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Stop Breathe Think - YouTube

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meditation mindfulness "stop breathe think"

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Slay your stress, get more sleep, or find your calm with short mindfulness activities tuned to your emotions. Available on iOS and Android. Visit us at stopbreathethink.com

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New York Times Teaching and Learning has many resources

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New York Times Teaching and Learning has many resources

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Resources from my "Up Your ELL Game" webinar

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Resources from my "Up Your ELL Game" webinar

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In order for schools to serve English language learners (ELLs) effectively through COVID-19 and beyond, it's critical to understand some of the impacts of the pandemic on their communities. These impacts can affect everything from whether a student is completing assignments at home to the ability of a family member to self-quarantine after contracting COVID-19.

We encourage schools to partner with families and organizations to learn more about particular impacts in their community - strong partnerships can make a valuable difference in finding solutions together!

COVID-19 and refugees

Learn more about the impacts of COVID-19 on refugees - and how they are helping with the pandemic response.

The Impacts of COVID-19 on Immigrant Communities

There is a complex constellation of factors and stresses impacting immigrant families during the COVID-19 pandemic. While numerous non-immigrant families are also experiencing many of these challenges, it is important for schools serving ELL and immigrant students to understand how these factors are affecting their specific communities - and to understand why 75% of the young people who are dying from COVID-19 are minorties.

ELL and immigrant families may be facing high rates of COVID-19 in their communities that may related to:

In addition, families may be facing hardship due to:

loss of income and food security

loss of housing

threats of eviction or reporting families to the authorities based on immigration status

concerns about child care, supervision, and safety

lack of/limited access to economic relief at the local, state, or federal level for undocumented immigrants

grief and/or a loss of caregivers

stress, anxiety, and depression

multiple children cooped up in crowded quarters

gaps in access to flu vaccines

returning to deteriorating school buildings with poor ventilation that may increase risk of COVID-19 transmission and exposure.

It's also important to keep in mind the following:

ELL and immigrant families may be reluctant to send their children back to school for saftey reasons, but may also feel that remote learning is not an equitable or effective solution for their children.

Limited access to school transportation may make getting to the school impossible for families, or increase the distance students have to walk, even in winter months.

Many immigrant families live in multi-generational homes. Students or families may be concerned about high levels of risks to grandparents at home, and grandparents may be the primary adults supervising schoolwork.

Older children may also have big responsibilities, including care for younger siblings or working outside of the home. As a result of the pandemic, students may be the primary breadwinners in their family.

Children may be going to their parents' workplace during the day if there is no child care available.

Even if immigrants do have access to certain benefits, they may be afraid that using them will adversely affect their immigration cases or lead to deportation.

Families may be concerned about the health of relatives overseas or the impact of travel restrictions.

Families may be sending remittances to relatives in other parts of the country or abroad.

Families who have recently arrived in the U.S., including refugees, may have recently experienced months or years of trauma or upheaval even before the pandemic.

College students, who may also now be their family's breadwinners, may be vulnerable without the food and housing available on their campus or putting their education and career plans on hold.

American Indian and Alaska Native families have also been extremely hard hit by the pandemic.

At the same time, this uncertainty and upheaval comes at a time when many immigrant families were already facing hardship and many immigration-related concerns. Immigrant advocates and medical personnel are sharing numerous examples of immigrants who are not seeking medical care related to the COVID-19 out of fear of consequences for their immigration applications or fear of deportation.

This puts many immigrants and their families at risk who may work as essential personnel or who may not have qualified for federal economic relief due to immigration status. (The government has specified that COVID-19 care will not be used as part of public charge considerations, yet the communication around the public charge issue has left many families with more questions and answers.)

As a result, the combined pressures of the pandemic and heightened immigration enforcement have put a significant strain on families, making it difficult for them to support children's learning at home, especially if parents are working outside of the home.

Resource collections

For more on this topic, see the following resources:

Related headlines

Dr. Jesse Bump, a Lecturer on Global Health Policy and Executive Director of the Takemi Program in International Health at Harvard University, notes that this crisis is shining a light on the longstanding cracks in our social safety net and the inequities that impact millions of families every day.

"There is a thin thread that holds life together," he says, "and when it gets thinner, it breaks more easily."

