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Hello! Thanks so much for your commitment to your students. Here you will find links to activities for students in grades K through 12. They require only paper and pencil, and some materials that can be found around the house.

English K-8, Weeks 1-8, written by Maria Montroni-Currais, NJ

Spanish, courtesy of the River Falls District, WI. Spanish Weeks 5-8 courtesy of Kelly Cesarski, NJ

Portuguese, courtesy of Maria Costa, MA

Somali, courtesy of the Saint Cloud, MN Community Volunteers

Arabic, courtesy of Sarah Badi, TN via Marci Butler, Sumner County Schools, TN

Chinese, courtesy of a student and her family, WV. Chinese weeks 5-8 courtesy of Sue Zhao, TN via Marci Butler, Sumner County Schools, TN

French, courtesy of Jennifer Larance, VA

Urdu, courtesy of Saba Ahmed, NJ

Vietnamese, courtesy of Julia O'Neil, MN and Mai Hoang

Punjabi, courtesy of Savdeep, Hargurjeet, and Ritu, NJ.

Polish, courtesy of Kasia Liu, NJ.

Hindi, courtesy of Savdeep, Hargurjeet, and Ritu, NJ. Hindi weeks 5-8 courtesy of Shilpa Palawat, Lincoln Community School, NJ

Haitian Creole, courtesy of Denise Vega-Moore, NJ

Turkish, courtesy of Ayse Takhim, NJ

Burmese, courtesy of Globelink, LLC via Talonna Hybki, CO

Korean, courtesy of JaeJun Daniel Cho via Lisa Geib and Heidi Son, TX

Japanese, courtesy of Mizuho Furusawa, TN. Japanese weeks 5-8 courtesy of an anonymous teacher, TN, via Marci Butler, Sumner County Schools, TN

German, courtesy of Michelle Cimenton, Lyons H.S., KS

Italian, courtesy of Andrea Williams, KS

Nepali, courtesy of Tarwan Tiwari, Nepali liason for Springfield, MA

Khmer, courtesy of Phela Chan, MA

English 9-12, courtesy of Cornelia Okraski, Fort Mill, SC

Romanian, courtesy of Maria Bornea, TN. Romanian weeks 5-8 courtesy of Ruxandra Wagner, parent, TN via Marci Butler, Sumner County Schools, TN

Farsi, courtesy of Yara Ahrar, ESOL Teacher, Fort Mill School District, SC

Tagalog, courtesy of Glenn and Margaret Rutaquio, Garland ISD, TX

Swahili, via Your Language Connection and the school district of Lancaster, PA and Linda Cyomuhendo from Jewish Family Services in Springfield MA.

Ukrainian, courtesy of Maryana, Syracuse, NY

Pashto, *translation is hand-written* courtesy of Shereen Khan and family

Russian, courtesy of Olga Tamm, via Marci Butler, Sumner County Schools, TN

We are still looking for translations in languages such as:
Zomi, Hmong, Tigrinyan, Kinyarwanda, Kurdish
If you or someone you know can effectively translate into these languages, please email mmontroni@Somerdale-park.org.

Stay healthy! - Maria Montroni-Currais, ESL and G&T Teacher, Somerdale, NJ
ESL at Home and www.eslathome.edublogs.org Copyright 2020

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Hello! Thanks so much for your commitment to your students. Here you will find links to activities for students in grades K through 12. They require only paper and pencil, and some materials that can be found around the house. English K-8, Weeks 1-8, written by Maria Montroni-Currais, NJ Spanish, courtesy of the River Falls District, WI.

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A Beginner's Guide to Screencastify for Educators

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A Beginner's Guide to Screencastify for Educators

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It's official! You're beginning your journey toward a more engaged, personalized classroom powered by Screencastify. Here's the best part: creating, sharing, and assessing is incredibly simple. (Related: Listen below to learn about Screencastify's newest features!)

‍

Below, we'll help you get started in just a few, quick steps. If you're partial to video like us, you can see all of the steps detailed below in our 15-minute certification course, The Flash.

Set up the extension

First, you'll want to make sure you've installed your new trusty sidekick, Screencastify Record. The extension will allow you to create videos with just a click. The first time you use Screencastify Record, you'll go through a quick three step process to get everything set up and ready to go.

1. Log in to the extension with your Google Account. We strongly recommend that you automatically save videos to your Google Drive (thank us later!)

2. Accept the permissions: Chrome will ask for a few permissionsfor the extension to run optimally. In a nutshell, these permissions allow us to create a folder in your Google Drive account entitled "Screencastify", access your webcam and microphone, record your screen, and display our annotation tools.

3. Introduce yourself: Don't worry - you won't need to share any awkward facts. Instead, you'll just answer a 2-question survey to make it easier for us to help you along your journey.

Create a video

Now that the extension is fully set up, you're ready to start recording ⏺. The great news is that you have lots of options to create a video that's perfect for you and your audience.To create the perfect video, you'll just need to think about a few settings.

1. Decide what you'd like to record: Screencastify includes three different recording types. Want to capture everything on screen? You'll love the desktop option. You can also capture a single tab with a browser tab recordingor just your webcam with the webcam option.

2. Enable the annotation tools: When you enable the annotation tools, you can use the pen tool, rectangle tool, or stickers to capture and retain viewer attention on the most important aspects of your video.

Add in computer audio: If you'd like to include audio emanating from your computer (like a video or song), be sure to turn on desktop audio (for desktop recordings) or tab audio (for browser tab recordings)

Increase engagement with editing

A few edits can make a huge difference toward aiding viewer understanding. Luckily, you can edit your video with the click of a button).

1. Access the editor: Adding your video to the timeline is as simple as clicking the "Open in Editor" button on the top right of the Video Management Page. (Pro Tip: You can also edit videos you created anywhere by heading straight to edit.screencastify.com)

2. ‍Enhance your video: There are tons of ways to make your video better including adding text, zooming in on important information, or cropping out extraneous visual details.‍

3. Export your beauty: Now that you've made your edits, you can export your video.

Assess viewer understanding

Before you share your video with your viewers, you may want to add a few elements to make it easier to assess how well they grasped the information in the recording. Enter: interactive questions!

To create a quick assessment, click "✏️ Interactive Questions'' on the right hand side of the Video Management Page. From there, you can add multiple choice questions to specific timestamps in the video.

Share your video

At this point in your journey, you've created a video, edited it for maximum effectiveness, and added questions to quickly assess viewer comprehension. It's officially time to share the video with your audience! To get the video in front of your audience, you have lots of options! Check out a few below:

1. Share the link to the Watch Page: The Screencastify Watch Page is a distraction-free place for viewers to watch your videos. To share the link to the Watch Page directly, you'll just need to click "Copy Share Link" on the top right of the Video Management Page.

2. Share the video to another tool: Screencastify has integrations with tools likeGoogle Classroom, Wakelet, Remind, and more. When you use any of these integrations, your viewers will be taken to the Watch Page to see your questions.‍

3. Export your video: In addition to linking to your video, you can also export your video as an mp4, mp3, or even an animated GIF.

Analyze viewer analytics and responses

Now that your audience has seen your video, you'll have access to data 📈. Namely, you'll be able to see Viewer Analytics and responses to Interactive Questions.

1. Viewer Analytics: Viewer Analytics allow you to see who's watched your video, when, and how many times. It's a great way to monitor engagement simply.

2. Interactive Questions Data: When viewers respond to your interactive questions, you'll be able to organize their responses by individual, question, or video. This data should help understand where your viewers completely understand the concept and where there may be a bit more work to do.

🌟 If you're looking for more robust information about how your viewers are understanding the content covered in your video, try asking them to create a video with Screencastify Submit.

That's it! You're more than ready to cultivate a classroom supercharged by video-based instruction. As you continue your video journey, be sure to check out professional learning resources on Screencastify University.

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A Beginner's Guide to Screencastify for Educators | Screencastify

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Welcome to the #communityofcasters! We're excited that you're joining our vibrant, creative group of educators.

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Google Classroom Quick Sheet for Students

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Google Classroom Quick Sheet for Students

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A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching During COVID19

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A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching During COVID19

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A Trauma-informed Approach to Teaching Through Coronavirus

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Experts from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network share their recommendations for educators supporting students during the COVID-19 crisis.

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Newsela | Content and assessment platform

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

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Engage your students in and out of the classroom with interactive study material, learning activities and games.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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millions use Screencastify to create amazing videos

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Educator, student, marketer, engineer, gamer. Whatever part you play, you'll have simple, yet powerful screen recording and editing tools.
Learn more

Easily share your creations in multiple channels. Let more viewers watch, pause and rewind on their schedule while maximizing time by eliminating unnecessary meetings.
Learn more

Collect video assignments to ensure any team or student is heard. Track viewing activity and add interactive questions and more to ensure your message is understood.
Learn more

Educator, student, marketer, engineer, gamer. Whatever part you play, you'll have simple, yet powerful screen recording and editing tools.
Learn more

Easily share your creations in multiple channels. Let more viewers watch, pause and rewind on their schedule while maximizing time by eliminating unnecessary meetings.
Learn more

Collect video assignments to ensure any team or student is heard. Track viewing activity and add interactive questions and more to ensure your message is understood.
Learn more

loved by everyday video creators

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Screencastify | Screen Recording and Video Editing

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Screencastify is the leading screen recorder for Chrome. Install the extension to record, edit, and share videos in seconds. Create video class assignments, training and tutorials, and make business communication faster.

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For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.

World-class content

Access thousands of reading lessons and our comprehensive ELA curriculum, CommonLit 360.

Accessible for all learners

Tailor instruction to students' needs with text-to-speech, translation, and digital note-taking.

Actionable data

Track students' reading performance, set goals, and plan instructional next steps.

CommonLit
Digital Library

Discover thousands of free, supplemental lessons and quizzes in English and Spanish - all featuring great authors.

CommonLit
Assessment Series

Measure growth in reading comprehension with three benchmark assessments when you unlock our premium packages.

CommonLit 360 &
Professional Development

Support a successful rollout of our research-backed ELA curriculum with personalized webinars and on-demand trainings.

"

CommonLit has made a tremendously positive impact on my teaching practice. I'm very proud to teach CommonLit!

Jennifer Lane ELA Teacher

"

CommonLit definitely keeps me organized. It's easy for me to grade and it's easy for me to see students' reading growth increase throughout the year.

"

The CommonLit assessment questions are aligned to our ELA standards, which is extremely helpful when prepping for the state exam.

Teachers trust CommonLit to foster students' reading comprehension

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CommonLit | Free Online Reading Passages and Literacy Resources

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CommonLit is a comprehensive literacy program with thousands of reading lessons, full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and standards-based data for teachers.

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ReadTheory | Reading Comprehension Exercises

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Reading comprehension exercises — online, free, & adaptive. Fits K-12, ESL and adult students. Easily track progress for the entire class.

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5 steps to get you started

The country (and the world) has been thrown a curveball with the requirement to implement distance learning for our students.

Many school districts face an enormous challenge to rally up hundreds and thousands of students and ensure they receive quality education in the face of a pandemic.

ESL students are among the most vulnerable groups and face an even bigger challenge.

How can we help them during this time of uncertainty?

In this blog post, I will share 5 steps of how to get started with teaching English learners remotely.

