Modeling and Encouraging Self-Care in Online Teacher Preparation: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors

Kathleen A. Boothe, Southeastern Oklahoma UniversityFollow
Marla J. Lohmann, Colorado Christian UniversityFollow

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts for both teachers and students at all levels. Instructional delivery had to be modified to respond to the need for social distancing. Even courses that were already fully online required adaptations to accommodate the needs of university students during COVID. One of the biggest changes that the authors made to their teaching and to their students’ learning was that of modeling and encouraging self-care. This article summarizes what two university faculty changed in their instruction to help promote self-care, as well as what they are doing now to continue utilizing what they learned.

Author Biography

Dr. Kathleen A. Boothe is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Special Education at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, OK, where she currently teaches graduate students in a fully online program. Dr. Boothe is an active member of the Council for Exceptional Children Teacher Education Division. Dr. Boothe’s research interests include improving the online education for pre and in-service teachers, with a focus on universal design for learning (UDL). She has published four book chapters and three peer-reviewed manuscripts, as well as presented multiple times on the topic. Dr. Boothe has taught asynchronous online teacher education courses since 2015 averaging approximately 12 courses per academic year. Dr. Marla J. Lohmann is an Associate Professor of Special Education at Colorado Christian University, where she teaches both special education alternative certification and master’s degree students in a fully online programs. Dr. Lohmann is passionate about offering high quality teacher preparation and ongoing training for in-service teachers in the remote classroom. Dr. Lohmann has taught more than 100 asynchronous online teacher education courses.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Boothe, Kathleen A. and Lohmann, Marla J. () "Modeling and Encouraging Self-Care in Online Teacher Preparation: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research: Vol. 25: Iss. 1. https://doi.org/10.4148/2470-6353.1376