Sending this reflection as a parent/educator:

Here's a "realistic" article at pushing stuff out to parents. I know I am totally overwhelmed and I only have one kiddo to manage and even thought I taught 3/4th, I'm having trouble interpreting instructions sent by others who think and plan differently than I do let alone have different backgrounds, philosophies, and resources we are trained to use. I can only imagine how this might be even more difficult for families who aren't educators and families that do not have electronic access or speak a different home language than English. Add the stress of this pandemic, not knowing the future, trying to shop, cook, and clean while families are home, setting up different schedules, negotiating space to study and work in small quarters with everyone stuck at home, expectations from family, teachers, and friends who do things differently, and this is a crazy amount of stress even if everyone's well and you have toilet paper. Put trauma and social/emotion stressors and health, financial or mental health problems on top of this and we are lucky to get through the day. I bet some of you are feeling the same. Take it easy, take it one day at a time, one minute at a time. Turn-off texts, news and Fb and take a nap if needed too. Everyone will benefit if we are having a hard time and just need a break. Teachers do this in their classrooms all the time. Rainy days are movie days.

In the classroom, students aren't' learning for 6 hours straight. Time on task is WAAAY less. Our children are learning to be flexible and this experience will define their lives and their generation. They will remember if we take it simple and allow them to do the same.

Remember the rule: plan activities that are around double the age of the child, then change or take a break.

“When it comes to remote teaching, start with reassurances to students. Our goal is not to create a fully-featured, 6 hrs/day online learning experience for all students. The goal is to prevent students from losing any ground while school is out and work on fluency or automaticity for what they’ve already learned. Start with reading, then add some writing and math,” says Hilary Scharton, VP of K-12 Strategy for Canvas. “Kids can do lots of age-appropriate science ‘experiments’ at home just cooking with mom or dad. Next steps could be replicating what happens in your face-to-face class online. There are lots of free tools that will let you upload a PDF so your students can annotate on a worksheet. You could do a video call with a conferencing app. Send your students links to newspapers or content sites. If you’re already using different apps in your classroom, use them more.” https://www.eschoolnews.com/2020/03/20/10-things-to-help-students-during-the-covid-19-outbreak/?ps=jsims@sandi.net-0013000000j0SzL-0033000000q5nY0&esmc=196698

This reaffirmed some of what maybe, I am doing right??? We are cooking for fractions and she's learning some hands-on sklls I know she doesn't get at school. I let her do it alone and then the cupcakes were super duper dry. On her own, she realized recipe said 3/4 cups so she measured 3 cups then 1/4 cup. Doh! We went back and measured 3 1/4 cups of rice and poured it into a measuring bowl and it filled to 3/4 cup. I'm so happy she failed and was able to figure out her mistake. Kind of bummed we had to through away the cupcakes though. Chocolate and stress go together. One good outcome...500+ more errors and mistakes to go.

I don't have a printer so PDF's lesson plans and ideas with worksheets to print-out don't work for us. Please don't post anything that needs specific materials beyond pencil/pen and paper. grrrrr. Right after I forwarded a ton of links I realized I am not appreciating teachers and friends sending a ton of new apps, passwords, and links where we have to sign-up and wait for confirmation.It's taking a ton of time with passwords, updates, etc. I am giving up on some, and I'm a "trained professional". I'm going to find a few things that work for us and master those so we can open them and get her started.

I understand the companies need metrics but if they are going to make it free, it would be great it if were kid accessible and easy to navigate. The amount of resources flying at us from publishers, well-meaning educators, companies, etc. are awesome but take it all with a grain of salt. Less is more, especially when many families are stressed at a level we've never encountered before. This situation is affecting everyone on a social-emotional level and many families on a financial level as well. Less is more.

After last week and many head-butting lessons, I reflected on what the article says above and decided to build automaticity, practicing what she's already learned and filling in some holes. Last week I was trying so hard to prepare lessons for her, introduce new learning and move forward and ended up frustrating her and stressing our relationship because she's arguing I don't do it the same as how her teacher explains it and I was feeling like I was failing my profession and at home, all at once and getting grumpy. Caught myself arguing back, "I know what I'm doing...I taught 4th grade before!!!"

Maybe I'm just really lame and taking the easy road, I don't know and I'm feel guilty every day that I'm not doing enough, but I'm trying to set things up to be FREE and SIMPLE - I have my daughter writing in a journal and reflecting on what she's done, setting a goal for the next day; all written in a spiral notebook. We are also reading what we have on hand; what's free. Read magazines, read pamphlets, read instructions for electronics we already own. 'reading bags and boxes in the kitchen as well as recipe books. I will check-out eBooks if needed but for now "reading around the house" is awesome, and helpful! She is also buying something using money she has saved, so has spent the last three evenings listening to and reading reviews to evaluate different products before she orders it to be delivered.

Keep it super simple. If you are feeling pressure to assign a ton of work online, I'm sure you know a family who doesn't have internet too. Please consider assignments and relevant activities that can be jotted down by families or students over the phone.

LANGUAGE
Writing / Reading: older students can write books for the younger ones to read; keep a journal comparing "then and now" before and during the pandemic; write down family stories and document oral histories of people that are special to them (over the phone, in person, Zoom/Google Hang-out); text friends and family; play Pictionary and Apples to Apples; ;keep a gratitude journal or a list of birds seen while walking around the neighborhood at different times of the day
Language Learning: If family has a second language, younger students can spend time teaching family members English and vice versa with additional home languages; call family members and talk on the phone.
Listening / Speaking: They can all listen and tell oral stories, interview each other; play games; make up games on cardboard and play each other's games and/or write instructions in home language or English

MATH
Basic skills: siblings create word problems and give younger students lessons. Cousins can do it on the phone too or over Zoom/Google hang-out/FaceTime. They can create drill sheets for themselves and others and do the same drill and time themselves to see if they can beat their time. Create stories and games with word problems and puzzles.
Measurement: children can learn to cook. Give them a 1/4 cup measurement instead of the cup with different measurements and have them figure out how to measure one cup using the 1/4 cup or 1/3. Can do the same with conversions of tsp/Tbs
Can write down a favorite family recipe and share on phone or take a photo and share with family to make at the same time.

If nothing else, reassure families and each others to be kind and gentle on themselves. At our home we are going to review what the teacher has posted and use what I think we can fit into our day. I'll double-check if this is expected or optional, but honestly, for equity issues, we as educators cannot make online learning required. After the pressure and failures of last week I will have my daughter practice learned skills, and get better at those skills, go for more walks, nap, and use this time to creatively reconnect with our families and our home and connect that to communication, research, social, thinking, and self-management skills we use in the International Baccalaureate program. They are solid skills and useful in life. What is your strategy for getting through all this with relationships and house in one piece?