Step 1. Mindset shift

Distance learning and teaching is not something most of us are familiar with. We are experts at teaching live, utilizing body language, realia and instant feedback.

It is important for us to give ourselves permission not to be perfect. The way we are dealing with this situation is already a teachable moment for our English learners.

Let's take inventory of our own expertise and our students' abilities and work with that. You know, the CAN DO style. It could be a chance for more personal connection rather than just the curriculum.

This is a long game. There will be positives that will come out of this.

In addition, our students likely have gone through unimaginable situations, which built their resilience and broader perspective on life. This is our moment to build that.

Finally, those tech skills we were lacking? We are definitely building those, whether you teach online or not:)

Step 2. Start where you are

There is enough uncertainty out there in the world right now. And there is no need to create even more chaos for yourself. All you can do is look at what you have and what you can work with.
If you are required to work online:

Set up your Google Classroom

Create a short video of yourself welcoming your students and telling them what is expected. Give them a task at the end of the video.

Post a weekly calendar with assignments in Google Classroom so students know what to expect going forward.

If your students have NO access to technology (to feasibly teach them and expect them to complete work):
Send packets home (yes, any age group).

What to include in a packet?

~ letter from you to the students (and the parents). Translate it to their language if possible and necessary.

~ clear and concise instructions on what you want the students to do. Less is more.

~ a week's worth of activities.

Step 3. Less is more

The Google Classroom assignment or the packet does not have to be full of new information requiring your ESL students to read extensively and analyze causes and effects.

Here is what a weekly class could look like:

A weekly schedule with things to do on each day (whether online or off)

A base lesson, on which all other activities are built.
For example,
Monday - read an article or a short story or a few sentences
Tuesday - write down new words three times each;
Wednesday - watch a video and/or write three sentences about what you read
Thursday - create something related to the reading (using blocks, legos or whatever you have available at home);
Friday - draw a comic strip

A base lesson, on which all other activities are built.
For example,
Monday - read an article or a short story and highlight new words
Tuesday - find definitions for new words. You may use a translator
Wednesday - answer questions about the reading. Must use new words in your answer
Thursday - compare and contrast two topics
Friday - Write a journal/record a Flipgrid answer to a question

Higher level students, who need to practice writing could have writing prompts for each day of the week.

Send books from school for beginner level students. Ask them to write down a word or two each day. Then write a sentence with it.

Note:

Depending on the logistics and resources of your school, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

It might be best to send one week's package at a time. First, we don't know how long we will be out of school. Second, sending a huge package to someone who is not very comfortable in English might be beyond overwhelming and they will simply not do it.

Include information on how they can contact you. Different districts have different policies regarding parent communication but in my opinion, the ESL population needs more information than is sent out to the general public. More often than not, parents do not ask what is happening because they themselves don't feel confident in their English skills. And that is where we, the ESL teachers, come in.

Step 4. Technology tools

In my recent blog post, I mentioned the tools that would be really helpful in teaching English learners online.

In addition, a good friend of mine, who has a YouTube channel for English learner teachers, shared other resources you could use in distance learning and teaching.

Step 5. Do, learn, rinse, repeat

Distance learning, remote teaching, online education - whatever you call it - has left us all reeling with questions and uncertainty but also with opportunities.

We, too, have become students. And let's remember: we do not expect students to be perfect the first time.

Plan it, implement it, learn from it, tweak it, repeat.

That's why let's utilize an opportunity to become really clear on what we want and need for ourselves and our students.

Let's grab the opportunity to say precisely what you mean (after all, the body language part of live communication has certainly become more limited).

And of course, this is our opportunity to create and inspire.

Some closing thoughts

While what I shared is not an exhaustive list of things you can do, I hope it gives you some clarity and ideas.

Remember, we are learning as we go. We are flying the plane as we are building it.

And it will be okay.

Here are some links to resources that I mentioned in the post and that you find helpful during this time.
My blog post about remote learning Free weekly schedule template
ESL Teacher Boss Society membership waitlist - for lesson plans and personal support
The Language Lady Youtube Channel
Free Classroom management workshop (yes, very important for online teaching)
What is your plan for teaching your students? Will you be doing it online? Will you be sending packets home? Does your district require you to work at all during this time? Share in the comments, I love hearing from you!

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How to Help Your ESL Students in Distance Learning Model

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The country (and the world) has been thrown a curveball with the requirement to implement distance learning for our students. Many school districts face an enormous challenge to rally up hundreds and thousands of students and ensure they receive quality education in the face of a pandemic.

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Because of the Coronavirus, which is affecting us all worldwide, many schools face either potential closures or have already been closed. What are teachers to do? Enter remote learning.

While online teaching and virtual schools are nothing new, they are not the main bread and butter of public education. Therefore, a remote learning model in a traditional public school might require a learning curve.

And with the situation changing every day, if not the hour, many teachers - including those who work with English learners - are scrambling to collect resources for their students.

Here is a list of helpful free resources that will allow you to get organized - by language domain - and decide how you can help your English learners at any proficiency level during this difficult time.

Remote teaching tools

A video-conferencing application, which allows you not only to conduct video calls with multiple people but also to record your video, voice and share your screen. You can host up to 100 participants in each of the meetings.
Screencastify
A simple screen recording tool, which allows you to record your desktop, your screen or yourself. You can record yourself teaching a lesson or share a PowerPoint. When you are done, you will receive a shareable link which you will be able to give to your students.
Google Hangouts
As part of the G-Suite, Google Hangouts provide an opportunity not only to have a group chat, but also have video calls, when necessary.
Read and Write Google Chrome extension
This great extension allows your English learners to hear the text read aloud to them while the app highlights it. Even more, you can create voice notes directly inside the Google docs and then listen to them. These are just a couple of features, and they are super helpful for English learners.
Free ESL Resource Library
Here you will find worksheets, games, and lessons that you can print out and sent home to your student or upload them to your google classroom.

Remote learning - a list of companies that offer free resources

Unite for Literacy - online books for elementary students. Students can read themselves, or listen to the recorded reading of the book in both English and a different language!

NewsEla - online news articles that allow students of different proficiency levels to access the same information. Comes with built-in quizzes and writing assignments.
Khan Academy
Kahoot! - both you and your students can utilize this to present a lesson and to demonstrate learning.

Peardeck - create slides, quizzes, presentations and more. Students also love their Flashcard Factory game!

StoryBoardThat - a place for you (or your students) to create visuals, timelines and to simplify whatever you are reading as a class so your new English learners can access the information.

Portions of it may be paid, but there is a TON of free premade resources on there as well.

Flipgrid - video recording for student responses
BrainPop ELL
Quill.org - a great tool to get your students practicing grammar and writing. It has a built-in ELL section, where your students can take a pre-test which allows tailoring the assignments to their level.

Those who need to practice typing - https://www.typingclub.com/

And last but certainly not least - virtual tours offered by world-class museums.

These are just a few that I've tried with my English learners and that have worked really well in the past.

The words like "uncertain" and "stressful" cannot even fully describe the current situation. But just know that this might be a chance for all of us to regroup, refocus and finally live by the words we teach our students - let's be kind and compassionate. And thankful for the wonderful resources we get for our teaching.

What tools are your favorite to use online with your English learners? Share in the comments with us!
If you are a teacher of ESL newcomers with limited resources, check out The ESL Teacher Boss Society, a membership community for ESL teachers that helps you reclaim your time, sanity and confidence.

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ESL and Remote Learning: Free Tech Tools to the Rescue

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Because of the Coronavirus, which is affecting us all worldwide, many schools face either potential closures or have already been closed. What are teachers to do? Enter remote learning. While online teaching and virtual schools are nothing new, they are not the main bread and butter of public education.

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Coronavirus Facts

Coronavirus Information Hotline: 817-248-6299 (business hours only)

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Tarrant County as of 3-14-2020, (7:45 p.m.): 4

Coronavirus: Frequently Asked Questions

CDC: What you should know about COVID-19

Texas Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 webpage

COVID-19 Guidelines for Child Care

TC Public Health: COVID-19 Guidelines for Large Gatherings, Workplaces and Businesses, Schools, Day Care Facilities, Senior/Assisted Living, People at Higher Risk, Mental Health Resources, People who are sick, General Public, Travel

Conference Call for Faith Based Organizations

COVID-19 is a new respiratory illness that was first discovered in Wuhan, China. It is transmitted from person to person.

Primary symptoms of COVID-19 are cough, fever, fatigue and sore throat. Severe cases include persistent high fever, shortness of breath and pneumonia.

Those most at risk of becoming seriously ill are people over age 60 and people with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

COVID-19 is transmitted through:

close contact with an infected person

by an infected person coughing or sneezing

and by touching contaminated objects or surfaces and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes.

It takes from two days up to 14 days from being exposed to the virus before you will get sick.

Local or community transmission is when the virus is spreading from person to person within the community rather than being acquired through travel. Though household cases are examples of community transmission, the concern is with continued spread beyond a single household or cluster. That's when the chain of infection cannot be easily identified.

At this time community or local transmission outside of the household setting has not occurred in Tarrant County. So far, all cases have been acquired through travel or from a sick household member.

Community transmission has happened in other areas of the US and other areas of Texas specifically in Montgomery County, Dallas County and Austin.

How you can prevent COVID-19

Although there is currently no vaccine to prevent COVID-19, the best way to prevent infection is to take the following precautions:

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

Stay home when you are sick.

Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.

Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.

What should I do if I get sick?

Stay home until your fever has been gone for at least 24 hours unless you experience significant symptoms, then contact your medical provider before you seek care.

Limit your contact with others in your household if at all possible. If possible limit the number of people who provide you care within the home so you don't expose them.

Most cases of coronavirus will be mild and you will recover without medical care. If you have persistent fever, high fever, have underlying medical conditions contact your medical care provider.
If you have symptoms of coronavirus contact your medical provider before seeking care. If you don't notify them before arriving at the clinic or hospital immediately grab a mask and let the intake staff know your concern so that you don't potentially expose others while waiting to be seen.

How do I get tested for coronavirus?
If a person has respiratory issues, TCPH advice is to contact a physician or an urgent care or other medical facility and get tested for the flu or other viral illnesses first. If your doctor or medical professional determines that, based on your symptoms and travel history that a COVID-19 test is needed, specimens will be taken and sent to a lab for testing.

TCPH generally does not test individuals for COVID-19 unless you are a contact case and have been contacted by our epidemiology staff.

If I am planning to travel should I go?
Check the CDC website for updates on where travel should be avoided regardless of your risk for complications from coronavirus infection. If you are high risk, you are advised not to travel.

If I am planning a large event, should I cancel it?
If people are coming from out of state or include large numbers of high risk individuals, canceling the event should be considered. For other events, even planners should consider if the event is required, can it be done virtually? Cancelling events is not required but event planners should consider if it is worth the risk.

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Coronavirus: Frequently Asked Questions CDC: What you should know about COVID-19 Texas Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 webpage COVID-19 Guidelines for Child Care TC Public Health: COVID-19 Guidelines for Large Gatherings, Workplaces and Businesses, Schools, Day Care Facilities, Senior/Assisted Living, People at Higher Risk, Mental Health Resources, People who are sick, General Public, Travel Conference Call for Faith Based Organizations COVID-19 is a new respiratory illness that was first discovered in Wuhan, China.

