That’s a load of 2020: Covid consequences

Screen%20Shot%202020-12-13%20at%206.27.39%20pm.png — **That’s a load of 2020:**

**Covid consequences**

iso

self-isolation

14 day quarantine

let's book a zoom meeting

zoom fatigue

camera off

zoom fatigue

you are on mute

can you turn your video on please?

pivot

unprecedented times

reframe

there will be no hand shakes, no hugging anymore

this conference is cancelled

covid brain

foggy brain

covid creep on deadlines

new normal

covid normal

social distancing

distant socialising

all the cool kids are wearing masks, so should you

hand sanitizer

QR codes

register here

covid overwork

once covid-19 is over...

Wow, 2020! What a year. We’ve made it, and with a few extra new words to our vocabulary!

January 1 2020 had me on a flight to Kuching, Malaysia Borneo to work with a group of 38 Australian pre-service teachers and Malaysian teachers from 10 different schools. New years Eve was much quieter for me than usual, and I had a sense the year was going to be hectic, but I just didn’t realise to the degree it would be. When I flew out of Singapore to return back to Melbourne having spent over a month in Malaysia a virus was beginning to be talked about. Lots of whispers, few facts, and very little comprehension of what was occurring. In Singapore the hotel staff all wore masks, and the concierge offered a free mask a day. Hand sanitizer in a little portable bottle for your handbag was a gift instead of the apple to take with you at breakfast. To enter a building one had to make sure hands were santised with a stand placed in the middle of the glass sliding doors. I'd not seen anything like this before. There were no signs explaining what to do, but every single person wore a mask and sanitsed!

Back in Melbourne, it only took a further 5.5 weeks before we went into the first of two lockdowns with rulings that had us not moving outside a 5 kilometer radius of our home without a permit for one of four reasons - food, care, exercise, and approved work. As I write this on Christmas Eve, I have only spent 22 days on campus this year.

It has been a year of exhaustion, heartbreak, and of reflection. It has been a significant year of pause. And many of the “re” words….rethink, renew, refresh, regroup, restart, reset, reflect, repurpose...have featured. It has been a significant year of relearning and unlearning. A year of pause - one that I have embraced on many levels.

Like most of you, I am exhausted. It is a different exhaustion though - it is one where I have had to shift my own goal posts. I go into a 4 week holiday with a mega to do list that I just couldn’t finish, a cold accompanying me, and a real dedication to pause right now. As I reflect upon 2020 the waves of up and down have been there. I am incredibly grateful for those who have been around me. My Whisper Collective colleagues - Inger Mewburn (Thesis Whisperer) and Jonathan O’Donnell and Tseen Khoo (Research Whisperer). We went on a huge journey from running a one day face-to-face event, locally for 25 people, to organising an international four day online festival with 12 session, multi guest speakers that we called WhisperFest. We offered this for free to bring together all of us who needed some extra help, guidance, support and fresh perspectives on how to navigate higher education and all that is an unraveling of years of turmoil. And wow, not only did meet our vision, we totally blew it out of the water! Over 2500 registrations from over 40 different countries joined us. Additional excitement was the birth of the Wellbeing Whisperer.

I, like many of you as well, upskilled significantly in tech in ways that I had not experienced before or anticipated. I used my strengths of creativity and curiosity to solve a problem to help future teachers, especially those about to graduate to access experts in the field and their peer voice. Teachers Supporting Teachers podcast was born - 2 series and 30 episodes later, lots of cool voices have been heard and made nationally and internationally. I’m especially in awe of the education students who joined me and talked about their experiences of COVID-19 as they navigated their studies.

Media featured highly this year with my first ever green screen experience with a series of wellbeing workshops for early childhood teachers for the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Australia. I spoke live on radio with various different ABC Radio hosts, interviewed for the New York Times and other newspapers and magazine outlets, and I have the pleasure of podcasting with my colleagues Leanne Camilleri (The Work Well, Live Well Podcast) and Michelle Tichy (Heart of Educational Psychology Podcast) on my favorite topic - self-care. Tweet Chats appeared again as a popular way to connect, and I had the honour of co-hosting a few as well.

During the first lockdown in Melbourne, I collected data on how we might flourish during COVID-19, and Sharon McDonough and I undertook research into teachers and how they were pivoting to remote and flexible learning environments. I secured a four year book contract for a new book series with Routledge on Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education. The first two books in the series are due out in 2021 with over 43 international authors involved with these publications. Book 3 and 4 in the series are currently under review, and several authors are currently pitching ideas for the series (if you have an idea please do reach out). I collaborated with my international colleagues more this year, and a couple of books were launched - one with Sharon called Building and Sustaining a Teaching Career: Strategies for Professional Experience, Wellbeing and Mindful Practice, and the other with Janet Salmons called Reframing and Rethinking Collaboration in Higher Education and Beyond: A Practical Guide for Doctoral Students and Early Career Researchers. I also launched my second self published deck of cards focusing on collaboration and mindful choices we can make to support all stages of working with others. And I enjoyed forming communities via social media as well through #FebFlourish, #Meditation54321, and #swinprofexp

Personally I learnt a lot about myself. After entering multiple periods of tight lockdowns, selling a house during COVID, moving three times, working mainly from a kitchen table or a desk the size of a toilet, I was confronted with the need to really tweak my own self-care needs. All my work patterns changed. A surprise leadership position managing internal and external requirements and constant COVID solutions, allowed me to connect with colleagues regularly and embrace so many different ways of seeing the world. I learnt that although I am an introvert, not being able to connect with my peeps personally to feel their energy is something I really missed. I also had to find new forms of “me time” when everyone in the house stays in the house during a year of personal and professional blurring. I found new ways to write, with new habits required to be formed. Boundaries became stronger after they totally collapsed and I found myself working up to 16 hour days and 7 days a week just to keep on top of all the shifting requirements, supporting others, and while also juggling other commitments and keeping on top of everything with full schedules of back to back zoom meetings! Hello “not sustainable”, but I did like the efficiency of committee meetings being carried out online and hope these stay. I also embraced change with a new hair colour...I went from blonde to red…because well, it’s 2020 and everything can be and is different!

I’m looking forward to The Wellbeing Whisperer growing and being a place that helps you as much as it helps me. In the meantime, I wish you all a safe end of year and I’m setting the intention for us all that 2021 will be a little bit more gentler and full of opportunities that energise each and every one of us. See you in the new year.

If you want to read posts from 2020 you can find them here: