Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, March 19, 2020

’How do I plan a lesson?’ A teacher’s guide for parents reluctantly homeschooling their kids. - The Washington Post

’How do I plan a lesson?’ A teacher’s guide for parents reluctantly homeschooling their kids. - The Washington Post

‘How do I plan a lesson?’ A teacher’s guide for parents reluctantly homeschooling their kids.
‘What if my kids won’t listen to me?’




Parents nationwide find themselves serving as teachers of their own children — some of them reluctantly — with most of the nation’s schools closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Many schools are sending home packets of work and moving to online education, but most parents aren’t trained as educators. In addition, researchers have warned parents in the past that getting too involved with homework can hurt their children’s academic achievement because they don’t always know the right way to approach it. Parents have no choice at the moment, but there is often tension between children and parents when they work on schoolwork together.


Here is a practical guide for parents who are doubling as teachers at the moment, written by educator and author Roxanna Elden.
Elden combines 11 years of experience as a public school teacher with a decade of speaking about education issues. Her first book, the nonfiction “See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers,” is widely used for teacher training. Her debut novel, “Adequate Yearly Progress,” follows a diverse group of educators in an urban high school as their professional lives affect their personal lives and vice versa.
By Roxanna Elden
I’m often disappointed at how little my teaching experience prepared me for parenting. Eleven years in front of the classroom has done nothing for my skills at managing supermarket tantrums, getting a toddler to finish a yogurt in less than two hours, or reliably getting dirty clothes placed into the hamper.
So now, as school districts around the country announce coronavirus-related shutdowns, I’m no more excited than any other parent about becoming my kids’ full-time teacher until … whenever. In this one small corner of our new parenting normal, however, instructional experience offers an edge. At the very least, I’ve been able answer some of the questions raised by non-teacher parent friends as they prepare for the unasked-for career change ahead. Here are a few.

Kids and coronavirus: Is it safe to take them to playgrounds? Can you hire a babysitter? - Vox

Kids and coronavirus: Is it safe to take them to playgrounds? Can you hire a babysitter? - Vox

Playgrounds, babysitters, grandparents: What’s safe for kids in the age of coronavirus?
The ins and outs of social distancing for children.




In an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, cities and states are implementing new restrictions, seemingly every hour. The most effective tool is for everyone to stay home, but that’s a tough ask, especially when you’re living with young kids.
“We are fundamentally social animals, and it’s very difficult for us to maintain isolation,” says Dr. John Williams, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, in an email to Vox.
But because kids tend to congregate, sneeze, cough, wipe their noses, hug, wrestle, and “put everything in their mouths,” says Crystal Watson, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, being social comes with added risk.



The new guidelines for everyone of limiting social contact and keeping six feet away make sense as part of a general containment effort, but that calculation gets trickier when kids are involved, especially for parents who have to work. The main question in that case remains, “I have to stay in this house with them for how many days?” followed quickly by “What do I actually do with them?”
Some options get eliminated as cities close down public services. No school. No libraries. No museums. No movies. But not everything can be locked to the public. And a lack of information has parents wondering: what exactly is safe?
Frustratingly, there are no absolutes. Families have to weigh risks versus the demands of work CONTINUE READING: Kids and coronavirus: Is it safe to take them to playgrounds? Can you hire a babysitter? - Vox

TODAY’S UPDATE On New Resources To Help Educators Figuring Out How To Support Students During School Closures | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007


TODAY’S UPDATE On New Resources To Help Educators
Figuring Out How To Support Students During School Closures 
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...




Pins Of The Week

I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 21,000 resources there that I haven’t shared on this blog. I thought readers might find it useful if I began sharing a handful of my most recent “pins” each week (I’m not sure if you can see them through an RSS Reader – you might have to click through to the original post). You might also be interested in MY MOST POPULAR PINS OF 2019 Here
Fun Video: “I Will Survive, Coronavirus version for teachers going online”

PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay Emily Francis shared this funny video on Twitter. It’s important to keep our sense of humor in these kinds of situations!
Just Sent Out ANOTHER Special Edition Of My Ordinarily Monthly Email Newsletter

geralt / Pixabay I’ve just sent out ANOTHER special mid-month edition of usual free and simple monthly email newsletter (I emailed one earlier this week). This is the first time in ten years I’ve sent out more than just one newsletter at the end of the month. This special edition is designed to support teachers coping with school closures.It has over 3,000 subscribers, and you can subscribe here
If You Are Teaching Theory Of Knowledge & Have To Go Online, Here Is The IDEAL Project For Your Students!

geralt / Pixabay I’m pretty lucky because the last three months of my International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge curriculum is mostly online anyway (an Oral Presentation and essay). You can see it at HERE’S MY ONLINE TEACHING PLAN IF OUR SCHOOL CLOSES DOWN BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS , However, I suspect most TOK teachers don’t have their classes set up that way, and are trying to figure out

YESTERDAY

Thursday’s Additions The “Best Of The Best” List Of Resources Supporting Teachers Facing School Closures

kaboompics / Pixabay Though now there is a lot out there on teaching online, I’ll only be sharing ones that I believe should be added to The “Best Of The Best” Resources To Support Teachers Dealing With School Closures . Also, in a day-or-two, start looking for a series of commentaries at my Education Week Teacher column written by teachers explaining how they are managing the transition to onlin
Is Summer School In All Of Our Futures?

natureaddict / Pixabay Today, two pieces have appeared discussing the possibility of expanded summer school (and the federal government paying for it) this year in an attempt to recover from school closures. Check these out: Using federal stimulus to get schools through the coronavirus crisis: The case for summer school and summer teacher pay is from Brookings. After coronavirus school closings,
Microsoft Translator Might Be Helpful When Working With Newcomers Online

geralt / Pixabay As we all try to get our heads around teaching online, I was thinking about teachers who don’t speak the home language of many of their students and the challenges that presents. I speak Spanish, and 90% of my students this year are Spanish-speaking, so it’s not an issue for me. However, when you’re looking at screens and are obviously more limited by what you can do to communica
Are You – Or Will You Be – Teaching An ELL Class Because Of School Closures? Want To Write About It?

As regular readers know, I’ve been recruiting teachers from a variety of areas and subjects to write about their experiences moving to online learning (see Let Me Know If You’re Teaching K-12 Students Online Because Of COVID-19 & Would Like To Write A Guest Post About Your Experiences ). Those commentaries will be appearing in Education Week and/or in this blog and have already begun ( Guest Post
Brainpop IS Offering Free Individual Accounts For Students – What A Gift For ELLs & Others

Let Me Know If You’re Teaching K-12 Students Online Because Of COVID-19 & Would Like To Write A Guest Post About Your Experiences I’ve previously posted about Brainpop’s generous offer to provide free accounts while our schools are closed. Initially, it appeared to me that they were only offering one common sign-in for everyone at a school, and that students would have to email a teacher their te
Most Popular Posts Of The Week – Mostly Coronavirus Related

I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they may have originally been published on an earlier date), I will also include the top five posts that have actually appeared in the past week. Often, these are different posts. You might also be interested in IT’S THE THIRTE


Here’s The Message I Sent To Students Last Night After Our Governor Told Us To Expect Schools Not To Reopen

After our Governor said last night that he didn’t expect California schools to reopen this year, I was inundated with panicky text from many of my students. I have been in regular touch with my Beginning ELL students, and this is what I 


Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

'Panic-gogy': Teaching Online Classes During The Coronavirus Pandemic : NPR

Teaching Online Classes During The COVID-19 Pandemic : NPR

'Panic-gogy': Teaching Online Classes During The Coronavirus Pandemic


As colleges across the country pivot online on very short notice, there are a host of complications — from laptops and Internet access to mental health and financial needs.
Digital learning experts have some surprising advice: do less.
"Please Do A Bad Job Of Putting Your Courses Online" is the title of one popular blog post by Rebecca Barrett-Fox, an assistant professor of sociology at Arkansas State University. Her point: "your class is not the highest priority of their or your life right now." She suggests not requiring students to show up online at a particular time and making all exams open-book and open-Internet.
Luke Waltzer, the director of the Center on Teaching and Learning at the Graduate Center, CUNY, laid out his guidelines for transitioning to a "minimum viable course" in a single Tweet: CONTINUE READING: Teaching Online Classes During The COVID-19 Pandemic : NPR