Remote Learning Recommendations, part 1

Now that many of us are in the thick of remote learning, or for those of us in my district, where we are preparing for remote learning, I have come across some great resources that I wanted to share. I am sure that throughout all this that there will be more, so that is why this is part 1.


First, I have to say, I love Slidesmania. Her templates are amazing and I am constantly recommending her site to everyone. Right now, her Weekly Planner template is a must for teachers teaching remotely. Check it out!

Second, I have seen a lot about educational technology companies reaching out to teachers, schools, and districts with free offers of normally paid versions.  On one hand, that is really cool, but it can be really overwhelming to teachers to decide what new tools to try in their classes. Edweek even wrote a very good piece on it. Based on what I have seen, planning with teachers and instructional coaches for remote learning, my recommendation is for teachers to generally use what they have already been using. 

There are two exceptions to this. I think one exception would be an LMS, like Google Classroom or Seesaw.  Teachers need a way to get out lessons to kids, so this might be a new tool that teachers and students might have to learn.

The other exception is if a teacher knows their students are using (or have used) a tool with another teacher - so that the teacher is learning a new tool, but the students are not. For example, a math teacher might never have used Quizizz with her students, but she knows that the science teacher on her team has. Distance learning gives the teacher a chance to try that tool out in their classroom, since the students already have experienced it.

And finally, even though lesson delivery is now taking place online, educators need to be mindful about screen time.  We can't control what kids are doing in their everyday life, but we can control what we ask of students during their distance learning.  John Spencer wrote an powerful piece about taking distance learning offline. It is a great post, covering lesson ideas that don't involve screens to vintage innovation (ties back into the trying something new). I highly recommend everyone read it.


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