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Keep kids writing daily.  Resources for interesting writing prompts

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Keep kids writing daily.  Resources for interesting writing prompts

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Zoom CEO Eric Yuan is giving K-12 schools his videoconferencing tools for free

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Zoom CEO Eric Yuan is giving K-12 schools his videoconferencing tools for free

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O n Thursday, on the heels of Zoom's biggest day ever for downloads the day before, CEO Eric Yuan was taking the time to remotely sign up schools to free accounts of his videoconferencing software. First was a prestigious school in Silicon Valley, then two schools in the Austin, Texas area.

"They told me they'd connect with my team, and I said, 'no, I'll do that for you,'" said Yuan, reached by Zoom at the San Jose, California-area home that is now his office for the foreseeable future. "I did it manually myself."

As the Covid-19 virus sweeps across the planet, leading to quarantined cities and shut-down schools, Zoom has emerged as one of the leading tools to keep businesses up and running and students learning. On Wednesday, the most recent day for which data is available, 343,000 people globally downloaded the Zoom app, 60,000 in the U.S. alone, according to mobile intelligence firm Apptopia - compared to 90,000 people worldwide and 27,000 in the U.S. just two months ago. (Zoom doesn't share such numbers and wouldn't comment on a third party report.) And overnight, having already removed the time limit from video chats using Zoom's free service for affected regions in China and elsewhere, Yuan took another measure to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus: he decided to remove the limit for any K-12 schools affected in Japan, Italy and the United States.

Students or teachers who fill out an online form using their school email addresses and are then verified by Zoom will have any accounts associated with that school's domain also gain unlimited temporary meeting minutes, according to a site set up for the process overnight. The free Basic accounts are also available by request in Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Poland, Romania and South Korea, a spokesperson for Zoom said. "Given that many K-12 schools are starting closing, we decided to offer Zoom access to all K-12 schools in the country starting tomorrow," Yuan wrote in an email overnight.

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, seen here in his San Jose office, now works from home like his 2,700-plus employees. "I think after this crisis is over, people will realize that to work at home probably is not bad."
Ethan Pines/The Forbes Collection

Such generosity is nothing new for Yuan, who was known to hook up nonprofits and other institutions in need with prized free access to Zoom's online video communications since he cofounded the business in 2011. But now his leadership is taking on global importance as Zoom has become one of the most in-demand software tools for the work-from-home economy.

Zoom is far from the only tool standing to benefit from this trend. Analysts point to others like file-sharing service Dropbox, e-signatures business DocuSign and emergency communications business Everbridge as obvious fellow cloud companies that will likely see a boost in usage as the world moves even more online. But few are as richly valued as Zoom, whose shares are up 77% since it went public in April 2019, making Yuan a billionaire. Last Wednesday, the company reported an earnings beat and year-to-year revenue growth of 78%, GAAP operating margins of 5.6% and non-GAAP earnings per share nearly double analyst consensus - and still saw shares dip, though they remained up 24% for the past month as of Thursday's market close, versus a 27% drop for the S&P 500.

Zoom isn't just a focus for Wall Street, either. On Twitter, it's become a viral theme. "Just got an email from a prof: 'As a reminder, you are required to wear clothes during Zoom meetings.' Rules are made when they become necessary, not before," one Twitter user quipped to more than 84,000 likes."I'm seeing a lot of funny tweets now, so this is something new," says Yuan, who retweeted that one, but not the viral tweet from Box CEO Aaron Levie, or the viral joke about presidential debates happening over Zoom.

With the increased demand has come another question: can Zoom possibly keep up? "Is your platform prepared for practically every college class in America to be using it? Simultaneously? Asking for a whole lot of friends," tweeted academic Dr. Adrienne Keene.

Yuan, the entrepreneur who knows that answer best, is unperturbed. He's already working on new features for Zoom focused on a work-from-home lifestyle, from better face lighting to a lecture tool for professors, while he continues to roll out Zoom free to affected schools. Above all, he argues it's actually a pretty great time to work at Zoom. "I feel like overnight, this is one of the catalysts where in every country, everybody's realized they needed to have a tool like Zoom to connect their people," Yuan says. "I think from that perspective, we feel very proud. We've seen that what we are doing here, we can contribute a bit to the world."

Zoom's CEO instructed staff not to ramp up sales or marketing due to the coronavirus crisis. "If you leverage this opportunity for money, I think that's a horrible culture."

Since Zoom went to a work-from-home policy nine days ago, Yuan has been learning how it holds up as a full-time remote tool firsthand. So far, he's pretty happy - if a bit worn down by the volume. "On the one hand, we like working from home; we're using our own services," says Yuan. "On the other hand, somehow, I do not know why - maybe because of the recent demand, maybe the working at home - we just have more meetings working at home than in the office."

Yuan says Zoom first started to brace itself for huge changes when the Covid-19 virus disrupted business in China starting in January. At that time, customers like Walmart and Dell started to reach out with concerns, Yuan says, wondering if their local employees would be able to move full-time to communications through Zoom. In the run-up to going public, Zoom had trained staff on responses to natural disasters, though the company didn't anticipate such a disaster would come through a pandemic. Zoom's servers - distributed across 17 data centers globally, which Zoom operates itself - have so far been able to handle the increased volume of videoconferences and calls.

In those data centers, Zoom operates a cloud architecture using auto scaling, a method that monitors usage of applications and makes it easier to add more computing power when demand increases, then ratchet it back down to save costs when demand drops. Zoom's data centers were set up to handle surges of traffic of 10x the normal, or 100x, says Yuan. "The beautiful part of the cloud is, you know, it's unlimited capacity in theory," he says. And by employing engineering teams across the globe, including in China and Malaysia, Zoom has technical talent able to remotely monitor its systems around the clock. Yuan says any mental images of Zoom technical staff forgoing sleep to keep your weekly team meeting running are unbacked by reality. "Working the whole night is not scalable," he says.

Zoom's creator is betting that staff working from home will want to see each other. "I can feel very lonely now," he says.

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom

Zoom is already working on new features from user feedback from the work-at-home surge. One would be a tool, inspired in part by consumer apps like Instagram and Snapchat, that would provide a filter that frames a user's face in better lighting, or with blemishes tuned out. "We want to have a touch up to your appearance just from one feature," says Yuan.

Another feature that has moved up on the product pipeline came from feedback from a professor using Zoom to host lectures for his class. The new lecture-focused feature would make it so that every student's video was appearing as though shot from the same angle, allowing the teacher to see how students are reacting - and who is paying attention - like they were physically in class.

Yuan doesn't agree with the skepticism of reporters like The Intercept's Sam Biddle, who recently warned that Zoom's software offers "attention tracking" that marks attendees who haven't had Zoom open or top of their screen for more than 30 seconds. Is a future of Zoom calls from home more invasive than office life? To Zoom's creator, there's a key distinction between an online meeting you take on the fly - perhaps while grabbing a coffee, or in transit - versus a work-from-home environment. There, he's betting staff will want to see each other. "I can feel very lonely now," he says.

How much Zoom stands to profit from calamity is another sensitive subject. Originally from Shandong Province in eastern China, Yuan doesn't have family left in China who are affected by the virus, but he says he's concerned just like any parent still dropping their kids off at school. Yuan says the decision to make free Zoom use unlimited in affected regions - first China, and now Italy and in K-12 schools - was unanimous among his direct reports. "I told the team that with any crisis like this, let's not leverage the opportunity for marketing or sales. Let's focus on our customers," he says. "If you leverage this opportunity for money, I think that's a horrible culture."

Culture is important to Yuan, who built Zoom after running engineering for Cisco's competitive product, Webex. (For more on Zoom's rise, see Forbes' feature story from last year: Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!) That's left analysts optimistic, but uncertain, how much Zoom's business will benefit from its current surge, as much of the new use is believed to be among free users who may or may not convert to paying customers over time. "Zoom is being a good corporate citizen," says Sterling Auty, an analyst at JPMorgan Equity Research. "They are not looking to take unfair advantage. They are looking to help and we think that goodwill carries a long way."

At Zoom, Yuan does allow himself to be excited about one vanity metric: his app store rank, which he says tells him that people are finding his product useful. Mid-conversation on Thursday, he holds up his iPhone to the camera. Then (and again on Friday), Zoom ranked No. 3 among all free apps in Apple's App Store, behind only TikTok and Google. "This is the first time you have a business app there," Yuan says. "People are getting it."

Get Forbes' daily top headlines straight to your inbox for news on the world's most important entrepreneurs and superstars, expert career advice, and success secrets.

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Exclusive: Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Is Giving K-12 Schools His Videoconferencing Tools For Free

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O n Thursday, on the heels of Zoom's biggest day ever for downloads the day before, CEO Eric Yuan was taking the time to remotely sign up schools to free accounts of his videoconferencing software. First was a prestigious school in Silicon Valley, then two schools in the Austin, Texas area.

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50 elearning activities, templates and tutorials

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50 elearning activities, templates and tutorials

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G Suite

It's easy to feel anxious, overwhelmed and frustrated if you're asked to create elearning activities and teach remotely because of a school closure.

You might be asking ...

What are my students going to do?

How can they continue learning at a high level?

Can I maintain that teacher/student connection through elearning?

How can I keep up with the demands of elearning?

Some ideas and examples to follow can help. Having some plug-and-play activities to assign students can help, too -- even if you need to adjust them to fit your students' needs.

We've got you covered.

In this post, you'll find 100 elearning activities, templates and tutorials. They'll help you create elearning activities that lend themselves to powerful learning when students are away from school.

Some ideas to keep in mind as you roll out your eLearning activities:

Keep communication with students and parents at the forefront. Be ready for questions. Make your communication more thorough than you anticipate.

Simplicity is key. Activities that are too complicated can be hard to follow through without the proper support.

Make space for students' emotional needs, too. Their routine is disrupted. They don't get to see their teacher or their fellow students. Help them to make those connections while they're away.

Don't be too hard on yourself. If you've never taught with eLearning activities, it'll be a learning process. Do your best. Learn and improve.

Lean on others for support. Use social media and colleagues in your school/district to brainstorm ideas.

Here are over 100 remote learning activities, templates and tutorials you can use tomorrow:

Free Remote Learning Online Course

14 modules

2.5+ hours of video

Downloadable planning guides

Lifetime access

Forum for sharing ideas

Tech Like A PIRATE is now available!

Looking for more teaching ideas like these?

Get three FREE ebooks sent right to your inbox!

101 Practical Ways to Ditch That Textbook, Matt's insanely practical guide full of new teaching ideas.

101 Ways to Ditch That Textbook with G Suite, tons of practical, creative ways to use Google tools in the classroom.

50 FREE Templates for Teachers, with templates you can copy and download to assign directly to students.

Do More with Google Classroom

Teach better. Save time. Make a difference.

The short how-to tutorials on Google Classroom are EVERYWHERE. But how do we teach well with it? In this book, you'll find practical ideas to do great teaching with Google Classroom and thrive.

Looking for more remote learning resources? Our distance learning page has TONS of resources for bringing learning directly to your students no matter where they are! 💻 100 remote learning activities templates and tutorials
💻 Distance learning lesson planning guides and templates
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©2023 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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100 remote learning activities, templates and tutorials

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Remote learning activities can be fun AND promote quality learning. Here are lots of examples and templates to use!It's easy to feel anxious, overwhelmed

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Stuck at home?   These 12 famous museums offer virtual tours you can take on your couch.  

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Stuck at home?   These 12 famous museums offer virtual tours you can take on your couch.  

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These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch

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Google teamed up with more than 1,200 museums and galleries around the world to bring anyone and everyone virtual tours and online exhibits of some of the most famous museums around the world.

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A free online journal, adapting daily news to student vocabulary. In addition, you can choose the number of words per article.

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SmithsonianTweenTribune | Articles for kids, middle school, teens from Smithsonian | tweentribune.com | Current events, lesson plans, quizzes, assessments

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Lexile leveled current events, lesson plans, quizzes, assessments

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Education Companies offering free subscriptions due to school closing 

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Education Companies offering free subscriptions due to school closing 

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Pen Pal Schools: Connect with students around the world.  Free during Coronavirus.

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Pen Pal Schools: Connect with students around the world.  Free during Coronavirus.

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A new podcast for your children:   Story Seeds is live!

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A new podcast for your children:   Story Seeds is live!

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You may have heard me mention in the past that I've been part of a brand new podcast. At a time when a lot of kids are listening to podcasts for fun (particularly when they're stuck indoors) a new kids and family show The Story Seeds Podcast has launched from Literary Safari. Its host? Well, that would actually be me, and it features an earworm-worthy theme song by Andrew VanWyngarden, Grammy nominated singer/songwriter/musician and co-founder of MGMT.

The whole premise of the show is that real kids with ideas for stories pair up with real authors. Together they collaborate and "grow" their ideas into original short stories. You can now listen + subscribe at Apple Podcasts, or find it on your favorite podcast listening app using this link.

You can bet that I'll soon be sharing the all-star line-up for Season One but first ...

The producers just released a special PSA "How to Fight the New Bad Guy in Town." In this four- minute PSA, Jason Reynolds shares with kids 8 tips on how to fight COVID-19, aka Coronavirus, plus a recipe for home-made hand sanitizer.

With so many parents looking for kid-friendly resources on how to talk to kids about keeping germs away (without being didactic) and so many teachers are working so hard on the frontlines to keep germs limited in their classrooms, Jason Reynold's narration is calming and comforting.
Information is power and this brief listen will engage kids and give them a sense of agency. Please feel free to share this resource with your community.

Listen + subscribe at Apple Podcasts, or find Story Seeds on your favorite podcast listening app using this link. You can also follow the podcast at Instagram @storyseedspod, FB @literarysafari or Twitter @litsafarimedia.

Happy listening !

Filed under: Press Release Fun

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

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A New Podcast for Your Children: Story Seeds Is Live!

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You may have heard me mention in the past that I've been part of a brand new podcast. At a time when a lot of kids are listening to podcasts for fun (particularly when they're stuck indoors) a new kids and family show The Story Seeds Podcast has launched from Literary Safari.

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This is a Youtube Channel created and run by children's book writers and illustrators. On this channel, you'll find workshops, readings, activities, art projects, writing games, writing advice, and more.

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Hi friends! This is a Youtube Channel created and run by children's book writers and illustrators. With all this talk of potential quarantines and school clo...

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Coronavirus resources from the New York Times Learning. Network:  Teaching, Learning and thinking critically

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Coronavirus resources from the New York Times Learning. Network:  Teaching, Learning and thinking critically

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Coronavirus Resources: Teaching, Learning and Thinking Critically (Published 2020)

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A page we will continue to update with ideas for working, at school or at home, with content from The Times and other reliable sources about this global pandemic.

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This simple one page PDF contains all the information you need to get started using Flipgrid in a remote learning environment.

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Once again, you inspire us daily. Thank you for sharing your ideas and the brilliant ways your learners invest in their own learning, no matter where they are! Moreover, we love seeing how you support fellow educators by sharing on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Please know our entire team is always here for you: reach out any time at support@flipgrid.com or @Flipgrid on Twitter.

Thank you for being part of the Flipgrid community!

💚 Team Flipgrid

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Remote Learning with Flipgrid - Flipgrid

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Once again, you inspire us daily. Thank you for sharing your ideas and the brilliant ways your learners invest in their own learning, no matter where they are! Moreover, we love seeing how you support fellow educators by sharing on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Newsela offering resources free to teachers

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Newsela offering resources free to teachers

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Helping you plan and continue instruction during the COVID-19 crisis

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To help your schools and give you some degree of certainty during these uncertain times, we are making Newsela's entire product suite available, free of charge.

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In 2020, we celebrate our fourth year of Go Poems, a collection of brief ideas to share a #poemaday in your classroom during National Poetry Month

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An Excerpt from Chapter 2 from The Running Dream (Van Draanen) (from The Quickwrite Handbook, 2018, Heinemann) I AM A RUNNER. That's what I do. That's who I am. Running is all I know, or want, or care about. It was a race around the soccer field in third grade that swept me into a real love of running.

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We will have a weekly 5-10 minute podcast where children’s book author/illustrator Grace Lin and a guest author will answer one question from a child reader. Episodes will end with a book review or a joke

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Authors Grace Lin and Yuyi Morales answer this kid question, "Do you make a rough draft first of the stories and then make the pictures?"

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I am at our public library right now and it is deserted. Wisconsin was ordered to close their schools this coming week as more and more cases of Covid-19 pile up. The world is upside down.

As we prepare to switch to online learning, I have been thinking of the power of the read aloud. How having the social connection through shared books can bring us together. How doing a read aloud in this stressful time can calm us. And so as we plan for what we will do, I immediately thought of reading picture books aloud to my students and having them respond to them in a short paragraph through Google Classroom. However, there is one glaring problem; copyright violations, I don't want to break copyright by reading aloud a book and then sharing it with students. So instead, I compiled as many lists as I could find here featuring the creators reading aloud. Perhaps the list will be helpful to you?

Kate Messner has a post that details which publishers have given limited permission to read their books aloud following their guidelines, see the post here.

Indianapolis Public Library has a compiled list here with more than 100 titles

Storyline online has a compiled list right here with some great titles

Kate Messner is compiling videos right here featuring authors and illustrators sharing their work and resources

Susan Tan has a great video channel featuring writing prompts and read alouds

Kidlit TV has a great compilation here

Harper Kids Has their read alouds compiled here

Vooks Online are offering a free first year for teachers and have videos compiled here

Brightly Online has a compilation here

Storytime with Bill from Little Brown Books can be found here

Mrs. P's storytime can be found here

Debbie Ridpath Ohi is posting videos of her books as well here

Unite For Literacy has many stories read aloud in multiple languages compiled here

Free Kid Lit Visits and Authors Read Aloud compiled by A.Keene can be found here

Storytime from Space features astronauts reading aloud

I will keep adding resources here as I find them and as they are shared with me. If you know of any more, please share.

Take care, stay safe, and take care of others. We will get through this.

And by the way, if you can't feed your family in the coming weeks or months, please reach out to me. I will try to send you a giftcard for groceries if I can.
If you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

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Picture Books Read Aloud Videos for Lesson Use

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I am at our public library right now and it is deserted. Wisconsin was ordered to close their schools this coming week as more and more cases of Covid-19 pile up. The world is upside down. As we prepare to switch to online learning, I have been thinking of the power of the read aloud....

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I've been doing a series of posts on preparing to teach online if schools are closed because of the Coronavirus.

See:
Even More Useful Online Tools If Our Schools Close & We Have To Teach Online (#COVID19) Here Are Online Tools Some Teachers In Asia Are Using For Remote Learning - Useful To Know In The Face Of #COVID19 Online Learning Tools If Schools Are Closed Because Of The Coronavirus - Part FOUR Gold Mine Of Resources For Educators Preparing For School Closures Google Announces That "advanced Hangouts Meet" Features Are Free To Help Schools Affected By The Coronavirus THREE NEW RESOURCES TO HELP TEACHERS & SCHOOLS PREPARE FOR ONLINE LEARNING (IF NECESSARY BECAUSE OF COVID-19) MORE TOOLS & RESOURCES TO HELP WITH ONLINE LEARNING IF SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED Guest Post: My School Was Closed Because Of COVID-19 & Here Is A Report About Our Online Teaching EDUBLOGS HAS JUST POSTED THE GUIDE FOR ONLINE LEARNING CAUSED BY SCHOOL CLOSURES HERE'S MY ONLINE TEACHING PLAN IF OUR SCHOOL CLOSES DOWN BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS THE BEST RESEARCH RELATED TO CLOSING SCHOOLS BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS Even More New Resources To Help With Online Teaching NEW PBS NEWSHOUR VIDEO SEGMENT: "HOW THIS SCHOOL DISTRICT IS EDUCATING STUDENTS AT HOME DURING CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK" Today's Resources - & There Are Many Of Them - For Teaching Online If Schools Are Closed The Best Research Related To Closing Schools Because Of The Coronavirus Today's New Resources For Teaching Online If Schools Are Closed
Those previous posts shared tools to use and how to use them, but were light on actual online teaching strategies.

Since I've never taught online, I don't have much - if any - advice to give.

In a fairly extensive online search, I was able to find a lot on teaching English online as a business and on teaching college-level online courses. However, there doesn't seem to be many high-quality resources on how to teach K-12 students online, and I suspect they are a very different kettle of fish from teaching post-secondary classes.

Here is what I have so far that I think is useful, and I would love to hear recommendations from others, including guest posts people might want to write about their K-12 online teaching experiences:

How to Be a Better Online Teacher ADVICE GUIDE from the Chronicle of Higher Education

Take My Advice from the Chronicle of Higher Education
Best practices in teaching K-12 online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual School teachers How to be an Effective Online Instructor

For those schools affected by the #COVID2019, here are things we're doing to support the virtual school experience.@ECISMLIE #earcos #acamis #esl #eal #ell #eld #tesol @cultofpedagogy @Larryferlazzo @edutopia pic.twitter.com/7ZyhgU1ZYG

- Tan Huynh (@TanELLclassroom) March 2, 2020

'Students Are Lonely:' What Happens When Coronavirus Forces Schools Online is an EdSurge article that includes links to lots of plans schools in Asia are using for remote learning.

Yup Week 5 here and amazed by sharing. @mscofino @chamada organized a fantastic podcast https://t.co/HJlRMxDBoJ with lots of wisdom. Check out @intlNadine site https://t.co/9U9E848qEC and great site from YIShttps://sites.google.com/yis.ac.jp/continuouslearning/home?authuser=0

- Sandra Chow (@watnunu) March 5, 2020

Tips and Tools for Teaching Remotely is from Richard Byrne.

How to Host an Online Meeting With Zoom is from Richard Byrne.

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The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) - Please Make More Suggestions!

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I've been doing a series of posts on preparing to teach online if schools are closed because of the Coronavirus.

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Metropolitan Opera will stream operas for free

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Metropolitan Opera will stream operas for free

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Have you always thought that you could get really into opera if it were more easily accessible? Well, thanks to the coronavirus, now is your chance. OperaWire has reported that the Metropolitan Opera will host "Nightly Met Opera Streams" on its official website in an attempt to continue providing opera to its audience members. "We'd like to provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times," said Met general manager Peter Gelb in a press release. "Every night, we'll be offering a different complete operatic gem from our collection of HD presentations from the past 14 years."

The stream will be free and will present encores of The Met's acclaimed Live in HD series. The performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be available to stream for 20 hours. The first week's schedule, outlined below, will be featuring timeless classics as Carmen, La Bohème, and La Traviata. If your only familiarity with Carmen is the film Carmen: A Hip Hopera starring a young Beyoncé, and the closest you've come to watching La Bohème is watching , this is a great way to expand your horizons.

Monday, March 16 - Bizet's Carmen

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. Transmitted live on January 16, 2010.

Tuesday, March 17 - Puccini's La Bohème

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas. Transmitted live on April 5, 2008.

Wednesday, March 18 - Verdi's Il Trovatore

Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on October 3, 2015.

Thursday, March 19 - Verdi's La Traviata

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, and Quinn Kelsey. Transmitted live on December 15, 2018.

Friday, March 20 - Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment

Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. Transmitted live on April 26, 2008.

Saturday, March 21 - Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor

Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, and Mariusz Kwiecien. Transmitted live on February 7, 2009.

Sunday, March 22 - Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

Conducted by Valery Gergiev, starring Renée Fleming, Ramón Vargas, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on February 24, 2007.

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The Metropolitan Opera Will Stream Operas for Free in Wake of Coronavirus

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Have you always thought that you could get really into opera if it were more easily accessible? Well, thanks to the coronavirus, now is your chance. OperaWire has reported that the Metropolitan Opera will host "Nightly Met Opera Streams" on its official website in an attempt to continue providing opera to its audience members.

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Epic:  Digital Library. Free 30 day trial

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Epic:  Digital Library. Free 30 day trial

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I've been doing a series of posts on preparing to teach online if schools are closed because of the Coronavirus.

See:
Even More Useful Online Tools If Our Schools Close & We Have To Teach Online (#COVID19) Here Are Online Tools Some Teachers In Asia Are Using For Remote Learning - Useful To Know In The Face Of #COVID19 Online Learning Tools If Schools Are Closed Because Of The Coronavirus - Part FOUR Gold Mine Of Resources For Educators Preparing For School Closures Google Announces That "advanced Hangouts Meet" Features Are Free To Help Schools Affected By The Coronavirus THREE NEW RESOURCES TO HELP TEACHERS & SCHOOLS PREPARE FOR ONLINE LEARNING (IF NECESSARY BECAUSE OF COVID-19) MORE TOOLS & RESOURCES TO HELP WITH ONLINE LEARNING IF SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED Guest Post: My School Was Closed Because Of COVID-19 & Here Is A Report About Our Online Teaching EDUBLOGS HAS JUST POSTED THE GUIDE FOR ONLINE LEARNING CAUSED BY SCHOOL CLOSURES HERE'S MY ONLINE TEACHING PLAN IF OUR SCHOOL CLOSES DOWN BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS THE BEST RESEARCH RELATED TO CLOSING SCHOOLS BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS Even More New Resources To Help With Online Teaching NEW PBS NEWSHOUR VIDEO SEGMENT: "HOW THIS SCHOOL DISTRICT IS EDUCATING STUDENTS AT HOME DURING CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK" Today's Resources - & There Are Many Of Them - For Teaching Online If Schools Are Closed The Best Research Related To Closing Schools Because Of The Coronavirus Today's New Resources For Teaching Online If Schools Are Closed
Those previous posts shared tools to use and how to use them, but were light on actual online teaching strategies.

Since I've never taught online, I don't have much - if any - advice to give.

In a fairly extensive online search, I was able to find a lot on teaching English online as a business and on teaching college-level online courses. However, there doesn't seem to be many high-quality resources on how to teach K-12 students online, and I suspect they are a very different kettle of fish from teaching post-secondary classes.

Here is what I have so far that I think is useful, and I would love to hear recommendations from others, including guest posts people might want to write about their K-12 online teaching experiences:

How to Be a Better Online Teacher ADVICE GUIDE from the Chronicle of Higher Education

Take My Advice from the Chronicle of Higher Education
Best practices in teaching K-12 online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual School teachers How to be an Effective Online Instructor

For those schools affected by the #COVID2019, here are things we're doing to support the virtual school experience.@ECISMLIE #earcos #acamis #esl #eal #ell #eld #tesol @cultofpedagogy @Larryferlazzo @edutopia pic.twitter.com/7ZyhgU1ZYG

- Tan Huynh (@TanELLclassroom) March 2, 2020

'Students Are Lonely:' What Happens When Coronavirus Forces Schools Online is an EdSurge article that includes links to lots of plans schools in Asia are using for remote learning.

