.  What I anticipate will be the final blog in this series related to the question of "How are the Children Doing?" through this extended closure will be published in two weeks' time and will explore the academic challenges that are beginning to litter the road ahead. 

'These are not typical behaviours for this child...'

I know we are a bit of a unique school - only in our fifth year of operation with an amazing, dedicated staff who have poured boundless energies into ensuring we opened and sustained a school focused on active learning experiences, Peace Education, inclusive learning environments and place-based learning - and with families who fully support engaging learners as completely as possible in a non-traditional school setting. To say our students are active learners would truly be an understatement - at least right up until March, 2020 when the brakes were applied so completely it left most of us gobsmacked and reeling in the ensuing milieu of restrictions, closures, rules and recommendations. 

It is our school's approach to consistently weave a tight net of supports  - behavioural, social, emotional, academic - for all our children. For those students who express their inside turmoil through unanticipated behaviours, we typically wrap them even more closely in supports, strategies and opportunities to make sense of their feelings, intending to foster greater interpersonal successes going forward in life. Behaviour is not a negative event overall, but rather a call for the adults in the building to be attentive and help a child problem solve effectively. Support with identifying feelings and their roots, developing appropriate strategies for managing impulsive outbursts or anger as well as direct teaching of strategies that support children with identifying emotions and reading social situations appropriately - these are some of the opportunities that exist for students who are exhibiting challenging behaviours as a way of expressing emotional, social or physical discomforts. So, overall, as a general rule we deal with very few incidents of inappropriate behaviour in any school year, and most of the incidents we do encounter are relatively minor in nature. 

This is slowly shifting as the pandemic endures. Over the past few weeks, we have had numerous minor incidents of inappropriate behaviour popping up in classrooms and outside during body breaks or lunch times - most often these incidents are occurring for students who have no previous negative encounters in school of any nature.  As we unpack these incidents with students, there is strong anecdotal evidence children are becoming increasingly frustrated by their restricted movements and circumstances. And some reach a point where they are no longer able to quash that emotion successfully and it 'leaks out' in negative behaviours. 

Cabin fever has definitely set in...not weather caused but rather a reaction to COVID-19 restrictions.

Recognizing that the close cohorting of classes has resulted in 5 months of being always with the same people - for class, for lunch, for outdoor body breaks, for Phys. Ed., for Music, for lunchtime playtime - and that, sometimes, everyone would like an opportunity to see other people, play with someone they used to know, play a new game no one in the cohort ever dreamed of before. Especially at a school like ours where we have actively encouraged children to mix and mingle all day long, indoors and outside - in the Learning Commons, during Wonder Times, in the Hub, in the Maker Space. 

"School has become almost unrecognizable." (Scott Muri) 

There are strategies to help students cope with these feelings of irritability, confinement, restlessness, frustration, even boredom over spending so much time with the same people. All. The. Time.  Some of these strategies are already taught almost daily within the context of Peace Education approaches woven directly into our learning environment. 

    - be kind to others at all times

    - if someone seems sad, offer to play

    - differences reflect the beauty of people and are to be celebrated

    - every day is a new day

    - everyone has a bad day now and then

    - we are here to support each other in every way; there is no room for sabotage

    - do your best as much as possible

    - use helpful and kind words

    - be mindful (focus, listen, think carefully)

    - creativity is the best!

    - use design thinking strategies whenever possible to solve problems

    - the best way to begin to solve a problem is to listen to each other

    - everyone has feelings

And there are many more Peace Education approaches that have become part of the absolute social and cultural fabric of our school.

Additionally, we offer students who are struggling with understanding theirs or others behaviours opportunities to work in small teams (appropriately distanced, masked and sanitized) to solve a problem creatively and with their words and actions, supported by the "Zones of Regulation" program. We are weaving a few tried and true support strategies back into our days, under careful monitoring, to provide a stronger web of support for anxious students - such as staggered entry engaging learning tasks, Discovery Centres, reading support, support for Fine Motor development, Peace Ambassadors. While this a fraction of the programming we usually offer, it illuminates our best efforts to support students struggling with all the nuances of pandemic teaching and learning. 

We hold students accountable for their behaviours - gently. We know mistakes get made, frustrations rise, tempers flare. We know children rely most heavily on facial cues to interpret body language - and these are now blocked from view most of the time.  School Counselor and author, Phyllis Fagell, describes what teachers and students are up against in a socially distanced, mask-wearing environment:

    Recognize that social distancing can also heighten sensitivity. 

