Teaching in the Time of Corona

A Recommended List of Resources for Remote Teaching and Learning

Organizations & Associations

ASCD

http://www.ascd.org/Default.aspx

CASEL

https://casel.org/covid-resources/

Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)

https://www.cec.sped.org

Taking Annotation Digital: A Strategy for Online Teaching & Learning

By Kristen Hawley Turner and Lauren Zucker

On the last day of school before the COVID-19 shutdown, Kristen asked her seventh-grade twins whether their teacher had given them copies of the class novel they were going to be reading.

“No, there weren’t enough for the entire grade, so we are going to have to read it online,” her daughter said.

“Yeah, how is that going to work?” replied her son.

The rapid shift from face-to-face to emergency remote teaching has upended educational systems everywhere. How is it going to work to read a full-class text? How will teachers assess individual students’ thinking? How will students engage critically with their reading? How will redesigned instruction be equitable when synchronous access isn’t ubiquitous?

Helping Learners “Lean In” Intellectually During the Pandemic

Reposted with permission from edCircuit

Many baby boomers share a common, vivid memory: Most stood in a long line at school to get a sugar cube vaccine for protection against the polio epidemic. Parents were justifiably panicked. In 1952 alone, close to 60,000 children were infected, with thousands paralyzed. Swimming pools were closed, and social distancing measures were enacted. * Children with braces on their legs became a common sight, and the world learned what it was like for children to spend their days within the confines of iron lungs. But in the midst of this terrible sorrow and fear gripping the world, medical heroes emerged. Indeed, incredible learning was taking place; in fact, two vaccines were created. One required just two drops of vaccine, often on a sugar cube. Over a fairly short period of time, polio was virtually eradicated.

Digital Classroom Routines: or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Teaching Online

Over the last several weeks, many K-12 educators have pivoted, with little warning and minimal training, to teaching in a fully online setting. The challenge of transforming an established face-to-face learning situation into an online one in the midst of a global crisis is new, even for teachers who have planned and delivered digital curricula in the past.

On Friday, March 13^th, I told my eighth- and ninth-grade students that school would likely be suspended for a couple of weeks. On Wednesday, March 18^th, I convened online classes which, though I didn’t know it then, would stretch at least until the end of April. Between then and now, I have developed a rapidly-evolving repertoire of practices, guided by Jay Wiggins’ and Grant McTighe’s classic dictum of curriculum planning: begin with the end in mind, only with a twist.

Tech Tips for a Smoother Telecommuting School Day

To be honest, I was apprehensive about transitioning from classroom teaching to delivering instruction entirely online. How would I connect with my kids? How would I accurately assess their learning? How would I deliver the content and still make meaningful connections with them? These questions and others plagued me as COVID-19 threatened to take more and more time away from the classroom.

So, where to begin? Fortunately, I’ve had some experience with teaching digitally, so when COVID-19 forced the closure of my district, I was already familiar with some technology that could deliver instruction to my students remotely. The following are some practical tips I have used in my transition.

In the Time of Corona: Teaching Writers in Uncertain Times

As I write this*, thousands of educators and administrators — as well as students and their caregivers — are all settling into a new reality. It is a reality that means they will likely not be back in physical classrooms in the foreseeable future. It is a reality in which they do not know for sure whether any kind of online learning will be able to replace mandated hours of classroom time.

That said, some practices for teaching writing can be of help to writers at any time, and especially now, in these uncertain times. I offer these suggestions, knowing that my K-12 colleagues are facing a different reality than my colleagues at community colleges and universities, and that issues of equity and access are still pressing across many educational contexts. Not all students have access to technology, and others face different challenges.