AAACE 2021 Annual Conference

engagement, mindfulness, transformation, wellbeing, spirit

Join us as we divulge how COVID inspired creativity, innovation, and transformation while teaching throughout a pandemic.  Transitioning face-to-face courses and field experience to virtual was challenging but rewarding, requiring our students, along with instructors, to think and teach differently.  Through holistic approaches, we explore the cultivation of teacher wellbeing. 

Teachers are fleeing the profession. According to a recent RAND survey, many teachers cite stress as the source of their attrition with forty-three percent leaving before their scheduled retirements. Add the pandemic to the already bustling burdens teachers bear. For women, the extra responsibilities that befall many, including working from home and educating children have made maintaining any semblance of personal and professional balance an impossibility.
Now, more than ever, the wellbeing of teachers, both preservice and veterans, must be acknowledged and cultivated. Adult educators and teacher trainers play a vital role in not only providing instruction that promotes this awareness but in serving as role models of wellness. Our session details the stresses and joys we encountered teaching through the pandemic. The changes, the losses, the transitions, and, ultimately, the transformations will be shared. Moving from face-to-face instruction to solely virtual required paradigmatic shifts in our thinking, practice, service, and scholarship. From responsivity to inclusivity, our entire practice shifted into a more holistic approach where engagement became paramount to fostering relationships and wellbeing. Including self-reflection, storytelling, and mindfulness allowed for transformative teaching and learning in spite of a pandemic, forging connections through shared lived experiences.