Wellbeing

Let's talk about Wellbeing. 

Mental Health Foundation has a great resource called 5 Ways of Wellbeing.  This resource works really well for me as I'm a checklist girl (and in teacher land, we call it success criteria).  I use it as a way to check my own wellbeing. 

Before Lockdown, I took the opportunity to teach writing every day with a group of Year 5 - 6 students. I was super disappointed I was unable to do this during Lockdown.  I wasn't sure it will even work, but we will never know until we try. 

So every Tuesday and Thursday, for 30 minutes, I will host a Google meet with my Writing group.  After my 2nd lesson, I felt.... for the lack of a better word buoyant. I felt quite light after connecting with my writing group. 

I can describe it as adding to my wellbeing. 

I originally had a lesson planned on Slow Writing; however, 5 minutes into it, I decided to change. The kids wanted to connect. They wanted to talk and listen to other people's experiences about the storm the night before.  Hearing their stories reminded me why I spent hours reading blogs and giving feedback, planning lessons and putting together data to analyse where our students are at!  It's for the kids! By me connecting to them and giving them time, it added to my wellbeing. 

Before the lesson, we played a focus game, and after the lesson, we played a typing game. It was simple, but I took joy in the kids trying their hardest! I'm a little bit worried that William will totally beat me......

Confession. I haven't really "taught" kids using Google Meets. It's always been adults, so I was pretty nervous. When I'm nervous, I need certainty, so I tend to research and trial before having a go. In my trial and research, I found out about host controls.  Students can't join until you have.  I can simply put a consistent link - it saves me time to create a new one every day. I love this feature and love I learnt it. 

After feeling quite energised, by my meet  I went for a walk! 

Wellbeing is different for everybody.  I personally enjoy using the 5 Ways of Wellbeing to check my own!