Video: Housing challenges for immigrants during COVID-19

Juliana Urtubey, Nevada's 2021 Teacher of the Year, talks about some of the housing challenges that immigrants are facing during COVID-19.

Video: Social-emotional support for immigrant students during COVID-19

Nathaniel Provencio, Associate Superintendent of Prince William County Schools in Northern Virginia, talks about the impact of COVID-19 on his district's immigrant families, as well as the importance of social-emotional support for students during this time.

Identifying Families' Strengths

At the same time, it's important to keep families' strengths in mind at all times. ELL educators know what many in their school communities have not had the privilege to witness - the depths of commitment and sacrifice that ELL families have gone to on behalf of their children, the extraordinary measures they are taking to keep their families safe during the pandemic, and their courage in the face of great adversity.

They also have strong networks among their communities, and they are the best source of information on how the pandemic is impacting their children. While the challenges of this crisis are significant, many families will persevere - if their child's school invites them to the table as partners.

Resource: See strengths-based outreach ideas in EL Family Engagement During Coronavirus from Immigrant Connection

What Schools Can Do

Stay attuned for clues about families' experiences during COVID-19

As educators get to know their students and families, it's important stay attuned for clues about families' experiences during COVID-19 so far. Every family has their own unique story, many of which may be traumatic, and so it is important to build trust with families from the beginning of the relationship. Families may also have a wide range of questions and concerns related to this crisis based on their own perspective and experience.

In order to prepare for any conversations that may arise, look at the following:

If you are just getting to know a family, you may wish to talk with a family liaison or community partner in order to figure out:

how to handle communication with sensitivity and communicate most effectively with the family

what issues or topics you should keep in mind or understand better

if you should be aware of any cultural considerations in your communication.

If a family member is comfortable communicating with you, you might ask:

how everyone is doing

how students have responded to new schedules, ways of learning, or school closures

if students or families have any questions or concerns or need any particular kind of support

what some challenges of COVID-19 have been

if there have been any silver linings/opportunities for their family.

Make social-emotional health a priority throughout the coming year.

Students may have high levels of anxiety with few outlets for support or discussion; disruptions to that stability may be particularly challenging for these students to manage. For many students who have experienced trauma, they may still be struggling with the loss of the daily routine, as well as the safe haven school provides, both physically and emotionally. Teachers who work regularly with ELLs may be able to identify key areas of concern among students, as well as some ideas for addressing those concerns.

The best way to address these social-emotional challenges is through collaboration with educators, social workers and/or counselors, family liaisons, and administrators. Putting together a " crisis support team" can offer an opportunity to:

address key issues and priorities, especially if they are affecting multiple families

brainstorm ideas on how best to partner with families and gather their input and ideas

discuss cultural considerations that might impact how to handle communication with students and families

identify community partners

identify resources and strategies for support

develop a list of activities or strategies that educators can use as part of their instruction

identify key strategies that families can use to support their children

identify clues to these stressors that educators can look for (without making assumptions)

consider how these issues might impact students' ability to complete schoolwork

develop a protocol for addressing challenging situations or behaviors.

Schools can also include these topics in their family outreach and encourage families to:

keep talking with their children about the pandemic and how it is impacting daily life

help their children stay in touch with family and friends

contact a trusted adult at the school with any questions, especially around abuse or trauma

look for ways to embed social-emotional learning throughout the curriculum.

In the classroom

Rather than making these topics central to student discussions, prepare some possible responses in case students do bring these topics up. Look for ways to strengthen your student relationships and social-emotional learning throughout the year in order to provide a safe and supportive space for student growth and learning.

Look for ways to strengthen families' safety net.

There are also ways that schools and districts can make a difference in the daily lives of their families. Here are some ideas to get started:

If the district plans to make schools meals available, ensure that all families have access to that information. Teachers have reported that some districts are sending this information only in English. Some families are unlikely to be able to pick up meals during the mid-day. Many school districts are collaborating with community agencies and local businesses/restaurants. You can learn more about what your school district is doing in order to communicate that to families. You may be able to learn more about distribution sites through district, state, or news websites. The non-profits focused on hunger on this list may also have updated information.