Yup Week 5 here and amazed by sharing. @mscofino @chamada organized a fantastic podcast https://t.co/HJlRMxDBoJ with lots of wisdom. Check out @intlNadine site https://t.co/9U9E848qEC and great site from YIShttps://sites.google.com/yis.ac.jp/continuouslearning/home?authuser=0

- Sandra Chow (@watnunu) March 5, 2020

Tips and Tools for Teaching Remotely is from Richard Byrne.

How to Host an Online Meeting With Zoom is from Richard Byrne.

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The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) - Please Make More Suggestions!

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I've been doing a series of posts on preparing to teach online if schools are closed because of the Coronavirus.

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Comic pages, activities from Jarrett Lerner

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Comic pages, activities from Jarrett Lerner

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The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless explicit permission is granted.
Below will find: Blank Comic Book Pages, Special Activities, "Finish This Story!" Story Starters, "How to Draw..." Instructions, "Finish This Comic!" Comics, and Drawing/Writing Prompts.
More activities are being added to this page regularly, so make sure to check back for more. And if you like the activities below, don't miss my activity books, GIVE THIS BOOK A TITLE and GIVE THIS BOOK A COVER, available wherever books are sold!
Click on the numbers below to find a variety of different blank comic book pages. Each number corresponds to a different arrangement of panels on the page. Print out a few of each, or a bunch of one kind, and make your own comic!

Special Activities

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the Introduction to Hand-Lettering sheets!

Click HERE to download the above Thank You activities!

Click HERE to download the above Haiku Diary activity!

Click HERE to download the above Thank You activities!

Click HERE to download the above Earth Day activities!

Click HERE to download the above Earth Day activities!

Click HERE to download the above Halloween activities!

Click HERE to download the above Halloween activities!

Click HERE to download the above Halloween activities!

Click HERE to download the above Halloween activities!

"Finish This Story!" Story Starters

Click HERE to download the above "Finish This Story!" activities!

Click HERE to download the above "Finish This Story!" activities!

"How to Draw..." Instructions

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

Click HERE to download the above "How to Draw..." activities!

"Finish This Comic!" Comics

Below you will find a collection of comics that are incomplete. Look closely at the pictures, then figure out what you need to add to complete the comic!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Click HERE to download the above incomplete comics!

Drawing/Writing Prompts

Below you will find some drawing prompt activity sheets. Completed drawings can also be used as creative writing prompts.

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheets!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above activity sheet!

Click HERE to download the above Spanish version activity sheets!

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The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless explicit permission is granted. Below will find: Blank Comic Book Pages, Special Activities, "Finish This Story!"

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read the full disclosure for more information.

In the last few years, Netflix has completely transformed the way many Americans watch movies. Long gone are the days of driving to the video store, browsing through the aisles of endless new releases. Now, you can do it all, right from the comfort of your home. From romance to dramas, there's something for everyone. Lucky for us, the streaming site is jam-packed with educational shows on Netflix.

Netflix has also been a game-changer in the way we homeschool. Sick days can still be educational . Parents can clean the house while kids learn, right from the couch. The number of educational shows on Netflix is growing everyday! Not to mention the benefits Netflix has added to homeschoolers who learn best visually.

But how do you know what to watch on Netflix? Once you start browsing, it's easy to get sidetracked by the latest Disney shows or your favorite sitcoms.
Let me tell you a little secret to keeping the kids on task:
Create a separate profile on Netflix. Name it "School" and add ONLY educational materials to this profile.

A great starting point is to add our "100 best Educational Shows to Stream on Netflix" list. Then when you need to keep the kids busy, allow them to watch only shows you have added to this account. It works great and keeps the kids from getting sidetracked by the show they're currently binge-watching.

150+ Educational Shows on Netflix

From the jungle to your backyard, there's a huge collection of animal-inpired educational shows on Netflix.

Grab a free printable copy of this list when you join our weekly mailing list!

Earth & Nature :

From unbelievable natural disasters to the depths of the ocean, there's plenty for nature-lovers on Netflix.

There's still tons to learn about space, but Netflix has plenty to jumpstart your out-of-this-world interests.

Presidents:

From hundreds of years ago to the current president, pick any of these educational shows on Netflix and be inspired.

How to Win the US Presidency

The Wheelchair President

JFK: The Making of a President

Meet the Trumps: From Immigrant to President

History often repeats itself, so be prepared with these interesting shows.

Though they're long gone, dinosaurs still capture our interests like nothing else!

Documentaries:

There's something for everyone with these educational shows on Netflix. Picking which one to watch is the hard part!

Learn all about a topic, while actually enjoying it!

Travel the world from your home using these educational shows on Netflix.

Food/Nutrition/Health:

From diet to the amazing human body, you'll be amazed at these eye-opening shows.

These shows will leave you scratching your head, deep in thought.

A look inside some of the most intense situations on earth. Most are rated "M" for language, but please view before watching with your kids.

There you have it! A complete list of 150+ of the best educational shows on Netflix!

Sign up for our weekly newsletter for access to our Free Printable Netflix Cheat Sheet!

Nothing grab your attention?
Join Amazon Prime - Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime - Start Free Trial Now

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150+ Educational Shows on Netflix - Homeschool Hideout

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read the full disclosure for more information. In the last few years, Netflix has completely transformed the way many Americans watch movies. Long gone are the days of driving to the video store, browsing through the aisles of endless new releases.

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Art For Kids Hub - Art Lessons - How To Draw For Kids

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Welcome to Art For Kids Hub! Here you’ll find all kinds of art lessons for kids, including how to draw for kids, even painting and origami for kids.

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COVID-19 Survival for Special Needs parents

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COVID-19 Survival for Special Needs parents

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It is unreasonable to a parent of one child to come up with 6 hours of educational material for each day. I think I'd pull my hair out if I had to figure out teaching grades 12, 8, 5, and 1 simultaneously each day. Kudos to Montessori teachers-I'm fascinated with your work. However, spending time out of school with zero educational material goes against our special needs parent word of the lifetime: consistency.

The plans we put into action to address the educational needs:

Have your kids check Google Classroom. Check your e-mail. Different school districts/schools/teachers are handling the closures in different ways. Some are providing coursework through Google Classroom or other educational websites.

Check this site for hundreds of educational resources that are free. Some are always free and some are free due to the COVID-19 situation. My preference to this site over the others is simple: Most sites for educational resources are geared toward grades K-8. With a 12th grader at home and a 9th grade Bologna (who I am trying to encourage via school e-mail over the break), I NEED high school resources. My gratitude to whoever made this list.

FILL THE GAPS.

Art and craft projects. Search Pinterest. Create cute little leprechauns like I did with my school superheroes on Friday before the closure.

Those dusty boxes of 100, 300, 500, and 1,000 piece are ready for some attention. (P.S. LA Times does not require a subscription to access their daily crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and Ken-Ken!)

Celebrate the day . Today is National Everything You Think is Wrong Day... quite a day for me to write this blog post, right? We started celebrating fun national days years ago, writing them on our calendar, and planning activities or crafts to honor them. You can find some fun days to celebrate here.

Have a dedicated music listening time. Music has proven therapeutic to all of our children-to the extent of which headphones in our house is as crucial as the current American needs for toilet paper. They will be hunted if not found!

Go outdoors . Walk around the block. Use sidewalk chalk on the driveway. Play with your pet. Jump on a trampoline. Houses with 6 people get stuffy and tense very quickly.

Games . Spot It is one of our kids' favorites. It's great practice for observing and reflexes.

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COVID-19 Survival for Special Needs Parents ⋆ J&R EDWARDS PDC

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It is unreasonable to a parent of one child to come up with 6 hours of educational material for each day. I think I'd pull my hair out if I had to figure out teaching grades 12, 8, 5, and 1 simultaneously each day. Kudos to Montessori teachers-I'm fascinated with your work.

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Tips for designing online lessons using the 5 Es instructional model

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Tips for designing online lessons using the 5 Es instructional model

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Tips for Designing an Online Learning Experience Using the 5Es Instructional Model - Dr. Catlin Tucker

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Covid 19 has educators and educational institutions worried about and preparing for possible school closures. What happens if students have to stay home for days or even weeks? How can we keep them learning remotely? What strategies and technology tools can teachers use to take traditional classes online?

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I was in the classroom for two days this past week - Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I had a doctor appointment (get those skin checks, friends) and was in DC the rest of the week helping our son and his wife move. WOW - so much has changed since I walked out of the classroom on Tuesday! I obviously knew that we would most likely close at some point, but things have moved at lightening speed. I put out a call to our community to share resources and am included both email and comment responses that I received. I anticipate that I'll be sharing more posts like this over the next few weeks.

We have a workday tomorrow which is when I'll get my online act together (I chose to be fully present with our family last week which meant I was fully absent from school). We had just finished Act II of Othello and will take a pause in this play because I believe that Shakespeare was meant to be performed and not read solo. My rough plan at this point is to do an online March Madness poetry bracket where students read two poems each class and vote on one to advance. They will cast their vote and share their reason why through google forms. Students will then be working on a BookSnaps project for independent reading; every student left school with a book (I hope). I will adjust dates for this project, and we will use AP Classroom for multiple choice practice and will use some of those passages as a springboard for writing. I would also encourage you to sign up for NCTE Verse which will include links to different poems and lessons for the entire month of April.

My advice: do not overcomplicate activities and the learning process and do not try to be ultra-techy if this has not been a part of your learning environment prior to now.

Thanks to Kate Lao Shaffner from the Morrison Academy in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for sending these silent seminar instructions (and example) which are clear and concise and require little prep.
Silent Seminar Instructions Online Frankenstein Discussion
This online reading response is from Julie Reese from Adams High School in Rochester Hills, MI. This could easily be submitted on Google classroom or on Edublogs where students could read and comment on each others' responses.

I created an online discussion board for the reading of Chopin's The Awakening. The task was completed over the course of 3 weeks and required each student to post 2-3 times per week (this could be adjusted because when I did the assignment, we were reading another text in class, so I dragged it out a bit).

The first post had to be the student's own response to their reading (this could be based on a list of provided analysis questions or simply something that the student noticed) and needed to be a minimum of 500 words. I suggested that the students focus on particular moments in their reading, and to focus on how those moments impacted the work as a whole. How does that moment/quote/experience develop a theme, or tie into something they noticed earlier (or in someone else's post)? How is it symbolic or does it further your understanding of Edna's character? The second and third posts were responses to other students posts and were required to be at least 50 words each. I counted the original posts as a quiz grade and the responses as discussion participation.

The reading was broken into 3 sections (chapters 1-13, chapters 14-26, and chapters 27-39). These discussion boards were wonderful because the students were able to plan out their responses to each other, were able to draw connections through the entire novel, and they were easy for me to skim through to check their understanding/engagement.

Nancy Wahl from The John Cooper School in The Woodlands, TX sent several resources through email which follows below: (lots of good ideas and resources here)

Our amazing school librarian shared the following with us: Nex tVista It is a great article for approaching online learning in the case of emergency. I have also seen lists online of learning tools free to educators during corona virus. I do not want to reshare without permission, but they can be found online.

As of this writing, our school has not yet decided how to handle next week. Teachers are planning for online instruction just in case. Some of the early preparation I have done involves using some things that we currently use in our classroom, as I believe this will give students comfort in continuity and familiarity. I am also adding some creative projects for which I would not have spared class time in this final stretch. Students will post their products online to share them. They will do one-pagers to compare works, themes, and characters. They will do some creative writing-writing from the perspective of one character to another-in the same work or a different work; changing the setting in a work; changing the ending and/or the beginning of a work; and writing poems using themes from the work. They can share these on our class website. They may also post them on FlipGrid https://info.flipgrid.com/ . I have some musicians in my classes, so I am going to give them an open-ended assignment about mood in some of our works and see what they come up with. I also think an avenue to just express themselves and their feelings will be important.

Throughout the year, we use vocabulary.com https://www.vocabulary.com/educator-edition/ . If you have time, you should explore its many capabilities and benefits. Each year, students tell me that our vocabulary work that includes vocabulary.com is one of the top three most helpful things they did throughout the year. In the coming weeks, students will work on these assignments and will be expected to use assigned words in their writing assignments and online discussion board posts.

https://parlayideas.com/ is an online discussion platform used across the disciplines in our school. I will be using it to discuss Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man with my students. Students will read and annotate, and then I will give them overall topics based on objectives from the CED and they will generate questions for discussion. They will post the questions on a google doc and we will discuss them on Parlay one at a time. We use Blackbaud and we could accomplish close to the same thing on the discussion board on Blackbaud, but Parlay allows students to be anonymous to one another while only the teacher can see who they are. It is also more "real time" than a blog or Blackbaud discussion board, and I/the teacher, can participate in the discussion in real time. Discussions can also take place over a period of time, and students just need to respond to the question and to a classmate's response within the required time period. I also use online discussion forums for students to work on syntax and vocabulary. We work on writing strong sentences using The Art of Styling Sentences Longknife and Sullivan and Sentence Composing for High School by Killgallon. Using these sentences we also work on eliminating common sentence errors. This is an ongoing part of instruction in our room, so the online discussion board is a good place for students to practice. ( This link to Parlay instructions is helpful for getting started).

These links are from Mary Matteson Hardin at Verona Area High School in Verona, WI: (so much goodness here)

If you use Canvas, here is a playlist of my tutorial videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist...

Here is also a document of different tutorials, resources, and suggestions: https://docs.google.com/.../1cNzqE0ZTdkx8JJRvxlekGWl.../edit

If you teach younger grades (9/10), here is a fully online synthesis essay project: https://sites.google.com/verona.k12.wi.us/hardincovid19/home

Gina Korteum who teaches in St. Paul, MN wrote a post on Converting to Digital Teaching that addresses some ideas for daily digital instruction. As always, her posts are thoughtful, practical, and extremely helpful.

Maya Molly who lives and teaches in Europe shared the following message and Online Book Clubs activity.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share one more very simple distance learning activity that I've used in my online AP English classes for years. At the doc you'll see my directions for the "book clubs" that I run every 4-5 weeks. (If I were using this in place of all classroom activities, I'd probably shorten that due date to 2-3 weeks.) I allow students to "meet" however they would like, including in person- they can use a platform that they know, so you don't need to worry about vetting a platform first. I use this to supplement the novels that we study in depth "in class," so I don't expect discussions to be as thorough or rigorous as our in-class discussions, but this is a fantastic way for students to increase their exposure to literature (and my students, who are homeschoolers, love the social aspect of the book clubs). If you're concerned about students faking notes for a video or in-person chat, you could require them to run their chat in writing. Good luck to all of you making a sudden transition to distance learning! I live in Europe where we're a few weeks ahead of you in terms of coronavirus response, and I absolutely think you're doing the right thing in suspending school.

Kim Wells shared this Short Story: Identity Online Unit that uses CommonLit stories. Make a copy of the unit for your students, and this is ready to roll out.

As always, I am encouraged and inspired by this community. We are better together!

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I was in the classroom for two days this past week - Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I had a doctor appointment (get those skin checks, friends) and was in DC the rest of the week helping our son and his wife move. WOW - so much has changed since I walked out of the classroom on Tuesday!

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Author and illustrator Debi Ridpath Ohi: Broken crayon and Found art projects:  

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Author and illustrator Debi Ridpath Ohi: Broken crayon and Found art projects:  

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Also see my Instagram gallery - Broken Crayon Page (incl. info about Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure) - Look Again Facebook Page - Also on FB: You never know what will come out of a broken crayon (Last updated March 2, 2020)
There is potential art EVERYWHERE. You just need to look. I'm hoping that my doodles encourage everyone to look at the world a little differently, to not take so much for granted. I also encourage young writers to do freeform found object doodling to help generate story and character ideas! It's what I do for my own book projects.

Also see my Broken Crayon gallery and young artist tips.

To young artists: have fun with your art, experiment, don't obsess about being perfect. When you're creating for fun, there is no such thing as making a mistake. If your pencil or pen or crayon doesn't go where you expected, then just make that part of your art.

To create a found object doodle, you just need:

(1) A piece of paper.

(2) Something to draw with.

(3) An object.

(4) Some imagination.

To see more ideas for broken crayon art and young artist samples, please visit my Broken Crayon Page. EXCITING NEWS: Linda Sue Park and I are working on a broken crayon picture book together!

SUMMER "LOOK AGAIN" CHALLENGE FOR YOUNG ARTISTS AND WRITERS
Every summer, I have a "Look Again" found object art challenge for young artists and writers. You can see the gallery of entries from 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Thanks to all those who entered my 2018 "Look Again" Summer Challenge! You can see a selection of entries above, plus also see Marci Johnstone's 1st grade gallery.

Guidelines for the 2019 Summer Challenge will be posted early next summer.

You can browse my found object doodles on Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest (plus Pinterest Shadow doodles) and DebbieOhi.com.

"I want to live behind your eyes, just for a day. You are amazing. These are brightening my world in really important ways and giving me really important reminders about finding wonder in the world by looking for it."
- Irina Greenman, public school teacher

Also see my blog posts: How I began creating my found object doodles and my answer to the frequently asked question, "Are you going to do a found object book?"

Congrats to Stephan D., winner of my 2014 "Look Again" Summer Challenge!

Above: Thanks to middle grade writer Rina Heisel for sharing this wonderful photo on Twitter!
STARTER TEMPLATES FOR YOUNG ARTISTS:
You just need a scrap piece of paper (back of a flyer or other printed material you're about to throw out works wonderfully) to do found object art but if you need help getting started, here are some print-ready templates for young artists. I'll be gradually adding more over time.

If you're using something messy as a found object, be sure to put plastic beneath your drawing paper first. Click on any of the following images for a print-ready PDF:

RELATED RESOURCES:

I strongly recommend Barney Saltzberg's BEAUTIFUL OOPS! (Workman Publishing) You can read an interview I did with Barney about one of his newest books on Inkygirl. Also check out his Beautiful Oops! campaign.

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Look Again - Debbie Ridpath Ohi (Twitter: @inkyelbows)

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Also see my Instagram gallery - Broken Crayon Page (incl. info about Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure) - Look Again Facebook Page - Also on FB: You never know what will come out of a broken crayon (Last updated March 2, 2020) There is potential art EVERYWHERE.

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Keeping a notebook: A series. of brief daily talks from author Amy Ludwig Vanderwater

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Keeping a notebook: A series. of brief daily talks from author Amy Ludwig Vanderwater

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I welcome you to KEEPING A NOTEBOOK, a series of brief daily writing talks that began in the middle of March and ended at the end of June 2020. These talks are for everyone, and if you are very young, you might wish to write with an older person you love. Writing together is a gift.

You will find each video in the Padlet below my signature (click the box in the upper right to enlarge), and I welcome you to share these at home or at school. There are no ads, and I ask for nothing in return as I simply wish to share my love of writing and expression.

If you wish, you may read more my letter to families. Please feel free to print it from the link and to share it along if you wish.

You may find a chronological list of these camper chats here. Please know that each writing chat may stand alone and need not be viewed in order.

Much love to you and yours.

ps - Know that you can enlarge these videos by clicking the square in the lower right hand corner of each one.

Second Grade Teacher Mandy Robek shared these thoughts with me:

I' m learning remote learning is hard and rewarding. Each day I'm sharing these videos with my students for keeping our writing notebooks active via Seesaw. I'm getting video responses that are insightful about my students as writers and humans. They are reflective about Amy's advice and try it on their own or take their writing in a new direction. I can just tell they feel empowered as writers in their video sharing.

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process. At the present time, I am not posting regularly here, but if you wish to share your notebook here, please contact me, Amy, directly.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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Keeping a Notebook...Together (Revised September 2020)

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Dear Friends, My name is Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, and I am a current fourth grade teacher, children's book author and writing teacher o...

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Easy hands on activities families can do at home

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Easy hands on activities families can do at home

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Whether or not schools are closing for the Coronavirus, it's likely that U.S. kids will be spending a lot of time indoors in the next couple of months. With that in mind, we rounded up loads of hands-on activities for families to do together at home. Share this with everyone you know who might need it!

Exploring the world around them makes every moment a learning experience for kids. Don't worry about having special bins and objects, there are lots of ways to make sensory tables that work.

Kinetic sand is fascinating to touch, make things with, and talk about. If you've got some lying around, try out some of these fun activities and make up some of your own!

These calm down jars are fun to make, teach kids science, and really truly calm kids down as they watch them settle.

Board games offer fun ways for kids to practice skills. These board games give kids practice with vocabulary, telling time, fine motor skills, and strategy skills.

You probably have a few decks of cards at home. Why not try out some of these games to help kids practice math. The quicker their math recall, the better they'll do as math gets more difficult.

The great thing about dice is that, like dominoes and cards, the formations of dots help kids organize their math thinking. These games are fun for all ages because you can add or remove rules depending on ability.

Sometimes science projects need special materials that can be tough to find, but not these! Check out how many ways you can use food to learn about science. This learning is fun and delicious.

Balloons are great for learning about physics, chemistry, and biology. Try out some of these experiments that help kids think about their breath, energy, and movement.

There are so many ways simple things you might have around the house can be put together to learn about complicated-sounding scientific notions like the laws of force and motion and friction. Trying out some of these experiments will have you all talking like scientists soon.

Bring engineering to life by making paper airplanes, catapults, and more with simple office supplies. Challenge each person in your house to make their own and hold a contest. Winner doesn't do dishes for a week!

It feels like kids don't play the same kinds of games we once played. Here are the rules for how to play all kinds of old-school outdoor games for your driveway, backyard, or maybe even a big playroom.

Pretty much everyone has LEGO bricks sitting someplace in their house. Here's how to use them to practice math skills. There are some really fun ideas in here.

Everyone loves to talk about the weather. Will it be cold, hot, or rainy? Here are some great activities to help you learn more about the weather.
What are your favorite hands-on activities for families? Please share in the comments. Plus, don't forget to read! Check out all of our teacher-approved book lists right here.

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Easy Hands-On Activities Families Can Do At Home (Teacher Approved!)

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Whether or not schools are closing for the Coronavirus, it's likely that U.S. kids will be spending a lot of time indoors in the next couple of months. With that in mind, we rounded up loads of hands-on activities for families to do together at home.

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PBS LearningMedia | Teaching Resources For Students And Teachers

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Inspire your students with thousands of free teaching resources including videos, lesson plans, and games aligned to state and national standards.

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Storyline online: Turns books into videos for kids.

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Storyline online: Turns books into videos for kids.

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Book Creator:  Teachers always receive one free library with 40 shareable books when they sign up. Schools impacted by COVID-19/coronavirus can also receive free access to the collaborative tools

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Book Creator:  Teachers always receive one free library with 40 shareable books when they sign up. Schools impacted by COVID-19/coronavirus can also receive free access to the collaborative tools

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A number of schools around the world have temporarily closed because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and will need to rely on remote technology to continue learning.

Luckily, there are lots of edtech tools out there to help with that, and with Book Creator online you can bring creativity to your homes (not just your classrooms!).

So, we're supporting you in numerous ways.

Firstly, we'd like to offer everyone the ability to collaborate together on books in real-time. This is a premium feature that is usually only available with a paid subscription, but we're offering 90 days free use of this tool, to help keep students and teachers connected.
Note: the 90 day collaboration trial offer ended on 18th August 2021, and is now back to the original 14 day trial.
Free collaboration upgrade

To claim your free collaboration upgrade, you'll need to:

1. Sign into your Book Creator account. If you don't have an account yet, create one and we'll give you 1 library and 40 books for free.

2. Start your collaboration trial on your account - you'll automatically get 90 days free.

How Book Creator can help with remote learning

NEW: We now have a dedicated Remote Learning hub.

See bookcreator.com./remote-learning

Read this Guidance for home learning - how teachers can help parents to get their children signed into Book Creator at home.
Read the guidance
Daily webinars - join Jon Smith for daily webinars on using Book Creator for home learning, and simple getting started with Book Creator sessions. These are informal - drop in and ask Jon anything.

Use the calendar below to find a time that suits you. Make sure to register using the link for each event.

If you're unable to make any of the dates above, you can view a recording of the Home Learning with Book Creator webinar from 26th March.

Book Creator can be used in any subject, with any grade level. So you should focus on assignments that allow the student to get creative and demonstrate their understanding. This could literally be anything you've been working on in class!

If you're looking for a range of lesson ideas - start with our Resources hub:

You may also want to look at example books that other students have made:

Focus on taking current projects that students have been working on and getting them to create a book - a digital version of what they may have done in an exercise book had they been in school! This could be a journal, a report, a story retell, poetry - you name it. Have students write but also record their voice, add video and images to their books and be as creative as possible.

Work collaboratively

Take advantage of your free real-time collaboration upgrade by setting tasks that involve students working on the same book at the same time. This could be a class book that you've been working on already, or if you're looking for ideas, why not compose a daily journal so students can keep tabs on what everyone else has been doing each day? Or you could take part in the latest #TWIMA ( The World is My Audience) project with Jon Smith. The current project is 'Traditions', and details can be found in this Google Doc.

Keep good communication

Student books will appear directly on your bookshelf, so there's no need for students to go through a complicated turn-in procedure. (Tip: you can decide whether or not students can see each other's books).

Communicate with your students by recording audio hotspots with feedback on their work to correct and guide them.

Boost motivation by sharing work

As kids work on their books from the comfort of their home, help them feel even more motivated and engaged by sharing their books beyond your library. You can publish individual books (or even a whole library) online with ease - showcase great work on your class blog or school website, on social media and beyond. Students will be even more engaged if they know the books they are creating will be seen by a wide audience. Everyone loves to be a published author!

Share your ideas

Do you have any other ideas for activities or lesson plans that work well for remote learners? Please share your ideas in the comments below so the whole community can benefit. Thanks!

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Support for schools affected by Coronavirus - Book Creator app

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A number of schools around the world have temporarily closed because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and will need to rely on remote technology to continue learning. Luckily, there are lots of edtech tools out there to help with that, and with Book Creator online you can bring creativity to your homes (not just your classrooms!).

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The big list of authors doing read alouds and activities

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The big list of authors doing read alouds and activities

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With kids at home and parents looking for educational activities, many of our favorite authors are offering online read alouds and activities on social media. We've rounded up some of the best virtual author activities below!

Read-Alouds for Elementary School Kids

These authors are offering read-alouds of their books and books by their favorite authors.

The author will be doing read-alouds on Instagram Live of her book Mae Among the Stars.

The author will be reading a book a day on Instagram Live. It does not appear that he will be adding the videos to his website at this time.

Enjoy a reading of Falatko's book, Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book), by Stranger Things actor, David Harbour. This read-aloud comes with a teacher's guide.

Oprah Winfrey reads Godin's book, The Hula-Hoopin' Queen, which is accompanied by a handy teacher's guide.

The author has added a collection of videos of herself reading from her picture books on Instagram. You may also learn more about her books on her website.

