Unit 8
Blog 5
TIP OF THE WEEK
With Governor Wolf shutting down all K-12 school for the next two weeks, teachers and families are left wondering how kids can be engaged with utilizing tech for education purposes. Check out this amazing blog by Jennifer from SimplyKinder. Included are free educational sites (mainly primary) that allow parents to easily create accounts and utilize them as we would for teaching points. Community. So appreciative. So helpful. So encouraging. Especially in times like these.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
This past school week was one of the tougher ones. I'm sure you can all relate. The uncertainty, the waiting, the overwhelming feelings of "what if" and some more waiting. Today we went about, business as usual as they kept telling us, with our PD Day today. Two hours were blocked out to plan for the "what if". Our motto for the PD was Plan for the Best..a.k.a. normal week. That two hours was followed up with training on prompting guides, guiding reading, etc. all while everyone was more concerned about the "what if". You could feel everyone's worry. You could see everyone's worry. Worry of whether or not they'll be able to answer parent emails thoroughly. Worry of the next time they're going to see the kids in their class. Worry over the kid they know who doesn't have adequate access to food at home. Worry that some kids won't have their only sense of consistent safety that they feel at school. All of those things are haunting us. Not having a proper "See ya soon, love ya!" is also haunting me.
While our minds are preoccupied with things that we physically cannot control at this time; we've seen so many members of the tech community step up and assist school districts, families and most importantly, our kids. It's actually pretty incredible. Sites and apps that once required schools to purchase licenses are now offering access to families for free. While this may not be forever, it's for now, which is giving school districts and families options for virtual learning to occur.
Every news outlet, social media site, etc. is now about COVID-19. Every Google Alert that has the word "technology" or "learner" is now about COVID-19 This has led to me reading multiple articles about the planning that is occurring in school districts across the country, even the world. It seems silly to be talking about technology when things appear so chaotic in our country and world. But one thing still stands true in the education world...technology is serving its purpose. Large internet companies are taking this as an opportunity to enlighten kids when they need normalcy the most. While school cannot physically be in session, our kids can still be learning while having full access to resources we teachers use each day. As we have learned, technology has the ability to reach our various types of learners...the young, the old, our L2 learners, our special ed students, etc. Giving our families access to reliable and purposeful tech resources can ensure that our students have the option to be engaged in educational activities. The fact that teachers are not alone in this is incredible. Technology is such an amazing tool and has so much to offer when it clearly serves a purpose. Let these resources help your students find the balance while away from school. Let technology serve its purpose. And for all that is holy, wash your hands people!
Blog from: School Closure. (2020, March 13). Retrieved from https://www.simplykinder.com/school-closure/
Image taken from: The all new VIP community! (2017, August 23). Retrieved from https://yourlighterside.com/2017/08/the-all-new-vip-community/
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