In today’s episode, Drs. Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines talk with Dr. Megan Nickels. Tune in as she shares her experiences aiding families and teachers working with students with chronic illnesses.
In today’s episode, Drs. Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines talk with Dr. Megan Nickels. Tune in as she shares her experiences aiding families and teachers working with students with chronic illnesses.
Welcome to practical access. I'm Lisa Dieker.
Rebecca Hines:And I'm Rebecca Hines. And today we're joined by Dr. Megan Nickels. Lisa, what can you tell us about Megan? Well, Dr.
Megan Nickels:Nickels is not only amazing friend and colleague, she's also a University of Central Florida faculty member who has a really unique level of expertise in helping children and families to and actually teachers with kids who are medically, chronically or critically ill. And so we are hoping Dr. Nickels, first of all, thank you for joining us, that you can share some practical ideas Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. So I'm going to just start with a really first question. You know, I'm a teacher, and I'm in the classroom and a child falls ill, whether it be for a day, a week, a month, what where where should I start? What would be some practical things I should think about right away beyond Oh, my gosh, I'm worried about my student, we know that teachers care deeply. But what are some academic things that I Yeah, so that's a great question. And I appreciate getting to share my ideas on that, particularly, the ideas that have been passed along to me from parents and the kids themselves, and, you know, what they're looking for, especially during those early days, and the, you know, when, when a child might be first diagnosed, and I think the one thing that I want to make sure to stress is, don't on a piece of paper, that is the thing that matters, right? And so we want to if you're a teacher, and you need to be sending resources to the child's home, or to the child's hospital room, you know, wherever they are, the resource itself matters and pours things like paper worksheets, things like that we want to steer clear from so as you're thinking about what is it that their classmates are
Rebecca Hines:No, that's perfect. So I was actually thinking as you You gave me a great segue there, because I was I was actually going to ask, you know, you mentioned some, some digital tools and you know, how sometimes having again, as you said, you know, porous things like a, a worksheet, you know, paper, etc, may not be the best all the time. So, as you know in this profession of education,
Megan Nickels:I think so. I mean, you know, what, what you mentioned, Becky, I, I've been reflecting on, you know, for the past months, you know, it's just how unprecedented teaching is right now, you know, sort of globally, in the situation that we find ourselves in with the pandemic and, and how it now has made the conversation about teaching this population of kids much more accessible to Education, if you are perusing their website, you can get to a lot of those that colleagues have shown me that are particular for like reading language arts that are some great, great things that can be found on there. Another and this doesn't directly address your question, Becky, but it just popped in my head. And I want to be sure to mention, there's actually a group for teachers, a
Rebecca Hines:Well, you know what, Megan? That's why we have Doc Students who was one of them, find out what that magical
Megan Nickels:Yeah, and I can definitely, I'm definitely linked in the picture of my head, but they've just recently changed their name because they merged two different existing groups under one banner. So it used to be AECMN. And then they, they've merged in so down, you know, when you need to know the name, it just flies right out of your head.
Rebecca Hines:So, you know, maybe you can, you know, you mentioned several of academic resources, and we're gonna hunt down some of these other outside resources and agencies that serve kids or provide provide information about tools, but I'm wondering about those social needs of kids. So if I'm in the hospital now, you know, not only am I missing out academically, but I'm probably kind of
Megan Nickels:Yeah, absolutely. So you know, a great way to merge that with what is likely needed. Again, if I think about something like language arts is having it, you know, set up something as simple as like a pen pal type activity, where they can be writing to each other, whether that's, you know, digitally sending emails, or actually know writing, and, and mailing things to each other and You know, and Megan, you know, we know your work, and we adore your passion, especially for kids who have cancer and just chronic illnesses. And one of the things I think you've you know, you've had losses in your profession of children, and you've saw children struggle, and what's your advice is, teachers to talk to the rest of the students in the class, you know, we're in this really delicate Yeah, so there's absolutely the need to educate their peers. And it that need goes in both directions, right, their peers are often fearful of the kinds of things that they should say, or how they should react or what that communication can look like between themselves and their, their classmate, you know, who has fallen ill. And there's also the need on the child that that has the illness, to having them kind of in different, like center times be able to keep their attention a little bit better, and being able to have a little, for lack of a better descriptor here, quiet time around the topic, then lots of you know, little voices with lots of questions at once. Right. But, but definitely letting them post questions with older kids and some of the questions that they might be I've had them in talking to them about what they'd like their classmates to know, I've had them write, you know, letters, like, I'd like my classmate to know this. And I've also had them do that when they are, you know, ending their treatment. So for a lot of our, our childhood cancer survivors, you know, they they've gotten to that finish line and their Salvatore and to have them kind of look back in a Well, you know, Megan, I, you know, one of the things that you do so well is you always keep this glass over half full attitude and optimism and all the work that you do. And I know, one of the things that you're really known for in your research is this whole concept of robotics, and how robots can empower kids. So I loved your whole statement of empowering the voice of the child. And can you talk Yeah, and you know, if I'm being honest, I tried to be a little careful around that just because I know, it's not a resource that everybody has available to them. But then again, you know, I often start either, you know, PD sessions or workshops by saying, you know, you probably have a robot in your classroom, and you don't know it, you know, because kids are given all of these different stem begun, because you are competing, not only with, you know, feeling unwell. But you're also competing with a lot of the really fun and amazing things that get brought into, you know, children's hospitals, for example, that that aren't on the educational sense, not that anybody, you know, would dream of wanting to, to have those things in their life. But if we, if we think about, you know,
Rebecca Hines:So Megan, as we as we wrap up, you know, you you've given us a lot of good ideas for for teachers and things that we can do it and we've talked a lot about kids who who are, who have chronic illness and we all know that sometimes. It's just kids who are high need kids with disabilities, you know, who missed a lot of school and who, who just can't always physically be present. So
Megan Nickels:I think the first thing is that don't don't wait, right, don't wait for the school to reach out. Don't wait for someone to call you about the 504 that I am hearing tip, you've got to educate yourself. And that I think the best way to educate yourself. So this is where I guess I'd merge it with Thing number two is find a group of parents who've been there, right, or a teacher who's
Lisa Dieker:That's a great tip. Great tip. Well, thank you. And that was that was a perfect way to end a great segment. Thank you for your wisdom and your dedication to this really unique population that I think has gone unserved in many ways, and especially in the area of mathematics until your work really came to the field. So thanks for all you do. And thanks for joining us. If you would like to send us any questions, you can
Megan Nickels:Thank you for having me.