How to help students wear a mask at school

Out of numerous challenges teachers face in the new academic session, including new routines, patterns, and connections, the most challenging one is to make sure that the young students keep wearing masks while they attend school.

Governments and health departments worldwide have shared some set of rules and guidelines as a standard operating procedure during a pandemic, which is to be followed by all. However, the question arises on how parents would make sure their child doesn’t remove masks during school hours. In some countries, young students are not required to wear masks, but middle school students who can catch the virus are most vulnerable as they tend to lose focus and might get annoyed by the masks.

Young students also are likely to forget that they are supposed to wear a mask while in school premises. Here is a list of strategies that you can apply to students to start their year in the mask.

A useful bag

Instead of sharing the stationary with friends, every student should have a “useful bag” where they have a spare pencil, sharpeners, and erasers. – Teachers might like to send the list of these items to create a useful bag for each student.

Reminder notes

Parents can create notes, cards, and reminder tags for their children to keep them informed and reminded in school how to social distance, wash hands, sanitize, and wear a mask. Parents can also write a letter outlining all the SOPs on the notebook of their child.

Teachers Feedback

Teachers can give students rewards, celebrate if students follow the SOPs in the classroom, and send their performance feedback to parents daily.

The daily questions teachers should ask students could be:

What positive impact did you create today?
What made me smile today?
Do you need any help?
How can we work together this year?

It is particularly important to share their own experiences with students about how they feel when they wear a mask. Teachers should also ask students to express their worries, concerns, and difficulty while wearing a mask.

Morning meet up

In the morning meeting, here are some questions the teacher can ask their students:

How important is it to wear a mask?
Why we wear a mask and how it protects us?
Which superhero mask would you like to wear?
Can you design your mask using papers, shapes, and designs?

Theme weeks

Introducing the idea of theme weeks for the first few months would distract the students’ from the rough days in masks. Researchers say that sometimes redirecting the attention of students can help. Teachers should work on ideas and concepts by introducing Favorite color week, Jungle week, Ocean week, my buddy week, Music week, etc.

Such activities also reduce anxiety and stress in students. Have a good time teaching!