In this meeting we discussed the ways in which it is very difficult to avoid being trapped in doom and gloom right now, particularly in light of recent societal violences. One attendant talked about how it has been helpful for her to immerse herself in her work to try to find some way to tune out the horrifying noise of larger life right now. We talked about the added stresses of teaching right now while inhabiting marginalized identities, that the weight of this is very large and that the normal microaggressions of teaching, for instance, being talked down to by students because they don’t believe we have any authority or knowledge, have become even heavier. We talked, too, and again, about the weight of bearing not only our own personal life experiences that include losing people to covid but also walking alongside our students and their tough experiences at the moment through their disclosures to us. We dreamed about what it would be like if when we returned to in-person teaching that there would be a real reckoning with how exhausted we all are emotionally and physically and how that might look–we thought about days being devoted to outletting of the different emotions that have built up during this time to help us all cope with what has transpired. We talked about how teaching asynchronously makes us feel like we always have to be on call which is exhausting. We talked about how all disciplines can implement anti-racist texts into their courses, one participant talked about bringing these texts to a class where the students will be secondary ed teachers and most students in this course did not know there was racism beyond in person name-calling and so she was able to help them see all of the different ways racism is woven into American life on all levels. We also talked about how doing personal writing in courses can help students develop their own sense of self-worth which is helpful in combatting moments where one is degraded and oppressed for their identities.

working on maintaining our fig in this time of coronavirus. we will support each other in the transition to emergency distance education, as well as focus on self-care during these stressful times.

Meeting #1 4/24/20, Meeting #2 5/7/20, Meeting #3 6/5/20

We discussed issues that have arisen through the move to online teaching/learning and the strategies we have used to support our students and to take care of our bodies, health, and sanity.