Must Haves for Teachers in a Pandemic

Live and learn. I found out a few things after these first couple of weeks of school that no amount of lesson planning and alternative teaching tools could offer.

• Teaching with a mask is hard. Students can't understand me and I can't understand them.
• Screen time is doubled therefore my headaches and eye strain have doubled accordingly.
• If I take my mask off for a nano second, there's a 99% chance I will have forgotten where I put it.
• I am hard of hearing ....or maybe I rely on reading lips more than I thought.

So, to my fellow teachers, I offer you this must have list that will hopefully help with some of these issues that may plague you as well.

• Buy these mask brackets. They go inside your mask and keep them off your lips and out of your mouth. I felt like Charlie Brown's teacher for the majority of the time I was talking. These help. They are reusable silicon inserts that are easily removed and cleaned for the next use. Mine are from Amazon and came in a package of 3.
• Wear blue light non-prescription glasses. (You can also order these in readers as well). They reduce eye strain and UV glare.
• Buy these handy mask holders. They are like a lanyard, but have 2 clips instead of one. So you can lower you mask and easily slip it back into place when you need to.
• Hearing aids may be in my future. No joke. I don't want to spend a lot of money on this at this time, but after searching for an affordable option, this little jewel may end up in my cart. And if I'm being totally honest, I may have needed this before the student's started wearing masks.