How to Be a Virtual Teacher! Dunno beyond facilitating Engenuity which was an out of the box, super easy tool, but gonna learn now from scratch.

...but if we hold our breath and jump, keep a sense of humor, keep kids with juice away from on our computer, and have amazon account ready for when the dog eats our USB cord, we'll be okay.

Balance is tough. Already, when working from home I'm bouncing between totally obsessed and can't stop typing away, looking at the computer and throwing daggers as I fold laundry, or griping at family to quiet down because I can't focus. I am definitely not there YET. If teaching's any indication, I'll never get "there" but can get better.

Here's the best check-list I've seen for getting started.

How to Be a Successful Virtual Teacher

How to Be More Productive When Working from Home - ADD Resource Center

Approaches to Learning with Distance Learning

Some Online ATL Resources for Digital and Home-School Learning

Self-Management
Game - teacher directed, collaborate with other students Classcraft Online Management Game

Communication
Online Safety - Video - The Power of Words lesson is also available
Finding Credible News - Common Sense Media

Research
Google Search AWESOME - PPT lessons and daily research challenges - use tomorrow - organized beginner, intermediate, and advanced searchers
https://www.google.com.hk/insidesearch/searcheducation/lessons.html

Social Skills
Zoo U - Online Collaboration Game - Tools to assign and teacher can observe how students work together c
Building Empathy - video with ideas to build empathy in your digital classroom
Links for tools for online collaboration - add your own to the list

Thinking Skills
Finding My Media Balance - Common Sense Media

Academic Honesty - This is definitely a test of the emergency broadcast system! Copyright in the time of COVID

This is a not a test. Working from home and moving learning online is our new reality. Let's see how our democratic values of ownership and authority still hold strong in a time of uncertainty and online learning.

Will you still demonstrate being principled and follow copyright laws? It's not going to be easy. Call me out too if I make a mistake too. These are extraodinary times indeed.

Here are updated guidelines and policies for video-taping read-alouds:
https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=publishers-adapt-policies-to-help-educators-coronavirus-covid19

FREE Resources for Educators for School Closures

FREE Resources - My awesome principal and resourceful colleagues are sharing amazing resources. So many. As they come I'll post and curate them here for all to use. Keep them coming.

https://www.weareteachers.com/free-online-learning-resources/

https://time.com/tfk-free/?fbclid=IwAR35tK7NPJnGOFciaHtdi3UEWwUVI1CZKXIaI7XlSQdqvLB9lgMbN5sPAxM

Copyright Policy Updates during School Closures - Publishers are allowing copyright use in agreement for following these procedures and policies. Thank you for using academic honesty. The true test is if we as a society will follow academic honesty during difficult times.

CA Council for Social Studies Supporting distance learning in social studies - indexed by grade. Includes financial literacy and civis links.

Teaching Books

130 FREE online resources

Common Sense Media - Best Games for Online Learning, Digital Citizenship Badges, Lessons and More

Relevant Learning - Perfect time to collect oral histories

Help our students stay in touch with relatives and friends by collecting oral histories. Boost writing, listening and speaking strategies.

Oral History Project from UC Berkeley History Social Science Project

Tell Us How it Was: Students Interview Their Elders - What Can Kids Do

Oral History Project - Teaching Tolerance

Oral Interviews - Teaching Tolerance

Oral Histories - National Council for Social Studies

Oral History Upper Elementary Lesson Plan (grade 4/5)- great ideas to have our students interview each other and publish their experiences of Sheltering in Place. -Tenement Museum

How do I Engage Students in Oral History Projects? - Oral History Association

Interviewing Veterans - Library of Congress

Story Corps - Interviewing Tips

Story Corps DIY - getting your students started


How to use primary resources in your online teaching:

National Archives

Dive Deep - Our Oceans

What is the greatest source of ocean pollution? What kelp-based products do you use/eat everyday? Do you know the value of the global ocean economy? Can you name one marine-related career? Curate your marine related curriculum to inspire students to explore and take action.

Did you know Soymilk and Toothpaste are made with seaweed?

Kelp Forest Digital Teachers Guide - AWESOME resources including a game from Monterey Bay Aquarium

Watersheds, Flooding, and Pollution - educator's resources from NOAA because all streets and all streams lead to the ocean

Cigarette Butts the Worlds Greatest Source of Ocean Pollution - inspire your students to take action

Stuck inside and can't get to the beach for spring break? Put on your snorkel and fins and dive deep with these online underwater resources:

All ages Ocean Education - National Geographic

Be sure to sign-up for FREE Mysteryscience.com teacher account!

California State Parks PORTS is also free right now. Search it up and have your families join in for a free video-conference at a state park

K-8 - BrainPop Oceans - Learn about oceans with animated video, quizzes, and related topics (sign-up for FREE teacher account)

K-8 - NEWSELA ocean-related articles FREE for online teachers - Sign-up now!

