As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, many students are struggling to make sense of it. Geography--straddling the intersection of physical and cultural processes and with its strong interest in patterns across space--sits at a unique point of intersection for understanding the pandemic. Instructors have a responsibility to help students better understand this outbreak as well as an opportunity to use the issues raised by the pandemic to illustrate broader geographic themes. With this in mind, the author presents a summary of a few of the myriad ways in which instructors might be able to contextualize the unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic for their students. Depending on the level of the students and topic of the class, these ideas could be used for just a few minutes of introductory discussion right through to developing entire seminar-style discussions around the proposed themes.