My post-pandemic curriculum must include: Empathy
Here we are, 14 months after our world was redesigned. Yeah up! It has been almost 430 days since we were shaken by the unexpected. The world paused; it happened without expecting it and without planning. Little did I know that the universe was being balanced. Not for a second, a moment, I thought I would be here 10,227 hours, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds later with a new pedagogy, a new philosophy as a teacher, looking at my students through a different light, thinking and planning each part of the day, including my curriculum, my students and their families.
We all lived through the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Reaffirming that the pandemic changed our lives is an understatement. We became uncomfortable, angry, and patient, planning one day at a time, and then comfortable again, looking at each day as a present that must be celebrated. I can sit here and talk about all the sadness that we lived with, but I choose not to stay on that path. I could write long pages of how difficult it was as a teacher to get up every morning knowing that one of my students had lost not one but more than two family members in the same week. However, in this moment, I need to share with my colleagues, my close circle, my audience, and the world that every day during the pandemic we tried…we showed up, and that was enough.
It has been ok to just be ok. I have slowed down. I have paused. I am a new educator!! I am a new human! My students’ compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic helped me to be reborn.
As a Special Education and Bilingual Educator in the public school system of New York City with 16 years of experience, I had, for the first time, admitted to my students, my administration, families that “I did not know what to do as a teacher.” Here I was thinking, “Oh my goodness! This is not like me?” My thoughts felt like a mystical experience. I am in my virtual class not teaching content but showing up emotionally for my class. Some days my lessons did not have a curriculum, just compassion. During the Spring of 2020, everything I knew as an educator, as a mother, a daughter, aunt, cousin, friend, a human was gone! I remember feeling each day I had two choices during these difficult times: 1. show up with empathy, understanding, and love, or 2. do what I always have done: teach my lessons, teach my curriculum, and wait for students’ outcomes! Not this time...it is different.
Today, as I sit here sharing my new theory of acceptance, I smile with joy. I chose EMPATHY each time. I chose love…I accepted that, for the first time in my career, “Ok is enough”! I choose EMPATHY each time. I change my pedagogy by accepting from my students to be emotionally present vs. work or results – the experience of mindfulness in a true self. I remember, in April of 2020, one of my middle schoolers showed up to our small group English Language Arts (ELA) Google Meet and said “Ms. Ogando, sorry I am late, but I would rather come here than to not try.” I felt important and so did my amazing seventh grader. A true enlightenment…a life changing in my teaching game. All the universe dots felt connected. Our lives will never be the same. Our new generation now has the opportunity to keep us grounded – ongoing reminders through action that together is better.
The truth is that I have changed as an educator, as a mother, as a human being. Nowadays, I accept my students being there taking risks or being in class as a gift. I already experience when words are not enough and all you need is silence. For the first time as an educator, I let the silence in the room be in control. I gave my students the opportunity to be empowered by pain and create a safety net in our classroom. Each day we did that! We built from pain and were mindful of each other. We did not have to say or teach it, EMPATHY, and that was exactly what we needed…compassion and acceptance.
Furthermore, I have built a new community of learners. My students are doing the best they can. It has always been this way. We just never pause…emotional intelligence was forgotten. Now, today is being embraced. The pandemic only reminds us that a classroom is a second home: a home for us and a home for them, a safety net for our youngsters. Somehow, meeting my students where they are is my new educator superpower. Hearing “thanks,” “this is great,” “I will complete the writing,” “don’t worry, Ms. Ogando, I know what I need to do” has become my students' new intellectual vocabulary style. I have become a facilitator and mentor for my students. Looking at every student as capable, because they decided to wake up and come to school, and accepting that it is more than enough!
In September of 2020, I began my remote class with a different outlook. I changed my pedagogy. I stopped using phrases like “you must do,” “it is due,” “you have to complete” to “this is important because,” “let me know if this date works for the class,” “if you need help completing this assignment, let’s talk about it.” It is with love, empathy, tolerance, and being flexible to the unexpected that motivates my pedagogy. I am here showing up. I am here taking a pause. I am here being flexible. I am here modeling and expressing loud and clear that empathy in the post-pandemic era has to stay in our educators’ pedagogy. We need it; our students need it. Our new post-pandemic generation is teaching us that and more! This new pedagogy and curriculum of Students and Educators empowered by the gift of Empathy is here to stay! I will make sure compassion has a voice through my educator voice. I embrace…it feels peaceful, because I know I am not alone. There is an army of new generations of students shaping the universe one day at a time.
“Aprender a dudar es aprender a pensar.” – Octavio Paz
"Until we get equality in education, we won't have an equal society.” – Sonia Sotomayor
“Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by changes.” – Jim Rohn
About the Author: Lucy Ogando, MSED, MSBA
Ms. Lucy Dilys Ogando, MSED, MSBA has spent the last sixteen years of her career teaching special education. Since 2004, Ms. Ogando has been working as a New York City public school educator. In 2002, she earned her first college degree from Hunter College. In 2004, she earned a Master of Science in Education from Touro College. She followed this up in 2014 with a Master's Degree in Bilingual Extension from Hunter College.
During 2005-2008, she helped open the first United Federation of Teachers charter school in New York City history. She was part of the first group of educators to create this opportunity for low-income students. She also participates in a Tribeca film festival as part of promoting better opportunities for all students. Since 2008, she has worked in District 14 in Williamsburg Brooklyn and, since 2013, at José de Diego Public School 84 in Williamsburg. Currently, she is working as a NEST cluster, as well as a Special Education Teacher Support Services (SETSS) provider, for students in grades kindergarten through 7th grade. In 2019, she was recognized for Magisterial Excellence of a meritorious Dominican Teacher residing in the United States by the Dominican Republic Ministry of Education.
In March 2021, she was a speaker at the Afro-Latinidad a Nueva Generación presentation with the Dominican Commissioner of Culture in the United States. In April 2021, she was awarded the Technology Teacher of the Year award by The Heritage Team Extraordinaire organization for her achievements during remote classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lucy is currently hosting a virtual English course with the DREAM Project for young people to practice writing in English for personal and work purposes.
Lucy was born and raised in the Dominican Republic. In 1991, she immigrated to the United States with her parents and siblings. She is one of five children who have earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in New York City. She is a single mother of three wonderful daughters ages 15, 11, and 10. She is preparing to start an early intervention program in the Dominican Republic and dreams of an educational center that accommodates all students and teachers in a positive and successful environment.