Stacie Humbles, Principal at Susan's alma mater, Arlington High School, has led the charge at analyzing the affects of the past two years not only on the students, but the teachers and staff at her school. This podcast is very unique and insightful into the difficulty of keeping a community in the midst of the pandemic fallout trauma.
- the emotional evolution of students and teachers during the pandemic
- the social skill issues of returning students
- how education is actively participating in healing
- The trauma responses of fight, flight, freeze or fawn
- how being kind ultimately helps others heal
“There are a lot of similarities between the systems of healthcare and education, with the biggest one being dealing with real people, at some of their rawest moments.”
“Everyone came to us for the answers when the pandemic started but we didn’t know the answers. We knew the experts but didn’t necessarily have immediate answers.”
“The August after virtual learning was created, there was already the beginnings of burn-out.”
“Everyone kept telling us to find balance but we couldn’t figure that out as we were working 20 hour days, so we began working on Counter Balance.”
“We thought we would only be dealing with students who would be missing math or English skills and thought we could quickly bring them back up but that’s when we were really surprised.”
“Social skills for kids and adults were gone. Everyone was absorbed in their screens.”
“We rewarded the kids for looking people in the eye, using a pleasant voice, saying hi - they would get bingo dabbed on the hand if they did. The kids got into it and the adults loved the results.”
“I don’t think we looked at the COVID as trauma on everyone in the beginning. At one point we had to realize that we were not normal either. Everyone went through trauma.”
“Everyone was treating every situation as it was the most extreme crisis.”
“The trauma responses took their toll on the workforce. Burnout.”
“Everyone is not as high performing as they were before the pandemic.”
“If you are feeling burned out, then we need to know why and figure out our role in it. Burnout has to be dealt with on the organizational level, not the individual level.”
“Everyone needs their organization to have a means to work through burnout.”
“Wear your badge everywhere and have others start a conversation with you – in the service industry and can engage in conversation, that is key.”
“Trying to get people in for the interview then to choose us was interesting. We would do anything and everything to stand out.”
“There are people that really want that human connection but they are very awkward in having it because we are out of practice and think we can just jump right in and have those conversations.”
“People just wanted a battle, ready for a fight, the speak to the manager era. No one wanted a resolution but just wanted someone to get in trouble. That is still happening today.”
“Now, during the last three years of pandemic that no one knew what was going on, restructuring society and now rebuilding, we are the ones that are to be here to get humanity through this.”
LINKS & RESOURCES
The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
Sylvia Fuentes: Trauma and Toxic Stress
Burnout Self-Test https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_08.htm
Susan's Website: https://susangunnsolutions.com/
SGS Phone: 888-994-3167
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