In a letter to his daughter in 1854, Ralph Waldo Emerson offered the following advice:
You must finish a term and finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could – some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in. Forget them as fast as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
For many of us, in our professional lives, we’d likely agree that seemingly overnight, even as we do all that we can, we are indeed facing what could be understood as blunders and absurdities. For schools across the country, the foundation of education continues to shift as we face COVID-19, and we are still trying to determine exactly what that means.
Here at the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, we’ve focused primarily on how to move instruction from on-ground to online and what tools and methods can help support that process. However, in addition to teaching and learning, we’re also navigating how to manage working remotely.
For staff and faculty alike, working remotely carries with it a new set of unfamiliar challenges. As we work through these uncertain times, we have taken a mindful approach to how we can maintain a connected, productive, and fulfilling work-from-home experience. Every situation is unique, but we hope these practices provide helpful strategies that are supportive of your transition to working remotely.
1. Create and Honor Your Workplace
2. Stay Connected
3. Establish a Morning Routine
4. Define Productivity
5. Use Time Tracking
Check out Working Remotely, for more information on these strategies.
Let’s continue the conversation. Which tips that you’ve read about here or that you practice yourself, will help you handle the stresses in transitioning from teaching face to face to teaching remotely and why? What other ways can the CTLE help you during this transitional time? Leave a comment to contribute to the conversation.
If you would like to request faculty support from a CTLE team member, please complete the following form.