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As we face this unprecedented worldwide crisis, TESOL has compiled the following coronavirus resources and links to assist our members and other English language educators.

Community Resources for Teachers

The COVID-19 community is open to everyone with a FREE myTESOL login. If you need help with logging into myTESOL, please read these instructions or watch these brief tutorials.

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As we face this unprecedented worldwide crisis, TESOL has compiled the following coronavirus resources and links to assist our members and other English language educators. Community Resources for Teachers The COVID-19 community is open to everyone with a FREE myTESOL login. If you need help with logging into myTESOL, please read these instructions or watch these brief tutorials.

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ICDL - International Children’s Digital Library

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5 Ways to Help Teens Manage Anxiety About COVID19 (NYT)

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5 Ways to Help Teens Manage Anxiety About COVID19 (NYT)

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Adults can help by making sure adolescents don't overestimate the dangers or underestimate their ability to protect themselves.

Credit... Getty Images

People of all ages are concerned about the spread of the coronavirus, and teenagers, as a group, tend to experience emotions especially intensely. If you are raising, teaching or otherwise caring for an adolescent who is feeling very nervous about it, here are five things you can do.

Anxiety can be healthy. But not all adolescents, or adults, know that it typically acts as a useful and protective emotion. Accordingly, teenagers sometimes fear that their heightened nerves signal the onset of a full-blown anxiety disorder. They become worried about the fact that they are worried.

Adults can help young people appreciate that healthy anxiety has a purpose: It alerts us to potential threats and helps us move toward safety. "Feeling some anxiety," we might say calmly, "makes sense right now. You're having the right reaction to the emerging news about the coronavirus."

From there, we can encourage teenagers to channel their discomfort into useful action, such as learning about and following the recommended health guidelines.

For psychologists, anxiety is unhealthy only when it occurs in the absence of a threat - when there is nothing to be worried about at all - or when it reaches heights that are grossly out of proportion to the threat involved, such as when a teenager experiences a panic attack over a minor quiz. We can help adolescents keep their worries about the coronavirus at an appropriate level by making sure they don't overestimate the dangers or underestimate their ability to protect themselves from those dangers.

Toward this end, we might say, "Right now, the health risk from coronavirus is very low for most Americans." To this we can add, "And there's a lot you can do to lower your risk even further: Keep your hands clean and away from your face, avoid anyone who might be coughing or sneezing and protect your immune system by getting enough sleep."

During difficult times, research suggests that teenagers feel better when they turn their attention to supporting others. After a 2006 flood destroyed a small town in southern Poland, one study found that the teenagers who provided the highest levels of social support to fellow flood victims were the ones who went on to express the most confidence about their ability to face challenges in their own lives.

Knowing this, we can remind teenagers that we wash our hands and follow other health recommendations not only to protect ourselves, but also to help to ease the strain on local medical systems. Along the same lines, adults can note that making personal sacrifices - such as postponing a vacation or staying home if we're not feeling well - helps to reduce the chance of carrying illness into our own communities. If you are stocking up on groceries in case of being asked to self-quarantine, take the opportunity to talk to your kids about the challenges faced by people in need and consider donating nonperishables to a local food bank.

When we fixate on dangers, anxiety grows, and when we turn our attention elsewhere, it shrinks. That said, it might be hard for some teenagers not to obsess about Covid-19 given that the topic pervades headlines and social media, and that concerns about disease spread have been closing schools and causing the cancellation of long-scheduled events.

Further, the constant availability of fresh information about the coronavirus may spur some teenagers (and adults) to compulsively check for news updates. This, however, may offer little emotional relief. Research shows that obtaining clear information about a potential threat helps people feel better, but ambiguous information does nothing to reduce anxiety or the urge to seek reassurance. Remind them not to rely on rumors or unreliable sources.

So long as the updates remain vague, teenagers who are feeling highly anxious about Covid-19 should be encouraged to take a break from seeking, or even accidentally encountering, information about the virus. For example, we might ask teenagers to consider scaling back how often they check their phones for information updates, or to trust that we'll share any significant news should it arrive. Similarly, we might encourage finding distractions, such as doing their homework or watching a favorite show, while shielding themselves from digital intrusions.

Anxious parents are more likely to have anxious teenagers. This research finding has many possible explanations, but here's one: young people look to adults for cues about how nervous or relaxed they should be when encountering something new. Wittingly or not, parents are sometimes fearful in a way that puts their children on edge.

Teenagers can tell when adults are saying one thing and feeling another. Offering reassuring words won't do much good when our own anxiety is riding high. And being worn thin by tension leaves us less able to comfort teenagers and young adults who feel upset about missing events or enjoying spring on their college campuses.

Before trying to support a fretful teenager, tense adults should take steps to calm their own nerves. To do so, they can use the same strategies outlined above.

Modeling a level-headed response is the best way to keep anxiety from getting the better of our teenagers as we all find our way through this new and uncertain challenge.

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5 Ways to Help Teens Manage Anxiety About the Coronavirus

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Adults can help by making sure adolescents don't overestimate the dangers or underestimate their ability to protect themselves. People of all ages are concerned about the spread of the coronavirus, and teenagers, as a group, tend to experience emotions especially intensely.

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Things to Do During COVID19 Closures (We Are Teachers)

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Things to Do During COVID19 Closures (We Are Teachers)

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Kim Jones McClelland, a principal in our Principal Life group on Facebook, shared teacher Wade Whitehead's brilliant ideas for things to do during COVID closures that is now going viral, for good reason! We've added links and more ideas to these low-tech kid activities that are great for elementary kids (although I know some middle schoolers who could learn a lot from #4!).

1. Interview a family member.

Taking the time out to learn more about the people in your family might surprise your children. Get them to dig deep and think about their questions and their responses. Save these interviews so you can read them again.

2. Measure the area and perimeter of each room in your home.

This is a math skill everyone needs to know how to do. Bonus points if they do the windows too so they'll know what size curtains would work!

3. Graph the types of birds that frequent your yard or windows.

Bird watching is fascinating for everyone. Check out these tips for identifying birds. Once you've tracked your birds, make a graph to show how many of each kind were in your backyard during a certain period of time.

4. Be completely silent for 60 minutes, then write about the experience.

In a world where there are so many distractions, it's amazing what we notice when we're silent.

5. Write and mail a [real] letter to your teacher or principal or classroom pen pal. Address the envelope yourself.

Learning to write a letter and address an envelope is important even in the age of email. The thrill of getting a letter in the mail cannot be overestimated.

6. Build a "fable fort" out of blankets and chairs. Camp in it all day while you create stories to tell your family over dinner.

Human beings love telling stories. What's a fable? Learn about them and read some here.

7. Learn Morse Code and use it to communicate with your siblings through walls and floors.

It's pretty fun (and clever) to use Morse Code as a way to keep messages hidden.

8. Alphabetize the spices in your kitchen.

Think only books can be alphabetized? The cook in your family will appreciate an organized spice cabinet.

9. Stay up late and stargaze.

When you don't have to go to school in the morning, it can be okay to stay up late once in a while. Stretch out and watch the stars. If kids are curious about them, show them how to learn more.

10. Call a grandparent or older relative. Ask them to teach you the words to a song from their childhood days.

Just like #1, this is something that can really help kids learn more about the people in their lives.

Use this quiet time to tinker and consider how things are made.

12. Determine and chart the times that different liquids require to turn solid in the freezer.

You know that game where kids blindfold each other and then do taste tests with things like hot sauce and beet juice? This one is less messy, or likely to start sibling arguments.

13. Design and build puppets that perform a show about multiplication.

Thinking about things in new ways drives new learning. It'll be fun to get puppets teaching about math, and really nothing helps kids solidify their understanding than teaching someone else.

14. Construct a family tree.

Make this one wide-open and out of the box. Challenge your kids to create any kind of tree they want and include anyone who they consider to be family.

15. Learn ten new big words. Write them in marker on your bathroom mirror.

Don't worry, marker comes off mirrors easily. Meanwhile, yay for big words like: ubiquitous, flippant, and redundant.

16. Draw a map of your home and neighborhood.

In addition to be an important part of understanding how maps work, this activity helps kids define their world. Bonus tip: choose a safe place near your home on the map to meet family members in an emergency.

17. Sit silently for 15 minutes while you write down every sound you hear. When you are done, classify the sounds (high/low pitch, high/low volume, manmade v. naturally occurring, etc.).

Number 4 started kids off paying attention to silence. In this activity, let's get kids making comparisons.

18. Create a Venn Diagram that compares and contrasts two people connected to you in anyway.

Understanding that people who seem very different may have a lot of similarities shifts our perspective and creates room for kindness and understanding.

19. Learn, practice, and perform a magic trick.

From the bendable spoon to the floating card trick, learning magic tricks takes practice. But, when magic works, it's the best.

20 Learn, practice, and tell three new jokes.

Everyone is going to need to laugh in the coming days of social distancing. Here are some jokes to get them started.

21. Use household materials to make and play stringed, percussion, and wind instruments.

Making instruments can be as easy as banging on a pot with a spoon, or you can try out these other ways to make instruments out of household goods.

22. Learn to shine a pair of shoes.

Shining shoes used to be more common when people wore sneakers only to do exercise, but it's important to take care of the things you own.

23. Collect leaves from ten different (non-harmful) plants. Sort them by size, color, and texture.

Go outside and find ten different leaves and then compare them!

24. Put your favorite book, toy, and keepsake on a small table in sunlight. Draw or paint a full color still life.

This is a great way to express your love for something. For a variation on this, try out different ways to paint the still life "like" a famous artist.

25. Find, pick, and dissect a flower.

Think and act like a scientist when you choose a flower and carefully take apart its parts. Not sure what every part is? Check out this site to learn more about dissecting a flower.

26. If you have stairs, walk up and count them. Walk down and count by twos. Walk up and count by threes. Continue through tens.

This simple math practice trick gets kids thinking about numbers and exercising!

27. Determine the volumes of ten containers, them display them in order on your porch.

Not sure how to determine volume? Learn more about measuring volume here.

28. Write a poem on your sidewalk using chalk.

Writing poetry is freeing because there aren't a lot of rules. Or you can establish a rule and see how different people think about it. For example, write a poem about snow without using the words white or cold.

29. Classify twenty everyday objects by shape, size, color, height, mass, and material.

Learning how to classify and organize things is a skill that's helpful for reading, math, science, and history. In other words-everything.

30. Measure the length of your bed using five different nonstandard units.

My bed is 126 pieces of sea glass long, how long is yours?

31. Call a person who speaks a language you do not. Ask them to teach you five common words or phrases.

If you can't do this, change your tv shows to a different language and try to figure out what is happening.

32. Create and use a secret code.

In #7, we worked with Morse Code, now make up your own code. Send people messages in code, have them figure it out, and write back!

33. Using one type of paper (constant), build three different paper airplanes (independent variable) and test to see how far they fly (dependent variable).

34. Set a clock three hours and seven minutes ahead. Whenever someone needs to know the time, help them figure it out by subtracting.

This is both irritating and totally fun. Maybe -3 hrs 07 min can be your new family time zone!