The author will be reading one book every day on Instagram Live. Can't make it? He'll also be posting the videos to his website.

A former classroom teacher, Messner has written more than three dozen books for kids. She's put together a library of distance learning resources for students, families, teachers, and librarians.

Young kids will enjoy this great read-aloud of Where Are My Books? The author also provides a teacher's guide, drawing demos and shares a crowd-sourced music video based on the book.

Follow the story of A Bad Case of Stripes as read by Lord of the Rings actor, Sean Astin. Then, work through the helpful teacher's guide.

Learn the story of The House That Jane Built as read by The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actress, Kiernan Shipka. You may access activity guides for teachers or for parents.

Virtual Author Activities for Middle School

Read-alouds and reading activities from favorite authors.

The author has put together reading activities around his Cogheart Adventures. He's even created Q&A videos on YouTube.

Listen to a read-aloud of Henderson's The Magic in Changing Your Stars and then work through the writing challenge (with hints!) listed on author Kate Messner's site: Who is Ailey Benjamin Lane named after?

This official PDF teaching guide is a great learning resource for your middle schooler to think about and discuss the beloved Diary of a Wimpy Kid series!

Watch Knowles read the first chapter of her middle grade novel, Where the Heart Is, while giving students a fun writing exercise. She's also created guides for teachers and book groups on her website.

Author of the Lunch Lady graphic novel series, Krosoczka will be hosting a daily drawing webcast on YouTube at 2 PM EDT. You can also find videos on his website. Be sure to also check out his National Book Award Finalist, Hey Kiddo.

The author behind Enginerds has created some cool worksheets that will be updated every few days to keep kids entertained and engaged. These activities may be a good addition to your distance learning resources.

The author and illustrator has taken to YouTube to provide a glimpse into Chinese culture and a guide for drawing Chinese dragons.

You may have to change the season or specific circumstances, but this collection of writing prompts is a great way to help your student build literacy skills, while giving them a chance to express themselves.

What better series for middle schoolers than the famous Harry Potter books? You probably loved them, and now you have the chance to introduce your children into the Wizarding World. Use this handy discussion guide that covers the first four books to bring an academic approach to your own little wizards' education.

The nonfiction science book author has created engaging video mini-lessons including a similes worksheet, researching skills, and more.

Mo Willems invites you into his studio every day for his lunch doodle! Grab some paper and pencils, pens, or crayons and join Mo to explore ways of writing and making together while he chats about his characters Pigeon, Piggie, and Elephant.

Virtual Author Activities for High School & Young Adults

Even more resources for tweens and teens.

The author of The Jumbies series has created videos of mini-lessons on comparative mythology and has added valuable distance learning resources, including downloadables for teachers and parents, to her website.

While there are thrill books, The Maze Runner is the first book in Dashner's YA novel series. This guide is useful for turning the adventurous themes into meaningful learning experiences.

Emily Dickenson

High school students may have discovered the timeless magic of Emily Dickinson. This teaching guide includes multimedia and discussion questions for The Essential Emily Dickinson collection.

Fans of the author of The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns? Here's a link to some discussion questions surrounding his works. Green has also co-created Crash Course, a website that provides high-quality educational videos for high school and college-level classes. Students, parents, and teachers alike could be entertained for hours without ever leaving the site!

Looking for writing prompts? This author has put together a list of prompts to get students thinking outside of the box.

To go along with his collection of youth novels, Hobbs has created resources and activities for teachers and librarians.

Check out the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Learning Guide for Silver Sparrow by this NEA creative writing fellow.

Want to learn more about writing an etheree (a ten-line poem in which writers add an additional syllable with each line)? Scanlon has a video lesson all about them!

Ready to work on some poetry? It can be tough to know where to start, but Sidman has created a poem starters for teachers and students, and even has categories for Younger Writers or Older Writers.

Students or kids reading Thomas' The Hate U Give? You'll find some good distance learning resources for discussion questions and projects on this website.
Looking for more online resources for learning at home? We've built a list with over 80 options here. Have other virtual author activities to share? Email us at resources@weareteachers.com with your additions and we will regularly update.

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The Big List of Children's Authors Doing Online Read Alouds & Activities

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With kids at home and parents looking for educational activities, many of our favorite authors are offering online read alouds and activities on social media. We've rounded up some of the best virtual author activities below! These authors are offering read-alouds of their books and books by their favorite authors.

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Video mini lessons,curriculum guides, reading and writing. activities from author Melissa Stewart

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Video mini lessons,curriculum guides, reading and writing. activities from author Melissa Stewart

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Since many schools have been temporarily shut down in an effort to slow the coronavirus's spread, I wanted to mention some of the educational resources available on my website. They include a half-dozen
video mini-lessons that look at various aspects of informational writing, including research, text features, text structures, rich language, voice, and revisions.

I also have a variety of other materials, including curriculum guides, readers theaters, read aloud guides, and activity pages. Many of these reading and writing resources can be used even if you don't have copies of my books.

I wish you all well during this difficult time!

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Video Mini-Lessons for Students at Shutdown Schools

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Since many schools have been temporarily shut down in an effort to slow the coronavirus's spread, I wanted to mention some of the educational resources available on my website. They include a half-dozen video mini-lessons that look at various aspects of informational writing, including research, text features, text structures, rich language, voice, and revisions.

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Chicken Little

A modern adaptation of the classic tale: What happens when a completely normal chicken believes everything he reads on the internet? This story is written in the present tense, because it's a good thing to learn.

The Bird and the Whale

Our first ever original story, about a bird and a whale and their shared love of little fish. Inspired by a song by Tom Waits, and an episode of Adventure Time.

The Three Little Pigs

The classic tale of shoddy building materials, DIY folly, and the perils of emparedados de tocino (a.k.a bacon sandwiches). No pigs or wolves were harmed in the making of this story.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Why you should probably lock your door when you go out for a walk, even if you live en medio de un gran bosque. Why are the three bowls of sopa different temperatures when they were poured at the same time? Science, is why.

Little Red Riding Hood

A deeply troubling investigation into what happens when you let your children walk somewhere alone: Caperucita Roja eats fresas, picks margaritas and talks to el Gran Lobo Feroz on the way to Grandma's house. (Warning: Contains highly improbable medical scenes.)

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Spanish Children's Stories - The Spanish Experiment

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A modern adaptation of the classic tale: What happens when a completely normal chicken believes everything he reads on the internet? This story is written in the present tense, because it's a good thing to learn. Our first ever original story, about a bird and a whale and their shared love of little fish.

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Free educational resources for distance learning: list compiled by CA Dept. of Ed

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Free educational resources for distance learning: list compiled by CA Dept. of Ed

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page
Below is a non-comprehensive list of publishers offering free distance learning resources. At the URL listed, users can learn about the specific resources available as publishers continue to expand their offerings. Districts are not mandated to utilize only state-adopted instructional materials, and many classrooms utilize a network of resources. In this list below, educators and parents/guardians may discover the individual resources they want for a particular need.

Capstone Publishing
Resources available during school closures.
User Name = Engaged; Password = Learning

Opus You
Cinematic broadcast of musical works, lesson plans, and interactive online courses.

TCI
Resources for teachers to provide distance learning.

Teacher Created Materials
Resources for at-home learning.

Wilson Language Training
Recommendations for Fundations®, Just Words®, and Wilson Reading System® use.

Questions: Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division | CFIRD@cde.ca.gov | 916-319-0881

Last Reviewed: Tuesday, March 17, 2020

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Free Educational Resources for Distance Learning

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page Below is a non-comprehensive list of publishers offering free distance learning resources. At the URL listed, users can learn about the specific resources available as publishers continue to expand their offerings. Districts are not mandated to utilize only state-adopted instructional materials, and many classrooms utilize a network of resources.

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Lunch Doodles with Author and illustrator Mo Willems

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Lunch Doodles with Author and illustrator Mo Willems

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Author and Illustrator Mo Willems has been awarded the American Library Association’s Caldecott Honor three times for his picture book illustration. Additionally, he is the recipient of two Theodor Geisel Medals and five Geisel Honors for his Elephant & Piggie early readers. Mo began his career as a writer and animator on Sesame Street, where he garnered six Emmy Awards. His work has been exhibited around the world, including solo retrospectives at the High Museum in Atlanta and the New-York Historical Society. Over the last decade, Mo has written three musical theater works based on his books, two of which were commissioned and toured by the Kennedy Center.

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Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle share book talks and notebook writing. We invite our ELA colleagues to join us as we share thinking about teaching and learning.  They are posting on the 180 Days Facebook group and you can search on Youtube.   You can also follow on Penny Kittle's Youtube Channel. Here's Day 1

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Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle share book talks and notebook writing. We invite our ELA colleagues to join us as we share thinking about teaching and learning.  They are posting on the 180 Days Facebook group and you can search on Youtube.   You can also follow on Penny Kittle's Youtube Channel. Here's Day 1

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Children's Lit authors step up 4 kids, teachers and parents

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Children's Lit authors step up 4 kids, teachers and parents

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Kid Lit Authors Step Up To Help Educators, Students, and Parents

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Children’s authors and illustrators are creating resources and reaching out to educators to help during the coronavirus school closures.

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Kid Lit authors organize virtual book festival for May

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Kid Lit authors organize virtual book festival for May

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The Everywhere Book Fest will be held May 1 and 2.

The coronavirus pandemic response to shut down schools and ban large gatherings means no book festivals, publishing and educator conferences, or school visits for a while. The impact has been felt on publishers, creators, educators, and readers. Authors Ellen Oh and Christina Soontornvat were disappointed by all of the cancellations and the ripple effect it would have on the industry. They were contemplating options, originally considering a virtual chat as a replacement for a canceled book festival.

"But as the number of canceled events started stacking up and schools around the country started to close, it quickly became clear that there was a need for something much bigger," Soontornvat wrote in an email.

So Oh took to Twitter.

"We wondered what we could do to maybe have a book festival online," she tweeted on March 9. "So we're currently brainstorming ideas, especially for authors w/ books out this month. Would people be interested in a virtual book festival?"

It took only days for the kid lit community to rally behind the idea. Author Melanie Conklin joined Oh and Soontornvat to organize, and the Everywhere Book Fest will be held May 1 and 2. Author and illustrator Grace Lin designed the logo.

"Public events such as book festivals, conferences, and school visits are big opportunities for authors to make real, human connections with readers, booksellers, and educators," Soontornvat wrote in an email. "Events like this can really help get your book on people's radar and get them talking about your title. And of course, there is the potential to actually sell books and sign them for readers in real time. The loss of sales has been devastating for some booksellers who were counting on the revenue from the events. But, for authors, I would say that the loss of connecting face-to-face with readers is the hardest part of all this. We get so few opportunities to meet them otherwise. That sort of human connection can make such a big impression on a young reader. It really can make a big difference in their life or turn them into a lifelong reader. And of course, our hearts especially go out to the debut authors, who have waited so long and worked so hard for their moment to shine."

There will be panels-livestreams and pre-recorded content-in picture books, middle grade, and YA, prioritizing authors and independent booksellers who had an event canceled because of COVID-19, spring debut authors, and authors from marginalized backgrounds. Children's authors and illustrators will take live questions from viewers at home, do demos, tell stories, and give sneak peeks into their daily lives, according to Soontornvat.

"The days will be fun and lively, which is something we could all use in our lives right now, especially the children who are home from school," she said. "Attendees who want to purchase books will be directed to independent bookstores where they can order signed copies from the authors in the festival."

Get Print. Get Digital. Get Both!

Libraries are always evolving. Stay ahead. Log In.

Kara Yorio

Kara Yorio (kyorio@mediasourceinc.com, @karayorio) is news editor at School Library Journal.

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Kid Lit Authors Organize Virtual Book Festival for May

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The Everywhere Book Fest will be held May 1 and 2. The coronavirus pandemic response to shut down schools and ban large gatherings means no book festivals, publishing and educator conferences, or school visits for a while. The impact has been felt on publishers, creators, educators, and readers.

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How to make a zine from a single sheet of paper:  

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How to make a zine from a single sheet of paper:  

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Inspired by Malaka Gharib's zines and Warren Craghead's drawings for his daughter's lunches, I've been making these tiny little zines for my son Owen's lunch out of a single sheet of paper. (See more of them below.)

It's a really simple and old technique. Nothing fancy. Tons of people use it. I first learned about it years and years ago from the great book, Whatcha Mean, What's A Zine?

Here's my version in a short video:

Here's a diagram from Keri Smith's wandering zines:

And here are some of the results (see more on my Instagram):

Here's a photo of Owen and I holding up the one-page zines we made while hanging out at the Lone Star Zine Fest:

Happy zine-making!!

Filed under: zines

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How to make a zine from a single sheet of paper - Austin Kleon

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Inspired by Malaka Gharib's zines and Warren Craghead's drawings for his daughter's lunches, I've been making these tiny little zines for my son Owen's lunch out of a single sheet of paper. (See more of them below.) It's a really simple and old technique. Nothing fancy. Tons of people use it.

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Poetry Readings Hyperdoc for elementary students

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Poetry Readings Hyperdoc for elementary students

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Teaching. resources for K-8 online learning:  

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Teaching. resources for K-8 online learning:  

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What a challenging and confusing time this is. All of us are juggling the demands of taking care of our families, our students, and ourselves. We're worried about what's happening hour-to-hour while trying to remain positive and optimistic when we're with the young people within our care. Rather than create a traditional entry for this week, we decided to curate some of the amazing resources that schools, libraries, companies, and organizations have been making available during this time of crisis.

All of us need to remember to breathe in, breathe out, and realize that all we can do is the best that we can right now. This video of residents on a street in Sienna, Italy singing out their windows during the nationwide coronavirus quarantine may warm your spirits and quiet your nerves. Or, perhaps, Wendell Berry's reading of his poem "The Peace of Wild Things."

Moving learning online for elementary and middle school students is challenging, particularly when you don't know what access students have to books, technology, and high-speed internet at home. What might this learning look like? This story from The New York Times, " Remote Learning Comes to America as Coronavirus Shuts Schools" may be a useful starting point. Clearly, every district faces different challenges when it comes to guiding their students through online learning. To that end, technology educators Kristin Ziemke and Katie Muhtaris have put together a "What You Can Do Today" message for principals and superintendents.

Below you will find a range of resources arranged by different, and sometimes overlapping, categories. As the resources change, and as new ones get added, we will strive to update this site.

To start, you'll want to look at the " Mini-Clearinghouse on Coronavirus Created by Two School Librarians," featured on the SLJ site this week. Here you'll find lots of valuable resources about the virus and how to take precautions as well as a curated list of various online resources that can help you craft teaching ideas for your students. We think NPR's " Just for Kids: A Comic Exploring the New Coronavirus" can be particularly useful for sharing accurate information with your students. Upper elementary through high school educators may find the "Coronavirus Resources: Teaching, Learning and Thinking Critically" from The New York Times useful. The page, which will be updated regularly, offers links to regular features such as the daily "What's Going On in this Picture?" and "What's Going On in this Graph?" to coronavirus-specific teaching and learning resources.

Harvard University has guidelines for effective online teaching that may be helpful for those of you teaching at the middle level and up. It's important to note the difference between an online course that is designed as such, and teaching remotely during an emergency. They aren't the same thing! Whether you teach elementary, middle, high school, or undergraduate or graduate students, you can't put together perfectly polished online learning experiences in such a short period of time. You're teaching remotely and at the last minute.

PreK-12 educators may find this curated Google doc of open-access K-12 resources from the "Amazing Resources" Facebook community invaluable for your planning. This Travel and Leisure site links museums around the globe that offer Virtual Museum Tours. Some companies normally behind a paywall, such as BrainPOP, are now making their content free for the duration of closures due to coronavirus. For those of you who teach prospective or inservice teachers or school librarians, Daniel Stanford of DePaul University created a curated Google doc of tips and resources for teaching remotely from universities all over the country.
General Literacy Resources

A Month of Literacy Learning. Scholastic has put together an online " Remote Learning Resources Center." To use it, first create a free account (they share the username and password info). Once in the site, select the gradespan. You will then find twenty days of literacy and content area learning experiences. Each day's lesson consists of a book video, a magazine story, a supporting informational video, and a set of activities. As of this publication, five days of lessons are available, with fifteen more forthcoming.

English Language Learners. For those of you who teach students who speak a range of languages, the International Children's Digital Library, created and curated by folks at the University of Maryland, could be an essential source of reading material in students' first language. At this point in time, the Library apps for iPhone and iPad do not seem to be available. Those of you who are working with LatinX populations may find the Colorin Colorado site useful.

Online Library Sources for EBooks and AudioBooks

General Link to Books Lists and Blogs. On their website "Teaching with Trade Books," Mary Ann and Erika have curated a list of resources in children's, middle grade, and young adult literature that may be useful to you and the families with whom you work.

OverDrive. You will create an account and link it with your library card for your local public library. You will be able to access ebooks and audiobooks.
Author/Illustrator Resources

Hoopla. You will create an account and link it with your library card for your local public library. You will be able to access ebooks, audiobooks, and videos.

Axis360. You will create an account and link it with your library card for your local public library. You will be able to access ebooks and audiobooks.

Kate Messner. Author Kate Messner is curating a online collection of author video interviews, read-alouds and writing lessons. This is a not to be missed resource!

Reading Rockets This literacy learning site has a dedicated section for "Children's Books and Authors" which includes video interviews, booklists, and many other resources.

Kids Ask Authors Podcast with Grace Lin - Have your students submit book reviews and questions to the Kids Ask Authors Podcast series. The series is in development, and so submitting questions and reviews now helps to build the first year of the series.

Authors Everywhere You Tube Channel - This new channel is adding videos, several of which are also posted on Kate Messner's site.

TeachingBooks.Net - This is a subscription service, so you will need to check to see whether your school or public library provides you access. It is a curated collection of resources that include lesson plans, author/illustrator interviews, audio read alouds and videos. The site is currently offering a free two week trial.

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Coronavirus Support: Teaching Resources for K-8 Online Learning

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What a challenging and confusing time this is. All of us are juggling the demands of taking care of our families, our students, and ourselves. We're worried about what's happening hour-to-hour while trying to remain positive and optimistic when we're with the young people within our care.

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Award winning author Jacqueline Woodson's YouTube Channel's Playlist with readings, interviews and awards ceremonies. More to come

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Award winning author Jacqueline Woodson's YouTube Channel's Playlist with readings, interviews and awards ceremonies. More to come

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Conversations, Interviews, and Readings with Jacqueline Woodson

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How to make video tutorials with screencastify for students

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How to make video tutorials with screencastify for students

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How to Make Video Tutorials for Students

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Art institute of Chicago puts 44,000 works online

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Art institute of Chicago puts 44,000 works online

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After the fire that totally destroyed Brazil's Museu Nacional in Rio, many people lamented that the museum had not digitally backed up its collection and pointed to the event as a tragic example of why such digitization is so necessary. Just a couple decades ago, storing and displaying this much information was impossible, so it may seem like a strange demand to make. And in any case, two-dimensional images stored on servers-or even 3D printed copies-cannot replace or substitute for original, priceless artifacts or works of art.

But museums around the world that have digitized most--or all--of their collections don't claim to have replicated or replaced the experience of an in-person visit, or to have rendered physical media obsolete.

Digital collections provide access to millions of people who cannot, or will not, ever travel to the major cities in which fine art resides, and they give millions of scholars, teachers, and students resources once available only to a select few.

We can't all take the day off like Ferris Bueller and stand in front of Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. But thanks to the Art Institute of Chicago, we can all view and download the 1884 pointillist painting in high resolution, zoom in closely like the troubled Cameron to specific details, share the digital image under a Creative Commons Zero license, and similarly interact with an oil sketch for the final painting and several conté crayon studies.

And if that weren't enough, the museum also includes a bibliography, exhibition history, notes on provenance, audio and video histories and descriptions, and educational resources like teacher manuals, lesson plans, and exams. This goes for many of the 44,312-with more to come-digital images online, including such famous works of art as Vincent van Gogh's 1889 The Bedroom, Grant Wood's 1930 American Gothic, Pablo Picasso's 1903-4 blue period painting The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's 1942 Nighthawks, Mary Cassatt's 1893 The Child's Bath, and so many more that it boggles the mind.

Browse Impressionism, Pop Art, works from the African Diaspora, Cityscapes, Fashion, Mythological Works, and other genres and categories. Search artists, dates, styles, media, departments, places, and more.

A personal visit to the Art Institute is an awe-inspiring, and somewhat overwhelming experience, if you can get the day to go. You can visit the website, with full unrestricted access, and gather information, study, marvel, and casually browse, at any time of day-every day if you like. No, it's not the same, but as a learning experience, in some ways, it's even better. And if, by some awful chance, anything should happen to this art, we won't have to rely on user-submitted photos to reconstruct the cultural memory.

The launch of this collection comes as part of the museum's website redesign, and it is an extensive, and expensive, endeavor. The Art Institute, which charges for entry, can afford to make its collections free online. Some other museums charge image fees to support their online work. Ideally, as art historian Bendor Grosvenor writes at Art History News, museums should offer free and open access to both physical and online collections, and some institutions, like Sweden's Nationalmuseum, have shown that this is possible.

And, as Grosvenor shows, the success of open access online collections has yielded another benefit, for both viewers and museums alike. The more people are exposed to art online, the more likely they are to visit museums in person. Chicago awaits you. Until then, virtually immerse yourself in the Art Institute's many thousands of treasures here.
Related Content: 25 Million Images From 14 Art Institutions to Be Digitized & Put Online In One Huge Scholarly Archive 1.8 Million Free Works of Art from World-Class Museums: A Meta List of Great Art Available Online Wikipedia Leads Effort to Create a Digital Archive of 20 Million Artifacts Lost in the Brazilian Museum Fire Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

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The Art Institute of Chicago Puts 44,000+ Works of Art Online: View Them in High Resolution

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After the fire that totally destroyed Brazil's Museu Nacional in Rio, many people lamented that the museum had not digitally backed up its collection and pointed to the event as a tragic example of why such digitization is so necessary.

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A Short list of distance learning ideas from Two Writing Teachers blog:

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A Short list of distance learning ideas from Two Writing Teachers blog:

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At the time this post is published, we teachers and the rest of the globe find ourselves amidst a global pandemic, COVID-19. Schools, businesses, cities, even entire countries, have been, and continue to be, shuttered in an effort to mitigate the effects of an unprecedented world health crisis. As we know, one of the consequences of our national effort to contain the spread of this virus is to entertain ideas for distance (remote) learning. And while this idea hold great promise, it certainly does not provide any guarantees. If schools remain closed for long periods of time, and it looks like many will, what will the effects be on our children's academic growth? Will distance learning provide a mitigating tool that lessens the effect of losing significant amounts of in-person teaching? If schools are closed, what type of at-home learning experiences are best for kids? These, as well as dozens of other questions, may remain unanswerable for the time being.

As Stacey recently, Two Writing Teachers plans to continue working to support our community of teachers, coaches, administrators, and readers with topical posts on writing workshop and/or best practices in writing instruction. But please know: we will be navigating the uncertainty alongside you! We are not experts and do not claim to hold the answer for our readers. Nor do we stand necessarily uniform in our professional opinions regarding remote learning. We are well aware of the costs that excessive screen usage can enact upon families. I am reminded of Mary Anne Wolf's latest book, Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital Age . Pointing out some of the negative effects of the current global consumption of screen time, Wolfe writes (2018),

"There are unseen costs for every age. By a calculus we largely neglect, the more constant the digital stimulation, the more prevalent the boredom and ennui expressed by even very young children when we take the devices away. Further, the more the devices are used, the more dependent the family becomes on longer periods of access to digital sources of entertainment, information, and distraction by all its members. Hyperattention, continuous partial attention, and what the psychiatrist Edward Hallowell calls environmentally induced attentional 'deficits' pertain to us all" (p. 71).

These questions I pose above have me thinking about my one little word for 2020: Balance. How can we strike a balance, a balance between device-based distance learning support and tried-and-true physical experiences in a way that supports our writers in some positive ways? While I am aware many wonderful and generous educators and authors have already compiled and curated extensive lists (thank you to them!), allow me to share just a few that you may (or may not) find helpful in your efforts to guide and support students and parents at home. This list in no way indicates personal usage or even recommendations. However, I can assure you they come from trusted sources and therefore deserve our consideration:
Digital Resources and Ideas:

- Former teacher and author of more than 35 books for kids, Kate Messner has curated a wonderful compilation of authors and artists reading aloud their original works. In Kate's own words: Kate Messner" This is a library of resources for kids, families, teachers, and librarians to make sure that reading & learning can happen anywhere this spring."

Since in any writing workshop, it is important we offer a small collection of high quality mentor texts for our writers, this site may provide support in that regard. Click here to see what Kate has put together: Read, Wonder, and Learn! Favorite Authors & Illustrators Share Resources for Learning Anywhere - Spring 2020

Writing Camp with Hoppy and Ranger- Teacher and writer Tammy Mulligan has generously pledged to support writers at home with an ongoing virtual writing camp. Tammy's lessons are engaging and intended for writers grades 1-4. She has linked a Padlet on which she posts her own writing and allows students to do the same (should they wish to do so - it is completely student-safe). Students that post writing can even receive feedback from her! Check it out at:
https://teachersbooksreaders.com/category/writingcamp/

Angela Stockman Writing Lessons for Middle School - On her webpage, author and teacher Angela Stockman writes, " This 8 lesson course is designed for middle school writers. It includes opportunities to engage in research, gather facts, and compose a personal narrative." Find her lessons here:

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Notebooking Resource - Keeping a writer's notebook and making it part of our daily writing lives remains an essential structure to growing as writers. Each day around 1 p.m. EST (for the foreseeable future), Amy plans to post a short talk that presents an idea around notebooking. Find her site here: Sharing Our Notebooks

Melanie Meehan's Writing Workshop Resources - Author, teacher, and Two Writing Teachers co-author Melanie Meehan has generously collected, curated, and posted an impressive array of Writing Units of Study resources for upper grade writers. Melanie's collection includes both videos and charts. Find this treasure trove of resources here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9cQI9YOa0FoNjVZdlRERzB4VnM

Author Jarrett Krosoczka's Free Webcast: For those writers who aspire to create their own graphic novels or comics, they can find a wonderful lesson posted each weekday at 2:00 on Jarrett Krosoczka's Youtube channel. Drawing tutorials will be posted for at least a couple of weeks. Check out this resource here: Jarrett J. Krosoczka-author & illustrator .
Non-digital resources:

Printable graphic novel/comic templates: From author Jarrett Lerner, writers can create conversations for characters, comic book drawings, silly illustrations, etc. on a variety of click and print images or templates. Find those resources here:

Journals: Prep some journals and write alongside kids! This idea is fairly simple and may be appropriate to suggest to caregivers who are capable of supporting writers in this way. This time is historic, and as Clare Landrigan reminded us in her slice of life , historians are now encouraging journaling, as these accounts will someday become primary sources for this time period.

