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Without a doubt, many of us are feeling anxious as we navigate the uncertainty of the coronavirus (COVID-19). We're feeling it too, and we wanted to share some of the tools we're using to take care of our minds and stay grounded.
Enjoy this curation of meditations, sleep stories, music and more, all hand-picked to support your mental and emotional wellness through this time. And check back soon as we'll be updating these resources regularly.
CommonLit’s Mini-Units. These units include over a dozen high-quality reading and writing activities and are a great way to keep students learning. CommonLit has developed over units for grades 3–12. Each of these 15 units include:
4–10 texts organized around an essential question
Daily lessons and questions for cross-textual analysis
A final writing assessment and an alternative assessment that encourages students to be creative
Student handouts with graphic organizers
Answer keys for educators
Tips for Designing an Online Learning Experience Using the 5 Es Instructional Model
Covid 19 has educators and educational institutions worried about and preparing for possible school closures. What happens if students have to stay home for days or even weeks? How can we keep them learning remotely? What strategies and technology tools can teachers leverage to take their traditional classes online?
With protests over the violent deaths of black Americans dominating the news, it’s understandable that many kids are feeling scared, confused or angry about the situation. How can parents, many of whom are struggling themselves, help children process what they’re seeing and manage their feelings?
There’s no one right answer. That said, there are a few guidelines parents can keep in mind to help kids deal with troubling news about race and violence.
CBS News This morning Youtube video about how to raise kids to be anti-racist and talk to them about racism. Protests across the nation over the death of George Floyd are forcing parents to have tough conversations with their kids about racism. CBS News contributor Ibram X. Kendi's upcoming book "Antiracist Baby" is about raising anti-racist kids. He shares how to talk to your kids about racism amid the protests over police brutality.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation operates the world’s largest living history museum in Williamsburg, Virginia—the restored 18th-century capital of Britain’s largest, wealthiest, and most populous outpost of empire in the New World. With schools closed, social distancing recommended around the world, Colonial Williamsburg closed, and those who can working from home, we’re gathering materials here so you can escape to the 18th-century, learn a little and find some entertainment. You'll find Videos, Live interactions, Virtual Field Trips, Music, Arts &Crafts, Cooking.
At the Colonial Williamsburg Education Resource Library for Teachers (https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/teachers/), you’ll find a variety of materials for teaching and learning American history and civics, including videos, interactive learning games, lesson plans, and more. Video programs are designed for grades 4-8, but have been used successfully in other grade levels as well.
The National Council of Teachers of English Children’s Literature Assembly offers a bi-weekly blog with resources for preK-university educators. Each entry highlights a great online resource available for teachers and how it might be effectively utilized or offers a description of a short lesson using children’s literature that educators can use in their newly located classes.
If you’ve found yourself teaching in a distance-learning situation, especially if it’s been foisted upon you by circumstance, you’ll discover pretty quickly that distance learning offers different challenges from face-to-face instruction. And if you look online, you’ll find tons of ideas and resources that can help you tackle those challenges, so much that it’s easy to get paralyzed at the volume of it all. This is especially true if you’re expected to hit the ground running with very little notice. To help you, I’m going to take my best shot at sharing clear, carefully curated information on distance learning.
Best Tools for Virtual and Distance Learning
Making virtual learning or distance learning work for all students is challenging. You can have all the best tools in place, but without equitable access at home for all your students -- and adequate prep and training for yourself -- it's tough to replicate a traditional, in-person learning experience. This list assumes you've got those problems worked out and are focusing now on how to set up an effective virtual learning environment -- either adapting your existing curriculum, or designing a brand-new one from the ground up.
Many teachers tell us they're new to remote instruction, but it's our K–2 teachers who are coming to us urgently with the following question: How do I turn my classroom into a distance learning environment when students have little or no experience using digital tools independently?
Support the transition to virtual learning and help students think critically and compassionately about what they see online. As the effects of the coronavirus sweep through the United States and across the world, many teachers and schools are making the shift to virtual learning. But even if students are comfortable with technology, learning online requires its own norms and procedures, many of which will be new to students who are used to learning in a face-to-face classroom.
In addition, teachers and students alike are spending more time checking news and social media in an effort to understand the coronavirus and its effects. Now more than ever, students need key digital citizenship skills, including news and media literacy, the ability to recognize and respond to cyberbullying, and an understanding of how their media habits affect them.