"One of the reasons why this is hard for everyone...is that before, we were getting all this positive energy from daily interactions and reaffirming relationships... it's harder to accurately interpret someone's tone through a mask. 

We need facial expressions to decipher emotions in ordinary times, let alone in the middle of a pandemic. 

"Our nervous systems get activated when we feel threatened, and we can't access our prefrontal capacity as well," 

explains psychologist Tina Bryson, coauthor of The Whole-Brain Child (Bantam, 2012). 

Before react(ing) with a strong emotion, take a deep breath and consider whether you're likely to elicit the desired outcome.

 Lashing out in anger or placing blame tends to be divisive and counterproductive. 

As the pandemic has illustrated, we're stronger when we work together...we all can show a little grace and resist the inclination to be swept up in....experiencing angst and frustration. 

When I think about extending grace, the following things come to mind...

                        - We must seek to understand and ask questions before reaching conclusions

                       -   We must assume positive intention and...that people are trying to make things work and giving it their best

                        - We must use language and messages...to communicate in ways that are clear and kind

                        - We must be deliberate about not placing (stress or angst) on others with frustration and short-tempered reactions

We can help children read other body language besides facial cues, listen for verbal tones and assume the best of everyone. We can help children lead with laughter and kindness rather than retaliation and anger. We can nurture the belief in students that everyone they come in contact holds a deep desire to be fair, honest and trustworthy. These are very good places to begin re-framing inappropriate behaviours. Children will understand the need to red-build trust. 

It is clear there is no one strategy for bringing all our learners together and ensuring they are successfully adapting to the layers of change the pandemic has shaped in our school. 

 As teachers, we are constantly learning and adapting all the time too, trying to make sense of this new reality that has been so unexpectedly thrust upon all of us.  We are all in this together in so many ways, and adapting to how we might best support learners who are displaying unanticipated emotions through this pandemic year is just one of the ways we are all coming together to make sense of 'school' in this new era.

'Anxiety lives inside us all...'

Without a doubt, we hear many more children express worry and anxiety on a daily basis - from the smallest concern over a lost pencil no one is allowed to touch, to the greatest concerns such as "Am I safe?"  For children during the elementary school years, there are some common stressors that activate worry responses in virtually every child at some level or another. For example, Fagell mentions:

            - performing in front of peers or parents (a speech, play, sports game)

            - academic performance on a test or project

            - health or hygiene issues such as bedwetting

            - being chosen last for a team or project group

            - getting along with friends/peers

            - real world dangers such as fires/burglars/illness/storms

            - disappointing parents or teachers 

Michelle Borba reminds us "kids younger than ten are especially vulnerable to repeated stress."  If we know a child has a particular stress point, we can work to alleviate any triggers that might nudge the child past worry into extreme fear. 

There are a few other strategies that might be helpful in particular circumstances offered to teachers in a school by Phyllis Fagell:

            

                - reframe personal narratives - mindsets help us understand life is a series of experiences, both good and not-so-good; and without valleys, we cannot have mountains

                    - prune and preserve relationships - in times of stress, everyone has fewer reserves to draw upon emotionally

                    - uncertainty feeds anxiety, fear and anger - emotions that hinder the ability to read social cues and adopt someone else's perspective 

                    - build community and foster collegiality across the whole school

                    - name emotions and be specific; discourage and re-frame negative self-talk in children; offer a new mindset or reframe 

These are global strategies we have established as part of our everyday teaching and learning, for the most part. As children exhibit worries and anxieties with teachers, these strategies are offered and reinforced on an 'as needed' basis. Additionally, Fagell notes "It's easy to feel powerless in the face of a pandemic so focus on what you can do to improve your situation." For our students, redirecting fears about the virus towards the actions we are already taking to keep us safe is one of the key reassurances children understand when they get worried over something they have heard - they know these strategies because they have lived them every day since school opened in September. They are comforting and comfortable assurances they have at least some agency over an unseen, unknown threat called a 'virus'. And reassurance that is tangible and visible for children can go a long way towards reducing fears and anxieties.

