Distance Learning #11
May 15, 2020
Ending the School Year Virtually
It has been an incredible three months! You are amazing, consistently adapting and adjusting for our students. Here you will find an article by Angela Watson on Ending the School Year Virtually + Crisis Classroom Closeout Tips. She has many ideas for celebrating the end of the year with your students. Also, you may find her Checklist for Crisis Classroom Closeout useful.
Below this, you will also find a resource from the McGrath Institute to celebrate Mary. There are beautiful prayers and links to songs about Mary. Take a few moments to review the document and pray with our Mother Mary, who loves us, intercedes for us, and hears our prayers.
Grade/Content Meetings
No more zeros in K12 education - No-fail' grading methods designed to better reflect students' knowledge and abilities
“Is the grade that you’re receiving really measuring your skill level or is it measuring compliance?” says Catherine E. Vannatter, curriculum and instructional coach at 1,450-student Bryan Station High School, part of Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Kentucky.
New grading practices—including giving separate grades for behavior and achievement, replacing zero with 50 on the 100-point scale, and developing rubrics—are among the reforms the school is implementing to address a history of low achievement.
O (zero) Alternatives
Zeros are seldom an accurate description of a student's achievement and skew average grades dramatically.
Instead of promoting greater effort, zeros, and the low grades they yield more often cause students to withdraw from learning.
One alternative to zeros is to assign an "I" or "Incomplete" grade with explicit requirements from completing the work.
Descriptive Feedback Tips for Teachers and Parents, Part 1
Click on the link above to go to Scholastic Teaching Remotely. Pick your grade level, a week, and see amazing lessons to offer your students.
America's first Youth Poet Laureate
Science Teachers - Amazing Resources for You!
The intention of this document is to support your work with students as they learn from home under your direction. Investigation and design are essential aspects of science learning and can be a focus of students learning from home. The following ideas provide some guidance for working to engage students in science investigations and engineering design beyond the traditional classroom environment. These resources are consistent with the science and engineering described in the National Academies Framework for K-12 Science Education and aligned to the NGSS. Click here to access this document. Be sure to view all the grade-level standards with examples, links, and at- home possibilities.
7 Ways to Maintain Relationships During Your School Closure
Suddenly, you’re not in the same physical space as your students. We asked teachers to share strategies for maintaining relationships—both peer-to-peer and student-teacher—when everything’s gone remote.
By Sarah Gonser
1. TRY TO SAY HELLO FREQUENTLY, IF YOU CAN
2. HOW TO MAINTAIN MORNING MEETINGS
3. REIMAGINE TEMPERATURE CHECKS
4. TRY SNAIL-MAIL PEN PALS, PHONE PALS, OR VIRTUAL TURN AND TALK
5. CREATE VIRTUAL TABLES (BUT DON’T JUST GROUP FRIENDS)
6. CONSIDER INCLUDING PARENTS
7. GET KIDS TO NAME—AND PROCESS—THEIR OWN EMOTIONS
6 trauma-informed principles to keep in mind when supporting students
2) trustworthiness & transparency
3) peer support
4) collaboration and mutuality
5) empowerment, voice, & choice
6) historical, cultural, & gender issues
This YouTube tutorial shares tips to set up the use of Bitmoji stickers. - Thomas Blakemore
- How to get Bitmoji stickers, How to use Bitmoji stickers on Google classroom, How to use Bitmoji stickers on Seesaw (desktop), How to use Bitmoji on mobile devices.
Google Slide Deck w/templates and links
New Online Course: 21st Century Teaching and Learning - Jo Boaler
Our new online course is designed to help anyone teach – and learn – with a 21st-century approach to knowledge and teaching. Part of the course will share really important evidence we now have about the working of the brain, that is meaningful for all subjects and ages – and lives.
We are currently planning for a course launch in late July, 2020. The course will be free, and we will also offer an optional fee-based version for people who are interested in earning a certificate. There are six lessons—each will take approximately 1.5 to 2 hours—and the platform for the course is Canvas. The course is taught by Jo Boaler and others on the youcubed team, and is taught through a pedagogy of active engagement. We encourage you to take it with friends and colleagues! Please click here to provide an email address if you would like to be notified when the course launches.
Tech & Learning Virtual Conference
K-8 Literacy Symposium (free)
K-8 Literacy Symposium - A virtual symposium on May 21, 2020 - Literacy in a changing world
So much is hard to predict right now—about learning, and about life. What’s not changing? Literacy as learning bedrock, and the need to teach it well.
Catapult
Mitigating Learning Loss During the Coronavirus: What you can do now, over the summer, and to plan for the fall
May 28, 2020 — 3:00pm EST
In this virtual session, participants will:
- Learn about the potential impact that school closures will have on students
- Explore what districts can be doing right now to mitigate learning loss and emotional trauma
- Think about how to set up virtual summer programming to bolster students’ foundational skills
- Brainstorm ideas for how to set kids up for success when they return to school in the fall (virtually or in person)
Behavior Support to Engage All Learners: Defining and Reinforcing Expectations
June 11, 2020 — 3:00pm EST
With most students learning from home, engagement becomes more important than ever. This
In this virtual session, participants will:
- Learn the foundations of behavior support and what they look like in a classroom setting
- Determine how to re-envision these foundations for a virtual setting
- Be able to define their behavioral expectations in the context of any routine where learning takes place
The Importance of Social Emotional Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic
June 25, 2020 — 3:00pm EST
In this virtual session, participants will:
- Explore the five overarching social-emotional competencies
- Examine the need for social and emotional learning during this unprecedented time
- Identify the benefits of using explicit instruction to teach students the social-emotional competencies they need to cope with trauma
- Develop ways to integrate social and emotional learning into a remote environment
Remote Learning Programs for Students & Teachers
Virtual Summer Programs View Now
Student Counseling & Family Support View Now
Coaching & Professional Learning View Now