School Closure Toolkit for Teachers

Supporting Student Choice

Our kids need to be engaged and excited about the learning they are doing at home. This means they need to be given lots of choices about what they study and how. Being at home without school bells, allows a unique opportunity to follow up on topics of interest and take an inquisitive mind down some meandering paths. 

• New Modes of Learning
  This opinion piece from the Harvard Graduate School of Education suggests ways for parents and teachers to use this time to explore topics they love and have learning experiences that could not have occurred in a traditional school setting.  

• 5 Ways to Activate Students’ Passion During a School Closure
  In this article, an instructional coach offers excellent suggestions any teacher can use to encourage student-centered exploration. 

What parents want you to know: The home is not the school building. I know my son sits still at school, but at home, he is off in a million different directions. Learning will need to feel relevant and fun to bring kids of all ages to the kitchen table.   

Fostering Creativity and Production

Schools across the country have been embracing the maker-space movement, fostering problem-solving and creative thinking. As a parent, I plan to bring the maker-space home. Right now, kids of all ages could use positive feelings of accomplishment that come from designing and bringing something to life.  Projects could range from building a bridge from toothpicks to creating a new recipe or writing a song.   

• At Home with MakerSpaces
  This short article outlines the simple materials needed to make a home Makerspace. It would be a good article to share with parents. 
• 7 Ways to Foster Creativity in Your Kids
  This article offers advice for parents on how to let your kids express their creativity. It would be a good article to share.

What parents want you to know: Projects will need to be based on things we already have at home. Feeling the need to acquire a certain item for a project will put stress on us and exacerbate inequities between families. Giving students open-ended challenges and the freedom to select their own projects will let them design based on materials on hand.  

Making Real-World Connections

It may seem hard to connect to the real world when students are stuck inside, but this can be done in many different ways. Virtual field trips and sites featuring live streaming, such as zoos or a weather station, can be tied to the curriculum. 

• • School Closures? Using PBL in Remote Learning
    This article offers advice on implementing project-based learning online and includes links to lots of additional resources.
  • Virtual Field Trip Apps and Websites List
    This is a comprehensive list of museums offering virtual tours and other ways to interact virtually with scientific and cultural institutions around the country. It might be a good list to share with families or use in online lesson planning. 
  • Ten Ways to Use Google Earth in Your Classroom
    This article offers many ideas for using Goggle Earth creatively. Many of which could be adapted as projects to be completed at home.

What parents what you to know: When the walls feel like they are closing in, our kids will need to feel a connection to the outside world, to go “outside” even when they can’t. 

Promoting Student Voice

Feeling heard will be particularly important for our kids when so many things in the world feel out of one’s control. Finding authentic ways for students to share their work may feel like more of a challenge than usual, but there are some creative options.

• Why Podcasting is Trending Since Serial and Why Your Class Should Be Doing It
  This article outlines how and why to use podcasts in the classroom.
• KQED Learn
  This free tool allows students across the country to connect and discuss current topics and share video and written commentaries.

What parents want you to know: Many of us don’t know much about some of the technology tools you may be asking kids to use for publishing. This is a great opportunity to set up projects that encourage us to learn together as a family or to have our kids teach us a new skill.

Strengthening Relationships

Building strong relationships is critical for kids who may be feeling isolated. There are many ideas for using technology to connect kids with each other, such as posting videos of work or meeting in a virtual classroom. Students who have less access to technology will need ideas to stay connected like sharing with a class partner on the phone.

• Prioritizing Human Connection When Social Distancing is the Norm
  This article offers ideas for fostering communication between different groups including teachers and learners, groups of students, and between teaching colleagues.

• Teacher Interrupted: Leaning Into Social Emotional Learning Amid the COVID-19 Crisis
  This article provides a reminder for teachers to draw on the SEL skills they have built to care for themselves and nurture students and their families.
• Helping Children Cope with Coronavirus and Uncertainty
  a senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to share ideas about how adults can talk to children about the virus.

What parents what you to know: To strengthen relationships at home, learning projects might include ways for kids to share their learning with parents and for parents to share their own skills and stories with their kids. All sitting at a table with separate laptops for hours will not feel like being together. And we all need “together” right now.

Empowering Students and Parents

Kids who feel like they are driving their own learning will stay engaged. Family members new to the role of learning mentor will need practical advice on how to stay involved and express interest while letting students be the drivers. This can be an opportunity to really pull them into the learning process and build partnerships between students and their parents that will carry into future years.

• 3 Ways Online Reflection Promotes Learner Agency in an Age of Urgency
  This article describes how teachers at the Global Online Academy use reflection to promote a sense of ownership over learning.
• 4 Tips for Teachers Shifting to Teaching Online
  This article offers advice for working with students who were often absent before school closures. The advice about helping students drive their own learning is especially helpful.

What parents want you to know:  Being a learning coach is a new role for most of us. We will need concrete suggestions on how to engage with our kids and the content they are learning. Our students may also need concrete ideas on how to engage with us as they may not have previously shared much about school specifics.

Ed-Tech Resources

Technology will help teachers and parents provide a meaningful home learning experience for our kids, but we can’t let it be the driver. If we have first taken the time to consider the type of student-centered learning experiences we want for our kids, then we can choose the technology that will support our goals.

• Commonsense Media How to Find Great Learning Resources for Your Students During School Closures
  This resource is organized in a very useful way. It categorizes apps, websites, and other ed-tech tools by their purpose. It includes a section on getting ready to start virtual learning, communicating with parents, collaborating, using video, and student–led and interest-based research.
  
  
• Learning Keeps Going
  A coalition of education organizations has curated strategies, tips and best practices for teaching online during the coronavirus pandemic. The site includes a resource database. They are also hosting a weekly webinar.  

• Preparing to Take School Online? Here Are 10 Tips to Make It Work
  This article includes tips for schools especially around technology selection, as well as useful lists of LMSs and communication tools for different purposes such as video interactions amongst a large group of teachers or students. 

• The Distance Learning Resource Center
  This resource from Learning Reimagined provides lists of virtual learning resources that are learner-centered. Resources are divided into learning resources; and resources for parents, teachers, and communities.