35. Write down every adjective you say for one full day.

Depending on how much your child talks during the day, this might take a while.

36. Color in a map with every state you (or your family) ever visited.

Not only is it important to know where all the states are located, but this is a great way to set travel goals. Try this map for a digital one.

37. Write or tell a story titled "What if humans had to leave the Earth and no one remembered to turn off the last robot?"

Try using some read alouds like The Wild Robot by Peter Brown as a jumping off point.

38. Find ten rocks smaller than a dime.

Kids have the best eyes for this kind of thing. Give them each a dime so they can compare and an old yogurt container to hold the rocks.

39. Using paper, tape, and string, design, build, and test a device that warns you when someone opens the kitchen cabinet.

Developing ideas that can be helpful for human beings is one of the best skills we can develop in kids. If you want to dig a little deeper, teach them about engineering design to help them plan and execute.

40. Imagine, create, and fly a full size flag that tells the world about you.

Everyone deserves to fly their own flag. Talk to kids about symbols and give them the creative stuff they need create their own flag: markers, crayons, paper, fabric, glitter, glue.
There's going to be a lot of time to fill in the coming weeks, but no one needs to be bored. We hope these ideas give you lots to think about. We'd love to hear about other things to do during COVID closures, too! Please share in the comments. Plus, more hands-on activities kids can do at home.

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This Principal's List of Things to Do During COVID Closures Is Going Viral for All the Right Reasons

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Kim Jones McClelland, a principal in our Principal Life group on Facebook, shared teacher Wade Whitehead's brilliant ideas for things to do during COVID closures that is now going viral, for good reason! We've added links and more ideas to these low-tech kid activities that are great for elementary kids (although I know some middle schoolers who could learn a lot from #4!).

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Students in GCISD have rich opportunities to connect even when school is closed. The GCISD Learning@Home website provides grade-appropriate opportunities to review, extend, and enrich learning while we're away from the classroom. Click below to stay connected to GCISD resources and opportunities. Content will be updated weekly - be sure to check back regularly!

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Advocating for ELLs FB Group (@ValentinaESL)

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Advocating for ELLs FB Group (@ValentinaESL)

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This group serves as a resource for K-12 educators who work with English Language Learners. It is a place for the members to collaborate and share information. We request that Sales Related posts...

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Sharing ELL strategies that work. Helping ELL teachers implement classroom-tested, research-backed ELL strategies that develop social and academic language

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Rapid Literacy Training Padlet (Carol Salva @SeidlitzEd)

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There is a lot of content available on this blog - especially after posting for thirteen years!

I know it can seem overwhelming.

Here is a short list of my choices for the best and most useful resources you can access here:
A Collection Of My Best Resources On Parent Engagement A Collection Of My Best Resources On Student Motivation A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learners A Collection Of My Best Resources On Classroom Management
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Of course, you can find 2,100 regularly updated "Best" lists here, and also find many of them a little better organized here.

I've also made choices for the best blog posts appearing here each year.

I also have a number of other blogs, including several I use for various classes, like Theory of Knowledge, World History, U.S. History, and Beginning/Intermediate ELL classes. You can find links to all of them here.

Though they are also included in the first "A Collection Of My Best Resources On..." links, you can also find free resources from all my books here.

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Lastly, there are many ways to subscribe to this blog.

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The "All-Time" Best Teaching & Learning Resources Available On This Blog

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There is a lot of content available on this blog - especially after posting for thirteen years! I know it can seem overwhelming. Here is a short list of my choices for the best and mos...

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Six Facts About COVID-19 (Free lesson from ESL Library)

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Six Facts About COVID-19 (Free lesson from ESL Library)

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In this lesson, students learn six facts about COVID-19, the coronavirus outbreak of 2019-2020. They learn and review related vocabulary and discuss measures to prevent the spread of disease. Note: This lesson will be updated as major changes occur.

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Projections based on C.D.C. scenarios show a potentially vast toll. But those numbers don't account for interventions now underway.

The C.D.C. scenarios have not been publicly disclosed. Without an understanding of how experts view the threat, it remains unclear how far Americans will go in adopting socially disruptive steps that could help avert deaths. Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and epidemic experts from universities around the world conferred last month about what might happen if the new coronavirus gained a foothold in the United States. How many people might die? How many would be infected and need hospitalization?

One of the agency's top disease modelers, Matthew Biggerstaff, presented the group on the phone call with four possible scenarios - A, B, C and D - based on characteristics of the virus, including estimates of how transmissible it is and the severity of the illness it can cause. The assumptions, reviewed by The New York Times, were shared with about 50 expert teams to model how the virus could tear through the population - and what might stop it.

The C.D.C.'s scenarioswere depicted in terms of percentages of the population. Translated into absolute numbers by independent experts using simple models of how viruses spread, the worst-case figures would be staggering if no actions were taken to slow transmission.

Between 160 million and 214 million people in the United States could be infected over the course of the epidemic, according to a projection that encompasses the range of the four scenarios. That could last months or even over a year, with infections concentrated in shorter periods, staggered across time in different communities, experts said. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die.

And, the calculations based on the C.D.C.'s scenarios suggested, 2.4 million to 21 million people in the United States could require hospitalization, potentially crushing the nation's medical system, which has only about 925,000 staffed hospital beds. Fewer than a tenth of those are for people who are critically ill.

The assumptions fueling those scenarios are mitigated by the fact that cities, states, businesses and individuals are beginning to take steps to slow transmission, even if some are acting less aggressively than others. The C.D.C.-led effort is developing more sophisticated models showing how interventions might decrease the worst-case numbers, though their projections have not been made public.

"When people change their behavior," said Lauren Gardner, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering who models epidemics, "those model parameters are no longer applicable," so short-term forecasts are likely to be more accurate. "There is a lot of room for improvement if we act appropriately."

Those actions include testing for the virus, tracing contacts, and reducing human interactions by stopping mass gatherings, working from home and curbing travel. In just the last two days, multiple schools and colleges closed, sports events were halted or delayed, Broadway theaters went dark, companies barred employees from going to the office and more people said they were following hygiene recommendations.

The Times obtained screenshots of the C.D.C. presentation, which has not been released publicly, from someone not involved in the meetings. The Times then verified the data with several scientists who did participate. The scenarios were marked valid until Feb. 28, but remain "roughly the same," according to Ira Longini, co-director of the Center for Statistics and Quantitative Infectious Diseases at the University of Florida. He has joined in meetings of the group.

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Fear, Humor, Defiance: How the World Is Reacting to Coronavirus

The coronavirus has touched a diverse collection of countries and cultures, but a number of shared experiences have emerged - from grieving the dead to writing songs.

[Bagpipe music] There are moments that seem bizarre, moments of fear ... ... preparation and moments of emptiness. These are scenes from the world living with coronavirus. It has spread across cultures, languages and even out to sea. And despite these global differences, a number of shared experiences have emerged. There is grief over the dead. In Iran, hospital staff mourn a doctor's death from the virus. In China, a quarantined building collapses, and a firefighter breaks down after pulling bodies from the rubble. In Italy, a man mourns the death of his sister. To try and save lives, authorities take precautions. They disinfect public areas and screen populations. "This is just crazy. Around the world, people are afraid and on edge. "Unbelievable." In Northern Ireland, routine construction work at an Apple Store is mistaken for virus-related activity. In Japan, tempers flare when a man sneezes on a train. One Italian takes the fear and adds humor. This is a circle to keep people at a safe distance. In fact, lots of people use humor to cope with the uncertainty or the stigma of being sick. In Australia, a run on toilet paper leads to lessons in self-defense. "He's going to show you how to deal with people stealing your toilet paper." There is also defiance, a conviction that life must go on despite the virus. Across rooftops in China, quarantined neighbors socialize. From a rooftop in Italy, a theater group performs poetry for an area where movement is restricted. On a quarantined cruise ship, there's songwriting to pass the time. In an apartment in China, too. But perhaps some of the most striking moments from the pandemic are those where little happens: the empty streets. "Unbelievable. No traffic." The quiet airports. The places of worship without worshippers. Stores without goods. This is how it is across the globe as we prepare, grieve and wait for the next chapter of the coronavirus.

The coronavirus has touched a diverse collection of countries and cultures, but a number of shared experiences have emerged - from grieving the dead to writing songs. Credit Credit... Carlos Lemos/EPA, via Shutterstock

The C.D.C. declined interview requests about the modeling effort and referred a request for comment to the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for the task force, said that senior health officials had not presented the findings to the group, led by Vice President Mike Pence, and that nobody in Mr. Pence's office "has seen or been briefed on these models."

The assumptions in the C.D.C.'s four scenarios, and the new numerical projections, fall in the range of others developed by independent experts.

Dr. Longini said the scenarios he helped the C.D.C. refine had not been publicly disclosed because there remained uncertainty about certain key aspects, including how much transmission could occur from people who showed no symptoms or had only mild ones.

"We're being very, very careful to make sure we have scientifically valid modeling that's drawing properly on the epidemic and what's known about the virus," he said, warning that simple calculations could be misleading or even dangerous. "You can't win. If you overdo it, you panic everybody. If you underdo it, they get complacent. You have to be careful."

But without an understanding of how the nation's top experts believe the virus could ravage the country, and what measures could slow it, it remains unclear how far Americans will go in adopting - or accepting - socially disruptive steps that could also avert deaths. And how quickly they will act.

Studies of previous epidemics have shown that the longer officials waited to encourage people to distance and protect themselves, the less useful those measures were in saving lives and preventing infections.

"A fire on your stove you could put out with a fire extinguisher, but if your kitchen is ablaze, that fire extinguisher probably won't work," said Dr. Carter Mecher, a senior medical adviser for public health at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a former director of medical preparedness policy at the White House during the Obama and Bush administrations. "Communities that pull the fire extinguisher early are much more effective."

Dr. Biggerstaff presented his scenarios in a meeting held weekly to model the pandemic's effects in the United States, Dr. Longini said. Its participants had been at work for several months before the emergence of the virus, modeling a potential influenza pandemic. "We just kind of retooled, re-shifted," said Dr. Longini. "The priority's now coronavirus."

The four scenarios have different parameters, which is why the projections range so widely. They variously assume that each person with the coronavirus would infect either two or three people; that the hospitalization rate would be either 3 percent or 12; and that either 1 percent or a quarter of a percent of people experiencing symptoms would die. Those assumptions are based on what is known so far about how the virus has behaved in other contexts, including in China.

Other weekly C.D.C. modeling meetings center on how the virus is spreading internationally, the impact of community actions such as closing schools, and estimating the supply of respirators, oxygen and other resources that could be needed by the nation's health system, participants said.

In the absence of public projections from the C.D.C., outside experts have stepped in to fill the void, especially in health care. Hospital leaders have called for more guidance from the federal government as to what might lie in store in the coming weeks.

Even severe flu seasons stress the nation's hospitals to the point of setting up tents in parking lots and keeping people for days in emergency rooms. Coronavirus is likely to cause five to 10 times that burden of disease, said Dr. James Lawler, an infectious diseases specialist and public health expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Hospitals "need to start working now," he said, "to get prepared to take care of a heck of a lot of people."