When possible, connect families with services/programs that can:

help alleviate hardship in the event of school closures, missed meals, or lost wages

provide medical care and support (especially if you suspect families are uninsured)

provide social-emotional and mental health support for students and families.

Look for opportunities to create new local partnerships (such as those used by community schools) that can help address these needs.

Learn more from the following from our guide on how schools can support immigrant students.

Dr. Bump urges educators and advocates to encourage ELL, immigrants, and anyone under pressure from COVID-19 to reach out to make their needs known. There are and will continue to be major distributional problems and an important part of the solution if for people to speak up when they need something - whether it's health care and services, food, or domestic goods. Speaking up will also make it easier to connect those people and institutions that are willing and able to help others.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to bullying, harassment, and discrimination, both for immigrant communities as well as for Asian American communities. This has taken place in schools and beyond, including in medical settings where health professionals are being harassed.

Here are some tips to address these trends:

Use resources like this comic, available in multiple languages, for class discussions, as well as these resources for talking about coronavirus.

Remind students of how to treat each other with respect, as well as school rules on bullying and discrimination.

Become familiar with strategies for preventing the bullying of ELL and immigrant students.

Ask administrators at the school and district level to make public statements regarding bullying and harassment.

Note that federal officials are keeping track of this issue. According to Education Week, "The civil rights arm at the U.S. Department of Education has urged schools to address the harassment of certain students amid ongoing concerns over the spread of the coronavirus."

Share statements that other districts have made speaking out against bullying, such as the statements put out by Seattle Public Schools.

You can learn more from:

Making the Most of Lessons Learned

Despite the tremendous challenges of this time, it is possible for positive things to come out of this crisis, including:

better communication and collaboration among schools, families, and communities

resourceful solutions for addressing different needs

a push towards more equitable access for digital learning.

Professor Bump notes that this kind of crisis highlights our sense of community and resourcefulness as well as the good and generous nature of the American people. "People want to help each other out," he says, and this crisis will continue to provide some very concrete ways to do so.

It is our hope that these ideas offer some steps that you, your colleagues, or district and community leaders / partners can take on behalf of your English learners and immigrant students - steps which may just have some positive impacts for the future.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Kristina Robertson, Glenda Macal, Giselle Lundy-Ponce, Kathy Evans, and Dr. Jesse Bump for their contributions to this article.

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How COVID-19 Is Impacting ELL and Immigrant Families

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In order for schools to serve English language learners (ELLs) effectively through COVID-19 and beyond, it's critical to understand some of the impacts of the pandemic on their communities. These impacts can affect everything from whether a student is completing assignments at home to the ability of a family member to self-quarantine after contracting COVID-19.

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In these difficult times, we've made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. To get all of HBR's content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter.

Some of the HBR edit staff met virtually the other day - a screen full of faces in a scene becoming more common everywhere. We talked about the content we're commissioning in this harrowing time of a pandemic and how we can help people. But we also talked about how we were feeling. One colleague mentioned that what she felt was grief. Heads nodded in all the panes.

If we can name it, perhaps we can manage it. We turned to David Kessler for ideas on how to do that. Kessler is the world's foremost expert on grief. He co-wrote with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss. His new book adds another stage to the process, Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. Kessler also has worked for a decade in a three-hospital system in Los Angeles. He served on their biohazards team. His volunteer work includes being an LAPD Specialist Reserve for traumatic events as well as having served on the Red Cross's disaster services team. He is the founder of www.grief.com, which has over 5 million visits yearly from 167 countries.