"I miss.....so much"

Last spring, when schools first moved to online learning, children were living through a period of adjustment at both home and school that was simply enormous - school as they knew it simply stopped existing; they were not even able to visit the school to play on the playground. Home became their whole focus and home was familiar. Parents were home, children were home, school moved home. That made sense in a world turned upside down. While there were many expressions of loss, in that long-ago time they were short-term in context. "I won't get to see my Grandma until summer." "When the sickness goes away we can go to the playground again." "My brother and me will go back to the pool and swim in six weeks."  There was a sense of finite in the children's framing of loss.

Over ten months later, that has changed significantly.

The adjustment period has faded into distant memory - even the re-adjustment back to in-school learning and acquiring all the precautionary skills that are part of the everyday school experience has faded for children now. They accept school as it is - even when they are frustrated with the restrictions, or upset over not seeing other friends, or weary of sitting by the same person all the time, they do not express this as a temporary event. School is just what it is - school. And, accepting the adjustments as permanent in their minds has now offered the opportunity to glance backwards and find memories.

As more and more children begin to verbalize their losses, they increasingly frame them as a memory. Remember when we used to go swimming as part of school?  Remember when we had birthday parties and kids came to your house and ate cake? Remember when we went to the big library downtown with the little reading house?  Remember when I used to play hockey? Remember when my Grandma came to volunteer at the school?

These are just a sample of the loss statements children have offered unprompted over the past month - December has faded and they are still cohorted and restricted. The memories are sifting to the surface and, after all this time, prompting feelings of loss. 

Psychologist and author, Catherine Steiner-Adair, describes four types of grief: ambiguous, acute, anticipatory and moral outrage grief, noting "and nearly everyone is experiencing two or three of them right now." 

Ambiguous grief is "free-floating—the loss of summer, the pervasive sense that we've lost so much." The opposite of ambiguous grief is acute grief - this includes a significant loss, such as moving to a new home or community, or a parent losing a job. Anticipatory grief is expressed through 'what if' phrases such as "What will school be like online? Who will I play with tomorrow? What if Mom has to go back to work and can't help me with my work anymore? What if I can't do what my teacher wants me to do?" And then there is also moral outrage grief, which is a deep sadness over what has happened - and is continuing to happen to the world. For example, when a child says they have had a birthday over the weekend and in response to the question "How did you celebrate?" hesitates and says, 'Well, it was just our family you know till the virus goes away." 

Teachers cannot make grief or a sense of loss disappear, of course. We can, however, name the grief to help our students tame the feelings. We can be good listeners, encourage discussion, give form to the sense of loss through art or music or movement, acknowledge feelings and validate them as real, make lists of things we miss and what we will do 'when the sickness goes away'. "Being hopeful has a therapeutic value...being able to be hopeful about the future is useful for (humans). And it provides some protective psychological armour." (David Blustein, Psychologist). As teachers, hope is an ever present tool in our collection of resources and we know the power hope has in sustaining both children and adults during times of grief and loss. 

Moving forward...

I have traced the evolution of 'cabin fever' in the school through the last three weeks' of blog entries, attempting to surface, acknowledge and offer strategies and ideas to help all of us continue to successfully navigate a long period of constraint and restriction through the experiences and perceptions of our children in school. 

We see, hear, anticipate, support children as they exhibit the responses that come most naturally to them in the face of cataclysmic change - whether it is resistance to learning, boredom with the sameness of the learning environment, unexpected negative behaviours on display in the school setting, visible anxieties or expressions of loss and grief, the children are telling us in no uncertain terms they are being impacted by living in a time of constant limitation and control.  We have strategies, we are sharing ideas, we are listening - always listening - to the children to support them in making sense of a world that has somehow lost all the anchors and predictability and fun it once contained.

I wish I could end this blog with a reassurance this will all soon fade and we will pick up the threads of our previous school lives and move forward with the knowledge we will restore what used to be typical to learning experiences.  However, I simply don't see how that can happen - too much time has passed, the world has changed so much and the students have not and are not living out expected experiences of learning. There are so many stories of learning on the landscape of education just now - and the similarities are overshadowed by the differences in learning experiences. For a system predicated on predictability, benchmarks, tools of assessment, scales of learning abilities this year - and more - of uncertainty has done more than simply throw our children for a loop. It has, I believe, initiated a sea change that will have great ripples of impact far into the future. 

Will we mark the experience of public education with 'before the pandemic' and 'after the pandemic' notations in history? That is something to ponder and explore for sure - and will be essential even as we guide and nurture and fumble our way through this accurately described (although very overused!) 'unprecedented pandemic'. 

And we remain all in this together :)

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal

Eric Harvie School