Living in crazy times.
My heart goes out to all the health care workers who are working so hard right now to look after the sick during this pandemic.
One day, a couple of weeks ago, I was reflecting on the status of the world, and in particular, the school shutdowns. For many kids, these shutdowns will be an inconvenience. A time of frustration due to lack of social connections, and perhaps some difficulty due to the limits of learning alone.
For kids with learning differences, this time could be nothing less than an educational disaster due to a lack of specialised support and extended time away from learning and practicing hard-earned knowledge.
It’s easy for kids with learning differences to slip through the cracks, especially now.
On the other hand, this time could be a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY for kids with learning differences. All of a sudden, they have the opportunity to do some catch up during school hours AND during term time. Imagine, high-intensity time with kids who aren’t stressed out and tired out! This is a gift, the progress they could make is so tangible I can almost touch it. All we need to do is get them into online tutoring as soon as possible.
And then it hit me. I have spent so much time researching and figuring out how to create a quality multisensory environment in an online learning space. I can’t reach all the kids that need help, but I can show educators how I do it so that they can have the confidence to just start.
So I created a webinar, and then an online course. I was a bit nervous to put myself out there in this way. I mean, I am no rockstar teacher, I have no fancy titles, nor do I have corporate backing. I started to look around at the ‘free’ information that was starting to become available and I realised that most of it was coming as PR from corporations that do not specialise in online tutoring. Most of it was very weak, or clearly hadn’t been tested, and based on my experiences I could see that it wouldn’t work.
In the end, I opted to just tell my truth and see where it all settled. The feedback I’ve had has been truly amazing. I feel that the community of educators that I am privileged to belong to has become closer and while we can not heal the sick, we can do our part. Our part now involves reaching out over the internet to help kids become who they were put on this earth to be.