Kessler shared his thoughts on why it's important to acknowledge the grief you may be feeling, how to manage it, and how he believes we will find meaning in it. The conversation is lightly edited for clarity.
HBR: People are feeling any number of things right now. Is it right to call some of what they're feeling grief?
Kessler: Yes, and we're feeling a number of different griefs. We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn't feel that way, and we realize things will be different. Just as going to the airport is forever different from how it was before 9/11, things will change and this is the point at which they changed. The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we're grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.
You said we're feeling more than one kind of grief?
Yes, we're also feeling anticipatory grief. Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we're uncertain. Usually it centers on death. We feel it when someone gets a dire diagnosis or when we have the normal thought that we'll lose a parent someday. Anticipatory grief is also more broadly imagined futures. There is a storm coming. There's something bad out there. With a virus, this kind of grief is so confusing for people. Our primitive mind knows something bad is happening, but you can't see it. This breaks our sense of safety. We're feeling that loss of safety. I don't think we've collectively lost our sense of general safety like this. Individually or as smaller groups, people have felt this. But all together, this is new. We are grieving on a micro and a macro level.
What can individuals do to manage all this grief?
Understanding the stages of grief is a start. But whenever I talk about the stages of grief, I have to remind people that the stages aren't linear and may not happen in this order. It's not a map but it provides some scaffolding for this unknown world. There's denial, which we say a lot of early on: This virus won't affect us. There's anger: You're making me stay home and taking away my activities. There's bargaining: Okay, if I social distance for two weeks everything will be better, right? There's sadness: I don't know when this will end. And finally there's acceptance. This is happening; I have to figure out how to proceed.

Acceptance, as you might imagine, is where the power lies. We find control in acceptance. I can wash my hands. I can keep a safe distance. I can learn how to work virtually.
When we're feeling grief there's that physical pain. And the racing mind. Are there techniques to deal with that to make it less intense?
Let's go back to anticipatory grief. Unhealthy anticipatory grief is really anxiety, and that's the feeling you're talking about. Our mind begins to show us images. My parents getting sick. We see the worst scenarios. That's our minds being protective. Our goal is not to ignore those images or to try to make them go away - your mind won't let you do that and it can be painful to try and force it. The goal is to find balance in the things you're thinking. If you feel the worst image taking shape, make yourself think of the best image. We all get a little sick and the world continues. Not everyone I love dies. Maybe no one does because we're all taking the right steps. Neither scenario should be ignored but neither should dominate either.

Anticipatory grief is the mind going to the future and imagining the worst. To calm yourself, you want to come into the present. This will be familiar advice to anyone who has meditated or practiced mindfulness but people are always surprised at how prosaic this can be. You can name five things in the room. There's a computer, a chair, a picture of the dog, an old rug, and a coffee mug. It's that simple. Breathe. Realize that in the present moment, nothing you've anticipated has happened. In this moment, you're okay. You have food. You are not sick. Use your senses and think about what they feel. The desk is hard. The blanket is soft. I can feel the breath coming into my nose. This really will work to dampen some of that pain.

You can also think about how to let go of what you can't control. What your neighbor is doing is out of your control. What is in your control is staying six feet away from them and washing your hands. Focus on that.

Finally, it's a good time to stock up on compassion. Everyone will have different levels of fear and grief and it manifests in different ways. A coworker got very snippy with me the other day and I thought, That's not like this person; that's how they're dealing with this. I'm seeing their fear and anxiety. So be patient. Think about who someone usually is and not who they seem to be in this moment.
One particularly troubling aspect of this pandemic is the open-endedness of it.
This is a temporary state. It helps to say it. I worked for 10 years in the hospital system. I've been trained for situations like this. I've also studied the 1918 flu pandemic. The precautions we're taking are the right ones. History tells us that. This is survivable. We will survive. This is a time to overprotect but not overreact.

And, I believe we will find meaning in it. I've been honored that Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's family has given me permission to add a sixth stage to grief: Meaning. I had talked to Elisabeth quite a bit about what came after acceptance. I did not want to stop at acceptance when I experienced some personal grief. I wanted meaning in those darkest hours. And I do believe we find light in those times. Even now people are realizing they can connect through technology. They are not as remote as they thought. They are realizing they can use their phones for long conversations. They're appreciating walks. I believe we will continue to find meaning now and when this is over.
What do you say to someone who's read all this and is still feeling overwhelmed with grief?
Keep trying. There is something powerful about naming this as grief. It helps us feel what's inside of us. So many have told me in the past week, "I'm telling my coworkers I'm having a hard time," or "I cried last night." When you name it, you feel it and it moves through you. Emotions need motion. It's important we acknowledge what we go through. One unfortunate byproduct of the self-help movement is we're the first generation to have feelings about our feelings. We tell ourselves things like, I feel sad, but I shouldn't feel that; other people have it worse. We can - we should - stop at the first feeling. I feel sad. Let me go for five minutes to feel sad. Your work is to feel your sadness and fear and anger whether or not someone else is feeling something. Fighting it doesn't help because your body is producing the feeling. If we allow the feelings to happen, they'll happen in an orderly way, and it empowers us. Then we're not victims.
In an orderly way?
Yes. Sometimes we try not to feel what we're feeling because we have this image of a "gang of feelings." If I feel sad and let that in, it'll never go away. The gang of bad feelings will overrun me. The truth is a feeling that moves through us. We feel it and it goes and then we go to the next feeling. There's no gang out to get us. It's absurd to think we shouldn't feel grief right now. Let yourself feel the grief and keep going.