Dr. Lawler recently presented his own "best guess" projections to American hospital and health system executives at a private webinar convened by the American Hospital Association. He estimated that some 96 million people in the United States would be infected. Five out of every hundred would need hospitalization, which would mean close to five million hospital admissions, nearly two million of those patients requiring intensive care and about half of those needing the support of ventilators.

Dr. Lawler's calculations suggested 480,000 deaths, which he said was conservative. By contrast, about 20,000 to 50,000 people have died from flu-related illnesses this season, according to the C.D.C. Unlike with seasonal influenza, the entire population is thought to be susceptible to the new coronavirus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaking at a congressional hearing on Thursday, said predictions based on models should be treated with caution. "All models are as good as the assumptions that you put into the model," he said, responding to a question from Representative Rashida Tlaib about an estimate from the attending physician of Congress that the United States could have 70 million to 150 million coronavirus cases.

What will determine the ultimate number, he said, "will be how you respond to it with containment and mitigation."

Independent experts said these projections were critically important to act on, and act on quickly. If new infections can be spread out over time rather than peaking all at once, there will be less burden on hospitals and a lower ultimate death count. Slowing the spread will paradoxically make the outbreak last longer, but will cause it to be much milder, the modelers said.

A preliminary study released on Wednesday by the Institute for Disease Modeling projected that in the Seattle area, enhancing social distancing - limiting contact with groups of people - by 75 percent could reduce deaths caused by infections acquired in the next month from 400 to 30 in the region.

A recent paper, cited by Dr. Fauci at a news briefing on Tuesday, concludes that the rapid and aggressive quarantine and social distancing measures applied by China in cities outside of the outbreak's epicenter achieved success. "Most countries only attempt social distancing and hygiene interventions when widespread transmission is apparent. This gives the virus many weeks to spread," the paper said, with the average number of people each new patient infects higher than if the measures were in place much earlier, even before the virus is detected in the community.

"By the time you have a death in the community, you have a lot of cases already," said Dr. Mecher. "It's giving you insight into where the epidemic was, not where it is, when you have something fast moving." He added: "Think starlight. That light isn't from now, it's from however long it took to get here."

He said a single targeted step - a school closing, or a limit on mass gatherings - cannot stop an outbreak on its own. But as with Swiss cheese, layering them together can be effective.

This conclusion is backed up by history.

The most lethal pandemic to hit the United States was the 1918 Spanish flu, which was responsible for about 675,000 American deaths, according to estimates cited by the C.D.C.

The Institute for Disease Modeling calculated that the new coronavirus is roughly equally transmissible as the 1918 flu, and just slightly less clinically severe, and it is higher in both transmissibility and severity compared with all other flu viruses in the past century.

Dr. Mecher and other researchers studied deaths during that pandemic a century ago, comparing the experiences of various cities, including what were then America's third- and fourth-largest, Philadelphia and St Louis. In October of that year Dr. Rupert Blue, America's surgeon general, urged local authorities to "close all public gathering places if their community is threatened with the epidemic," such as schools, churches, and theaters. "There is no way to put a nationwide closing order into effect," he wrote, "as this is a matter which is up to the individual communities."

The mayor of St. Louis quickly took that advice, closing for several weeks "theaters, moving picture shows, schools, pool and billiard halls, Sunday schools, cabarets, lodges, societies, public funerals, open air meetings, dance halls and conventions until further notice." The death rate rose, but stayed relatively flat over that autumn.

By contrast, Philadelphia took none of those measures; the epidemic there had started before Dr. Blue's warning. Its death rate skyrocketed.

The speed and deadliness of the pandemic humbled doctors then much as the coronavirus pandemic is doing now. Some commented on the difficulty of getting healthy people to take personal precautions to help protect others at greater risk.

Modern societies have tools that did not exist then: advanced hospitals, the possibility of producing a vaccine in roughly a year, the production of diagnostics. But other signs are more worrying.

The world population is about triple the size it was the year before the 1918 flu, with 10 times as many people over 65 and 30 times as many over 85. These groups have proven especially likely to become critically ill and die in the current coronavirus pandemic. In Italy, hospitals are so overwhelmed that ventilators are being rationed.

"It's so important that we protect them," said Dr. Gabriel Leung, a professor in population health at Hong Kong University. In work accepted for publication in the journal Nature Medicine, he estimated that 1.5 percent of symptomatic people with the virus died. He and others who have devoted their careers to modeling said that looking at the experiences of other countries already battling the coronavirus was all it took to know what needed to be done in the United States.

"All U.S. cities and states have the natural experiment of the cities that have preceded us, namely the superb response of Singapore and Hong Kong," said Dr. Michael Callahan, an infectious disease specialist at Harvard. Those countries implemented school closures, eliminated mass gatherings, required work from home, and rigorously decontaminated their public transportation and infrastructure. They also conducted widespread testing.

They were able to "reduce an explosive epidemic to a steady state one," Dr. Callahan said.

As in the case of an approaching hurricane, Dr. Mecher said, "You've got to take potentially very disruptive actions when the sun is shining and the breeze is mild."

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Worst-Case Estimates for U.S. Coronavirus Deaths

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Projections based on C.D.C. scenarios show a potentially vast toll. But those numbers don't account for interventions now underway. Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and epidemic experts from universities around the world conferred last month about what might happen if the new coronavirus gained a foothold in the United States.

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Language Practice Choice Board (@grahnforlang)

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You Are Not Alone (Virtual Giff education blog)

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Games for Learning English Vocabulary Games & Activities Grammar Games & Activities

ESL Games Plus offers interactive online games for learning and teaching English as a Second Language. Our learning games are mostly suitable for teaching ESL Kids and Teenagers. There are activities for teaching and practising English grammar, vocabulary, sentences, listening and pronunciation skills. By playing our fun educational games, students learn English vocabulary, sentence structures, grammar, listening, pronunciation and phonics.The site features these ESL Activities Online: ESL Classroom Games, Memory Games, Spelling Games, Sentence Games, Interactive Board Games, Hangman Games, Jeopardy, Wheel Games, Concentration Games, Matching Games, Car Racing Games, Pirate Games, Crocodile Games, Word Recognition Games, Mobile Games for iPad, iPhones and Android devices.

Games & Fun Activities for English Learning

Preschool & Kindergarten ESL Videos

There are free ESL videos for teaching kindergarten and preschool levels on this site.
These videos will help ESL teachers to teach vocabulary, grammar and sentence patterns to kids.

1st Grade to 3rd Grade ESL Videos

Teach your 1st, 2nd and 3rd grader EFL/ESL learners new vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures using top quality free animated videos. These videos will help your learners focus longer.

Hidden Pictures Powerpoint

On this site you will find Hidden Pictures ESL Powerpoint Games, Powerpoint Vocabulary Games, PPT Vocabulary Games, Hidden Pictures PPT Games for ESL, Jeopardy Games for Classroom Teaching.

Flash Cards - PPT & PDF

ESL, Powerpoint Flash Cards, Vocabulary Powerpoint Flash Cards for English Teaching, PPT Flash Cards for Interactive Whiteboards, Overhead Projectors. There are also ESL PDF Flash Cards to meet your teaching needs.

Printable Board Games & Cards

Printable ESL Board Games, Printable ESL Flashcards, Card Games, Game Cards: Our ESL Crocodile and Pirate Baord Games are two of the same concept that will help you practice just about any English language skill you want to practice.

Phonics Worksheets

This area features many phonics printable activities from our Kiz Phonics® course. The phonics worksheets will help teach short & long vowels, consonant blends and digraphs, vowel digraphs, r-controlled vowels and other phonemes, which are essential for teaching early literacy.

Phonics Games & Videos

This section features many phonics games and videos to help children with no reading skills learn to decode and read words in English. Our videos teach the different phonemes without any ambiguity and the games help children pratice themselves.

Math Games for Kids

Games and activities to practice and develope core math skills from 1st grade to 5th grade.

Science Games for Kids

Games and activities to develop science knowledge for kids between kindergarten to 5th grade.

Reading Quizzes

Advanced level reading comprehension exercises. Develop reading skills to conquer English exams such as IELTS, TOEFL and SAT by practising with these reading exercises. The exercises are also perfect for non-native university students looking to improve their reading skills for academic studies.

Develop vocabulary with idioms A-Z exercises

Advanced level English vocabulary exercises. This vocabulary section is based on over 500 words advanced English learners must know before entering English exams like IELTS, TOEFL and SAT.

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Games for Learning English, Vocabulary, Grammar Games, Activities, ESL

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ESL Games Plus offers interactive online games for learning and teaching English as a Second Language. Our learning games are mostly suitable for teaching ESL Kids and Teenagers. There are activities for teaching and practising English grammar, vocabulary, sentences, listening and pronunciation skills.

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Updated March 21, 2020 Met launches "Nightly Met Opera Streams," a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure
Third week of free streams includes Dialogue des Ca rmélites, Il Barbiere di Siviglia,
All streams now available for 23 hours
New York, NY (March 13, 2020)-A day after canceling upcoming performances due to concerns around the coronavirus, the Metropolitan Opera announced that it would stream encore presentations from the award-winning Live in HD series of cinema transmissions on the company website for the duration of the closure. The new offering will begin on Monday, March 16 with the 2010 HD performance of Bizet's Carmen, conducted by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and starring Elīna Garanča in the title role and Roberto Alagna as Don José.

All "Nightly Met Opera Streams" will begin at 7:30pm EDT and will remain available via the homepage of metopera.org for 23 hours. The homepage link will open the performance on the Met Opera on Demand streaming service. The performance will also be viewable on all Met Opera on Demand apps.

"We'd like to provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times," said Met General Manager Peter Gelb. "Every night, we'll be offering a different complete operatic gem from our collection of HD presentations from the past 14 years."

Here is the schedule for the first week of streams:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the schedule for the second week of streams, an all-Wagner week:

Conducted by Simon Rattle, starring Nina Stemme, Ekaterina Gubanova, Stuart Skelton, Evgeny Nikitin, and René Pape. Transmitted live on October 8, 2016.

Conducted by James Levine, starring Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Dwayne Croft, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on October 9, 2010.

Conducted by James Levine, starring Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on May 14, 2011.

Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Deborah Voigt, Hunter Morris, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel, and Eric Owens. Transmitted live on November 5, 2011.

Friday, March 27 - Wagner's Götterdämmerung

Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Deborah Voigt, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Waltraud Meier, Jay Hunter Morris, Iain Paterson, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on February 11, 2012.

Conducted by James Levine, starring Annette Dasch, Johan Botha, Paul Appleby, and Michael Volle. Transmitted live on December 13, 2014.

Conducted by James Levine, starring Eva-Marie Westbroek, Michelle DeYoung, Johan Botha, Peter Mattei, and Gunther Groissböck. Transmitted live on October 31, 2015.

Here is the schedule for the third week of streams:

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Isabel Leonard, Adrianne Pieczonka, and Karita Mattila. Transmitted live on May 11, 2019.

Conducted by Maurizio Benini, starring Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, and Peter Mattei.Transmitted live on March 24, 2007.

Conducted by John Adams, starring Janis Kelly and James Maddalena. Transmitted live on February 12, 2011.

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Marina Poplavskaya, Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside, and Ferruccio Furlanetto. Transmitted live December 11, 2010.