Did you know the value of the global ocean economy is estimated to grow from $1.5 Trillion (2010) to $3.0 Trillion by 2030 - "The Ocean Economy in 2030," OECD (April 2016)

grade 10+ The Maritime Alliance ocean-related companies (the movers and the shakers), click on links to research these blue-tech innovators

grade 8+ NASA links for ocean problem sets using Pi

grade 7+ The Maritime Alliance Ocean Report US Ocean Enterprise - one of the fastest and most lucrative economies is ocean-related economies, check-out what jobs and careers will be needed

grade 7+ The Martitime Alliance Blue Stem Career videos - there are so many more ocean-related jobs than one might think

grade 6+ Elephant Seals articles from California State Parks (cam is available when parks are open)

grade 6+ Experiencing Marine Protected Areas - how to keep MPA's safe (plan ahead for when you are out and about again)

grade 6+ Ocean Facts from NOAA with links to 100+ ocean-related video

grade 6+ - virtual adventure - FREE teacher membership required - Find a Vent online exploration with American History Museum https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/find-a-vent

grade 6+ - article - "Oceanography" Scholastic Article

grade 4+ - article - 11 Ocean-friendly companies like Patagonia and Adidas are removing plastic from our seas and transforming it into cool new products - Business Insider

grade 2 - video - Why is the ocean salty?

COOL OCEAN CAMS - IF YOU CAN'T BE THERE IN PERSON

LIVE Scripps Pier Cam (La Jolla Shores, San Diego)

Kelp Cam - Birch Aquarium

Coral Reef Cam - Monterey Bay Aquarium

All Monterey Bay Aquarium Cams including penguins, sharks, and Monterey Bay - Monterey Bay Aquarium

National Aquarium Cams are recorded during COVID but click here to find animals in their ocean environment - National Aquarium

Shark Tracker - National Conservation

Channel Islands LIVE Kelp cam - California Channel Islands

Ocean cams at explore.org

Ooops - Persian New Year

Thank you Lisa Adeli from University of Arizona for this "good stuff!" and reminding us that a Happy New Day can, and is being celebrated, even when inside trying to quell the COVID virus.

Please forgive this late posting...Happy Nowruz to families celebrating around the world.

Last week was a blur getting children and household settled for "sheltering in place" in California. Now that we are settling into a routine I'm finally working my way through 200+ emails. A friend of ours is from Iran and practices Zoroastrian religion here in San Diego so when I saw this post I was so happy to learn more about his religion and tonight we will have Shah Toot jam on our ice-cream as a nod to his wonderful family and all that they graciously share with our family. Every year we are invited to their home to help harvest Shah Toot berries from the beautiful trees in their back yard. He brought the cuttings from Iran years ago. Over the years we have learned more about the berries and realized what a special treat they are not only to us, but to other middle-eastern families. According to our friend an berry cultivator...Shah means King or Leader and Toot means berries so he says they are the King's Berries. They are the most delicious berry I have ever tasted and to me taste as the color purple would taste if it were food. Hard to explain. They are also known as Persian Red Mulberries and are found in few places in the United States but if you can try them, please do. The darker the better. http://www.mypersiankitchen.com/shahtoot-persian-red-mulberries/


The Persian New Year is the biggest holiday in Iran, Kurdish lands, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and other places - and it's being celebrated now (the first day of the spring equinox, calculated to the minute!). It's a 5,000-year-old secular holiday (since its roots are in the ancient Zoroastrian religion, which isn't very widely practiced today), which combines some features of Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving all rolled into one. If you want to teach about it, here's a very short intro that young people can read: https://cmes.arizona.edu/sites/cmes.arizona.edu/files/Nowruz%20explanation_1.pdf AND you can check out a great website at: https://surfiran.com/nowruz-2020-iranian-new-year-2020/


Short videos - compare different celebrations in different countries:

BBC intro to Nowruz (2 min., 19 sec.)

Silk Road Dance Company (3 min., 14 sec.)

Nowruz in Iran (2 min., 11 sec.)

Nowruz in Azerbaijan (4 minutes, 22 sec.)

Nowruz in Iraqi Kurdistan (2 minute, 8 sec.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGsCx1nx9-Q and (1 min., 34 sec.)

Nowruz in Uzbekistan (4 min., 53 sec.)

Nowruz in Tajikistan (3 min., 27 sec.)

Nowruz in Afghanistan (3 min., 16 sec.) --Lisa Adeli, University of Arizona


Listserv: Be sure to visit the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at University of Arizona and sign-up for their newsletter. They don't fill-up your inbox and the resources are timely, unique and quality.

Book List: good list to buy for your school library so everyone has FREE access to read and enjoy...
http://www.middleeastpdx.org/resources/original/recommended-books-for-elementary-school/

Measurement - great activity at home

With little ones:

Have students use all kind of things in the house to measure - non-standard measurement

Explore comparing non-standard measurements

https://thekindergartenconnection.com/secrets-developing-measuring-skills/


With older children:

read recipes; bake; measure their rooms; estimate elapsed time of a walk around the block


Challenge:
baking - give them a 1/4 cup or a tsp to bake a recipe. See how they need to use repeated addition or multiply to complete the recipe
math or spelling drill - measure how much time it takes to complete a drill sheet and keep a graph of how much faster it's completed each time


Service learning:
We are cleaning-up a section of the cat-walk behind us and then estimating how much time it would take to complete and/or how many people to complete in an hour. We are also going to measure the stairwell and estimate the amount of paint it would take to repaint it. When not on stay at home orders, I'm hoping to have daughter write message and I'll post on Nextdoor for white paint donations, and then see how close we are to how many gallons we estimated for the project. She can document the project in a process journal and then share with other families in our neighborhood and hopefully do the same once we can all head outside. Maybe we'll do a community hike around the different stairwells in our neighborhood and celebrate when we can or do a Zoom celebration all together if we are inside for the long haul.

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?