Greenbelt Writing: Encourage writers to do that "greenbelt" writing students never have time to do! Not familiar with greenbelt writing? As Stacey wrote in her of Ralph Fletcher's back in April of 2017,

"Greenbelt writing is raw, unmanicured, and uncurated. In other words, it's the kind of informal, low-stakes writing kids are comfortable composing, but rarely get the chance to do in many writing workshops. Ralph wants kids to get back to powerful writing that is personal, passionate, joyful, whimsical, playful, infused with choice, humor, and voice, and reflective of the quirkiness of childhood. The whole idea behind greenbelt writing is to infuse energy into students; to spark, engage, and help kids gain their stride as writers."

Support Creativity: Provide paper and markers and give writers a chance to create. Keep it simple!

Thank you cards: Encourage and support writers in composing a daily thank you card to be written and mailed to someone who is helping during this crisis.

Screenplays: Suggest writers experiment with composing their own screenplays, beginning with storyboarding. One article perhaps worth checking out is here.

If you have not had an opportunity to read Meghan Hargrave's recent post entitled, "Rethinking Materials, Routines, and Collaboration: What Does Independence and Interdependence Look Like From Home?", I would encourage you to read it here. As Meghan so starkly writes, "The students who rely on you each day, the ones who are constantly asking questions, looking for positive affirmations, and seeking the scaffolds you provide, are now left to their own devices."

I hope today's post provides perhaps some support to you, as you attempt to navigate this unprecedented time in history. Please leave other writing resources you recommend in the comments section below. After all, we are in this together.

For more than 29 years, Lanny has taught, coached, presented, staff developed, and consulted within the exciting and enigmatic world of literacy. With unyielding passion and belief in the possibility of workshop teaching, Lanny has worked to support students, teachers, and school administrators around the country in outgrowing themselves as both writers and readers. Working first as a classroom teacher, then as a coach and TCRWP Staff Developer, Lanny is now a literacy specialist, working and living in the great state of Connecticut. Outside of literacy, he enjoys raising his three ambitious young daughters with his wife, and playing the piano. Find him on this blog, as well as on Twitter @LannyBall. Lanny is also a former co-author of a blog dedicated to supporting writing teachers and coaches that maintain classroom writing workshops, twowritingteachers.org. View all posts by Lanny Ball

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A Very Short List of Distance Learning Ideas

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How can we strike a balance between device-based distance learning support and tried-and-true physical experiences in a way that supports our writers in some positive ways? While I am aware many wonderful and generous educators and authors have already compiled and curated extensive lists, allow me to share just a few that you may (or...

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J.K. Rowling grants open license for teachers during Covid 19

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J.K. Rowling grants open license for teachers during Covid 19

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Teachers can now post videos of themselves reading aloud from the Harry Potter books to children prevented from attending school because of the Covid-19 virus. This follows J.K. Rowling and her agents The Blair Partnership relaxing the usual copyright permissions required.

Teachers anywhere in the world are permitted to post videos of themselves reading from Harry Potter books 1-7 onto schools' secure networks or closed educational platforms from today until the end of the school year (or the end of July in southern hemisphere). A full set of Guidelines for Teachers are downloadable here.

The open licence for teachers is the first of several initiatives being planned to help bring Harry Potter to children at home, which will be announced shortly - watch this space for more details!

#HarryPotterAtHome

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J.K. Rowling grants open licence for teachers during Covid-19 outbreak - J.K. Rowling

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Teachers can now post videos of themselves reading aloud from the Harry Potter books to children prevented from attending school because of the Covid-19 virus. This follows J.K. Rowling and her agents The Blair Partnership relaxing the usual copyright permissions required. Teachers anywhere in the world are permitted to post videos of themselves reading from ...

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Join Steve Hartman’s “Kindness 101” class from “On the road”:  

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Join Steve Hartman’s “Kindness 101” class from “On the road”:  

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Join Steve's Kindness 101 class on Facebook Live starting Monday at 2 p.m. ET.
Catskill, New York - It was as heartbreaking as it was adorable, my daughter, Meryl, and her school friends resorting to a teleconference tea party. But such is the new virtual reality for most kids in America.

"You know, I would rather stay at school than go at home," Meryl said.

"Would you?" I asked.

"Yea, 'cause you're like, 'Oh, what can I do?'" Meryl said.

And for most grown-ups, the feeling has been mutual. Working from home and homeschooling have no place in the home - at least not together, they don't.

Then add in home confinement and pretty soon you've got short tempers.

"You're taking a video and I don't like it," Meryl said.

And health concerns beyond just coronavirus. Like your son licking his brother's socks.

"How are your parents doing with all this?" I asked George.

" I'd ask the person who's making this report," he said.

I did and he's fine. But he's not sure how he'll make it to summer.

"I feel like I'm trying to be a little easier on you guys, just because it's a tough time right now and I want to help you get through it," Emmett said.

And I want to help you get through it too, which is why I'm offering to take your kids for a half-hour a day. Starting Monday, I'll be offering a live, online class called "Kindness 101." We'll show some of my favorite "On the Road" stories and talk about the lessons within.

I promise it'll be better than almost anything else your kids might be doing. Until Monday, I'm Steve Hartman, at home in Catskill, New York.

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Join Steve Hartman's "Kindness 101," an online class to entertain and educate kids with lessons from "On the Road"

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Join Steve's Kindness 101 class on Facebook Live starting Monday at 2 p.m. ET. Catskill, New York - It was as heartbreaking as it was adorable, my daughter, Meryl, and her school friends resorting to a teleconference tea party. But such is the new virtual reality for most kids in America.

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This morning, when you wake up, you find a giant cardboard box in your room. Although it seems ordinary, this box can transport you into any book you’ve ever read.

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From Jarrett J. Krosoczka, author of Newbery Award winning author of New Kid:

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From Jarrett J. Krosoczka, author of Newbery Award winning author of New Kid:

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Every weekday at 2pm ET for at least the next few weeks, I'll host free webcasts for you and your kiddos.

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Jarrett J. Krosoczka-author & illustrator

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YouTube channel for New York Times-bestselling author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Everything from the Punk Farm picture books to the Lunch Lady gra...

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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures and the challenge of teaching students remotely, I, along with several of my colleagues, have created an extended lesson plan designed to encourage students to capture this moment in history. However, before I share the plan, some thoughts:

Years from now, our students' children and grandchildren will ask them about this moment in time, and I want them to have a record of it. Their history.

The last thing I want to do with my home-bound students is to load them down with brain-numbing packet work. So this lesson plan was designed to honor student choice, student agency, student voice. This is not the time to give students chapter quizzes on their at-home reading of 1984.

We are not suggesting this is THE lesson plan everyone should adopt. We know our kids. We do not know yours. It is where our thinking resides today. Tomorrow, we may shift our thinking as events continue to unfold.

You are invited to use any or all of our thinking. We do not, however, grant permission for this thinking to be sold anywhere. No one should profit from this crisis. Adapt as you see fit. Make our thinking better. Share with others.

We also have a sinking suspicion that this crisis may worsen, and that our students may actually end up being out of school much longer than two weeks. We will be creating digital communities where our readers and writers can maintain a sense of community.

And although I am teaching seniors, many of my colleagues who have shared their thinking in the creation of these lesson plans are planning to use them in other grade levels. They are easily adaptable.

With that said, you can access our plans for our stay-at-home students here:
Coronavirus Lesson Plan
Special thanks to Penny Kittle and several members of the Magnolia High School ELA faculty for helping to create this plan.

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instructional materials - Kelly Gallagher

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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures and the challenge of teaching students remotely, I, along with several of my colleagues, have created an extended lesson plan designed to encourage students to capture this moment in history.

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Poet and  author Michael Rosen's Youtube Channel:  We have 48 hours worth of stories, poems, songs and jokes. All free

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Poet and  author Michael Rosen's Youtube Channel:  We have 48 hours worth of stories, poems, songs and jokes. All free

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"michael rosen poems" "kids poems and stories with michael rosen" "poems by michael rosen" "michael rosen school poems" "books by michael rosen" "michael ros...

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Kids' Poems and Stories With Michael Rosen

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This is the official Michael Rosen video channel. All videos and playlists on this channel have been approved by Michael Rosen and are safe to watch. Please ...

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Where to learn along with Heinemann authors:  A remote learning link pack (updated daily):  

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Where to learn along with Heinemann authors:  A remote learning link pack (updated daily):  

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Heinemann. A division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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For the Heinemann Blog, visit blog.heinemann.com.
For Heinemann resources and services, please visit Heinemann.com.
Thank you!

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Education version:  https//storium.edu

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Tell stories with your friends in an innovative online storytelling game. Over 98M words written. Sign up now - it's free.

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An argumentative writing unit for students doing remote learning:  

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An argumentative writing unit for students doing remote learning:  

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Suggestions for self-guided activities that can help students practice making claims and supporting them with evidence.

Note to Teachers: Here is a PDF teacher's guide for using this unit with students.
Whether you're here because your school has switched to remote learning or because you just want to sharpen your argumentative skills, welcome to our first "unit" written directly to students.

Of course, we know this isn't a full unit like one you might work on over several weeks in school, under the direction of a teacher. Instead, it's a streamlined version of the many resources our site offers on this topic, written in a way we hope teenagers can follow, at least in part, on their own.

Using our daily writing prompts to practice making arguments, either by posting a comment on our site, or by writing just for yourself, or for classmates or for a teacher in a remote learning-management system.

We've been asking a question a day since 2009, so you have lots to choose from. For instance, if the question " Should parents track their children?" doesn't interest you, maybe " Do memes make the internet a better place? " will.

Studying some argumentative "mentor texts" - that is, good published examples full of "writer's moves" you can borrow - that were written by fellow teenagers and by adults.

Writing a polished, 450-word opinion piece to submit to our Student Editorial Contest, which ends on April 21. We'll pick winners, runners-up and honorable mentions and publish them on The Learning Network.

If you are familiar with our site, then you know we believe strongly in student voice and choice. No matter how you use the ideas below, there is a lot of flexibility. You can choose what's most relevant, interesting and meaningful to you as you go.

Here, in three items, is what you'll be doing. How and in what order is up to you, though we have suggested a sequence.

Here's how. Please let us know if you have questions by posting them here, or by writing to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

Before you do anything else, you should create a free account so you can comment on our writing prompts. Here's a video that walks you through the process.

Note: If you are under 13, you cannot post a public comment on NYTimes.com. If you are 13 to 18 years old, you should ask a parent or guardian to help you register because they will need to approve the Terms of Service.
Now you're ready to submit your first comment.

Go to this page: Argumentative Writing Prompts.

Scroll through the list and choose any prompt that interests you. Read the prompt, think about what you want to say and click on the comment button. Enter your name and location, type in your comment and press submit. Congratulations! You submitted your first comment.
Tip 1: Your name can be just your first name - or any format your teacher gives you. Your location can be your school, your city, state or even country.

Tip 2: Your comment won't appear right away. We have moderators who approve every comment before it publishes, so please be patient.
We recommend that you respond to at least one new prompt each school day. If you're feeling inspired, do more. We're not looking for perfect grammar or structure, we're just looking for thoughtful engagement with the question. It's an easy way to flex your writing muscles.

Before you respond, you might think about the point you want to make, and consider how you'll support that opinion with either evidence from the article or from your own life experiences and observations.

For good examples, take a look at some of the student comments on this recent ethical question, or on this popular question from 2018. What responses are most interesting to you? Why?
Tip: If you write about one of our most recent prompts, your comment might be featured in our weekly roundup of great comments. We spotlight 30 to 40 students each week.

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One of the things that make our comment section special is that students from all over the world participate.

Before you comment, read what other students have written. Pay attention to both what they say and how they say it. If they make a really good point, take note. If their writing is very clear and persuasive, think about how they did that.

If someone's comment makes an impression on you, you can submit a reply. Above is an example of that kind of conversation, from this writing prompt.
Tip: When your comment is published, you'll receive a confirmation email. You can forward this to your teacher to prove that you submitted a comment.
This unit culminates in our annual Student Editorial Contest, in which you're invited to write about something you care about, and persuade us to care about it, too.

Here's the challenge:
Choose a topic you care about - whether it's something we've addressed on The Learning Network or not - then gather evidence from sources both inside and outside The New York Times and write a concise editorial (450 words or fewer) to convince readers of your view.
In the past, students have won by taking on topics as diverse as social media and policing; video gaming and voting; why it's fine to be messy and why we should all eat more bugs. Scroll through our past winners, because the list goes on and on.

Think about the topics that matter most to you, and think about why they matter to you. As you'll see if you read some of the work of our teenage winners, not only is it OK to write this essay from a first-person ("I") point of view, often a persuasive essay is better when the writer reveals a personal stake in the issue.

Tip: You may want to use one of the topics you've already written about in this unit. Or, pick something entirely new. If you're looking for inspiration, use these two lists to scroll through hundreds of ideas:
Now that you have a topic, you'll need to build out your position, and find evidence to support it. Our Editorial Contest requires that you use at least one Times source and one non-Times source in writing your essay. Now is your chance to broaden your " news diet " to find reliable sources of all kinds, and to read deeply and widely about this issue.

As you go, take notes. Find quotes from experts that strengthen your position. Seek out alternate perspectives and take them seriously. As you research, it is not uncommon for your position to become more nuanced or even change entirely once you begin to understand the big picture.
Tip: If you don't have a subscription to The New York Times, you may hit the paywall while you're doing your research. If you do, you can use the search bar on the Learning Network's home page - scroll down, and you'll find it hidden below the featured articles. All the Learning Network's articles are free, and so are the New York Times links in those articles.

Now, start drafting. But as you go, you might learn from students who have come before you. What have these winners done that you admire? What lessons might these essays have for your writing?

Choose at least three of the winning essays to read, and take note of what "writer's moves" impress you. Do they start with a great hook? Do they seamlessly weave in strong evidence? Do they deftly tackle counterarguments? Have they used interesting words or sentence structure?

For example, here is one that is written in the first person and follows a less-traditional structure: The Life-Changing Magic of Being Messy.

And here is one that is more traditional, perhaps like the argumentative essays you have written in school: Accountability-Based Testing Is Broken.

What can you learn from each of them? What strategies might you try?

Once you've studied several student essays, you might take a look at the Times Opinion section and find adult-written editorials or Op-Eds you admire. The more you can read and identify what works to persuade an audience, the better you'll be at wielding those strategies.
Tip: The "writer's moves" you identify don't have to be big. Maybe you never realized a paragraph could begin with "For instance," the way Alan Peng starts his second one: "For instance, as part of the process, teachers are forced to spend more and more time 'teaching to the test,' wasting valuable instruction time." Or maybe you admire the short, punchy sentences Isabel Hwang uses: "Gross? Yes. Bad? Not necessarily." Mentor texts are very personal - there are as many lessons in a good one as there are individual readers looking for them.

Video

The New York Times's editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal provides seven tips for writing an effective editorial.

A video made for us in 2014 by Andrew Rosenthal, who was then editor of the Times Opinion section.
If you've studied our previous winners, you probably realize that those essays don't go by a set formula. Few of them follow all the "rules" of the classic five-paragraph essay, for instance. But all of them, like any good Opinion piece, do have three essential parts: a beginning (your introduction), a middle (the body) and an end (your conclusion).

Here is our contest rubric. As you compose, make sure you have done each of the things we ask, including stating a clear opinion, issuing a call to action around it and using reliable evidence to support your point of view.
Tip: Don't forget that your editorial cannot be longer than 450 words. You might go into this contest thinking writing "short" is easier than writing "long," but we hear from students and teachers every year that getting everything you want to say into so few words takes longer than you might think!

When you're finished writing your editorial, find the appropriate submission form on the contest announcement page. Look for the heading: "How to Submit." If you are over 16, you will use the Student Submission Form. If you are under 16, then have a teacher, parent or guardian submit your editorial using the Teacher Submission Form.
Tip: Ask someone else to read your draft before submitting it. Ask that person: "How well can you follow my argument? Do you find my evidence convincing?"
Stay tuned. We announce winners about eight weeks after the contest ends.

If you have questions about this unit, submit a comment on this post or email us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

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An Argumentative-Writing Unit for Students Doing Remote Learning

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Suggestions for self-guided activities that can help students practice making claims and supporting them with evidence. Note to Teachers: Here is a PDF teacher's guide for using this unit with students. Whether you're here because your school has switched to remote learning or because you just want to sharpen your argumentative skills, welcome to our first "unit" written directly to students.

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You can go on a journey without leaving your home. All you need is something to draw with and this activity kit based off of Aaron Becker’s gorgeous trilogy, featuring Journey, Quest, and Return.

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You can go on a journey without leaving your home. All you need is something to draw with and this activity kit based off of Aaron Becker’s gorgeous trilogy, featuring Journey, Quest, and Return.

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Author to author: Video clips of authors talking about their process

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Author to author: Video clips of authors talking about their process

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Parent resources:

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Here are some videos that will help parents support their children at home.

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SMUSD created the library at home website

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SMUSD created the library at home website

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Welcome to the SMUSD Library at Home website! Here you will find a wealth of resources and activities that will bring your school library into your home! You can join a virtual book club, listen to a read aloud or book talk by your school librarian, or create your own book trailer! We will continue to add resources, so keep checking back and enjoy!

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The best podcasts for kids that adults will like too: 

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The best podcasts for kids that adults will like too: 

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The best podcasts for kids are as entertaining as they are educational. There's so much fear of screen time, but it doesn't have to be so black and white. The right type of screen time engages kids and forces them to use their noggin (not to mention give you a break.) Enter: podcasts for kids. Not only are podcasts a form of screen time unlikely to cause overstimulation, they're a great way for you and your kids to learn about something new together. Kids podcasts can help entertain antsy kids stuck at home, provide storytime when parents are busy, act as a substitute for TV, and even teach them a thing or two.

There are a ton of great podcasts for kids out there that both amuse and inform. Whether your kid is interested in where boogers come from or how dogs became domesticated, there's a kid's podcast that can explain. Podcasts aren't only learning tools in the most literal sense though. There are plenty of podcasts for kids that tell stories, too. Your kids can use their imaginations when listening to the podcaster weave a fairy tale or ghost story.

These are the best of the best podcasts for kids right now.

It's like Drunk History - but with children (who aren't drunk). The Story Pirates are a bunch of actors, comedians, and improvisers who act out original stories created by kids. Sometimes they hold together - and sometimes it devolves into silly madness. But, hey, if it worked for Axe Cop and Monster Trucks, why wouldn't it work for podcasts?

This is a musical-themed podcast that is also all about teaching kids about science. It's not the most mature thing in the world, but if your kids love silly songs and you want them to learn a thing or two, Noodle Loaf is worth its salt. Plus, at about 10-minutes apiece, the time commitment here is pretty low, which, is kind of perfect for the attention span of a pre-schooler. Check it out here.

Kids love myths, fairy tales, and folktales, but sometimes they can be a little problematic or violent. Circle Round selects folktales from around the world. They do really mean all around the world. The WBUR podcast strives to be inclusive. This parent-created podcast is meant for kids ages 4 to 10. It's released weekly and features some famous voices that you'll definitely recognize. Ed Asner, Tony Hale, and Richard Kind are just a few of the actors who have lent their voices to Circle Round in the past year.

What If World

There is no question too silly for this storytelling podcast hosted by Mr. Eric O'Keefe. What if sharks had legs? What if a tiny dragon lived in your closet? What if the Seattle Seahawks gave Marshawn Lynch the ball at the end of Super Bowl XLIX? These topics are all fair game, making for an incredibly entertaining listen for parents and kids alike. Regular listeners are even encouraged to call in with their own questions, which are crafted into original stories using fun voices, making for unrelenting ridiculousness.

This podcast is what it sounds like. But unlike the book club you or your partner might be involved with, this club doesn't make your kids read stuffy old classics. It's meant for kids who can comfortably read chapter books ranging from James and the Giant Peach to YA novels like Beautiful Creatures. Book Club for Kids does release episodes regularly, but your kids can choose which episodes appeal to them most. Maybe they don't want to read Beautiful Creatures, but they're really interested in reading Al Capone Does My Shirts. This will empower them to discuss the books they're reading and learn to enjoy reading outside of the classroom.
Book Club for Kids Podcast

Wow in the World

Don't be surprised if you find yourself getting schooled by NPR's first podcast for kids. Hosts Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas lead listeners through a conversation around the most incredible kid-friendly news stories of the week. Each episode kicks off with a series of questions about a new amazing scientific discovery or finding, which are answered through comedy and debate. For example, "How long would it take to get to the closest star outside of our solar system?" Congratulations, dads, you no longer need to know everything.
Wow in the World Podcast

But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids

The phrase "But why?" is one a father becomes familiar with quickly. Host Jane Lindholm is here to help foster your kid's curiosity by tackling questions from the mundane, such as "Why do the leaves change color?" to the kind of complicated: "Who invented words?" The topics are crowd sourced from actual kids who can submit questions using the voice note feature on your phone. So if you ever find yourself in a pickle with a particular subject matter, feel free to delegate.
But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids

Peace Out Podcast

This is for all the young yogis in the making. It is never too early to teach your kid to be more mindful, especially given how early the dependency on technology starts these days. Here to help is Peace Out, a short stories podcast for kids from the producers of Story Time that helps children calm down at the end of the day. Each episode takes young listeners through visualizations on basic feelings like jealousy, anxiety, and fear. The visualizations are paired with easy breathing exercises to help prepare everyone for a peaceful bedtime.

The Past and the Curious

Don't let the title fool you, this isn't a kids' podcast about supercars, and unfortunately, Vin Diesel is not the host. The actual show is pretty great though; featuring comedic actors performing little-known stories from history is a playful manner. Stay tuned for the quiz segment, where you and your little one can face-off for brownie points. Just to be clear, we wouldn't mind if a Vin Diesel road-tripping podcast became an actual thing.
The Past and the Curious Podcast

Dream Big Podcast

The adorable little Eva Karpman is a young Meredith Viera in the making. Joined by her mother, the 7-year-old chats up celebrities, award-winning experts, and trailblazers from all walks of life. Recent episodes include interview subjects like Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Spartan Race founder Joe De Sena, and Hardcore History host Dan Carlin. Thanks to the sweet mother-daughter tag team, expect for you and your child to hear these thought leaders in a completely fresh light, and to be inspired in the process.

Saturday Morning Theatre

Grant Baciocco has spent 10 years working on The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd (see below). He might as well be the Jim Henson of kids podcasts thanks to his other series, Saturday Morning Theatre. Fashioned in the vein of old-time radio broadcasts, the series gives listeners short imaginative adventures featuring superhero tales, westerns, and mysteries. With new episodes appearing about one to three times a month, their catalog runs back to 2013. That's a lot of Saturdays covered.
Saturday Morning Theatre

Love putting your kids to bed, but not always enthused about reading bedtime stories? There's a kids podcast for that. Story Time is just under 20 minutes, where one original bedtime story is narrated by the soothing British tenor of host Rob Griffiths. The podcast updates about twice a week, but each story is made for the series. That means exclusive, baby! Plus, you probably don't have a British accent. That's not an invitation to try.

The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel

You grew up on The Goonies, The Explorers, and to lesser extent Stand By Me. And, now that Stranger Things has made these kid-centric adventure stories from the '80s cool again, it's time to throw on Blobfish Radio's new serialized mystery. TUDOMP (as it will one day be acronymed) centers around Mars Patel and his pals who are on a quest to find their missing friends. The series was voted one of the best of 2016, and there's still no word on season 2, but you can catch up with season 1. Here's an obvious spoiler, they definitely don't get stuck in the "upside down" - because nothing is scarier than copyright infringement.

All you need to know is that this is basically Radiolab for kids. In each episode, science is brought to life (figuratively, because nobody has that technology yet) through creative stories. Season 2 blasts off with geologist on how we silly humans actually tried to drill to the Earth's core. Turns out we can't get past the Earth's crust, no matter what Hollywood says.

Short & Curly

This unfortunately-named podcast teaches kids aged 7 to 12 about ethics, but not about the ethical implications of naming your show after slang for pubic hair. Once you're past that, the podcast talks to real school kids on difficult topics, such as"'Is it okay to fight a bully?" and silly topics as " Should pugs exist?" (Short answer: Yes, of course, they should!) But if your kids ask your opinion, it's your right as a father to say, "Who am I, Immanuel Kant?" (Google it!)

The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd

There are lots of evil cartoon geniuses that try to take over the world that kids can model themselves after: Dexter, Brain, the creepy kids in Little Einsteins. Add Dr. Floyd to the list. Kids will become obsessed learning how he plans to fend off his nemesis, Dr. Steve, while learning about history in the process. The series is officially wrapped for good, but there are nearly 10 years worth of fun as either giant downloads or you can relive old episodes with week-to-week updates. Just watch out for early-onset megalomania.
The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd

Spare the Rock Spoil the Child

It's the NPR Get ready for fresh tunes from All Songs Considered of kids' radio shows, complete with the soothing intro, interjected commentary, special requests, and familiar tunes (like the Schoolhouse Rock smash single "3 is the Magic Number"). They Might Be Giants, and pretty much no one you've ever heard of.
Spare the Rock Spoil the Child

The Thrilling Adventure Hour

Technically, this is a stage production starring comedy nerd idols like Paul F. Tompkins and Busy Phillips with guests ranging from Natalie Morales to Jon Hamm and Patton Oswalt. However, since the actors read and sing from scripts on a bare stage, backed by a six-person orchestra, you miss nothing listening to the podcast. It's actually meant to replicate an old-timey radio show, so the truly optimal listening experience involves your kid pressing their ear against a clunky wooden box while you frantically pace the room positioning a tin foil antenna.

[ Note: Contains some strong language you may find inappropriate for very young kids.]
The Thrilling Adventure Hour

OWTK's Kids Music Monthly

Host Jeff Bogle for the win. The writer and father of two has tackled everything from print journalism to photography, to the much more lucrative world of free podcasts. His monthly curated playlists make for hours and hours (or at least minutes upon minutes) of musical distraction. It's everything that Kidz Bop wishes it could be.
OWTK's Kids Music Monthly

Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl

Here's two full hours of kids music that's smart, funny, and more interesting to your trained music snob's ear than the latest Kidz Bop. So no, it doesn't suck, but yes, it's still goofy kids' music. Because you can convince yourself your kid will grow up a Radiohead fan, but your kid doesn't want to grow up at all. At the very least, it's worth checking out the names of the bands for a laugh, like Jelly of the Month Club and the Boogers.
Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl

Like a podcast version of Mr. Wizard, Brains On! teaches a different science lesson in every episode. Hosted by "kid scientists" with enough excitement and enthusiasm to keep all ages engaged and informed, topics range from the origins of language to the history of boogers and farts, from why we sneeze to why seas turtles live so damn long. It's aimed at kids, but let's face it, this sort of intel would smarten up some adults too.

