Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.
Putting the students first and acting in their best interests allows for more meaningful learning and a stronger, healthier relationship between you and the students. During COVID especially, students may struggle to understand why certain things have to be how they are and most ‘fun’ activities such as extra-curricular sports and field trips have been canceled. As a class, I learned the importance of having these conversations with the students, listening to their questions, concerns, and comments as well as having multiple brain breaks and plan for lots of hands-on activities to ensure the learning occurring is still meaningful.
Also, knowing your students and reading the mood of the classroom is also important for meaningful learning. At times I had started a lesson with the full intent of completing it but my students were not ready to. Inside of pursuing the lesson, I stopped and reevaluated with my students. This would include taking a brain break and continuing on with the lesson or stopping the lesson entirely and coming back to it another day when the students are ready.