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, starring Diana Damrau, Matthew Polenzani, and Mariusz Kwiecien. Transmitted live January 16, 2016.

Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Željko Lučić, and René Pape.Transmitted live October 11, 2014.

Conducted by Carlo Rizzi, starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Joyce DiDonato, Joseph Calleja, and Matthew Rose. Transmitted live October 17, 2017.

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Met launches "Nightly Met Opera Streams," a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure

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Updated March 21, 2020 Met launches "Nightly Met Opera Streams," a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure Third week of free streams includes Dialogue des Ca rmélites , Il Barbiere di Siviglia , All streams now available for 23 hours New York, NY (March 13, 2020)-A day after canceling upcoming performances due to concerns around the coronavirus, the Metropolitan Opera announced that it would stream encore presentations from the award-winning Live in HD series of cinema transmissions on the company website for the duration of the closure.

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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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Home Safari Facebook Lives (Cincinnati Zoo)

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Home Safari Facebook Lives (Cincinnati Zoo)

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Home Safari Facebook Lives start today.
CINCINNATI, OH (March 16, 2020) - The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden closed to the public yesterday to do its part to curb the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). During the closure, the Zoo plans to offer Home Safari Facebook Lives seven days a week!

"We're bringing the Zoo to people who are stuck at home," said Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard. "This Zoo is so important to the community and not being able to visit will create a void that we're trying to fill. The goal with the daily live sessions is to provide fun and educational content to people who are stuck at home."

The Home Safaris will start today at 3 p.m. EST. The first one will feature the world's most famous hippo, Fiona. To watch live, just visit the Zoo's Facebook page at 3pm. The Zoo will also post the safaris on its website and on YouTube so everyone can view.

"We announced the safaris on Facebook yesterday, and the response was phenomenal. That post has reached more than 18 million people and has been shared 283,000 times," said Maynard. "I'm not a social media expert, but I'm pretty sure those numbers are off the charts."

The Zoo also picked up 400,000 new Facebook followers after it announced the lives. It plans to bring the Zoo into peoples' homes via its other social channels throughout the day as long as it remains closed.

"As a non-profit organization, the Zoo relies on ticket sales, zoo visits, memberships and donations to operate. Being closed will have a significant impact on its overall operating budget. Please consider donating to our emergency operating fund to assist us with the care of our animals and team members. Your support now is more critical than ever," said Maynard.

Other ways to support the Zoo during this difficult period is to purchase or renew existing memberships, ADOPT animals or send a personalized Cameo message from Fiona to someone you love!

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Cincinnati Zoo is Bringing the Zoo to You! - Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden®

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Home Safari Facebook Lives start today. CINCINNATI, OH (March 16, 2020) - The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden closed to the public yesterday to do its part to curb the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). During the closure, the Zoo plans to offer Home Safari Facebook Lives seven days a week!

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As the number of coronavirus cases grows in the U.S., we're hearing a lot about how social distancing, self-monitoring and even quarantine play into containment efforts.

But what do those terms mean, and when do they apply?

We asked experts and found out there is some overlap and lots of confusion.

Here's a quick guide for what you need to know.
Q: Why is all this happening?
In the U.S., testing got off to a slow start, limiting efforts to isolate those with the COVID-19 disease. Public health experts now say the most important goal is to slow the spread of the coronavirus so that the number of people who require medical attention doesn't overwhelm hospitals.

If evidence holds from experiences to date in countries further along in the outbreak, most people who contract this virus will have mild cases. Still, the data from abroad indicate that 10% to 20% could end up in a more serious condition. That means if tens of millions of Americans come down with COVID-19, potentially hundreds of thousands may need hospital care.

No one wants that to happen.

"That could stress the health system. We're trying to avoid becoming like Italy," says Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

In Italy, the number of cases rapidly skyrocketed from a handful a few weeks ago to now more than 27,000 cases and over 2,100 deaths. The rapid escalation may be partly attributed to aggressive testing, but hospitals in the northern part of the country are running out of beds in intensive care units.
Q: What is the difference between self-quarantining and self-monitoring?
There's a bit of overlap, say experts.

Both strategies aim to keep people who have been exposed, or who might have been exposed, away from others as much as possible for a period. That has generally meant 14 days, which is considered the incubation period of COVID-19, although symptoms can appear within a few days of exposure.

Self-monitoring might include regularly checking your temperature and watching for signs of a respiratory illness, such as fever, cough or shortness of breath, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It also involves limiting interaction with others.

Say you attended a large conference and someone there, whom you were not in close contact with, was later found to be positive for the coronavirus. "The person speaking at the podium was later diagnosed, and you were in the audience - you're not considered at risk. Those people may want to strictly self-monitor," says Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

"But if you had a long conversation [with that person] or that person coughed or sneezed on you, that's different," he adds. You "would then self-quarantine."

Self-quarantine is a step up from self-monitoring because the person at risk of infection - even though the person still doesn't have symptoms ― had a higher chance of exposure.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for example, is self-quarantining because his wife tested positive for the virus after returning from a trip to Great Britain.

Quarantining means staying home and away from other people as much as possible for that 14-day period. People in this circumstance who don't live alone should do their best to retreat to their room or find a separate area in their home, and they shouldn't go out shopping, eating or socializing.

"Don't sleep in the same bedroom [with other family members], and try to use a separate toilet, if you can," says Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. "Be careful with dishes. They should go right from you into the dishwasher."

If you are under a self-quarantine because of possible exposure and then develop a fever, a cough or shortness of breath, call your doctor, local hospital or public health department to find out what to do. Some insurers and hospital systems have online or phone assessment programs. For mild cases, physicians may direct you to stay home and treat your symptoms with over-the-counter fever reducers and other treatments. Those with more serious symptoms and people in higher-risk groups may be directed to where to seek medical care.

As test kits become more available, you may also be directed to a place where you can get tested.
Q: What does isolation mean?
A diagnosis of COVID-19 triggers isolation.

"Isolation is when you are sick, either at home or in the hospital," says Benjamin. "Infectious disease precautions are then much more rigid than in self-quarantine."

Medical staff, for example, wear gear that is more protective. In addition, the person in isolation would be asked to wear a mask when leaving their room or traveling from home to a medical facility - to try to prevent spreading droplets that might contain the virus.
Q: What is a quarantine?
This is when - under state or federal law - individuals or groups are essentially on lockdown. Recent examples include passengers from cruise ships where other passengers fell ill with COVID-19; those passengers who didn't fall ill on the ship were then required to stay at military bases for 14 days to see if they developed the disease.

The U.S. hasn't closed off entire areas - such as towns or cities - since the 1918-1919 Spanish flu. But the federal government and the states do have the power to do so.

In New Rochelle, N.Y., officials have established a "containment zone" because of a high number of COVID-19 cases in the region. School and houses of worship are closed and large gatherings barred. But it is not considered a quarantine because people can come and go.
Q: OK, I'm not sick or exposed. What else can I do? What is social distancing?
This is a broad category. It means not shaking hands, avoiding crowds, standing several feet from other people and, most important, staying home if you feel sick.

Businesses are doing it when they ask employees to work from home or stagger work hours. Governments are doing it when they close schools. We're seeing it in the sports world, with no-spectator games or the postponement of sporting events. Museums, theaters and concert halls where large groups of people gather are closing their doors.

It means trying to find the least-crowded train car or possibly driving instead of taking mass transit.

"It's about taking stock, how closely you interact with people in day-to-day life," says Christopher Mores, a professor in the department of global health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. "Increase distances. Cut out handshakes. The idea is to try to empower people to break the lines of transmission."
Q: Why should I care if I don't think I'll get very sick?
Public health is all about the public. Individual risk may be low. And, thus, the inconvenience of some of these measures may seem high. But taking steps like these will benefit the population as a whole, says Sharfstein.

"An individual who doesn't get very sick might still pass the infection along to others, including parents, neighbors, people on the bus," he notes.

Some of those people, in turn, may end up in the hospital. A surge of patients with the virus could fill beds also needed by a broad range of other people, such as cancer patients, newborns or car accident victims.

"This is a condition that may not pose a threat to the individual but a threat to the community," warns Sharfstein.
Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation and is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Self-Quarantine? Isolation? Social Distancing? What They Mean And When To Do Them

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As the number of coronavirus cases grows in the U.S., we're hearing a lot about how social distancing, self-monitoring and even quarantine play into containment efforts. But what do those terms mean, and when do they apply? We asked experts and found out there is some overlap and lots of confusion.

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Corona Simulator--How to Flatten the Curve (WaPo)

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Corona Simulator--How to Flatten the Curve (WaPo)

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Coping with coronavirus anxiety - Harvard Health

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Anxiety about the new coronavirus is understandable. But there are actions you can take –– or avoid –– to help you cope with anxious feelings and choices you can make to help yourself and o…

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March 13, 2020 (Updated March 14, 2020)
Download a printable PDF version of this article here.
I know there is some confusion about what to do next in the midst of this unprecedented time of a pandemic, school closures, and widespread social disruption. As a primary care physician and public health leader, I have been asked by a lot of people for my opinion, and I will provide it below based on the best information available to me today. These are my personal views, and my take on the necessary steps ahead.

What I can clearly say is that what we do, or don't do, over the next week will have a massive impact on the local and perhaps national trajectory of coronavirus. We are only about 11 days behind Italy and generally on track to repeat what is unfortunately happening there and throughout much of the rest of Europe very soon.

At this point, containment through contact tracing and increased testing is only part of the necessary strategy. We must move to pandemic mitigation through widespread, uncomfortable, and comprehensive social distancing. That means not only shutting down schools, work (as much as possible), group gatherings, and public events, but also making daily choices to stay away from each other as much as possible to Flatten The Curve below.

Our health system will not be able to cope with the projected numbers of people who will need acute care should we not muster the fortitude and will to socially distance each other starting now. On a regular day, we have about 45,000 staffed ICU beds nationally, which can be ramped up in a crisis to about 95,000. Even moderate projections suggest that if current infectious trends hold, our capacity (locally and nationally) may be overwhelmed as early as mid-late April. Thus, the only strategies that can get us off this concerning trajectory are those that enable us to work together as a community to maintain public health by staying apart.

The wisdom, and necessity, of this more aggressive, early, and extreme form of social distancing can be found . I would urge you to take a minute to walk through the interactive graphs - they will drive home the point about what we need to do now to avoid a worse crisis later. Historical lessons and experiences of countries worldwide have shown us that taking these actions early can have a dramatic impact on the magnitude of the outbreak. So what does this enhanced form of social distancing mean on a daily basis, when schools are cancelled?

Here are some steps you can start taking now to keep your family safe and do your part to avoid a worsening crisis:

1. We need to push our local, state, and national leaders to close ALL schools and public spaces and cancel all events and public gatherings .

A local, town by town response won't have the adequate needed effect. We need a statewide, nationwide approach in these trying times. Contact your representative and your governor to urge them to enact statewide closures. As of today, six states have already done so. Your state should be one of them. Also urge leaders to increase funds for emergency preparedness and make widening coronavirus testing capacity an immediate and top priority. We also need legislators to enact better paid sick leave and unemployment benefits to help nudge people to make the right call to stay at home right now.