The podcast home of the popular audiobook site that posts a new kids' story - classic fairy tales and original poems, myths, and adventures - every week(ish). Previously unknown names like lead storyteller Natasha and original characters Bertie the Frog Prince, Katie the Ordinary Witch, and Astropup will quickly become familiar favorites. Running times can meander beyond 20 minutes, so this podcast uniquely manages to promote both listening skills and sleep.

The Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified

Eleanor is like Nancy Drew, if Nancy had been a famous radio reporter. Eleanor embodies the best values of journalism while stopping the plots of evil villains in all sorts of dangerous places. Eleanor goes from space to the jungle to Congress. Not only does she empower young girls, but her adventures are also thrilling for the entire family. This podcast skews a little older for kids ages 8 to 12. There are three seasons of this WHYY podcast so far.
Eleanor Amplified Podcast

Stories Podcast

Another great source for stories is the Stories Podcast, which has both an apt and impossible-to-Google name. The fine folks at GoPlayPretend have amassed an impressive collection of G-rated tales. This year already, the team has covered , The Cat Who Caught the Moon , and the origin of the Chinese New Year . At this rate, they might take 2018 off just to recover.

The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian: Science Fiction for Kids

You just may find yourself getting caught up in this serialized sci-fi story about the interplanetary adventures of Finn Caspian. There is a reason that this newcomer has jumped to the top of the Kids & Family charts on Apple. The tale begins with 8-year-old Finn, his friends and their pet robots aboard the Famous Marlowe 280 Interplanetary Exploratory Space Station searching for uncharted planets and helping aliens from far-off galaxies. Don't worry, Ridley Scott had nothing to do with this show; everything is completely PG.
The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian Podcast

Sesame Street Podcast

Get a weekly dose of your kid's favorite monsters delivered directly to your phone. They teach all the same lessons of friendship, reading, patience, and caring as the classic episodes you know and love, only you can deploy them in the car, at the store, or anywhere else a distraction may be needed. Brought to you by the letter "M," for "Meltdown!"

Ear Snacks

Ever listen to the lyrics of pop songs these days and get scared for what your kid may be retaining? This radical podcast combines informational teaching with an infectious soundtrack, and is the perfect antidote. Award-winning musical duo Andrew & Polly, who have written for Wallykazam! and Sesame Studios, bring their talents and comedy to this podcast which tackles a variety of topics in a way that bridges any age gap.
Ear Snacks Podcast

If audiobooks are more you and your kid's thing, note that audible has made a collection of stories free, for the time being, while schools across the country are out of session. Being read to is a critical part of learning how to read, and Audible is a great option for busy parents who need to work even when their kids are home from school. The free collection includes tons of bestsellers, available in six different languages and sorted by age group, from "little listeners" to teens. From Winnie the Pooh to Anne of Green Gables and Jane Eyre, there's something for everyone.
Audible

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23 Podcasts to Keep Kids Entertained During Quarantine

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The best podcasts for kids are as entertaining as they are educational. There's so much fear of screen time, but it doesn't have to be so black and white. The right type of screen time engages kids and forces them to use their noggin (not to mention give you a break.)

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Get smart about Covid 19 misinformation. Free resources.

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81 Ways to Play, Process, Stretch, Express, Disrupt Words and Form from Home

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81 Ways to Play, Process, Stretch, Express, Disrupt Words and Form from Home

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by Sarah J. Donovan, PhD on March 19, 2020

For the past year, teachers and authors from across the country have been coming together to write. What we have learned so far is that having a regular place to come to for ideas and audience is perhaps the most important aspect of nurturing a writing life (and, of course, to actually write something).

Writers seem to know where to go for inspiration - nature, art, photographs, books, poetry, authors, memory. But when a writer is faced with an empty page or a flashing cursor, a writer's mind can go blank and, along with it, any sense of hope that the words will come.

Indeed, sometimes what a writer needs the most is another writer - for their inspiration, for their process, for their mentor text. And so, Ethical ELA offers teachers and socially-distanced students a collection of writers to keep writing lives loved during this time away from our classrooms.

The 81 ways offered here are merely suggestions - not rules. In a writer's world, a suggestion is an invitation to play with the idea, stretch into new ways of seeing the word and the world (Freire), express dormant emotions or silenced perspectives, and even disrupt standardized words, syntax, and form by inventing new words, fracturing expectations, and inventing forms. Sometimes rejecting a suggestion is just that sense of power a writer needs to tackle the waiting cursor.

You are welcome to write in this space, but you may wish to create your own - a technological oldie like a notebook will do just fine, but a Google classroom discussion or Google Site, Flipgrid read aloud, Kidblog, or even Instagram hashtag will work to offer the place and audience you and your students need to keep the writing love alive.

81 Ways

A look into one writing process for Idea 39, Two Sides of a Coin from Dr. Donovan:

Some suggestions for comment on writing: Commenting with Care

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81 Ways to Play, Process, Stretch, Express, Disrupt Words and Form from Home

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The 81 ways offered here are merely suggestions -- not rules.

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10 no-internet remote learning activities

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When students don’t have reliable access to internet at home, what can they do to keep learning going? Here are 10 no-internet activities.When schools

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In his book Write Like This, educator Kelly Gallagher highlights how "writing can be used as a vehicle to express ourselves as we negotiate the journey through our lives" (2011: p. 24). Author Jane Yolen talks about the importance of "exercis[ing] the writing muscle every day".

So if you or your students are looking for some short, sharp prompts to 'write your way through' this time that can also build writing volume and stamina, I'll be posting a 'QuickWrite a Day' and invite you to take part!

It goes like this:

I'll post an open-ended prompt, quote or image

You and/or your students reflect and respond

You and/or students can share your thoughts or develop them into larger pieces of writing

If you would like access to all 'QuickWrite a Day' prompts, they will be stored and shared on this Google Slide Deck on our 'Resources' page.

I'll leave you now with this absolute ripper of a quote from a book called Write Beside Them:

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'A Quickwrite a Day' #1 - The Literacy Village

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In his book Write Like This, educator Kelly Gallagher highlights how "writing can be used as a vehicle to express ourselves as we negotiate the journey through our lives" (2011: p. 24). Author Jane Yolen talks about the importance of "exercis[ing] the writing muscle every day".

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Ten tips to help students with slow internet

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Ten tips to help students with slow internet

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How to make video calls easier to watch

1. Turn off the camera.

This is a simple step that really works. When you turn your camera off, your device doesn't have to upload live video to the video call. When others turn their cameras off, your device doesn't have to download their live video.

2. Encourage students to call in.

If students don't have internet -- or if their connection is slow -- a call-in option may be better. Most video call platforms (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet) have an option to call in with a phone number. This can let students join if they (or their parents) have a phone but don't have lots of data to burn. It can also be a great alternative if their internet connection is slow (like mine).

3. Change the video resolution.

Some video call platforms will auto-adjust the resolution (video quality) to the user's internet bandwidth. Others will let you manually adjust it. In Google Meet, for example, by clicking on the three dots menu button and choosing the video tab, you can change the outgoing and incoming video resolution. (See below.) 720p is high definition and is harder on slow internet connections. 360p is standard definition and is easier on slow internet.

How to make video files easier to load

4. Record in lower resolution.

Lots of video recording apps -- including the camera on your phone -- default to creating video with very high resolution. If students have to load these videos via internet, it can cause long load times, lots of buffering, and headaches.

There are better options. Below, I'll show you how to record video with Screencastify (screencastify.com), an extension for Google Chrome browser.

If you're using Microsoft Windows, all of the tools you'll need to create videos with low file size are already on your device! Here's how you can use the camera, Game Bar, and the video editor to create videos that students can load easily.

Other slow-internet-friendly options

​5. Record audio.

Audio files are much smaller than video. If recording your voice is just as helpful as video, one of these options may be helpful:

Use Vocaroo (vocaroo.com). Record an audio file in your web browser. Click save and either share the Vocaroo link with students or download the mp3 file and upload it to Google Drive or OneDrive, where you can share it with students. (Students can record and share audio this way, too.)

Use a voice recorder app on your phone. Save it as an mp3 file and upload to Google Drive or OneDrive.

Use Synth (gosynth.com), a voice conversation tool. Synth lets you and your students record audio to share with each other and reply in nested conversations. Here's a post about using Synth.

6. Use text. (Or text and images.)

Think about the reason you want to record video. If what you're describing can be communicated with text -- or text and images -- then you might consider avoiding video all together. Share information or instructions in text in an online document or in the description of your announcement/assignment in Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, or your learning management system. If you need to demonstrate something and can do it with camera pictures or screenshots, insert those in the document with text. This isn't to say video is a bad idea, but if it's giving your students trouble and you can avoid it all together, this is an alternative.

7. Use images or infographics.

One of my favorite ways to communicate visually is through infographics. (Did you notice the ones above?) Lots of free tools will help you create them and save them as a single image file. I use Google Drawings, but you could also use PowerPoint (File > Save a copy > File type: .png or .jpeg > Save > Just this one), Canva, Piktochart, Adobe Spark Post or others.

Here's a post I wrote about creating infographics, and in this post, I share infographic tips with my downloadable "icon boards" infographics templates. (Feel free to use those, too.)

8. Create no-video web tutorials with Iorad.

Need to show students what to do step-by-step without a video? But you still want to do it visually?

Check out Iorad (iorad.com). It's an extension for the Google Chrome browser. Install it and click to start a new tutorial. Iorad will watch your screen and capture images as you work. When you're done, it will create a text-and-image-based tutorial for your students. You can edit everything it creates. Share it with a link. You an create these in a matter of seconds (minutes at the longest).

9. Create files offline.

Students don't need an Internet connection to create files on many devices. Once they're finished, they would only need an Internet connection to turn the files in.

With G Suite, students can create documents, slides, spreadsheets and more while offline. Here's a post I wrote with tips to make it happen.

With Microsoft Office, students can create files with the desktop apps while offline. They can also create files offline with Office mobile apps. Here's a support article with more details.

10. Provide files for students to use offline.

Create a template for students to use -- maybe a graphic organizer or a set of questions to guide their thinking. Students can download the file to use offline or, on many platforms, mark the file for offline use.

When they're finished, they can turn in their finished work through their learning management system (Google Classroom, Teams, Canvas, Schoology, etc.).

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10 tips to support students with slow internet

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1. Turn off the camera. This is a simple step that really works. When you turn your camera off, your device doesn't have to upload live video to the video call. When others turn their cameras off, your device doesn't have to download their live video. 2. Encourage students to call in.

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For Wizards in Confinement, Harry Potter at home

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For Wizards in Confinement, Harry Potter at home

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Launching today: A wizarding respite for the coronavirus-weary. Through Harry Potter at Home, readers can access HP-related activities and downloads, including free audiobook and ebook versions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, available through April.

With her readers confined due to COVID-19, J.K. Rowling has launched a new online service: "Harry Potter at Home."

On the digital hub, readers of all ages and their families can access Harry Potter-related activities and free downloads. Through April, users can get free audiobook and ebook versions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, through partnerships with Audible and OverDrive.

Crafts, quizzes and other activities will be available on the hub and through an associated newsletter, all to be updated weekly on "Wizarding Wednesdays."

One can listen to the first Harry Potter audiobook in a choice of six languages-English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese, via the new Audible Stories Collection. American readers take note: it's the Stephen Fry edition of the audiobook and not the Jim Dale version-an opportunity for a whole new listening experience, suggests the site. Users can access the audiobook on their desktop, laptop, phone or tablet, without joining or logging into Audible.

Through a partnership between library supplier OverDrive and Pottermore Publishing, OverDrive customers can borrow Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as an ebook or audiobook in over 20 languages from participating public and school libraries, including via Overdrive's Libby app, and the Sora app for schools.

The Harry Potter at Home initiative follows Rowling's earlier announcement of an open license, which granted educators permission to record themselves reading the Harry Potter stories aloud. The open license runs until July 30 or the end of the school year, whichever comes first, according to a release.

Get Print. Get Digital. Get Both!

Libraries are always evolving. Stay ahead. Log In.

Kathy Ishizuka

Kathy Ishizuka is editor in chief of School Library Journal.

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For Wizards in Confinement, "Harry Potter at Home" Offers Activities, a Free Ebook and Audiobook

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Launching today: A wizarding respite for the coronavirus-weary. Through Harry Potter at Home, readers can access HP-related activities and downloads, including free audiobook and ebook versions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, available through April. With her readers confined due to COVID-19, J.K. Rowling has launched a new online service: "Harry Potter at Home."

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Ask your students to find a favorite poem and write or talk about what it means to them. For more inspiration, they might visit The Favorite Poem Project and watch videos like this one:
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It's easy: Just "find" some poetry in a Times article - any Times article, published at any point in our 165-year history.

Here are all the rules and guidelines, and here is a related lesson plan written by two teachers whose students post some of our favorite work year after year.

Consider it an exercise in close-reading: The task of creating a found poem demands that students examine a piece with enough attention to detail to be able to choose resonant words and phrases and use them to create something new.

That's why teachers across the curriculum have participated in the past, and we've had science-themed poems on the cosmos and fruit flies; current-events-focused work on topics like the Syrian refugee crisis and the Boston Marathon bombing; and history-steeped poems that use archival reporting on events like the sinking of the Titanic and World War II.

To inspire your students, have them read the work of some past winners, like "Amy," by Epiphany Jones. She "found" her words in a 2011 obituary, " Amy Winehouse, British Soul Singer With a Troubled Life, Dies at 27," and a 2007 article on the singer, " Disillusioned Diva With Glimmers of Soul."

What can your students make? It only takes one great Times article to participate.
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Or, make a blackout poem:

In 2014, The Times challenged readers to create "blackout poems" by redacting words from Times articles. Here are the results, and you can use the same tool to make your own.

But since the feature only allows participants a few articles to choose from, you might use it as a warm-up for the Found Poem Challenge. After students have experimented, have them choose their own article and unearth a poem in it the same way.
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Ask, "What's going on in this poem?":

You may already be familiar with our weekly "What's Going On in This Picture" photojournalism exercise. Well, in 2016, we experimented with a live, moderated "What's Going On in This Poem?" discussion, using the same three questions we apply weekly to photos. This time, though, we asked participants about " Taking It Home to Jerome," a poem from the Magazine's weekly column:

* What's going on in this poem?

* What do you see, or read, that makes you say that?

* What more can you find?

Follow the whole discussion here to see how those three simple questions opened up a world of possibilities. Then, perhaps, try it yourself.
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Post a poem in place of the news:

Last fall, as the National Museum of African-American History and Culture first opened, The Times ran Langston Hughes's poem "I, Too" by itself on a full page of the print paper.

Two people who worked on the design explain why in this piece. As the art director says, "Langston Hughes's words are so powerful, there was no need for design adornment. In this case, less proves to be more."

If The Times were to give over another whole page to a poem right now, what should it be and why?
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Does poetry matter? Discuss:

Room for Debate once challenged seven experts to debate this question, and some of the answers are a kind of poetry in themselves.

Elsewhere in the Opinion section, William Logan asks, " Poetry: Who Needs It?" and, in " A Poet's Boyhood at the Burning Crossroads, " Saeed Jones writes about how, as a teenager, poetry helped him "shatter silence into language."

Have your students read all three, then debate the question in your classroom: Does poetry matter?
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Match poetry with nonfiction:

From 2010 to 2016 we ran a regular feature we called Poetry Pairings. In each, we matched a poem selected by the Poetry Foundation with an article from The Times that in some way echoed, extended or challenged the poem's words and themes.

You can find the full collection here, and use our related Teaching and Learning Ideas For Any Poetry-News Pairing with any of them.

After reading a few, challenge your students to do what we did: match a poem to a piece from The Times, or any other news source. How does reading them together deepen and broaden them both?
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Or, match a picture and a poem:

T Magazine regularly takes a never-before-published poem and pairs it with a newly commissioned work of contemporary art - bringing aesthetic life to the written word.

For instance, the photo above, by the artist Christian Marclay, is in response to a poem called "Greece" by Billy Collins. Find them both here, then invite your students to scroll through the full collection for inspiration to create their own.
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Show that there is more to you than what people expect:

In " Galaxies in His Head," Stephen Burt writes about the poet Terrance Hayes and how he "uses poetry to show that there is more to him, and to anyone, than what you expect."

Watch the video above and read the full article. How might your students use poetry to show others that there is more to them than what people expect?
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Write a poem for a friend:

"Poetry prevents everybody from feeling lonely," says Nikki Giovanni in this video. "If I had a friend in the hospital, I would read a poem. But then, friends who get married, they read a poem. And then friends who die say, 'Read this poem at my funeral' ... Poetry is there with us, a part of us. Poetry is something we carry in our hearts."

Challenge students to think about someone they know who might need the gift of a poem. What poem would they give this person, and why?

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Stumble over metaphors every day:

Metaphors are everywhere, points out the Opinion columnist David Brooks. We often use food metaphors to describe the world of ideas and war metaphors to talk about argument.

Have students keep a journal for one day in which they record every metaphor they come across in print or speech. Then, have them react to this column, and to thoughts like, "To be aware of metaphors is to be humbled by the complexity of the world, to realize that deep in the undercurrents of thought there are thousands of lenses popping up between us and the world, and that we're surrounded at all times by what Steven Pinker of Harvard once called 'pedestrian poetry.' "
_________
Use 140 characters to create and post #micropoetry:

Inside the darkened bathroom/we looked into the black mirror/ cracked the wintergreen candy/watched sparks fly from our teeth.
- Elizabeth Alexander (@ProfessorEA) March 27, 2012

Read about the Twitter poems created by well-known poets like Billy Collins, Claudia Rankine, Elizabeth Alexander and Robert Pinsky. Then have students visit the hashtags #poetweet or #micropoetry on Twitter to see current examples, and to post their own.

Our lesson Less Is More: Using Social Media to Inspire Concise Writing has even more poetry ideas.
_________
Slam some poetry:

"When you imagine a poetry reading, the scene that comes to mind probably doesn't involve battalions of underwear-slinging admirers," begins a 2011 article about open mike night and poetry slams around New York City.

View this related slide show, then invite students to attend a local poetry slam, or watch "Def Poetry Jam." You might even stage your own classroom, schoolwide or community event.

_________

Poetry Magazine celebrated its 100th year in print in 2012, and one thing keeping it fresh, this article reports, is poetry apps for readers' smartphones. Above, a 2014 video review of even more poetry apps.

How would your students help infuse our smartphone and social-media-obsessed world with poetry in ways guaranteed to intrigue readers their age?
_________
Cope with the undead via verse:

Read about some new anthologies of poetry that explore a coming zombie apocalypse, and have students create their own undead-inspired verse, whether via limerick, haiku, or sonnets.

Are zombies just metaphors for things like capitalism or racism? See what some in the article contend, then find evidence in popular culture for or against that interpretation.
_________
Remember a place with poetry:

* After watching and listening to "Mary Oliver's Provincetown: A Poet's Landscape," or reading "For Wallace Stevens, Hartford as Muse," or "The Bridge, My Muse," have students look through personal photographs of favorite places then write poems inspired by them. Host an event in which students read their poems accompanied by a slide show of images.

* Or, read about the visual art/poetry collaboration that commemorated life at Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project as its last building was demolished. Have students write poems about a place they remember from their own lives, or give them a common topic (something like their current school or the town park). Plan a site-specific event, perhaps a poetry walk through the place, having the poems read, projected on structures, written in chalk on sidewalks, or otherwise displayed. You might also collaborate with dancers, musicians and visual artists to perform or present their related work at the event.
_________
Or, bring poetry to a place wh ere it's unexpected:

Post poems in strange places around your school - perhaps inspired by these subway poets. Ask students to choose poems they have studied in school or elsewhere (or their own original works), then print and tape them to cafeteria tables, bathroom mirrors, hallway walls, or even write in chalk on campus sidewalks. How do people respond? What can you learn from that?

You might show students the Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk project in St. Paul, or the Poetry in Motion program in the New York City subway, to get an idea of what kinds of poems work well as public pieces.
_________
Howl:

How can poetry both reflect and transcend the era in which it is written? How can looking at a poem from multiple perspectives illuminate its meaning?

These are the questions we pose in a lesson plan inspired by a movie about Allen Ginsberg's "Howl."
_____
Parse politics with poetry:

In January 2017 the Opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof invited readers to enter his Donald Trump poetry contest. As he wrote:

Why this contest? Frankly, Trump is the issue of the moment all over the world: there's an awful lot written but not much that is new. So maybe poetry can offer a new prism through which to examine reality.

Two thousand submissions later, he published the results, which included this one:

The Republican man of the hour Is a wellspring of bluster and glower. Trump is rich and he's white, How's he leading the fight Against entrenched Establishment power?

Whatever your take on politics right now, read Mr. Kristof's full column to find more verse - like one from Amit Majmudar, the poet laureate of Ohio, who submitted a poem about his mother becoming a U.S. citizen.

How might your students use poetry to express their reactions to what is happening in the world today? What published poetry can they find that helps them make sense of it?

_________

The author Adam Bradley is quoted in this book review as calling hip-hop "the most widely disseminated poetry in the history of the world" and noting that rap "is poetry, but its popularity relies in part on people not recognizing it as such." Do your students agree?

Host a debate in which students pit poetry against rap or other lyrics. Do lyrics need to be well-crafted for a song to be good? Can lyrics be considered poetry? Why or why not? Should both forms be held to the same artistic standards? To extend the activity, you might have musically inclined students set poems they have studied in school to music - and read lyrics aloud without musical accompaniment.

Or, use our lesson plan on Jay-Z's writing process to find many more ideas.

_________

Have students choose a poem they will learn by heart and recite. Find tips to transform this potentially daunting task into a meaningful experience (and one students may look forward to repeating) in our lesson plan, By Heart.

You might see what other students have chosen by reading responses to a 2011 Student Opinion question, What Would You Like to Have Memorized?
_________
Poems are the only form of education to which girls like Meena Muska have access:

Meena lost her fiancé last year, when a land mine exploded. According to Pashtun tradition, she must marry one of his brothers, which she doesn't want to do. She doesn't dare protest directly, but reciting poetry to Amail allows her to speak out against her lot. When I asked how old she was, Meena responded in a proverb: "I am like a tulip in the desert. I die before I open, and the waves of desert breeze blow my petals away." She wasn't sure of her age but thought she was 17. "Because I am a girl, no one knows my birthday," she said.

Invite students to read this piece to understand the power of verse in a place where poetry has "long been a form of rebellion for Afghan women, belying the notion that they are submissive or defeated."

What other powerful poems of rebellion and resilience can they find?

_________

Do you teach poetry with a Times article or feature? Let us know.

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22 Ways to Teach and Learn About Poetry With The New York Times

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Ask your students to find a favorite poem and write or talk about what it means to them. For more inspiration, they might visit The Favorite Poem Project and watch videos like this one: _________ It's easy: Just "find" some poetry in a Times article - any Times article, published at any point in our 165-year history.

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Teachers can only focus on so many things. Here is a list of the eight that should top your list! Learn these and you will be set!

Learning Super Power #1: Seesaw

WHY: Seesaw is an amazing digital learning journal. It can be accessed from any device with online access - even a smartphone. . Seesaw is a very simple way for students to record and share what is happening as they progress through the learning process using the six powerful tools: photo, drawing, video, upload, notes, and adding a link.

Great for remote learning because Seesaw gives students a place to document their learning, be creative, and collaborate. Teachers can share out learning Activities and students can respond with verbal and graphical explanations of learning. These creations can be shared out to the class in the class journal so that students have an opportunity to make their learning visible and can learn from each other as they view and respond to the variety of responses in the journal.
Resources for finding out more: Remote Learning Resources| Facebook Group| Tutorial
Learning Super Power #2: Flipgrid

WHY: Flipgrid is a video-response platform featuring grids and topics. Each grid is populated with topics, and the topic is where students leave video responses or upload content. Topics empower teachers to ask different discussion questions or post prompts based on the overarching subject of the grid.

Great for remote learning because students can show, reflect, and comment on exactly where they are in the learning process.. They can watch other student videos and compare these with their own responses and learning. This allows students to "think about thinking" as they listen to how other students responded to the same prompt. They also learn the important skill of articulating learning.

Resources for finding out more: Remote Learning |Facebook Group |FREE Course

Learning Super Power #3: HyperDocs

WHY: A HyperDoc is a student-facing digital lesson plan teachers create and package using either Google Docs, Microsoft Word or OneNote. When curating learning for a HyperDoc, the emphasis is on pedagogy and meeting individual student needs. It is the pinnacle of blended learning.

Great for remote learning because students can access all content and move through learning in one place. A HyperDoc provides a structure for students to stay organized and on task. Students develop agency by making choices as they progress through the lesson. Within the HyperDoc, students can work collaboratively or alone.
Resources for finding out more: Blog | Facebook Group | Tutorial OneNote - Getting Started
Learning Super Power #4: Microsoft Teams(or sub Google Classroom)

WHY: Teams is a chat-based and video collaboration tool that gives

students and teachers the ability to work together and share information in a common space, called a learning hub.

Great for remote learning because it is the hub where students can actively connect and collaborate in real time to complete differentiated tasks, staying organized and connected.
Resources for finding out more: Helpful Blog | Tutorial|
Learning Super Power #5: Book Creator

WHY: Book Creator is a web based application that allows students to create books, comics, journals, and authentic learning artifacts, which they can then publish online for others to view and

read. This is one of the best creation tools out there and should be used in the classroom often!

Great for remote learning because it allows students to easily create learning artifacts that demonstrate learning and show their thinking and understanding. Students can work independently and collaboratively to create digital books and learning journals
Resources for finding out more: Remote Learning | Facebook Group | FREE Course
Learning Super Power #6: Wakelet

WHY: Wakelet is a free visual content curation platform that helps students organize and curate their online information so it is easier to find and share with students learning at home.

Great for remote learning because Wakelet allows teachers and students to curate their resources and online learning into well-organized silos called collections. Collections can be created collaboratively, and teachers can even create collections to share with students as a way to help them locate important content or information.
Resources for finding out more: Remote Learning | Tutorial
Learning Super Power #7: Pear Deck

WHY: Pear Deck is a tool you add to PowerPoint or Google Slides that helps teachers layer on formative tasks that provide insight into how students are doing with comprehension of content and ideas.
Great for remote learning because
Teachers can go beyond static, informational slides, and create Interactive PowerPoints that let every student show their understanding by responding to questions or prompts This is great for presentations done via video calls.
Resources for finding out more: Remote Learning | Blog| Tutorial
Learning Super Power #8: Screencastify

WHY: Screen recording extension for Chrome. Have students record their screen, embed their webcams, and use annotation tools to make their thinking visible. All videos save to Google Drive.

Great for remote learning because students can show their learning by narrating over their learning artifacts. They can make tutorials for themselves or teachers can make tutorials or walk students through lessons with more accessible assignments.

Using Microsoft try Screen-cast-o-matic.
Resources for finding out more: Remote Learning | Facebook Group | Tutorial | Student Course

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WHY: Seesaw is an amazing digital learning journal. It can be accessed from any device with online access - even a smartphone. . Seesaw is a very simple way for students to record and share what is happening as they progress through the learning process using the six powerful tools: photo, drawing, video, upload, notes, and adding a link.

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Captain Underpants writer Dav Pilkey will host virtual classes, readings and more

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Captain Underpants writer Dav Pilkey will host virtual classes, readings and more

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The Library of Congress is collaborating with Captain Underpants author and illustrator Dav Pilkey to create weekly videos for kids (and adults!) who might want to try their hand at drawing while we're social distancing at home.

Starting Wednesday April 1, the Library will release videos and other downloadable activities on its website and social media feeds. The content is free and accessible to the public. Activities include tips for creating your own characters or acting out scenes from Dog Man, which is part of the Underpants universe and focuses on a half-man, half-dog police officer.

On Friday mornings at 8 AM, Pilkey will release new videos with drawing demonstrations, reading aloud, and more. Hopefully this means you'll hear Pilkey himself sing out Captain Underpants' catchphrase, "Tra la laaaa!"

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"Captain Underpants" Writer/Illustrator Dav Pilkey Will Host Virtual Drawing Classes, Readings, and More

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The Library of Congress is collaborating with Captain Underpants author and illustrator Dav Pilkey to create weekly videos for kids (and adults!) who might want to try their hand at drawing while we're social distancing at home. Starting Wednesday April 1, the Library will release videos and other downloadable activities on its website and social media feeds.

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“Conversations on teaching and learning with Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle” 

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“Conversations on teaching and learning with Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle” 

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Penny created a padlet of links to their videos and resources discussed in the videos.

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Entertaining, informative, and kid-friendly podcasts for bedtime, road trips, and more. Best part? They're screen-free. Advice from Common Sense Media editors.

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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Last updated: April 8, 2020. Follow and share children's museums' virtual activities on social media with the hashtag #ChildrensMuseumsatHome.
Posted by

As of March 19, 2020, ACM research shows that most children's around the world, including every children's museum in the U.S., has temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Throughout these incredibly challenging times, children's museums around the world are continuing to fulfill their missions to promote playful learning-by supporting families at home. Museum staff are facilitating interactive activities via YouTube and Facebook Live. They're sharing educational resources for caregivers suddenly teaching young kids at home while schools are closed. And they're providing daily sources of joy and inspiration in this time of stress.

Check out this list of virtual activities offered by children's museums, which we will continue to update regularly!

Boston Children's Museum (MA)
Offering a wealth of free learning resources on their website. Sharing resources and activities on social media!
Check out "100 Ways to Play"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Bucks County Children's Museum (New Hope, PA)
Sharing activities and online educational resources on their website.
Check out the "Think Spring at Home Mural" coloring page
Website | Facebook | Twitter

The Children's Museum of Green Bay (WI)
Offering daily videos every morning at 10:15 a.m. CDT with live and pre-recorded programming.
Check out "Getting Messy with Salt Dough"
Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Children's Museum of Houston (TX)
Producing a series of videos related to COVID-19 featuring "Mr. O," in partnership with ACM. Providing resources on their website and social media channels.
Check out "It's Snot Funny"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh (PA)
Launched Museum at Home to bring maker activities from the museum and MuseumLab home. Posting creative do-it-yourself projects every day!
Check out "Let's Try Making Our Own Watercolor Paints"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Children's Museum of South Dakota (Brookings)
Posting " Recipes for Play" on their Seize the Play blog, sharing how to make family trees, puffy paint, prairie beads, and more.
Check out "Process Art with Lauren and Charles"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | #PlayAlongSD

Creative Discovery Museum (Chattanooga, TN)
Launched Creativity TV, sharing lessons from the museum, including critter encounters and science shows, as well as activities that can be done with materials found in the home.
Check out "Great Balls of Fire - Fiery Lycopodium Powder Experiment!"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Discovery Place Kids (Huntersville and Rockingham, NC)
Created Stay-at-Home Science, a digital learning center with experiments, projects, activities, and more resources to keep learners of all ages engaged.
Check out "A Livestream from our Rainforest"
Website | Facebook - Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville | Facebook - Discovery Place Kids-Rockingham | Twitter - Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville | Twitter - Discovery Place Kids-Rockingham | Instagram

HealthWorks! North Mississippi (Tupelo)
Sharing virtual lessons and at-home resources such as family-friendly healthy activities, exercises, and assignments.
Check out "Health Works! At Home - Healthy Mindset"
Website | Facebook

Kaleideum (Winston-Salem, NC)
Posting daily videos of content around parenting, arts & crafts, and science learning families can do at home on their social media, blog, and website.
Check out "Meet Huey, Our Blue and Gold Macaw"
Website | Facebook - Kaleideum Downtown | Facebook - Kaleideum North | Twitter - Kaleideum Downtown | Twitter - Kaleideum North | Instagram | YouTube | #kaleideumathome

Kohl Children's Museum of Greater Chicago (Glenview, IL)
Adding videos to their Home Zone series, with activities to help families take the museum experience home, plus their Story Time series!
Check out "Mathematizing Weather"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Lincoln Children's Museum (NE)
Providing meaningful fun through both online and in-home activities, like a daily Boredom Busters Facebook Live event at 10:30 a.m. CDT (with accompanying resources) and curbside pickup activities.
Check out "Boredom Buster: Earth, Paint, and Rocks"
Website | Facebook | Twitter

Long Island Children's Museum (Garden City, NY)
Has online resource guides for playing outside safely and talking about art. They're also sharing resources on Facebook, and hosting a "Visit LICM at Home" event on March 28, 2020.
Check out "Bookface Friday"
Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Madison Children's Museum (WI)
Sharing educational programming for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, along with quick activity ideas, tips, news from the museum, and partner resources. Also launched a Facebook group for museum members and friends.
Check out "Brain Builders with Heather: Indoor Obstacle Course"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Museo Tin Marín (San Salvador, El Salvador)
Posting videos, activities, and custom graphics sharing educational resources and activities.
Check out the correct way to wash your hands
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Museum of Discovery and Science (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Launched MODS Virtual Camp Discovery across all digital platforms, with a new science-focused demo or activity posted each weekday.
Check out "Ooey Gooey Chocolate Slime"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

The New Children's Museum (San Diego, CA)
Launched #thinkplaycreateathome, encouraging visitors, members, and staff to send short videos or photos of how they are being creative at home!
Check out "DIY Scramble Screens"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | #thinkplaycreateathome

North Country Children's Museum (Potsdam, NY)
Created a YouTube channel to post STEAM project videos!
Check out "DIY Balloon"
Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Omaha Children's Museum (NE)
Sharing daily "Museum Minutes" and "Playful Projects" videos, including storytimes, at-home science experiments, and Tinker Challenges. Also offering free printables on their website.
Check out "Ben's Tinker Challenge: Will It Float?"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Port Discovery Children's Museum (Baltimore, MD)
Sharing At Home Play Tips, with activity ideas, resources, and updates from the museum.
Check out "Kinetic Sand Play Bin."
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Sciencenter (Ithaca, NY)
Hosting daily live activities at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Zoom, which are also shared on Facebook. Also sharing a live YouTube feed of their Animal Room!
Check out "Paper Mountains"
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Stepping Stones Museum for Children (Norwalk, CT)Encouraging playful learning at home with their "Every Day Fun! DIY Home Extension" video series, featuring Fitness Fun, Music Makers, Science Central, and more!
Check out "Music Makers | Wash Your Hands!"
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | #SteppingStonesAtHome #BooZoosBookBuddies

The Association of Children's Museums (ACM) champions children's museums worldwide. Follow ACM on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Are you a children's museum with online programming? Contact Alison.Howard@ChildrensMuseums.org. Follow and share museums' virtual activities with the hashtag #ChildrensMuseumsatHome.

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Last updated: April 8, 2020. Follow and share children's museums' virtual activities on social media with the hashtag #ChildrensMuseumsatHome. Posted by As of March 19, 2020, ACM research shows that most children's around the world, including every children's museum in the U.S., has temporarily closed due to COVID-19.

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Jason Reynold's Write Right Rite series at LOC

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Jason Reynold's Write Right Rite series at LOC

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Welcome to the "Write. Right. Rite.," a "GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story" video series! The "Write. Right. Rite." is meant to be an entertaining and inventive way to engage with the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Jason Reynolds.

According to Reynolds, the "Write. Right. Rite." is all about learning the ritual of "authentic"-not to be confused with "correct" or "exact"-expression. Throughout the series, he will share his passion for storytelling while discussing topics like creativity, connection, and imagination. At the end of each video, Reynolds will share a prompt that encourages young people to work toward a specific idea. The activities are fun-filled and some are more challenging than others, but Reynolds always makes sure to include brainstorming "get-you-going" questions.

So, what do you say? Are you ready to dive into, try on, and work through the newest episode of the "Write. Right. Rite."?

Go for it!

Watch the Entire "Write. Right. Rite." Series:

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Research Guides: Jason Reynolds, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature:

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Welcome to the "Write. Right. Rite.," a "GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story" video series! The "Write. Right. Rite." is meant to be an entertaining and inventive way to engage with the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Jason Reynolds. According to Reynolds, the "Write. Right. Rite."

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12 ideas for writing through the Pandemic

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12 ideas for writing through the Pandemic

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A dozen writing projects - including journals, poems, comics and more - for students to try at home.

In Málaga, Spain, Marcos Moreno Maldonado makes drawings that weave around his words, keeping a diary that is botanical, beautiful and strange. Keeping a journal is just one of 12 writing projects we suggest for students. Related Article Credit... Marcos Moreno Maldonado

The coronavirus has transformed life as we know it. Schools are closed, we're confined to our homes and the future feels very uncertain. Why write at a time like this?

For one, we are living through history. Future historians may look back on the journals, essays and art that ordinary people are creating now to tell the story of life during the coronavirus.

But writing can also be deeply therapeutic. It can be a way to express our fears, hopes and joys. It can help us make sense of the world and our place in it.

Plus, even though school buildings are shuttered, that doesn't mean learning has stopped. Writing can help us reflect on what's happening in our lives and form new ideas.

We want to help inspire your writing about the coronavirus while you learn from home. Below, we offer 12 projects for students, all based on pieces from The New York Times, including personal narrative essays, editorials, comic strips and podcasts. Each project features a Times text and prompts to inspire your writing, as well as related resources from The Learning Network to help you develop your craft. Some also offer opportunities to get your work published in The Times, on The Learning Network or elsewhere.

We know this list isn't nearly complete. If you have ideas for other pandemic-related writing projects, please suggest them in the comments.

In the meantime, happy writing!

Journaling is well-known as a therapeutic practice, a tool for helping you organize your thoughts and vent your emotions, especially in anxiety-ridden times. But keeping a diary has an added benefit during a pandemic: It may help educate future generations.

In " The Quarantine Diaries," Amelia Nierenberg spoke to Ady, an 8-year-old in the Bay Area who is keeping a diary. Ms. Nierenberg writes:

As the coronavirus continues to spread and confine people largely to their homes, many are filling pages with their experiences of living through a pandemic. Their diaries are told in words and pictures: pantry inventories, window views, questions about the future, concerns about the present.

Taken together, the pages tell the story of an anxious, claustrophobic world on pause.

"You can say anything you want, no matter what, and nobody can judge you," Ady said in a phone interview earlier this month, speaking about her diary. "No one says, 'scaredy-cat.'"

When future historians look to write the story of life during coronavirus, these first-person accounts may prove useful.

"Diaries and correspondences are a gold standard," said Jane Kamensky, a professor of American History at Harvard University and the faculty director of the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute. "They're among the best evidence we have of people's inner worlds."

You can keep your own journal, recording your thoughts, questions, concerns and experiences of living through the coronavirus pandemic.

Not sure what to write about? Read the rest of Ms. Nierenberg's article to find out what others around the world are recording. If you need more inspiration, here are a few writing prompts to get you started:

How has the virus disrupted your daily life? What are you missing? School, sports, competitions, extracurricular activities, social plans, vacations or anything else?

What effect has this crisis had on your own mental and emotional health?

What changes, big or small, are you noticing in the world around you?

For more ideas, see our writing prompts. We post a new one every school day, many of them now related to life during the coronavirus.

You can write in your journal every day or as often as you like. And if writing isn't working for you right now, try a visual, audio or video diary instead.

As you write in your journal, you'll probably find that your life during the pandemic is full of stories, whether serious or funny, angry or sad. If you're so inspired, try writing about one of your experiences in a personal narrative essay.

Here's how Mary Laura Philpott begins her essay, " This Togetherness Is Temporary, " about being quarantined with her teenage children:

Get this: A couple of months ago, I quit my job in order to be home more.

Go ahead and laugh at the timing. I know.

At the time, it was hitting me that my daughter starts high school in the fall, and my son will be a senior. Increasingly they were spending their time away from me at school, with friends, and in the many time-intensive activities that make up teenage lives. I could feel the clock ticking, and I wanted to spend the minutes I could - the minutes they were willing to give me, anyway - with them, instead of sitting in front of a computer at night and on weekends in order to juggle a job as a bookseller, a part-time gig as a television host, and a book deadline. I wanted more of them while they were still living in my house.

Now here we are, all together, every day. You're supposed to be careful what you wish for, but come on. None of us saw this coming.

Personal narratives are short, powerful stories about meaningful life experiences, big or small. Read the rest of Ms. Philpott's essay to see how she balances telling the story of a specific moment in time and reflecting on what it all means in the larger context of her life.

Video

Credit Credit... Graphic by Kaisha Murzamadiyeva

People have long turned to creative expression in times of crisis. During the coronavirus pandemic, artists are continuing to illustrate, play music, dance, perform - and write poetry.

That's what Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, an emergency room doctor in Boston, did after a long shift treating coronavirus patients. Called " The Apocalypse," her poem begins like this:

This is the apocalypse
A daffodil has poked its head up
from the dirt and opened
sunny arms to bluer skies
yet I am filled with
dark and anxious dread
as theaters close as travel ends and
grocery stores display their empty rows
where toilet paper liquid bleach
and bags of flour stood in upright ranks.

Read the rest of Dr. Mitchell's poem and note the lines, images and metaphors that speak to you. Then, tap into your creative side by writing a poem inspired by your own experience of the pandemic.

Need inspiration? Try writing a poem in response to one of our Picture Prompts. Or, you can create a found poem using an article from The Times's coronavirus outbreak coverage. If you have access to the print paper, try making a blackout poem instead.
Related Resources:
24 Ways to Teach and Learn About Poetry With The New York Times
Reader Idea | How the Found Poem Can Inspire Teachers and Students Alike

Have you been keeping up with the news about the coronavirus? What is your reaction to it?

Make your voice heard by writing a letter to the editor about a recent Times article, editorial, column or Opinion essay related to the pandemic. You can find articles in The Times's free coronavirus coverage or The Learning Network's coronavirus resources for students. And, if you're a high school student, your school can get you free digital access to The New York Times from now until July 6.

To see examples, read the letters written by young people in response to recent headlines in " How the Young Deal With the Coronavirus." Here's what Addie Muller from San Jose, Calif., had to say about the Opinion essay " I'm 26. Coronavirus Sent Me to the Hospital ":

As a high school student and a part of Generation Z, I've been less concerned about getting Covid-19 and more concerned about spreading it to more vulnerable populations. While I've been staying at home and sheltering in place (as was ordered for the state of California), many of my friends haven't been doing the same.

I know people who continue going to restaurants and have been treating the change in education as an extended spring break and excuse to spend more time with friends. I fear for my grandparents and parents, but this article showed me that we should also fear for ourselves.

I appreciated seeing this article because many younger people seem to feel invincible. The fact that a healthy 26-year-old can be hospitalized means that we are all capable of getting the virus ourselves and spreading it to others. I hope that Ms. Lowenstein continues spreading her story and that she makes a full recovery soon.

As you read, note some of the defining features of a letter to the editor and what made these good enough to publish. For more advice, see these tips from Thomas Feyer, the letters editor at The Times, about how to write a compelling letter. They include:

Write briefly and to the point.

Be prepared to back up your facts with evidence.

Write about something off the beaten path.

Publishing Opportunity: When you're ready, submit your letter to The New York Times.

Maybe you have more to say than you can fit in a 150-word letter to the editor. If that's the case, try writing an editorial about something you have a strong opinion about related to the coronavirus. What have you seen that has made you upset? Proud? Appreciative? Scared?

In " Surviving Coronavirus as a Broke College Student," Sydney Goins, a senior English major at the University of Georgia, writes about the limited options for students whose colleges are now closed. Her essay begins:

College was supposed to be my ticket to financial security. My parents were the first ones to go to college in their family. My grandpa said to my mom, "You need to go to college, so you don't have to depend on a man for money." This same mentality was passed on to me as well.

I had enough money to last until May- $1,625 to be exact - until the coronavirus ruined my finances.

My mom works in human resources. My dad is a project manager for a mattress company. I worked part time at the university's most popular dining hall and lived in a cramped house with three other students. I don't have a car. I either walked or biked a mile to attend class. I have student debt and started paying the accrued interest last month.

I was making it work until the coronavirus shut down my college town. At first, spring break was extended by two weeks with the assumption that campus would open again in late March, but a few hours after that email, all 26 colleges in the University System of Georgia canceled in-person classes and closed integral parts of campus.

Read the rest of Ms. Goins's essay. What is her argument? How does she support it? How is it relevant to her life and the world?

Then, choose a topic related to the pandemic that you care about and write an editorial that asserts an opinion and backs it up with solid reasoning and evidence.

Not sure where to start? Try responding to some of our recent argumentative writing prompts and see what comes up for you. Here are a few we've asked students so far:

Or, consider essential questions about the pandemic and what they tell us about our world today: What weaknesses is the coronavirus exposing in our society? How can we best help our communities right now? What lessons can we learn from this crisis? See more here.

As an alternative to a written essay, you might try creating a video Op-Ed instead, like Katherine Oung's " Coronavirus Racism Infected My High School. "

Publishing Opportunity: Submit your final essay to our Student Editorial Contest, open to middle school and high school students ages 10-19, until April 21. Please be sure to read all the rules and guidelines before submitting.
Related Resource: An Argumentative-Writing Unit for Students Doing Remote Learning

Are games, television, music, books, art or movies providing you with a much-needed distraction during the pandemic? What has been working for you that you would recommend to others? Or, what would you caution others to stay away from right now?

Share your opinions by writing a review of a piece of art or culture for other teenagers who are stuck at home. You might suggest TV shows, novels, podcasts, video games, recipes or anything else. Or, try something made especially for the coronavirus era, like a virtual architecture tour, concert or safari.

As a mentor text, read Laura Cappelle's review of French theater companies that have rushed to put content online during the coronavirus outbreak, noting how she tailors her commentary to our current reality:

The 17th-century philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote: "The sole cause of people's unhappiness is that they do not know how to stay quietly in their rooms." Yet at a time when much of the world has been forced to hunker down, French theater-makers are fighting to fill the void by making noise online.

She continues:

Under the circumstances, it would be churlish to complain about artists' desire to connect with audiences in some fashion. Theater, which depends on crowds gathering to watch performers at close quarters, is experiencing significant loss and upheaval, with many stagings either delayed indefinitely or canceled outright. But a sampling of stopgap offerings often left me underwhelmed.

To get inspired you might start by responding to our related Student Opinion prompt with your recommendations. Then turn one of them into a formal review.
Related Resource: Writing Curriculum | Unit 2: Analyzing Arts, Criticizing Culture: Writing Reviews With The New York Times

Being stuck at home with nowhere to go is the perfect time to learn a new skill. What are you an expert at that you can you teach someone?

The Times has created several guides that walk readers through how to do something step-by-step, for example, this eight-step tutorial on how to make a face mask. Read through the guide, noting how the author breaks down each step into an easily digestible action, as well as how the illustrations support comprehension.

Then, create your own how-to guide for something you could teach someone to do during the pandemic. Maybe it's a recipe you've perfected, a solo sport you've been practicing, or a FaceTime tutorial for someone who's never video chatted before.

Whatever you choose, make sure to write clearly so anyone anywhere could try out this new skill. As an added challenge, include an illustration, photo, or audio or video clip with each step to support the reader's understanding.
Related Resource: Writing Curriculum | Unit 4: Informational Writing

For nearly two decades, The Times has published a weekly 36 Hours column, giving readers suggestions for how to spend a weekend in cities all over the globe.

While traveling for fun is not an option now, the Travel section decided to create a special reader-generated column of how to spend a weekend in the midst of a global pandemic. The result? " 36 Hours in ... Wherever You Are." Here's how readers suggest spending a Sunday morning:

8 a.m. Changing routines
Make small discoveries. To stretch my legs during the lockdown, I've been walking around the block every day, and I've started to notice details that I'd never seen before. Like the fake, painted window on the building across the road, or the old candle holders that were once used as part of the street lighting. When the quarantine ends, I hope we don't forget to appreciate what's been on a doorstep all along.

- Camilla Capasso, Modena, Italy
10:30 a.m. Use your hands
Undertake the easiest and most fulfilling origami project of your life by folding 12 pieces of paper and building this lovely star. Modular origami has been my absolute favorite occupational therapy since I was a restless child: the process is enthralling and soothing.

- Laila Dib, Berlin, Germany
12 p.m. Be isolated, together
Check on neighbors on your block or floor with an email, text or phone call, or leave a card with your name and contact information. Are they OK? Do they need something from the store? Help with an errand? Food? Can you bring them a hot dish or home-baked bread? This simple act - done carefully and from a safe distance - palpably reduces our sense of fear and isolation. I've seen the faces of some neighbors for the first time. Now they wave.

- Jim Carrier, Burlington, Vt.

Read the entire article. As you read, consider: How would this be different if it were written by teenagers for teenagers?

Then, create your own 36 Hours itinerary for teenagers stuck at home during the pandemic with ideas for how to spend the weekend wherever they are.

The 36 Hours editors suggest thinking "within the spirit of travel, even if many of us are housebound." For example: an album or a song playlist; a book or movie that transports you; a particular recipe you love; or a clever way to virtually connect with family and friends. See more suggestions here.
Related Resources:
Reader Idea | 36 Hours in Your Hometown
36 Hours in Learning: Creating Travel Itineraries Across the Curriculum

Video

Daily life looks very different now. Unusual scenes are playing out in homes, parks, grocery stores and streets across the country.

In " New York Was Not Designed for Emptiness," New York Times photographers document what life in New York City looks like amid the pandemic. It begins:

The lights are still on in Times Square. Billboards blink and storefronts shine in neon. If only there were an audience for this spectacle.

But the thoroughfares have been abandoned. The energy that once crackled along the concrete has eased. The throngs of tourists, the briskly striding commuters, the honking drivers have mostly skittered away.

In their place is a wistful awareness that plays across all five boroughs: Look how eerie our brilliant landscape has become. Look how it no longer bustles.

This is not the New York City anyone signed up for.

Read the rest of the essay and view the photos. As you read, note the photos or lines in the text that grab your attention most. Why do they stand out to you?

What does the pandemic look like where you live? Create your own photo essay, accompanied by a written piece, that illustrates your life now. In your essay, consider how you can communicate a particular theme or message about life during the pandemic through both your photos and words, like in the article you read.

Publishing Opportunity: The International Center of Photography is collecting a virtual archive of images related to the coronavirus pandemic. Learn how to submit yours here.

Sometimes, words alone just won't do. Visual mediums, like comics, have the advantage of being able to express emotion, reveal inner monologues, and explain complex subjects in ways that words on their own seldom can.

If anything proves this point, it is the Opinion section's ongoing visual diary, " Art in Isolation." Scroll through this collection to see clever and poignant illustrations about life in these uncertain times. Read the comic " Finding Connection When Home Alone " by Gracey Zhang from this collection. As you read, note what stands out to you about the writing and illustrations. What lessons could they have for your own piece?

Then, create your own comic strip, modeled after the one you read, that explores some aspect of life during the pandemic. You can sketch and color your comic with paper and pen, or use an online tool like MakeBeliefsComix.com.

Need inspiration? If you're keeping a quarantine journal, as we suggested above, you might create a graphic story based on a week of your life, or just a small part of it - like the meals you ate, the video games you played, or the conversations you had with friends over text. For more ideas, check out our writing prompts related to the coronavirus.
Related Resource: From Superheroes to Syrian Refugees: Teaching Comics and Graphic Novels With Resources From The New York Times

Modern Love Podcast: In the Midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic, People Share Their Love Stories

How has coronavirus impacted relationships? People around the world answer.

Are you listening to any podcasts to help you get through the pandemic? Are they keeping you up-to-date on the news? Offering advice? Or just helping you escape from it all?

Create your own five-minute podcast segment that responds to the coronavirus in some way.

To get an idea of the different genres and formats your podcast could take, listen to one or more of these five-minute clips from three New York Times podcast episodes related to the coronavirus:

Use these as models for your own podcast. Consider the different narrative techniques they use to relate an experience of the pandemic - interviews, nonfiction storytelling and conversation - as well as how they create an engaging listening experience.

Need ideas for what to talk about? You might try translating any of the writing projects above into podcast form. Or turn to our coronavirus-related writing prompts for inspiration.

Publishing Opportunity: Submit your finished five-minute podcast to our Student Podcast Contest, which is open through May 19. Please read all the rules and guidelines before submitting.
Related Resource: Project Audio: Teaching Students How to Produce Their Own Podcasts

"It doesn't matter how good you think you are as a writer - the first words you put on the page are a first draft," Harry Guinness writes in " How to Edit Your Own Writing."

Editing your work may seem like something you do quickly - checking for spelling mistakes just before you turn in your essay - but Mr. Guinness argues it's a project in its own right:

The time you put into editing, reworking and refining turns your first draft into a second - and then into a third and, if you keep at it, eventually something great. The biggest mistake you can make as a writer is to assume that what you wrote the first time through was good enough.

Read the rest of the article for a step-by-step guide to editing your own work. Then, revise one of the pieces you have written, following Mr. Guinness's advice.

Publishing Opportunity: When you feel like your piece is "something great," consider submitting it to one of the publishing opportunities we've suggested above. Or, see our list of 70-plus places that publish teenage writing and art to find more.

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12 Ideas for Writing Through the Pandemic With The New York Times (Published 2020)

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A dozen writing projects - including journals, poems, comics and more - for students to try at home. The coronavirus has transformed life as we know it. Schools are closed, we're confined to our homes and the future feels very uncertain. Why write at a time like this?

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Shifting to a Lego mindset to teach writing during a remote learning pandemic:  

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Shifting to a Lego mindset to teach writing during a remote learning pandemic:  

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Since my kids have been home from school, they have reinvested themselves in their basement Lego worlds comprised of an embarrassing number of Lego sets. The kids disappear for an hour every now and then and build, and they don't really need my help but sometimes appreciate my approval. That's the kind of mindset that I'd love for my students to have as we think about writing in this online world. Dad's not here-now I can finally build what I want to.

Coates family basement Lego world
In the best of circumstances it is difficult to teach writing. To do it online for the past six weeks has felt at times impossible. But as I look back I can see how it's forced a few shifts that have helped push me closer to a Lego mindset as we consider how to prepare for an uncertain fall.

More frequent, shorter tasks: In class we tend to focus on timed tasks or processed tasks. My favorites, though, tend to be the pieces that take a day or two. They're often more polished and experimental than timed pieces and more lively and raw than processed pieces. As we moved online, my goal was for students to continue to read and write independently each week. Here is how I tried to manage the writing portion:

Week 1: Writing Challenge 1 (300 words)

Week 2: Writing Challenge 2 (300 words)

Week 3: book club discussion boards (2 posts+replies)

Week 4: poetry discussion Padlets (3 responses)

Week 5: Writing Challenge 3 (300 words)

Week 6: informal independent reading reflection (personal email)

I tried to find lengths and formats that allowed for a sustained, multi-paragraph thought but were still short enough to ensure weekly completion without overwhelming a student facing a list of tasks from seven different teachers.

More choice: Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle recently published a terrific piece called "The curse of helicopter teaching" in ASCD. In it they argue, "When students haven't been required to wrestle with difficult writing decisions-and when much of that decision making has been done by the teacher-they lose their sense of agency and their confidence as writers." Teaching remotely definitely thwarts my helicopter tendencies. I've tried to take advantage of this in each of the writing challenges by giving a bigger variety of prompt options (in topic as well as in mode). In addition, I worked to bring in structural choices to push the thinking: based on the topic I chose, what structure makes sense? I think this lines up pretty well with what Angela Faulhaber said about focusing on content before form...what you say should drive how you say it but it's hard to get there in class sometimes if we're all writing an argument essay. Since the tasks were short, they were a little more willing to experiment. See a sample task here.

More challenges: This idea comes from John Warner (see his article "I'm never assigning an essay again"), though he calls them "writing problems." The idea is to give some parameters that foster experimentation rather than a rubric that restricts choices. It's a narrower focus for the writer, which I think works well remotely. For example, in the first task I challenged students to focus on the specificity in a reflective piece about their Covid-19 experience. For the second Writing Challenge they chose a specific structure to explore (deductive, inductive, anecdote, listicle). The idea is that by narrowing to one aspect of writing they'll have more space to consider their decision-making. This also allows for more targeted feedback on my end.

John Warner's newest book has many writing challenges/problems to explore.

More personalized options: Each task I've given remotely has included an option that allows students to focus on their current personal experience. For some it's clearly therapeutic. For others it's a chance to document their experience. It's an easier entry point if they're home alone and stuck than if we used a traditional academic prompt. But they can still practice specificity and structure; they can still work on adding complexity to their observations. I've had to loosen up but it's empowered them in positive ways. Examples we've tried:

from Writing Challenge 1: What was the moment that you knew things were not normal, that this was going to be different? How has your life been disrupted? What's been good, bad, memorable?

from Writing Challenge 2: Describe something you've been learning about one (or more) of the following: yourself, your family, remote learning, politics, science, your faith, a new hobby or interest. This piece is more personal in nature, so you'll likely tell a story as you did in the college essay.

More feedback, fewer grades: Instead of grades, then, the focus in our remote learning environment is on feedback (see Sarah Krajewski's recent tips on feedback here). I try to articulate what they did well and what I noticed about their attempts toward meeting the challenge. Essentially, and I think this is true for in-class writing, too, it's not about giving more grades but giving more ungraded opportunities to build and experiment. I was also really challenged by this feedback article from Harvard Business Review to reconsider what helps and what hurts, especially if the feedback I give is not face-to-face.

Online writing has got to be more like the end of the first Lego movie, when Will Ferrell realizes that if his son has some freedom about what he can build and is allowed to recombine and go beyond the direction packets, he finds more joy and ownership over the experience. Our feedback can help cultivate this kind of mindset in the writing process whether it's online or live.
Nathan Coates teaches junior English at Mason High School, a large suburban district near Cincinnati, Ohio. He has really grown a lot this year from being allowed to post some reflective pieces on Three Teachers Talk. His first Lego set was the classic 1980-Something Space Guy set. @MHSCoates

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Shifting to a Lego mindset to teach writing during a remote learning pandemic

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Since my kids have been home from school, they have reinvested themselves in their basement Lego worlds comprised of an embarrassing number of Lego sets. The kids disappear for an hour every now and then and build, and they don't really need my help but sometimes appreciate my approval.

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Pursuing meaningful, authentic, student center writing during precarious times:  

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Pursuing meaningful, authentic, student center writing during precarious times:  

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As educators and schools transition to emergency remote teaching, we all know that so much of what makes for effective teaching can't be fully replicated online with the limitations of social distance and city lockdowns. While we may have district mandates and community expectations to provide standards- and skills-based instruction, we also hope this is a chance for all of us-teachers, administrators, and teacher educators-to re-think what meaningful, engaging learning really involves.

Fortunately, writing is one of those disciplines that affords everyone the flexibility, creativity, and authenticity to be deeply meaningful both in and out of traditional school contexts. You may have already found lots of online sources for writing prompts, such as those from The New York Times. These are such wonderful resources that we highly recommend. However, we also draw inspiration from Katherine and Randy Bomer, NCTE's 2017 Outstanding Elementary Educators in the English Language Arts, who remind us of the importance of:
placing kids in the driver's seat of their own learning, making them always the composers-of their writing, of their reading, of their literate lives, of their social relations in the classroom, of their conversations. [We] learned that it was possible to take away that agency, but we should only do it if we have some really compelling reason to interrupt what kids would do intentionally, for their own purposes (Warrington, 2017, p. 89).
These times have highlighted for us how much children have to say in their own words and for their own purposes as they make sense of this pandemic. Below are teaching ideas and invitations to help merge curricular requirements with the opportunities for students to engage in authentic, meaningful, student-centered writing during these precarious times. We've also included ideas for replicating the differentiated structures for writing instruction through online tools.

Writing Structures

Shared Writing - In shared writing, teachers act as the scribe while students determine the ideas, organization, voice, sentence structures, word choice, and conventions for the piece. When Zooming with your students (or another video conference tool), open a Word document and share your screen with students. As they contribute to the piece, type their contributions onto the Word document for all to see the shared writing piece you are creating with one another. Remind students to use the hand-raising feature of your video conference tool to help you know who has something to contribute to your shared writing piece.

Interactive Writing - In interactive writing, teachers and students share the pen to co-write a piece. You may want to do this in small groups for easier online management. Using a class collaborative tool or wiki, such as Jamboard or Google Docs, type the text you want students to write with you and leave blanks where you want them to finish the writing. Since it's difficult to physically share the pen with one another while writing this piece, use the wiki's chat feature or comment feature to call on students to fill in certain blanks.

Guided Writing and Small Group Writing Conferences - Divide students into small groups based on a particular writing strategy or skill you want them to work on. Provide writing assignments that are differentiated according to each group's strengths and needs (make sure to remember all the smart things you always do when differentiating instruction, such as avoiding comparison and competition by not announcing to the whole class what each group is doing). Schedule Zoom or other video conference meetings to meet with each group to teach a minilesson or hold a small group conference.

Independent Writing and Quick-Writes - Many of our students, their families, and even ourselves feel stretched thin under these circumstances, but we can still encourage and support students' growth as independent writers. Quick-writes provide authentic, meaningful, student-centered daily experiences that may help students sustain their engagement with writing while dealing with the moment-by-moment changes of our world. The brief daily writing notebook tasks, such as those provided by author Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Keeping a Notebook videos, and the creative ideas provided in Jason Reynolds' Write.Right.Rite series are some great ways to inspire and sustain students' independent writing. Use digital portfolio apps, such as See Saw or Google Classroom, to encourage students to submit their independent writing.

Writing Formats

A quick reminder about writing online: It doesn't have to involve just words on paper or a Word document. For many emergent writers (and even for advanced writers), photographs, drawings, and other visual forms of composing can communicate vast amounts of information. Many of the ideas and invitations below can be adapted for multimodal writing, involving visual and digital composing tools, such as Storybird, Book Creator, VoiceThread, Jamboard, and even PowerPoint or Keynote slides. For more tools, see this post Tech & Learning post.

Genre-Based Writing

Persuasive Writing

Write to Your Teacher, Principal, or School Administrators - Invite students to write about what they enjoy about distance learning and would like to continue doing when they are back in the classroom, or write about what is difficult for them at this time and what they would like changed so that learning remains engaging, effective, and doable for them and their family.

Write to Your Government Officials - During this time, many of our government officials are working hard to make sure everyone stays safe, healthy, strong, and secure. But they might not know or see a particular challenge that your students or their community faces. Invite students to write to their mayor, town councilperson, state representative, governor, or other government official to let them know of that challenge and to convince them to provide students with the resources needed. This piece could take the form of a letter (see the Teaching Tolerance lesson on writing for social change) or an op-ed piece they can send to their local newspaper (see the ALA's lesson on writing op-ed pieces).

Opinion and Argument Writing

Create "Top Ten" and "Best of" Pieces - Many of us are filling up our days reading books, watching movies and TV shows,, and listening to music. Invite students to create a list of their "Top Ten" or "Best of", such as their Top Ten songs for a family dance party or a Best of Pixar movies. Remind them to use their opinion and argument writing skills to flesh out the reasons why each item is on your list, and share it with the rest of the class via your online learning platform.

Construct a "Reasons Why" Piece - Help students develop their opinion and argument skills by choosing a topic they have been thinking about a lot while away from school, such as friends, art projects, or even the many issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Then, for a prewriting activity, have them jot down some of the specific thoughts and opinions they have about that topic, such as "Creating art can calms me down" or "It's a privilege to be able to stay home during this pandemic." Invite students to pick one of those thoughts, and write an opinion or argument piece that explains the reasons why they believe in those thoughts.

Informational (All About) Writing

Co-construct a Whole Class "Things to Do" Piece - Many students are facing the challenge of figuring out what to do each day after completing their school work, especially when our options are limited to our homes and immediate neighborhoods. Have students brainstorm a variety of things they and their classmates can do in these circumstances to keep busy, active, and productive. Then have them sort the list into related categories based on what they've listed, such as "Things to Build," "Things to Bake," or "Things to Do When It Rains." Use a wiki tool, such as Google Docs, to do this and then post online as a reference for the class to use.

Describe Ways to Volunteer and Help - Invite students to do some research and write an informational piece about a way they can volunteer or help others in need during this time. Some ideas for helping are listed in these articles in The Washington Post, Time Magazine, and The New York Times. Share each piece with the rest of the class. Encourage your students to read each other's piecesand take action on one of them.

Conduct Community, Essential Worker, and Helper Interviews - Invite students to interview a community member, essential worker, or community helper whose lives have been impacted by COVID-19. Have them use what they learned from their interview session to write an informational or all-about piece about the person they interviewed. Share the final drafts with the school community or a local news outlet to build a more knowledgeable and empathetic world.

Share the Facts. - Given the plethora of social media and digital communication about COVID-19, it can be difficult to figure out what is fact and what is hearsay or fake news. Guide students toward reputable sources of information, such as the the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. You might also share this article in the Smithsonian Magazine (excerpts or the whole article) to help students learn to sort fact from fiction about the virus. Then, have students write what they have learned about COVID-19 in an informational piece to share with their friends, families, and community.

Procedural (How-to) Writing

Teach Someone How to Play a New Game - Being at home means finding ways to entertain ourselves. Help one another by writing a procedural piece that explains how to play a new card game, or a backyard game, or even a computer or video game. Make sure to include the objective of the game (not just "to win" but "to be the first to get rid of all your cards", etc.) and provide examples, photographs, and/or illustrations to clarify the steps you describe.

Share a Favorite Kid-Friendly Recipe. - Many homes are taking the opportunity to involve children in their daily household tasks, particularly cooking. Create an online class cookbook but having students write up their favorite recipe.

Creative Writing

Write a Short Story - This is an opportunity for children who love writing fiction to use the narrative skills they may have learned from personal narrative units or short story units. If they have difficulty coming up with a short story idea, have them try the story starters from Scholastic. Older students might find the character motivation generators on RanGen a fun way to start writing a story.

Create a Graphic Novel - Encourage students to combine multimodal literacy and storytelling skills by creating a graphic novel. See Scholastic's Graphix Guide to Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens and the Wikihow page on creating a graphic novel for resources and ideas to share with students. cholastic's Graphix Guide

Let the Poetry Flow - Poetry can be an incredible outlet for the emotional intensity of living through a pandemic. See our entry from last week for ideas and invitations for inspiring and guiding students' poetry writing from afar.

Further Explorations

Online Resources
Quick-Writes and Daily Writing:
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Keeping a Notebook video series
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuZ7EMD9jTpwnd6SIdCflnw/videos
Jason Reynolds' Write.Right.Rite video series
https://guides.loc.gov/jason-reynolds/grab-the-mic/wrr
The New York Times Daily Writing Prompts

Teaching Tolerance - Truth to Power: Writing Letters for Change
https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/student-tasks/do-something/truth-to-power-writing-letters-for-change
ALA I Love Libraries - Writing an Op-Ed Piece
http://www.ilovelibraries.org/school-libraries/how-write-and-place-op-ed-piece
The Washington Post - How You Can Help During the Coronavirus Outbreak
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/21/how-you-can-help-during-coronavirus/?arc404=true
TIME Magazine - How to Help-or Get Help-in the Coronavirus Pandemic
https://time.com/5809221/coronavirus-how-to-help/
The New York Times - How to Help in a Pandemic: Ask Before You Donate 1,000 Pizzas

World Health Organization

U. S. Centers for Disease Control
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
U. S. National Institutes of Health
https://www.nih.gov/health-information/coronavirus
U. S. Food and Drug Administration
https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/counterterrorism-and-emerging-threats/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19
Smithsonian Magazine - How to Avoid Misinformation about COVID-19
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-avoid-misinformation-about-covid-19-180974615/
Scholastic Story Starters
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/
RanGen Random Character Generators and Writing Prompts
https://www.rangen.co.uk/
Scholastic - A Guide to Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens
http://www.scholastic.com/graphix_teacher/pdf/Graphix%20Teachers%20guide.pdf
Wikihow - Create a Graphic Novel
https://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Graphic-Novel
References

Warrington, A. (2017). Katherine and Randy Bomer, NCTE's 2017 outstanding elementary educators in the English Language Arts. Language Arts, 95(2), 87-93.

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Pursuing Meaningful, Authentic, Student-Centered Writing During Precarious Times

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As educators and schools transition to emergency remote teaching, we all know that so much of what makes for effective teaching can't be fully replicated online with the limitations of social distance and city lockdowns.

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Feeling it all through reading, writing and creating: 

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Feeling it all through reading, writing and creating: 

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We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The past few weeks have been incredibly challenging. There is no manual for teaching and learning in a global pandemic. Yet, teachers across the world have shown incredible creativity, empathy, and emotional resilience in supporting their students, families, and communities.

In this post, we share ways you and your students can honor feelings of uncertainty and loss while also providing a source of hope. The picture books, writing suggestions, and creative outlets we suggest are designed to give you and your students permission to feel and to find a locus of control. There are low-tech suggestions that include drawing, noticing, wondering, and composing. There are also high-tech suggestions including virtual read alouds by authors and ways to incorporate technology into the composing and sharing processes. In particular, this post is designed to support teachers with new ways to deepen connections that invite creativity and interactivity into the current distance learning environment. These ideas can also be used to infuse social and emotional learning as a part of literacy learning when we return to classrooms.

Whether you are a K-12 teacher trying to support students online or a parent, grandparent, family or community member trying to support learning for a range of students and ages during this period of disruption, we hope you can find these resources interesting and engaging. If you or the young people with whom you work don't have access to a computer or tablet at home, the websites and digital suggested activities can be accessed using a smartphone.
Teaching Ideas and Invitations Read-Alouds
Note: Teachers and librarians, the authors and illustrators below have provided videos for use during the quarantine period. Please support their work with a purchase of their books for your school or classroom library.

Navigating Disappointment with Saturday. Students are encountering the loss of time with friends, missed field trips, and milestone events like moving up ceremonies and end-of-year picnics. Some children are caring for younger siblings and may be experiencing the hardships associated with financial insecurity. Oge Mora's Saturday tells the story of a girl and her mother as they head off on a Saturday adventure only to encounter a string of disappointments. By the end of the story, readers are reminded of the power, importance, and joy of simply being together. Read aloud Saturday or invite students to view Oge Mora's recorded read aloud. Engage in a discussion about disappointments students may be feeling at this time and how they are spending time with family. Invite students to write or draw their own stories in response to the book.

Questioning the Stories We Tell Ourselves About Someone Else's Feelings with Lost and Found.Living in close proximity with our families can lead to misinterpretation of one another's feelings. Support students to think about the stories we sometimes tell ourselves about someone else's feelings and how sometimes those stories are inaccurate or incomplete. Lost and Found tells the story of a boy who finds a penguin at his doorstep. He assumes the penguin is lost and goes on a grand adventure to the South Pole to bring him back home. In the end, he realizes the penguin was never lost, he only wanted to be found. Read aloud the book to students or invite them to view a recorded read aloud by Oliver Jeffers. Invite students to share what the boy could have said or done differently in trying to help the penguin. Consider how the story would have been different if the boy had asked the penguin "How can I help?" and if the penguin were able to respond. Encourage students to ask the people in their lives "How can I help?" as a way to offer love and support to the people in their lives.

Finding Hope and Love with The Heart and the Bottle. Oliver Jeffers' The Heart and the Bottle reminds us that it's natural to want to keep our hearts hidden away in the wake of loss and uncertainty. Yet, each day is an opportunity to share our hearts with someone else and to experience wonder in our everyday life. Read aloud The Heart and the Bottle or invite students to view Oliver Jeffers' recorded reading of the book. Support students in a guided conversation to share their reactions to the story. Remind students it's natural to want to protect our hearts especially when faced with new challenges. In what ways can they support one another and the people in their lives at this time? Use this book as a way to invite students to engage in the Global Heart Map project or invite students to keep an "I Wonder" list in a notebook that they can start now and continue during the summer months.

Knowing It's Okay to Be Ourselves with It's Okay to Make Mistakes. Living in close quarters with family members can bring increased vulnerability. Support students by reminding them that it's okay to make mistakes; it's okay to get mixed up; it's okay to be ourselves. Read aloud It's Okay to Make Mistakes or view Todd Parr's recorded reading of the book. Use shared writing or interactive writing through a google doc or Zoom chat to invite students to create a class It's Okay list that allows students to share their ideas about all the ways it's okay to simply be especially right now.

Looking Forward to Times Ahead with What Would You Wish For? While schools may be closed, we can still find out what our students hope, dream, and wish for the future. More than ever they might need someone to listen to these feelings. Read aloud What Would You Wish For? or invite students to view David Sable's recorded reading of the book. Have students write or draw something they wish for whether it's something that could really happen or something purely imaginative. Invite students to share their wishes with one another as an option rather than a requirement either by posting their writing/drawing on a class padlet or Google classroom or as an audio or video recording. Consider collating students' responses to create a class version of the book.
Quick Writes and Creative Outlets
Breathing In Peace, Breathing Out Doubt with I Am Peace. Support students to learn some simple breathing techniques as a way to bring feelings of calm, peace, and control at this time of uncertainty and challenge. Read aloud I Am Peace or view Susan Verde's recorded reading of the book. Following the read aloud, invite students to breathe together using a few simple techniques like breathing in for four, holding your breath for four, and breathing out for four. Encourage students to notice times when they feel frustrated in their learning at home or with family members and to remind themselves they can use their breathing to gain control over their response to the situation. Create a class list using shared writing or interactive writing of things that bring us peace such as connecting with nature, noticing things that make us wonder, and connecting with others.

Daily Doodles as Stress Relief. Doodling can be a form of relaxation and stress relief. It can also be a way for some students to listen more attentively. Encourage students to keep a doodling notebook or to doodle during live Zoom lessons as a way to keep their hands moving while still listening to the speaker. Invite students to view some of Mo Willems' daily lunch doodles or watch Peter Reynolds' Ready-Set-Draw-ish! video together as a class as an inspiration for doodling dots and making -ish drawings.

Fractured Story Swaps Bring Lightness and Humor. Invite students to read or listen to a work of traditional literature and then to create a new version of the story with some kind of twist. Use titles like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (read aloud by the author, John Scieszka), Little Red Writing, After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again, Ninja Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, and Cinder Edna as examples of how to "fracture" a fairy tale or work of traditional literature. Organize students in ongoing story swap partnerships where students write and audiorecord stories for one another as a way to bring lightness and humor to their day.

Finding Joy by Making Something. Share some of the ways that making something brings joy in your life especially when you share it with others (see ideas on celebrating creativity in our post on The Patchwork Bike). Invite students to make a list of things they have at home like cardboard, plastic containers, crayons, paper, chalk, digital devices, fabric scraps, sticks, and stones. Invite students to make something from their imaginations or that they want to be able to use. Share the work of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy for an inspiration on how natural resources can be arranged in ways that evoke awe and wonder. Invite students to share their creations with one another through a live meeting or through a digital padlet or Google Classroom site.

My Life in Seven Photo Stories to Foster Belonging. Invite students to find either physical or digital photos to create a timeline of seven small moments from their lives that are significant to them. Students can display their photos in a physical or digital timeline or collage. They can also create brief video or slideshow presentations that explain each photograph. Students can even share their photos and associated stories in small break out groups in Zoom or Google Classroom to learn about one another in new ways. Invite students to use their photographs as seeds for further writing. Each photograph can be a small moment story that students write, illustrate, or audiorecord.

Journaling as an Expressive Outlet. Invite students to create either physical or digital journals where they jot down whatever is on their minds or in their hearts. Their journal can be a private space for them to record what they notice, wonder, feel, or want to remember through words and images. Invite students to continue their journals over the summer as an expressive outlet.

Searching for Hope Scavenger Hunt. Remind students that even in moments of crisis, we can always find hope. Support students to go on a scavenger hunt to find images or stories about hope in this moment of global crisis. You could model with this story about how people can see the Himalayas for the first time in thirty years. Create a class slideshow with hopeful images that students find or create a shared Google doc with links that students can add that share hopeful news stories.

Music and Movement as Healers. Music and movement provide their own kind of healing. Share with students different ways that music and movement have been used around the world to bring joy and hope such as in this hospital in Wuhan, China and how dance/movement therapy helped this teen recover from an eating disorder. Invite students to join you in an impromptu dance party to start the day, to make their own instruments, to play musical instruments for one another, and to create and share playlists. What are songs that energize them and bring them hope? What are songs that help them process strong feelings?

Honoring the Loss of a Loved One. Some of your students may be processing feelings of grief following the loss of a loved one. It may be helpful to recommend books to families like Big Cat Little Cat by Elisha Cooper, The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld, and Ocean Meets Sky by the Fan Brothers as well as links to books on grief and loss that we compiled at The Classroom Bookshelf several years go. Art and poetry may also be welcome outlets for paying tribute to lost family members.

Collaborative for Social, Emotional and Academic Learning COVID 19 Resources

Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence COVID 19 Resources
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRmmQ9RQUy0ha9EZkIfwa5g
KidLit TV
https://www.oliverjeffers.com/abookaday/
Stay at Home Storytime with Oliver Jeffers:

Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems

Teachers Books Readers Oge Mora Read Aloud
https://copingskillsforkids.com/deep-breathing-exercises-for-kids
Deep Breathing Exercises for Kids
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/himalayas-visible-lockdown-india-scli-intl/index.html?utm_campaign=Intelligent%20Tuesday%20-%204%2F28%2F2020%20%28Szj2j8%29&utm_medium=campaign-email&utm_source=Klaviyo&_ke=eyJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJrZWdhbmN1bm5pbmdoYW1AZ21haWwuY29tIiwgImtsX2NvbXBhbnlfaWQiOiAibkZFZTNSIn0%3D
CNN Travel Story
https://www.laparent.com/musical-activities-to-do-with-your-kids-during-coronavirus-shutdown/
Music Activities

Classroom Bookshelf Entry on Books on Grief and Loss

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Feeling It All through Reading, Writing, and Creating

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We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The past few weeks have been incredibly challenging. There is no manual for teaching and learning in a global pandemic. Yet, teachers across the world have shown incredible creativity, empathy, and emotional resilience in supporting their students, families, and communities.

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Free digital book resource:   Book talking during a pandemic:  

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Free digital book resource:   Book talking during a pandemic:  

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Independent reading always matters.

Student access and student choice are important now more than ever, so it's time to share what is working!

Before our school went to distance learning, we could see it coming. We knew it wasn't a matter of if, but of when, so the teachers in my department made extra space and time for our students to go to the school library during English classes to check out books. It was a good idea and I'm glad we did it, but those books are running out. Many students have read through their check outs and then some, and are looking for something new.

During regular school days, I always shared a new book in the form of a book talk. It's hard to keep that up without our classroom library right at our fingertips, but it's still important.

That's where the online book talk comes into play.

I've been posting and talking up books every day of our online learning time. I have tried to find books that are free and relevant so that there aren't any unnecessary barriers for students.

One resource that I've particularly loved is Epic! because they have so many graphic novels, and right now their content is free for teachers and students until June 30.

They have more than just graphic novels, and their collection is very kid-friendly.

Another one I love is Simon Teen's offerings of lots of current YA lit. They rotate their free offerings each month, and most of their content is the full read.

I've definitely used these options for my virtual book talks. In fact, today I'm book talking .

Some of my students have discovered that listening to books is more appealing to them than traditional reading, so audio books are more and more popular in my classes. Audible has made their content free until the end of the school year, so it's a great resource. They've got titles for all ages, from classics to teen lit all the way down to picture books for little ones.

Some other good resources are
Julie has been teaching secondary language arts for more than twenty years, spending the first fifteen in rural Central Oregon, four in Amman, Jordan, and the most recent school years in Managua, Nicaragua. Follow her on twitter @SwinehartJulie
This is certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many, many resources out there for our students and teachers. These are a few that I am familiar with and I like. I hope they are helpful for you and your students. Feel free to leave more ideas and resources in the comments below!

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Free Digital Book Resources for Teens - Booktalking during a Pandemic

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Independent reading always matters. Student access and student choice are important now more than ever, so it's time to share what is working! Before our school went to distance learning, we could see it coming. We knew it wasn't a matter of if, but of when, so the teachers in my department made extra space...

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Great TED talks to use with middle schoolers and other ages too.

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Great TED talks to use with middle schoolers and other ages too.

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I wanted to immerse my students in thought provoking TED Talks and videos as one of the new options in our final round of "Choose Your Own Learning." Watching these videos will allow us to continue the work we have done all year on expanding our world view and discussing "Whose Voices are Missing?" as well as allow students for a chance to work on their analysis skills. Students will watch one video a day and then either write or record a response to the video. While I wanted to draw in specific non-fiction skills, I also just wanted students to have a chance to connect and respond. To see my very much work in progress assignment, go here.

While I had several videos I knew I wanted to use with students, I also knew that there were many I had not yet discovered. Enter my incredible Twitter network. I sent out the following Tweet

87 replies later, still growing, and I could not believe once again the treasure trove of incredible videos that were suggested. My gratitude runs deep and so does my penchant for sharing, so without further ado, here are many of the replies given to me with thanks to those who shared them. I am so grateful for all of you. Some are not here that were suggested more than once. I have also ones that we have used throughout the year that have started great discussion in our classroom.
Jamila Lyiscott - Three Ways to Speak English
Jamila Lyiscott is a "tri-tongued orator;" in her powerful spoken-word essay "Broken English," she celebrates - and challenges - the three distinct flavors of English she speaks with her friends, in the classroom and with her parents. As she explores the complicated history and present-day identity that each language represents, she unpacks what it means to be "articulate."
NY Times - Growing Up Black in America
In this short documentary, young black men explain the particular challenges they face growing up in America.
Matthew Carter - Your Story is Your Superpower
When two teenage boys robbed Matthew at gunpoint almost 11 years ago in front of his own home, he spent many years being fearful of teenagers and feeling haunted by the memory of a cold gun barrel pressed against his head. He realized that living in a state of constant fear prevented him from living his best life, so he worked tirelessly to change his mindset and learn the difference between things he could control and things he couldn't. Decisions based in fear often result in not being in alignment with our true selves. At its core, the majority of problems seen in most media outlets are stemmed in the emotion of fear. A child is not born afraid. These emotions are imposed on them from another's fears or caused by life experiences which results in us building both emotional and physical walls to keep out what we're so fearful of. Being in the "flow" of life allows our natural state of being - love - to be the driving force in our decision making. Matthew works at The Ohio State University and is working to follow his life's purpose. He has survived two instances of gun violence. He visits schools throughout Ohio and across the country to share his story - a message of hope and perseverance.
Prince EA - What is School For? Kandice Sumner - How America's Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty
Why should a good education be exclusive to rich kids? Schools in low-income neighborhoods across the US, specifically in communities of color, lack resources that are standard at wealthier schools - things like musical instruments, new books, healthy school lunches and soccer fields - and this has a real impact on the potential of students. Kandice Sumner sees the disparity every day in her classroom in Boston. In this inspiring talk, she asks us to face facts - and change them.
Noah Tavlin - How False News Can Spread
Dive into the phenomenon known as circular reporting and how it contributes to the spread of false news and misinformation.
Stephanie Buari - How Fake News Does Real Harm
On April 14, 2014, the terrorist organization Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, Nigeria. Around the world, the crime became epitomized by the slogan #BringBackOurGirls - but in Nigeria, government officials called the crime a hoax, confusing and delaying efforts to rescue the girls. In this powerful talk, journalist Stephanie Busari points to the Chibok tragedy to explain the deadly danger of fake news and what we can do to stop it.
Asha de Vos - Why You Should Care About Whale Poo
Whales have a surprising and important job, says marine biologist Asha de Vos: these massive creatures are ecosystem engineers, keeping the oceans healthy and stable by ... well, by pooping, for a start. Learn from de Vos, a TED Fellow, about the undervalued work that whales do to help maintain the stability and health of our seas - and our planet.
Jarrett J - Krosoczka - Why Lunch Ladies are Heroes
Children's book author Jarrett Krosoczka shares the origins of the Lunch Lady graphic novel series, in which undercover school heroes serve lunch...and justice! His new project, School Lunch Hero Day, reveals how cafeteria lunch staff provide more than food, and illustrates how powerful a thank you can be.
Gene Luen Yang - Comics Belong in the Classroom
Comic books and graphic novels belong in every teacher's toolkit, says cartoonist and educator Gene Luen Yang. Set against the backdrop of his own witty, colorful drawings, Yang explores the history of comics in American education - and reveals some unexpected insights about their potential for helping kids learn.
McKenna Pope - Want to Be an Activist? Start with Your Toys.
McKenna Pope's younger brother loved to cook, but he worried about using an Easy-Bake Oven - because it was a toy for girls. So at age 13, Pope started an online petition for the American toy company Hasbro to change the pink-and-purple color scheme on the classic toy and incorporate boys into its TV marketing. In a heartening talk, Pope makes the case for gender-neutral toys and gives a rousing call to action to all kids who feel powerless.
Zak Ebrahim - I am the Son of a Terrorist. Here's How I Chose Peace.
If you're raised on dogma and hate, can you choose a different path? Zak Ebrahim was just seven years old when his father helped plan the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His story is shocking, powerful and, ultimately, inspiring.
Kakenya Ntaiya - A Girl Who Demanded School
Kakenya Ntaiya made a deal with her father: She would undergo a traditional Maasai rite of passage, female circumcision, if he would let her go to high school. Ntaiya tells the fearless story of continuing on to college, and of working with her village elders to build a school for girls in her community, changing the destiny of 125 young women.
Shabana Basij-Raiskh - Dare to Educate Afghan Girls
Imagine a country where girls must sneak out to go to school, with deadly consequences if they get caught learning. This was Afghanistan under the Taliban, and traces of that danger remain today. 22-year-old Shabana Basij-Rasikh runs a school for girls in Afghanistan. She celebrates the power of a family's decision to believe in their daughters - and tells the story of one brave father who stood up to local threats.
Monique W. Morris - Why Black Girls Are Targeted for Punishment in Schools - And How to Change That
Around the world, black girls are being pushed out of schools because of policies that target them for punishment, says author and social justice scholar Monique W. Morris. The result: countless girls are forced into unsafe futures with restricted opportunities. How can we put an end to this crisis? In an impassioned talk, Morris uncovers the causes of "pushout" and shows how we can work to turn all schools into spaces where black girls can heal and thrive.
India Hawkins - Facing the Real Me: Looking in the Mirror with Natural Hair
Growing up, 18-year-old India Hawkins was taught how to maintain her hair, but not how to love her hair. A tangled history of political oppression, irresponsible advertising and unattainable beauty standards meant she spent her childhood using chemicals, heat, and protective styling to "manage" the hair that grew naturally from her head. Until one day India decided to "go natural." But she was in for a shock; India never knew how much she was hiding behind her hair, until the day she cut it all off. In her Talk, India describes the emotional sometimes difficult journey that led her to love her hair.
Haaziq Kazi - Cleaning Our Oceans
When 11-year-old Haaziq Kazi first prototyped his invention to clean plastic from the surface of the ocean, it lasted for about 7 seconds before coming apart in his bathtub. But that didn't stop him! In fact, his invention just got better and more elaborate. In this Talk, Haaziq's enthusiasm and creativity remind us that, when it comes to solving some of earth's biggest problems, our imagination may be one of our greatest assets.
Susan Cain - The Power of Introverts
In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.
Drew Dudley - Everyday Leadership
We have all changed someone's life - usually without even realizing it. In this funny talk, Drew Dudley calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other's lives.
Matt Cutts - Try Something New for 30 Days
Is there something you've always meant to do, wanted to do, but just ... haven't? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals.
Shane Koyczan - To This Day
By turn hilarious and haunting, poet Shane Koyczan puts his finger on the pulse of what it's like to be young and ... different. "To This Day," his spoken-word poem about bullying, captivated millions as a viral video (created, crowd-source style, by 80 animators). Here, he gives a glorious, live reprise with backstory and violin accompaniment by Hannah Epperson.
Ash Beckham - We're All Hiding Something
In this touching talk, Ash Beckham offers a fresh approach to empathy and openness. It starts with understanding that everyone, at some point in their life, has experienced hardship. The only way out, says Beckham, is to open the door and step out of your closet.
Proud to Be (Mascots)
Watch the #BigGame commercial the NFL would never air.
Indigenous in New York
Where does history begin? New York's infamous Columbus Circle memorializes the founding of a new world and perpetuates the myth of American exceptionalism, while denying the violence against Indigenous people-a will to ignorance. With a crew of Natives, we asked over 100 New Yorkers to identify the "origin" of our Native models to understand where contemporary Native lives exist in popular consciousness. The indigenous story is more accurate and a story that we all deserve to hear. Let us begin to write and speak a healing narrative that honors Native people, let us get to know each other, let us hug each other-you can and should #HugANative today.
Ron Finlay: A Guerrilla Gardener in South Central LA
Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA - in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."
Sugatra Mitra - Kids Can Teach Themselves
Speaking at LIFT 2007, Sugata Mitra talks about his Hole in the Wall project. Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own - and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - The Danger of a Single Story
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice - and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Ismael Nazario - What I Learned as a Kid in Jail
As a teenager, Ismael Nazario was sent to New York's Rikers Island jail, where he spent 300 days in solitary confinement - all before he was ever convicted of a crime. Now as a prison reform advocate he works to change the culture of American jails and prisons, where young people are frequently subjected to violence beyond imagination. Nazario tells his chilling story and suggests ways to help, rather than harm, teens in jail.
Joy Buolamwini - How I'm Fighting Bias in Algorithms
MIT grad student Joy Buolamwini was working with facial analysis software when she noticed a problem: the software didn't detect her face - because the people who coded the algorithm hadn't taught it to identify a broad range of skin tones and facial structures. Now she's on a mission to fight bias in machine learning, a phenomenon she calls the "coded gaze." It's an eye-opening talk about the need for accountability in coding ... as algorithms take over more and more aspects of our lives.
Stacy Smith - The Data Behind Hollywood's Sexism
Where are all the women and girls in film? Social scientist Stacy Smith analyzes how the media underrepresents and portrays women - and the potentially destructive effects those portrayals have on viewers. She shares hard data behind gender bias in Hollywood, where on-screen males outnumber females three to one (and behind-the-camera workers fare even worse.)
George Takei - Why I Love a Country that Once Betrayed Me
When he was a child, George Takei and his family were forced into an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, as a "security" measure during World War II. 70 years later, Takei looks back at how the camp shaped his surprising, personal definition of patriotism and democracy.
Judge Helen Whitener - Claiming Your Identity Michaela Horn - Teen Stress From a Teen Perspective
A simple experiment to discover what stresses high school students leads to disturbing results that soon become a story on their own. Michaela Horn shares her journey, results, and the alarming turn of events that unfolded.
Mac Barnett - Why a Good Book is a Secret Door
Childhood is surreal. Why shouldn't children's books be? In this whimsical talk, award-winning author Mac Barnett speaks about writing that escapes the page, art as a doorway to wonder - and what real kids say to a fictional whale.
Brene Brown - The Power of Vulnerability
Brené Brown studies human connection - our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share.
Kids on Race "Because I'm Latino, I Can't Have Money?"
Hear some straight talk from middle-schoolers about race and what it's like to grow up in such racially charged times.
Michael Jr - Know Your Why
Comedian Michael Jr. goes Off the Cuff at live comedy show and uses this completely improv moment as a great illustration for knowing your why and purpose in life. See what happens after he asks if he can sing...
Charlie Todd - The Shared Experience of Absurdity
Charlie Todd causes bizarre, hilarious, and unexpected public scenes: Seventy synchronized dancers in storefront windows, "ghostbusters" running through the New York Public Library, and the annual no-pants subway ride. His group, Improv Everywhere, uses these scenes to bring people together.
Phil Hansen - Embrace the Shake
In art school, Phil Hansen developed an unruly tremor in his hand that kept him from creating the pointillist drawings he loved. Hansen was devastated, floating without a sense of purpose. Until a neurologist made a simple suggestion: embrace this limitation ... and transcend it.
Ed Thomas - What Will Be Your Legacy?
A short documentary for the 2010 ESPN Espy awards. This year the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage was presented to Ed Thomas and family of Parkersburg, Iowa.
Derek Sivers - How to Start a Movement
With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two.)
Maya Penn - Meet a Young Entrepreneur, Cartoonist, Designer, Activist
Maya Penn started her first company when she was 8 years old, and thinks deeply about how to be responsible both to her customers and to the planet. She shares her story - and some animations, and some designs, and some infectious energy - in this charming talk.
Adora Svitak - What Adults Can Learn From Kids
Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.
Rita Pierson - Every Kid Needs a Champion
Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.'" A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.
Richard Turere - My Invention that Made Peace With Lions
In the Maasai community where Richard Turere lives with his family, cattle are all-important. But lion attacks were growing more frequent. In this short, inspiring talk, the young inventor shares the solar-powered solution he designed to safely scare the lions away.
Fernando Pérez - The Importance of Bearing Witness
The importance of listening, and validating the stories of others, is demonstrated through an intimate look at Pérez's great-grandmother who emigrated from Mexico to the U.S. and moved to Los Angeles in the 1920s
Paul Nicklen - Animal Tales from Icy Wonderlands
Diving under the Antarctic ice to get close to the much-feared leopard seal, photographer Paul Nicklen found an extraordinary new friend. Share his hilarious, passionate stories of the polar wonderlands, illustrated by glorious images of the animals who live on and under the ice.
Simon Sinek - Start With Why Cole Plante - Getting Started as a DJ
DJ and producer Cole Plante is only 17 years old, but he's already worked alongside industry superstars Skrillex, Avicii and Major Lazer (to name just a few). In this combination talk and DJ set, Plante shows off his mixing magic and gives tips to aspiring DJs.
CM Hall - Social Justice...In a Cookie
The social justice issue no one is talking about...
I, Pencil: The Movie Beau Lotto & Amy O'Toole - Science is for Everyone
What do science and play have in common? Neuroscientist Beau Lotto thinks all people (kids included) should participate in science and, through the process of discovery, change perceptions. He's seconded by 12-year-old Amy O'Toole, who, along with 25 of her classmates, published the first peer-reviewed article by schoolchildren, about the Blackawton bees project. It starts: "Once upon a time ... "
Joseph Lekuton - A Parable for Kenya
Joseph Lekuton, a member of parliament in Kenya, starts with the story of his remarkable education, then offers a parable of how Africa can grow. His message of hope has never been more relevant.
Vivian Connell - The Monti Video Series
After learning of her terminal illness, Vivian Connell sets out to take her ESL class to the Holocaust Museum.
Suki Kim - This is What It's Like to Go Undercover in North Korea
For six months, Suki Kim worked as an English teacher at an elite school for North Korea's future leaders - while writing a book on one of the world's most repressive regimes. As she helped her students grapple with concepts like "truth" and "critical thinking," she came to wonder: Was teaching these students to seek the truth putting them in peril?
Kelvin Doe - Building a Radio
THNKR is proud to present the next chapter in the riveting story of 15-Year-Old engineering prodigy Kelvin Doe. THNKR has exclusive access to Kelvin as he returns to the United States to deliver a riveting talk at TedxTeen and grapples with the impact of newfound YouTube superstardom.
Kevin Alloca - Why Videos Go Viral
Kevin Allocca is YouTube's Head of Culture & Trends, and he has deep thoughts about silly web video. In this talk from TEDYouth, he shares the 4 reasons a video goes viral.
Pamela Meyer - How to Spot a Liar
On any given day we're lied to from 10 to 200 times, and the clues to detect those lies can be subtle and counter-intuitive. Pamela Meyer, author of Liespotting, shows the manners and "hotspots" used by those trained to recognize deception - and she argues honesty is a value worth preserving.
Ann Makosinski - Why I Don't Use a Smartphone
Imagine all the things you can do...off of your phone. Parents be warned.
Cameron Russell - Looks Aren't Everything. Believe Me, I'm a Model
Cameron Russell admits she won "a genetic lottery": she's tall, pretty and an underwear model. But don't judge her by her looks. In this fearless talk, she takes a wry look at the industry that had her looking highly seductive at barely 16 years old.
Grace Lin - The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child's Bookshelf
What your child reads sets the path for their own self-worth as well as how they see others. Grace Lin is a children's book author/illustrator whose book, "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon," received the Newbery Book Honor. She shows how the books that are not on your child's bookshelf are just as important as those that are.
Clint Smith - The Danger of Silence
"We spend so much time listening to the things people are saying that we rarely pay attention to the things they don't," says poet and teacher Clint Smith. A short, powerful piece from the heart, about finding the courage to speak up against ignorance and injustice.
Lindsay Malloy - Why Teens Confess to Crimes They Didn't Commit
Why do juveniles falsely confess to crimes? What makes them more vulnerable than adults to this shocking, counterintuitive phenomenon? Through the lens of Brendan Dassey's interrogation and confession (as featured in Netflix's "Making a Murderer" documentary), developmental psychology professor and researcher Lindsay Malloy breaks down the science underlying false confessions and calls for change in the way kids are treated by a legal system designed for adults.
Laura Rovner - what Happens to People in Solitary Confinement
Imagine living with no significant human contact for years, even decades, in a cell the size of a small bathroom. This is the reality for those in long-term solitary confinement, a form of imprisonment regularly imposed in US prisons. In this eye-opening talk, civil rights lawyer Laura Rovner takes us to ADX, the US federal government's only supermax prison, and describes the dehumanizing effects of long-term solitude on the mind, personality and sense of self. What emerges is an urgent case for abolishing solitary confinement - and evidence for how our tax dollars, public safety and values are implicated in it. "Prisons are administered in our name and on our behalf," she says. "We have an obligation to bear witness."
Aaron Huey - America's Native Prisoner of War Camps
Aaron Huey's effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people - appalling, and largely ignored - compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later, his haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson.
Bryan Stevenson - We Need to Talk about an Injustice
In an engaging and personal talk - with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks - human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.
David R. Williams - How Racism Makes Us Sick
Why does race matter so profoundly for health? David R. Williams developed a scale to measure the impact of discrimination on well-being, going beyond traditional measures like income and education to reveal how factors like implicit bias, residential segregation and negative stereotypes create and sustain inequality. In this eye-opening talk, Williams presents evidence for how racism is producing a rigged system - and offers hopeful examples of programs across the US that are working to dismantle discrimination.

I know there are many more incredible videos out there to use, I know I discover new ones every year and have missed many here. So leave your favorite in the comments, and again, thank you to all who contributed to this list.

If you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page. I offer up workshops and presentations both live and virtually that are based on the work I do with my own students as we pursue engaging, personalized, and independent learning opportunities. I also write more about the design of my classroom and how to give control of their learning back to students in my first book, Passionate Learners.

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Great TED Talks to Use With Middle Schoolers and Other Ages Too

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I wanted to immerse my students in thought provoking TED Talks and videos as one of the new options in our final round of "Choose Your Own Learning." Watching these videos will allow us to continue the work we have done all year on expanding our world view and discussing "Whose Voices are Missing?"

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4 ways to craft choice menus in distance learning

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4 ways to craft choice menus in distance learning

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4 Ways to Craft Choice Menus in Distance Learning Classes

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I have three kids ranging from older elementary to high school. Each one of them is handling distance learning differently. My daughter, who is also the youngest, initially felt overwhelmed at the list of assignments

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Put together by Spencer Campbell

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Mr Campbell Rocks' Google Meet Extensions and Tutorials

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Keeping a notebook with Amy Vanderwater:

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Keeping a notebook with Amy Vanderwater:

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Keeping a Notebook List (Students - Please use the e-mail of a parent or guardian to access)

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10 best Youtube channels for writing teachers

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10 best Youtube channels for writing teachers

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Documenting All the Small Things That Are Easily Lost (Published 2020)

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An assignment for all of us to help capture an extraordinary time.

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How to develop culturally responsive teaching for distance learning:  

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How to develop culturally responsive teaching for distance learning:  

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Hammond distinguishes the differences between culturally responsive education, multicultural education and social justice education. Each is important, but without a focus on building students' brain power, they will experience learning loss.

When it comes to distance learning, applying culturally responsive teaching requires "remixing" education by borrowing from the best practices in how kids learn (Montessori, project-based learning, etc.) in a way that repositions the student as the leader of his own learning. By giving students more agency, the idea is to disrupt old routines around teaching and learning that make the student dependent on the teacher for receiving knowledge.

"It's going to stretch us a little out of our own comfort zones, but it's worth it in the long run if we can get students to continue to do that thinking," said Hammond.

She advises three strategies to help students gain that independence:

1. Deepen background knowledge

Many educators are understandably wondering whether they should teach new content or review familiar material. Hammond encourages educators to do the latter because cognitively dependent learners often have gaps in their background knowledge . "A lot of our students are compliant learners," she said. "They're having a hard time shifting right now [because] they're used to the worksheet, but that doesn't mean they're always processing information."

She advises teachers to help students connect new things they're learning to their brain's existing schema - also known as background knowledge - that comes from home, their community, their interests. Teachers can then give them authentic tasks that help them make meaning and connections. This helps turn new inert information into usable knowledge. "You cannot give another person background knowledge," she explained. "They have to acquire it, but as teachers we can help guide the process." This can be done by building upon student interest.

"Survey your students if you don't know what they like," said Hammond. Ask them what books they enjoy reading or what topics get them super excited. She said It doesn't matter if their interests are broad or narrow; it's important to learn what interests them so that you can use that information to:

Assign non-fiction books that build on student interests.

Create a "Netflix" playlist of documentaries, nature shows, historical events, etc.

Encourage kids and parents to do a walk-about, if that's possible in their community, following social distancing guidelines. Encourage parents and students to seek out community curiosities (landmarks or interesting sights) relevant to students' interest.

With each of these activities, it's important to give the students direction so they know what to look out for. "You have to tell the brain what to pay attention to," Hammond explains. She suggested questions like, "What was your biggest surprise from this book/show?" or thinking routine sentences like "I Used to Think ___. But, now I think ____."

She said to always make sure that students do something with the knowledge as well. She suggested having them share interesting facts they learned either during video conferences or via an audio/video clip. For those students with limited internet access, encourage them to share what they learned with their parents.

2. Cultivate cognitive routines

Growing students' brain power during distance learning starts with building cognitive routines. These routines are essential to processing and hardwiring information in the brain.

"Be the personal trainer of their cognitive development," Hammond said. To do this, she suggested having a routine set of prompts in each packet that become a regular part of the way students think. That way, students begin to think that way even when you're not in the classroom to reinforce that way of thinking.

One example is to ask students to connect the "unknown to the known" or across concepts by asking questions like, " What's the relationship or connection between these things?" or "How does this part fit into the whole? What are the parts of this whole?" These may seem simple, but these questions are critical when it comes to processing information so that students internalize these prompts until they become almost instinctual.

She said students should also be encouraged to sketchnote or doodle to actively process what they're learning as an alternative to note-taking. Sketchnoting can encourage people to make deeper connections to what they're hearing.

3. Build word wealth

Building a student's vocabulary is a key tool in equity strategies for schools. "Kids have different interests in words so find out where their energy is. You can have a differentiated assignment around word collecting, but the idea is to get them actively involved in word consciousness," said Hammond. She said there are many small but high-leverage ways to do this, such as introducing robust word study. A teacher can help students engage in wordplay, word consciousness and word knowledge. This should not happen through a worksheet assignment, but rather begin with building word consciousness of words in their community, home and home language.

Word games like Scrabble, Heads Up, Taboo or even word searches are small familiar but high-leverage activities because they're fun but also require a high cognitive load. You can create your own versions of these games and have students do this in any language. Students can also do word collecting activities like scavenger hunts, or make poetry using magnetic poetry. Students can also do a contrastive analysis, by comparing words they might find in Urban Dictionary to those they might find in a standard dictionary.

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How to Develop Culturally Responsive Teaching for Distance Learning | KQED

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Culturally responsive teaching is a powerful way to help students become independent learners, and it can be especially valuable during distance learning.

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Today my students self-scored their memoirs and reflected on their writing. They used a Google Form to do this and that has provided me with some invaluable data, while providing them with a chance to answer specific questions about their progress (or lack of progress) and learning. For those of you who like research, check out what John Hattie has to say about the impact of students grading their own work. In 2009 he found the impact factor of that to be 1.44. He revised it in 2015 to 1.33, but that's still a huge impact from a simple activity that all students can engage with.

The form I made for my students self-evaluation branched, that is to say there was a question on the first page that asked if their memoir was complete, almost complete, or would be complete by Friday. Based on their answers to this first question students answered different sets of questions on their next page. If a student said his/her memoir was complete the form had questions like, "What do you like best about your memoir?" and "What would you do to improve your memoir if you could still work on it?"

Students who indicated they were not finished yet answered questions like, "What do you need to do to finish? Describe your specific plan (times, locations, tasks) for completing your memoir." and, "What supports or assistance would help you finish this week?"

Then all students scored their memoir in it's current state with the help of a rubric and a grid question in their Google Form. Less than 8% of students gave themselves perfect scores on the rubric. The vast majority of students scored their memoirs honestly and accurately.

The form had an image of the rubric, which was a screenshot from the spreadsheet, and a grid question with numbers.

Students finished up with a multiple choice question about their favorite writing lesson from this unit and this, "What did you learn about narrative writing and/or about yourself while working on this writing piece?"

Like all forms the data from this one ended up in a spreadsheet and from there I was able to check on several things.

First I skimmed to see what additional help students were requesting. Most stated they just needed the extra time and didn't need other help. That left me free to focus on those specifically requesting help.

I added a column next to where they self scored themselves and use a sum function to add up the score each student gave him or herself. I expected to see lots of perfect scores, but less than 8% of my students gave themselves all 25 points on the rubric. Most were honest and accurate about their work. I did a quick sort of the total scores column and students who gave themselves the lowest scores rose to the top. Those are the ones my co-teacher and I will target for immediate intervention.

Tomorrow our PLC team will talk about the piechart regarding favorite writing lessons. We will leave ourselves some notes about improving the dialog lesson for next year and discuss ways we approached the sensory details lesson differently.

Get a copy of the self-evaluation form my students completed today.

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Self-Evaluation Google Form for Students

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Today my students self-scored their memoirs and reflected on their writing. They used a Google Form to do this and that has provided me with some invaluable data, while providing them with a chance to answer specific questions about their progress (or lack of progress) and learning.