If our content helps you to contend with coronavirus and other challenges, please consider subscribing to HBR. A subscription purchase is the best way to support the creation of these resources.

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During the global pandemic, a palpable sense of collective grief has emerged. Grief expert David Kessler says that grief is actually multiple feelings that we must manage. In an interview with HBR, he explains how the classic five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, acceptance) apply today, and the practical steps we can take to manage the anxiety.

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Brené Brown | Daring Classrooms | SXSWedu 2017

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TalkingPoints - Improving student outcomes through meaningful school-family partnerships.

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TalkingPoints - Improving student outcomes through meaningful school-family partnerships.

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Social-emotional support for ELL & immigrant students during COVID-19

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WestEd: Strategies for trauma-informed distance learning

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WestEd: Strategies for trauma-informed distance learning

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To help educators use trauma-informed teaching practices in distance learning contexts, this brief offers some general strategies, with specific examples, for how to recognize and respond to students' social and emotional needs while teaching remotely. The strategies are organized using neuroscientist Bruce Perry's "3 Rs" approach to intervention: Regulate, Relate, and Reason.

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Strategies for Trauma-Informed Distance Learning - SEL Center

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To help educators use trauma-informed teaching practices in distance learning contexts, this brief offers some general strategies, with specific examples, for how to recognize and respond to students' social and emotional needs while teaching remotely. The strategies are organized using neuroscientist Bruce Perry's "3 Rs" approach to intervention: Regulate, Relate, and Reason.

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The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated feelings of isolation, stress, loss, and more among young people, adults, families, and communities. Social and emotional learning (SEL) offers a powerful means to support one another during these challenging times as our communities work to address the impact of the pandemic on students' learning and development.

Now, more than ever, we understand how important it is to demonstrate empathy and resilience, build relationships across distance, and call upon our collective resolve to strengthen our schools and our communities.

So, how can SEL support you and your work during this time? Find resources and guidance in Reunite, Renew, Thrive: SEL Roadmap for Reopening School (July 2020).

Our recommendations follow the four core focus areas for schoolwide SEL and districtwide SEL:

First, create a foundation for SEL.

Work with students, families, and communities to envision how education can more holistically support all learners.

Prioritize strong, two-way communication between families and schools.

Second, attend to well-being and mutual support among adults.

Pay close attention to our own social-emotional needs in order to be the community of adults who best serve our young people.

Foster supportive adult relationships to process emotions, share challenges, and offer support to one another.

Third, promote SEL for young people.

Provide consistency in daily routines to foster a sense of safety and predictability.

Listen to young people and support them in building or maintaining a sense of community and connection.

Incorporate social and emotional skill-building into learning (such as CASEL's SEL 3 Signature Practices).

Fourth, reflect on how things are going and adjust as you learn.

Listen to students, families, and your wider community of stakeholders as valuable sources of information about what is or isn't working.

Analyze results with a lens of equity to meet needs using our SEL Data Reflection Protocol

How is CASEL advancing this work?
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Guidance on School Transitions and Reopening

To aid in this time of continued transitions, CASEL collaborated with more than 40 partners to illuminate a way forward through Reunite, Renew, Thrive: SEL Roadmap for Reopening School (July 2020), centered on relationships and built on the existing strengths of a school community. As we prepared for Spring 2021, we offered three strategies adapted from the SEL Roadmap to re-examine efforts for a successful second semester: Refocus on the SEL Roadmap: Actions for a Successful Second Semester (January 2021).

CASEL CARES Webinar Series

In response to the pandemic, CASEL mobilized to provide social and emotional support to our communities and share best practices through an initiative called CASEL CARES. We offered weekly practical guidance and information on topics that were sourced from the field and relevant to the needs of today. Our CASEL CARES Webinars covered a wide range of SEL topics and attracted more than 100,000 people. View the on-demand series

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The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated feelings of isolation, stress, loss, and more among young people, adults, families, and communities. Social and

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Virtual Engagement Strategies That Don't Require Webcams

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Virtual Engagement Strategies That Don't Require Webcams

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1. Jamboard Opening Circle

I've used this opening circle on Day 1 with each new group of students. I then use it to start each week (See #10) and each time we do a restorative justice circle.

Students sign into my class, and I greet them and send them the link for this week's Jamboard opening circle to sign their name. It's also shared in Google Classroom for those who are Zooming from their phones and have their Chromebooks open to interact. There's also another activity or assignment launch available in Google Classroom in case students want to get a head start while waiting the 3-5 minutes for everyone else to log in.

Once the number of names matches the number of participants in the call, I ask everyone to come back to my shared screen. I say that this circle above my name is the "talking piece," and when the talking piece moves to your name, I invite you to unmute your mic and speak. I start. "My name is ... " and go through the three questions. When I'm done, I move the talking piece to my right, and wait patiently for that student to unmute. Some students choose to introduce themselves in the chat instead of unmuting. Other students don't realize they haven't unmuted yet.

I was thankful that this structure was already in place when a series of Zoombombing incidents unfolded at my school during the first three days of classes. The school didn't provide any immediate guidance for how to repair the harm done by the racially and sexually explicit words and images that broke into classrooms, and although my classes were not affected, it was necessary to provide a space for students (and teachers I worked on a team with) to process. For the group of 10 teachers, we passed around the circle twice with the singular question of "How are you feeling?" and unpacked a lot that was on our chests. For the groups of 20 students, we passed around the circle twice, once with feelings (I heard that most were tired) and once to share out our plans for the weekend. When the questions are short, we were able to get around the circle of 20 students twice in about 20 minutes.

This visual circle on Jamboard allows students to know ahead of time who is going to speak next. It's the equivalent of "going around the room" and is more reliable than "if you have something to say, go ahead and unmute and ask," which is a lot harder to do. Though I can't "tell" because students' webcams are off, the rate at which students quickly unmute to go after the previous person tells me that they are mostly paying attention, that all eyes are on the Jamboard. I plan to use this circle to do restorative justice circles once a week in my class, hopefully just to check in as a community and not have to use it only to respond to something "bad" that happened.

2. Get to Know You Slide Deck

On the second day of class, I created a slide deck with 22 copies of the following slide. I placed each student's name at the bottom of each slide. I made the entire deck editable and posted it in the chat at the beginning of class and into Google Classroom. I gave students 10-15 minutes to work on it, with an alternative exploration assignment to do if they finished early.

I had my slide already prepared. Students were able to find images on the internet, on their phone, use gifs, emojis, etc. Most students used a combination of internet images and personal photos. I privately chatted students who hadn't gotten started on their slides yet after the first 5 minutes. I pulled some students into breakout rooms for one-on-one help. The order of the names in the slides were based on the circle order from the previous day, because I wanted to avoid alphabetical order (boring, overused).

I called the students back together and presented the slides. I shared first, and then just went down slide by slide (by now, students know who they come after, and they see their name!) as students shared. I took notes vigorously. Again, the rate at which people quickly unmuted to share their slide when it came up showed me that most students were paying attention!

3. Class Trivia Kahoot

With the notes I took that students shared, I make a class trivia Kahoot. Questions like "Which of the following students shared that they play soccer?" that allow for multiple correct answers allow for learning about each other in a fun and not competitive way. This idea came from my summer school admin, who did one for the staff after our opening share-out, and it was a hit!

4. Two Truths and a Lie Slide Deck

In the same vein as the Get to Know You slides, another slide deck I've done is "Two Truths and a Lie."

Once again, I create a class set of slides in one Google Slides deck, and put a placeholder of a name for each student on each slide. Students change their name to how they want to be called. Then they write three statements (I even provide 1... 2... 3... for them). Once the class is given some time to finish these statements (15 minutes to write the statement and find a picture that represents them, whether it's from the internet or their own phone), we start sharing out. The first person whose slide is after mine (perhaps ordered in the circle from Monday) introduces their photo and the three statements. The rest of the students (and myself) put into the chat which one of the three they think is a lie. After the person who is sharing sees a few guesses roll in, they explain which one is the lie, and we chuckle and move on to the next person.

5. Breakout Icebreaker

Much of the collaborative work in my classroom happens in breakout rooms. One of the biggest pieces of feedback from students is that it is super awkward when you're in a breakout room, and no one is talking, and you're just waiting for the time to pass until the teacher calls you all back. I decided that students would get a new breakout room group each day, but they would stick with that group for the entire class period.

Before introducing the "math" activity, I would send students off to their breakout rooms for a quick three minutes to get to know their breakout room.

I model what this dialogue looks like. I say, "This summer, I watched Trinkets." And I tell them that if I just provide this one-word answer, then everyone will be done in 30 seconds, and then it will be awkward! After I say something like "I watched Trinkets," I explicitly model how to ask a follow-up question. "Oh, interesting. What is that show about?" or "What did you like or not like about the show?" or "Would you recommend that I see the show?" Which then lobs the question back at the first person, who might respond, "Oh, I liked the show because there was a lot of LGBTQ+ visibility and presented things that were morally difficult," or something like that. And then we would move on to the next person who shares.

Then, I copy and paste the question prompt in the chat, and send students off.

Developmentally, we were taught to socialize in one particular way when we were children, and here we need to relearn (or reteach) how to socialize in this awkward digital format. This [painful] scaffolding of conversation is how I've found the get-to-know your breakout room to last for more than just 10-30 seconds. Eventually, during the summer, my classes got to know each other due to the randomized groupings every morning, and this level of comfort showed in their mathematical group work.

6. Breakout Room Norms and Roles

The following is my implementation of @howie_hua's breakout room norms, and the breakout room roles that the summer math team I was on demonstrated. (P.S. I don't like the word "norm," yet I want people to do these things, so...?)

The one I emphasize the most is "invite others into the conversation." I tell students that some people may not feel comfortable unmuting, so invite them to type into the chat. Others might not feel comfortable sharing an answer they are not sure about, so invite them to share their thoughts if you feel that they've been particularly quiet.

This brings me to the group roles in my breakout rooms.

Before I had explicit roles, I found myself looping around to breakout rooms and spending so much time getting students started on the assignment. I now share this slide to a) enforce the norm of "inviting people into the conversation," b) remind students that there exists an "ask for help" button, c) set the expectation that someone is sharing the screen and all are looking at one screen and working together, and d) reducing the awkwardness of post-"okay, who wants to share out from their group?" silence when we get back.

I still pop into each breakout room to check that someone is sharing their screen, and I still broadcast a reminder toward the end of the work time to have someone share, but here, those expectations are clearer before the group jumps in.

Eventually, the rooms devolve into my encouragement of "okay, who hasn't shared their screen yet in these past two weeks?" and they become the screen-sharer. Or, "who is less comfortable with working with Desmos/Geogebra, that they don't mind sharing their screen so we can help?" And the rigid structure of the group roles dissolves and students know to loosely take up roles to meet the expectations of engaging in collaborative work.

7. Check on Your Breakout Rooms

Being able to see what is going on in all of your breakout rooms from a birds' eye view is essential. I like to think that this mimics having vertical whiteboards in my classroom (oh my, I miss them so much!) because students can technically take a peek at another group's work, and see how much they've gotten done.

Here's what one of my slides might look like:

Which one doesn't belong? Lesson from Illustrative Mathematics Algebra 2.

This same slide is duplicated n times where n is the number of breakout rooms, and I change the heading to indicate which breakout room is assigned to this slide. (This prompt is from Illustrative Mathematics Algebra 2.) This is a shorter breakout room, where I have students work for about 5 minutes as a team to come up with a reason for each of A-D.

I've also had students work, in a similar format, in Jamboard in a breakout room. I use Jamboard slides when I know there will be less typing and more "drawing" as part of the scratchwork for the problem.

An example of students working on a version of the Josephus problem.

Here is a slide I had teachers work on for a PD I led on unpacking our discomforts about letting go of webcams in our classroom.

Here's what the "bird's eye view" of the slides looked like as participants were working in their breakout rooms.

I might use this information to see which of the four boxes were heavily answered and which were less heavily answered and pick which boxes to go over as a whole group after breakout rooms, just like I could walking around my classroom and reading the vertical whiteboards!

8. Public and Private Chatting

When I ask an opinion-based or low-floor, open-ended question, I encourage students to type their answer publicly in the chat box, but wait to hit send. I then invite all of them to hit send at the same time, and we all get time to scroll back up and read some responses. Here's an example of such a prompt:

Image for the problem from Math Busking.

Other times, I do a close-ended check for understanding. Below, I post a summary of the previous day's lesson so that students who were not in class could technically reason through the prompts. I ask students to privately chat me an answer to one of the questions. If some students are finished early, I encourage them to answer more or all.

Diagram from Illustrative Mathematics Algebra 2.

I can use this as data to see which questions were more popular or what the most common mistake was but not put students thinking on blast. I want to reiterate the importance, as Howie Hua mentioned, to have students type "I don't know yet" privately to you as feedback as well.

9. Hands-on and Hands-off Breakout Rooms

Because the participants list is alphabetized by display name, you can ask your participants to change their display name to manually put them into breakout rooms.

I tweeted about this idea but didn't get to try it myself until this week. It worked out well for independent work. I have a co-teacher and will have an intern soon, so I can afford the adult human capital for multiple "I want to work with teacher" breakout rooms. But I hope you can adapt to your classroom structure.

I got this idea from Esther Park, who implements this in Google Meet (respect!). Esther also has a much more beautifully designed slide for this than I do.

After having just attended a Zoom meeting via phone, I realize that these screenshot instructions in my slide will not work on a phone. Instead, have students go to Participants, find their name, and change it under the "More" menu.

Prior to this implementation, my summer administrators used this method to divide our staff into content-area groups. This "put the number in front of your name" strategy is really helpful to quickly divide up a large group of people (say, 40 people on a call!) into groups of their own choosing. Placing the number in front "alphabetizes" the participant list so you can quickly assign people to rooms. This strategy will also work if you want students to re-enter the same breakout rooms the next day: Take a screenshot of today's randomized breakout room assignments, and have students change their display names according to the screenshot tomorrow.

10. Color-Coded Mathematical Connections
Perhaps not a 10th new idea, but here's something I tried new this week.
On Mondays, I've asked students the same three questions:

1. How are you feeling?

2. What did you do over the weekend?

3. How does it relate to math?

In the beginning, students are not used to answering the connection to math question, so many just say, "I don't know." This week, I came up with this color coded sticky note idea for the most common first-week math connections. This small change both makes suggestions for areas of their life that could be mathematical and stops it from being so easy to say "I don't have a mathematical connection." (That said, "Time" was way too popular this week, so that might be changed next week to something more specific to our content from this week.)

In class, I've typically not allowed "time," "money," or "counting" after the first three weeks of weekend-shares unless they appear in a rate, to push students to think of a variety of mathematical applications.

By the time this blog post was finally really to publish, Zoom just came out with a feature to allow the host to designate a frame location for each person in the meeting. I haven't tried it yet / don't know if it works with our school's basic plan, but I wonder if it will take the place of this Jamboard circle idea very soon...

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Virtual engagement strategies that don't require webcams

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This post follows from my Notice/Feel/Wonder/Act about webcam visibility. 1. Jamboard Opening Circle I've used this opening circle on Day 1 with each new group of students. I then use it to start each week (See #10) and each time we do a restorative justice circle.

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How can schools best support English language learners (ELLs) and immigrant students through the COVID-19 pandemic? What lessons have we learned so far?

This section includes information on:

distance learning for ELLs

communicating and partnering with families

social-emotional supports for ELLs and immigrant students.

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How can schools best support English language learners (ELLs) and immigrant students through the COVID-19 pandemic? What lessons have we learned so far? This section includes information on: distance learning for ELLs communicating and partnering with families social-emotional supports for ELLs and immigrant students.