2. No kid playdates, parties, sleepovers, or families/friends visiting each other's houses and apartments.

This sounds extreme because it is. We are trying to create distance between family units and between individuals. It may be particularly uncomfortable for families with small children, kids with differential abilities or challenges, and for kids who simply love to play with their friends. But even if you choose only one friend to have over, you are creating new links and possibilities for the type of transmission that all of our school/work/public event closures are trying to prevent. The symptoms of coronavirus take four to five days to manifest themselves. Someone who comes over looking well can transmit the virus. Sharing food is particularly risky - I definitely do not recommend that people do so outside of their family.

We have already taken extreme social measures to address this serious disease - let's not actively co-opt our efforts by having high levels of social interaction at people's houses instead of the schools or workplaces. Again - the wisdom of early and aggressive social distancing is that it can flatten the curve above, give our health system a chance to not be overwhelmed, and eventually may reduce the length and need for longer periods of extreme social distancing later (see what has transpired in Italy and Wuhan). We need to all do our part during these times, even if it means some discomfort for a while. This won't be forever, but we need to be committed and intentional about our actions now.

3. Take care of yourself and your family, but maintain social distance.

Exercise, take walks/runs outside, and stay connected through phone, video, and other social media. But when you go outside, do your best to maintain at least six feet between you and non-family members. If you have kids, try not to use public facilities like playground structures, as coronavirus can live on plastic and metal for up to nine days, and these structures aren't getting regularly cleaned.

Going outside will be important during these strange times, and the weather is improving. Go outside every day if you are able, but stay physically away from people outside your family or roommates. If you have kids, try playing a family soccer or basketball game instead of having your kids play with other kids, since sports often mean direct physical contact with others. And though we may wish to visit elders in our community in person, I would not visit nursing homes or other areas where large numbers of the elderly reside, as they are at highest risk for complications and mortality from coronavirus.
Social distancing can take a toll (after all, most of us are social creatures). The CDC offers tips and resources to reduce this burden, and other resources offer strategies to cope with the added stress during this time.

We need to find alternate ways to reduce social isolation within our communities through virtual means instead of in-person visits.

4. Reduce the frequency of going to stores, restaurants, and coffee shops for the time being.

Of course trips to the grocery store will be necessary, but try to limit them and go at times when they are less busy. Consider asking grocery stores to queue people at the door in order to limit the number of people inside a store at any one time. Remember to wash your hands thoroughly before and after your trip. And leave the medical masks and gloves for the medical professionals-we need them to care for those who are sick. Maintain distance from others while shopping-and remember that hoarding supplies negatively impacts others so buy what you need and leave some for everyone else. Take-out meals and food are riskier than making food at home given the links between the people who prepare food, transport the food, and you. It is hard to know how much that risk is, but it is certainly higher than making it at home. But you can and should continue to support your local small businesses (especially restaurants and other retailers) during this difficult time by buying gift certificates online that you can use later.

5. If you are sick, isolate yourself, stay home, and contact a medical professional.

If you are sick, you should try to isolate yourself from the rest of your family within your residence as best as you can. If you have questions about whether you qualify or should get a coronavirus test, you can call your primary care team and/or consider calling the Massachusetts Department of Public Health at 617 983 6800 (or your state's department of health if you are outside of Massachusetts). Don't just walk into an ambulatory clinic-call first so that they can give you the best advice-which might be to go to a drive-through testing center or a virtual visit on video or phone. Of course, if it is an emergency call 911.

I realize there is a lot built into these suggestions, and that they represent a real burden for many individuals, families, businesses, and communities. Social distancing is hard and may negatively impact many people, especially those who face vulnerabilities in our society. I recognize that there is structural and social inequity built in and around social distancing recommendations. We can and must take steps to bolster our community response to people who face food insecurity, domestic violence, and housing challenges, along with the many other social disadvantages.

I also realize that not everyone can do everything. But we have to try our absolute best as a community, starting today. Enhancing social distancing, even by one day, can make a large difference.

We have a preemptive opportunity to save lives through the actions we take right now that we will not have in a few weeks. It is a public health imperative. It is also our responsibility as a community to act while we still have a choice and while our actions can have the greatest impact.

We cannot wait.
Updated March 14, 2020 to remove a graphic and change embedded links. This article is also available on our Medium blog.
-Asaf Bitton

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Social Distancing: This is Not a Snow Day

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March 13, 2020 (Updated March 14, 2020) Download a printable PDF version of this article here. I know there is some confusion about what to do next in the midst of this unprecedented time of a pandemic, school closures, and widespread social disruption.

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Fresh air, sunlight and improvised face masks seemed to work a century ago; and they might help us now.

by Richard Hobday

When new, virulent diseases emerge, such SARS and Covid-19, the race begins to find new vaccines and treatments for those affected. As the current crisis unfolds, governments are enforcing quarantine and isolation, and public gatherings are being discouraged. Health officials took the same approach 100 years ago, when influenza was spreading around the world. The results were mixed. But records from the 1918 pandemic suggest one technique for dealing with influenza - little-known today - was effective. Some hard-won experience from the greatest pandemic in recorded history could help us in the weeks and months ahead.

Influenza patients getting sunlight at the Camp Brooks emergency open-air hospital in Boston. Medical staff were not supposed to remove their masks. (National Archives)

Put simply, medics found that severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better than those treated indoors. A combination of fresh air and sunlight seems to have prevented deaths among patients; and infections among medical staff.[1] There is scientific support for this. Research shows that outdoor air is a natural disinfectant. Fresh air can kill the flu virus and other harmful germs. Equally, sunlight is germicidal and there is now evidence it can kill the flu virus.
`Open-Air' Treatment in 1918
During the great pandemic, two of the worst places to be were military barracks and troop-ships. Overcrowding and bad ventilation put soldiers and sailors at high risk of catching influenza and the other infections that often followed it.[2,3] As with the current Covid-19 outbreak, most of the victims of so-called `Spanish flu' did not die from influenza: they died of pneumonia and other complications.

When the influenza pandemic reached the East coast of the United States in 1918, the city of Boston was particularly badly hit. So the State Guard set up an emergency hospital. They took in the worst cases among sailors on ships in Boston harbour. The hospital's medical officer had noticed the most seriously ill sailors had been in badly-ventilated spaces. So he gave them as much fresh air as possible by putting them in tents. And in good weather they were taken out of their tents and put in the sun. At this time, it was common practice to put sick soldiers outdoors. Open-air therapy, as it was known, was widely used on casualties from the Western Front. And it became the treatment of choice for another common and often deadly respiratory infection of the time; tuberculosis. Patients were put outside in their beds to breathe fresh outdoor air. Or they were nursed in cross-ventilated wards with the windows open day and night. The open-air regimen remained popular until antibiotics replaced it in the 1950s.

Doctors who had first-hand experience of open-air therapy at the hospital in Boston were convinced the regimen was effective. It was adopted elsewhere. If one report is correct, it reduced deaths among hospital patients from 40 per cent to about 13 per cent.[4] According to the Surgeon General of the Massachusetts State Guard:
`The efficacy of open air treatment has been absolutely proven, and one has only to try it to discover its value.' Fresh Air is a Disinfectant
Patients treated outdoors were less likely to be exposed to the infectious germs that are often present in conventional hospital wards. They were breathing clean air in what must have been a largely sterile environment. We know this because, in the 1960s, Ministry of Defence scientists proved that fresh air is a natural disinfectant.[5] Something in it, which they called the Open Air Factor, is far more harmful to airborne bacteria - and the influenza virus - than indoor air. They couldn't identify exactly what the Open Air Factor is. But they found it was effective both at night and during the daytime.

Their research also revealed that the Open Air Factor's disinfecting powers can be preserved in enclosures - if ventilation rates are kept high enough. Significantly, the rates they identified are the same ones that cross-ventilated hospital wards, with high ceilings and big windows, were designed for.[6] But by the time the scientists made their discoveries, antibiotic therapy had replaced open-air treatment. Since then the germicidal effects of fresh air have not featured in infection control, or hospital design. Yet harmful bacteria have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
Sunlight and Influenza Infection
Putting infected patients out in the sun may have helped because it inactivates the influenza virus.[7] It also kills bacteria that cause lung and other infections in hospitals.[8] During the First World War, military surgeons routinely used sunlight to heal infected wounds.[9] They knew it was a disinfectant. What they didn't know is that one advantage of placing patients outside in the sun is they can synthesise vitamin D in their skin if sunlight is strong enough. This was not discovered until the 1920s. Low vitamin D levels are now linked to respiratory infections and may increase susceptibility to influenza.[10] Also, our body's biological rhythms appear to influence how we resist infections.[11] New research suggests they can alter our inflammatory response to the flu virus.[12] As with vitamin D, at the time of the 1918 pandemic, the important part played by sunlight in synchronizing these rhythms was not known.
Face Masks Coronavirus and Flu
Surgical masks are currently in short supply in China and elsewhere. They were worn 100 years ago, during the great pandemic, to try and stop the influenza virus spreading.While surgical masks may offer some protection from infection they do not seal around the face. So they don't filter out small airborne particles. In 1918, anyone at the emergency hospital in Boston who had contact with patients had to wear an improvised face mask. This comprised five layers of gauze fitted to a wire frame which covered the nose and mouth. The frame was shaped to fit the face of the wearer and prevent the gauze filter touching the mouth and nostrils. The masks were replaced every two hours; properly sterilized and with fresh gauze put on. They were a forerunner of the N95 respirators in use in hospitals today to protect medical staff against airborne infection.
Temporary Hospitals
Staff at the hospital kept up high standards of personal and environmental hygiene. No doubt this played a big part in the relatively low rates of infection and deaths reported there. The speed with which their hospital and other temporary open-air facilities were erected to cope with the surge in pneumonia patients was another factor. Today, many countries are not prepared for a severe influenza pandemic.[13] Their health services will be overwhelmed if there is one. Vaccines and antiviral drugs might help. Antibiotics may be effective for pneumonia and other complications. But much of the world's population will not have access to them. If another 1918 comes, or the Covid-19 crisis gets worse, history suggests it might be prudent to have tents and pre-fabricated wards ready to deal with large numbers of seriously ill cases. Plenty of fresh air and a little sunlight might help too.

Dr. Richard Hobday is an independent researcher working in the fields of infection control, public health and building design. He is the author of `The Healing Sun'.
References

1. Hobday RA and Cason JW. The open-air treatment of pandemic influenza. Am J Public Health 2009;99 Suppl 2:S236-42. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.134627.

2. Aligne CA. Overcrowding and mortality during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Am J Public Health 2016 Apr;106(4):642-4. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.303018.

3. Summers JA, Wilson N, Baker MG, Shanks GD. Mortality risk factors for pandemic influenza on New Zealand troop ship, 1918. Emerg Infect Dis 2010 Dec;16(12):1931-7. doi:10.3201/eid1612.100429.

4. Anon. Weapons against influenza. Am J Public Health 1918 Oct;8(10):787-8. doi: 10.2105/ajph.8.10.787.

5. May KP, Druett HA. A micro-thread technique for studying the viability of microbes in a simulated airborne state. J Gen Micro-biol 1968;51:353e66. Doi: 10.1099/00221287-51-3-353.

6. Hobday RA. The open-air factor and infection control. J Hosp Infect 2019;103:e23-e24 doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2019.04.003.

