Hello my friend,

How is teaching for you? How's getting through the day going?
WOW, what a difficult time.

…I don't mean the set of puppets with optional puppet show apparatus that sits in or near dramatic play. Though that's great, if you have those!

I'm talking about a "Teacher Puppet" or a "Class Puppet".

A puppet that you, as the adult, manipulate....and, only you use.

This is something I learned to do way back in the day from some of my co-workers.

(Not something that was ever spoken about in any of my many early childhood courses, interestingly. I tried to change that for my students when I was a professor.)

I watched Teacher Eiko manipulate a parrot she called Peace…

Who are you looking to for guidance right now for teaching during the pandemic?

Whether your program is open, opening, you’re teaching remotely or you’re still not sure yet as to what’s happening this Fall, if you’re like most early childhood professionals you are OVERWHELMED.

So many questions!

Not a lot of good or clear answers.

How do you…

Back in April I hosted a series of webinars.

One of the webinars was about providing remote teaching and support to young children and their families during Covid-19 school closures.

Another webinar was an early-days discussion of teaching - and using practical & FUN strategies to support yourself and young children during this wild and often difficult new world of the pandemic.

Both of them were panel discussions.

Both of them were FANTASTIC.

On those two webinars we certainly discussed strategies, strategies, strategies (I always like to keep it super practical) and worked to tackle some of the difficult day-to-day struggles you all are facing…

...and, interestingly, some of the feedback I got was that it was the more how-to-think-about-teaching-right-now ideas that were the most helpful.

So, since many of you recently responded to the survey I sent out to say that you needed help teaching during this unprecedented time I wanted to share my personal top take-aways from those two panel discussions with you…

To our essential ECE workers still out there in the field, today I’m writing for you.

Abbi Kruse, Director at The Playing Field, a center in Wisconsin, and creator of the group Essential not Expendable recently wrote something that I immediately knew I wanted to share with you.

I keep hearing from teachers who have recently found out that their schools or centers will be closed through the end of this school year (or until at least May/June for year-round programs).

So surreal and sad for those that won’t meet with their children in person again.

When programs initially closed a few weeks ago this was unimaginable.

Yet, here we are.

Which one of these sounds like you?

(If you’re not currently teaching - or you’re teaching remotely - due to Covid-19 closures read on - we’ll get to that, I promise! But you still might relate to some of these…)

An unreasonable idea that stalked me.

Then, it became an almost easy reality when I learned that a friend-of-a-friend specialized in helping people run online conferences.

Sometimes life's magic like that.

Is it going to get old if I keep asking you, “how you’re holding up?”

I’m so concerned about everyone. I hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. I’m thinking about you every day.

I want to share a few things today in an effort to be helpful - you can just skim to see what’s relevant for you.

A lot has happened in a week.

How are you holding up?

Also, *what's driving you nuts right now*?

For me I was in high gear and taking action until Sunday night and then *all the people* and *all the things* really started to BUG ME and *all the emotions* started bubbling up.