7. Schuit M, Gardner S, Wood S et al. The influence of simulated sunlight on the inactivation of influenza virus in aerosols. J Infect Dis 2020 Jan 14;221(3):372-378. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiz582.

8. Hobday RA, Dancer SJ. Roles of sunlight and natural ventilation for controlling infection: historical and current perspectives. J Hosp Infect 2013;84:271-282. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2013.04.011.

9. Hobday RA. Sunlight therapy and solar architecture. Med Hist 1997 Oct;41(4):455-72. doi:10.1017/s0025727300063043.

10. Gruber-Bzura BM. Vitamin D and influenza-prevention or therapy? Int J Mol Sci 2018 Aug 16;19(8). pii: E2419. doi: 10.3390/ijms19082419.

11. Costantini C, Renga G, Sellitto F, et al. Microbes in the era of circadian medicine. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2020 Feb 5;10:30. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00030.

12. Sengupta S, Tang SY, Devine JC et al. Circadian control of lung inflammation in influenza infection. Nat Commun 2019 Sep 11;10(1):4107. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11400-9.

13. Jester BJ, Uyeki TM, Patel A, Koonin L, Jernigan DB. 100 Years of medical countermeasures and pandemic influenza preparedness. Am J Public Health. 2018 Nov;108(11):1469-1472. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304586.

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Coronavirus and the Sun: a Lesson from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

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Fresh air, sunlight and improvised face masks seemed to work a century ago; and they might help us now. by Richard Hobday When new, virulent diseases emerge, such SARS and Covid-19, the race begins to find new vaccines and treatments for those affected.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Interim Guidance for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Printer Friendly Version pdf icon [PDF - 199 KB]

Guidance as of 3/15/2020

Large events and mass gatherings can contribute to the spread of COVID-19 in the United States via travelers who attend these events and introduce the virus to new communities. Examples of large events and mass gatherings include conferences, festivals, parades, concerts, sporting events, weddings, and other types of assemblies. These events can be planned not only by organizations and communities but also by individuals.

Therefore, CDC, in accordance with its guidance for large events and mass gatherings, recommends that for the next 8 weeks, organizers (whether groups or individuals) cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more throughout the United States.

Events of any size should only be continued if they can be carried out with adherence to guidelines for protecting vulnerable populations, hand hygiene, and social distancing. When feasible, organizers could modify events to be virtual.

This recommendation does not apply to the day to day operation of organizations such as schools, institutes of higher learning, or businesses This recommendation is made in an attempt to reduce introduction of the virus into new communities and to slow the spread of infection in communities already affected by the virus. This recommendation is not intended to supersede the advice of local public health officials.

Summary of Recent Changes

Revisions were made on 3/12/2020 to reflect the following:

Highlights vulnerable populations

Adds a section on "Considerations for Postponing or Cancelling a Mass Gathering"

Adds a section on discouraging handshakes and high fives (for sporting events)

Adds standard language regarding disinfection procedures

This interim guidance is based on what is currently known about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will update this interim guidance as needed and as additional information becomes available.

This interim guidance is intended for organizers and staff responsible for planning mass gatherings or large community events in the United States. A mass gathering is a planned or spontaneous event with a large number of people in attendance that could strain the planning and response resources of the community hosting the event, such as a concert, festival, conference, or sporting event. Guidance specific to schools and childcare settings, institutions of higher education, and community- and faith-based organizations can be found on CDC's website focused on prevention COVID-19 spread in communities.

COVID-19 is an emerging respiratory disease and there is more to learn about its transmission, clinical course, and populations at increased risk of disease and complications (see How COVID-19 Spreads). Everyone can do their part to help plan, prepare, and respond to this emerging public health threat.

Older adults and persons with severe underlying health conditions are considered to be at increased risk of more serious illness after contracting COVID-19. Priority should be given to ensuring the safety of these groups of people, particularly for any mass gatherings that are expected to have a large number of older adults or persons with underlying conditions.

As the COVID-19 outbreak evolves, CDC strongly encourages event organizers and staff to prepare for the possibility of outbreaks in their communities. Creating an emergency plan for mass gatherings and large community events can help protect you and the health of your event participants and the local community.

CDC has developed recommended actions for preventing the spread of COVID-19 at mass gatherings and large community events. This guidance suggests strategies to help you plan for and implement ways in which to better protect all involved in a mass gathering.

Organizers should continually assess, based on current conditions, whether to postpone, cancel, or significantly reduce the number of attendees (if possible) for mass gatherings. Listed below are some considerations organizers should keep in mind as they make decisions about whether to postpone or cancel an event. If organizers decide to proceed with an event they should consult the "Steps to Plan, Prepare, and Proceed with a Mass Gathering" section of this document.

Considerations for Postponing or Cancelling a Mass Gathering

There are a number of factors to consider when determining the need to postpone or cancel a large gathering. These include:
At a minimal-to-moderate level of community transmission, it is recommended to:
At a substantial level of community transmission, it is recommended to cancel mass gatherings of any size.

Steps to Plan, Prepare, and Proceed with a Mass Gathering

The details of your emergency operations plan should be based on the size and duration of your events, demographics of the participants, complexity of your event operations, and type of on-site services and activities your event may offer.
Review the existing emergency operations plans for your venues

Promote the daily practice of everyday preventive actions. Use health messages and materials developed by credible public health sources such as CDC or your local public health department to encourage your event staff and participants to practice good personal health habits. Consider displaying signs (physical and/or electronic) throughout the event to provide frequent reminders to participants to engage in everyday preventive actions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. These include:

Stay home when you are sick, except to get medical care.

Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not available, use hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

Clean frequently touched surfaces and objects daily.

Handshakes and "high-fives" are often exchanged at meetings and sporting events, and these can be ways in which COVID-19 can be transmitted from person to person. As a way of decreasing the social pressure to engage in these common behaviors, consider displaying signs (physical and/or electronic) that discourage these actions during the gathering.
Note: Use culturally appropriate messages, materials, and resources.

Provide COVID-19 prevention supplies to event staff and participants. Ensure that your events have supplies for event staff and participants, such as hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, tissues, trash baskets, disposable facemasks, and cleaners and disinfectants. Clean frequently touched surfaces and objects with detergent and water prior to disinfection, especially surfaces that are visibly dirty.

Routinely clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that are frequently touched. Clean with the cleaners typically used. Use all cleaning products according to the directions on the label.

For disinfection most common EPA-registered household disinfectants should be effective.

A list of products that are EPA-approved for use against the virus that causes COVID-19 is available herepdf icon external icon . Follow the manufacturer's instructions for all cleaning and disinfection products (e.g., concentration, application method and contact time, etc.).

Additionally, diluted household bleach solutions can be used if appropriate for the surface. Follow manufacturer's instructions for application and proper ventilation. Check to ensure the product is not past its expiration date. Never mix household bleach with ammonia or any other cleanser. Unexpired household bleach will be effective against coronaviruses when properly diluted. Prepare a bleach solution by mixing:

5 tablespoons (1/3rd cup) bleach per gallon of water or

4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water

Additional information on cleaning and disinfection of community facilities can be found on CDC's website.

Note: Note: Use culturally appropriate messages, materials, and resources. Disposable facemaskspdf icon should be kept on-site and used only if someone (worker or attendee) becomes sick at your event. Those who become sick should be immediately isolated from staff and participants who are not sick and given a clean disposable facemask to wear.

Implement ﬂexible staff attendance and sick-leave policies (if possible). Require staff to stay home if they are sick or caring for a sick household member. Notify staff when you plan to implement COVID-19 leave policies.
Note: Direct staff who get sick with COVID-19 symptoms to avoid contact with others and to seek medical advice.

Consider alternatives for event staff and participants who are at increased risk for complications from COVID-19. Currently, older adults and persons with severe underlying health conditions are considered to be at increased risk for severe illness and complications from COVID-19. Event organizers can consider reassigning duties for higher-risk staff to have minimal contact with other persons. People in higher-risk groups should consult with their healthcare provider about attending large events. Consider providing refunds to event participants who are unable to attend because they are at high risk and/or provide information on alternative viewing options.

Promote messages that discourage people who are sick from attending events. This could include electronic messages sent to attendees prior to travel to the event as well as messages requesting that people leave events if they begin to have symptoms of COVID-19, which include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Attendees should be encouraged to seek medical advice promptly by calling ahead to a doctor's office or emergency room to get guidance. See CDC guidance on what to do when sick with COVID-19.
Note: Use culturally appropriate messages, materials, and resources.

If possible, identify a space that can be used to isolate staff or participants who become ill at the event. Designate a space for staff and participants who may become sick and cannot leave the event immediately. Work with partners, such as local hospitals, to create a plan for treating staff and participants who do not live nearby. Include a plan for separating and caring for vulnerable populations. If any staff member or participant becomes sick at your event, separate them from others as soon as possible. Establish procedures to help sick staff or participants leave the event as soon as possible. Provide them with clean, disposable facemaskspdf icon to wear, if available. Work with the local public health department and nearby hospitals to care for those who become sick. If needed, contact emergency services for those who need emergency care. Public transportation, shared rides, and taxis should be avoided for sick persons, and disposable facemasks should be worn by persons who are sick at all times when in a vehicle. Read more about preventing the spread of COVID-19 if someone is sick.
Note: Providing a sick staff member or event participant with a disposable facemask to wear does not replace the need for that person to leave as soon as possible, stay home, and seek medical advice. Wearing a disposable facemask in the workplace or while participating in a large event is not a sufficient infection control measure.

Stay informed about the local COVID-19 situation. Get up-to-date information about local COVID-19 activity from public health officials. Be aware of temporary school dismissals in your area because these may affect event staff.

Note: Early in the outbreak, local public health officials may recommend schools dismiss temporarily.

Identify and address potential language, cultural, and disability barriers associated with communicating COVID-19 information to event staff and participants. Information you share should be easily understood by everyone attending the events. Learn more about reaching people of diverse languages and cultures by visiting: Know Your Audience. You also can learn more about communicating to staff in a crisis at: Crisis Communications Planexternal icon

Follow-up After a COVID-19 Outbreak has Ended

Remember, a COVID-19 outbreak could last for a long time. When public health officials determine that the outbreak has ended in your local community, work with them to identify criteria for scaling back COVID-19 prevention actions at your events. Base the criteria on slowing of the outbreak in your local area. If your events were cancelled, work with your venues to reschedule your events.
Evaluate the effectiveness of your emergency operations and communication plans

COVID-19 Readiness Resources

CDC Interim Guidance for Specific Audiences

CDC Communication Resources

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Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - Get Your Mass Gatherings or Large Community Events Ready for Coronavirus Disease 2019

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Printer Friendly Version pdf icon [PDF - 199 KB] Guidance as of 3/15/2020 Large events and mass gatherings can contribute to the spread of COVID-19 in the United States via travelers who attend these events and introduce the virus to new communities.

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Multilingual Resources for COVID-19 (Wash. state)

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Multilingual Resources for COVID-19 (Wash. state)

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COVID-19 Resources | World Relief Dupage/Aurora

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For those seeking coronavirus (COVID-19) information in other languages, please refer to the resources below, listed by source and then alphabetically by language, starting with English: